PRELIMINARY SKETCHES!

My husband is turning into my dream subject as he grows his hair into a pony tail.  Here are some sketches I worked on yesterday.  I will work them into a composition one of these days.

ON MY WAY!

Monday starts my workshop in San Diego for the San Diego Watercolor Society.  I am looking forward to meeting lots of new friends there.  There are over 15 people in the class, so it should be very exciting.  Because I can drive to this workshop, I have practically emptied my studio of supplies.  The van is such a great vehicle for carrying everything.  We started out Friday afternoon and arrived in Cambria (down the road from the Hearst Castle) in time to meet our son and his wife for dinner.  They have just purchased a fantastic vacation rental house in Cambria with an ocean view.  I brought down the last of the paintings I finished framing to dress up the walls here.  In exchange,  we can stay here when ever we want as long as it isn't rented out.  I am even thinking of conducting a small workshop here at the house.  That is on the back burner, for now.

I just bought a new Moleskine small watercolor sketchbook.  I decided I needed to do more live sketching, so I have done 3 little paintings in it.  This is the best of the three....my view from the restaurant at lunch.  We had just come back from seeing the Elephant Seals.  There were hundreds on the beach, many with brand new babies.  I was hoping to see one birthed but after watching for quite awhile, we gave up.

Tomorrow we will drive most of the day to reach San Diego.  There we stay with our oldest son.  It makes it extra special when I can combine teaching with visits with my children.  It is a wonderful way to start the new year.  Life is good.

ARE YOU READY WITH YOUR ART PLANS FOR 2010?

The New Year is fast approaching. I have been giving much consideration to my art goals for 2010. First, a quick overview of what constitutes a true goal:
1. Must be written down!
2. Must be specific (words like more, some, better etc. are not specific enough)
3. Must be attainable (example...I will paint on the moon is not an attainable goal)
Once I have established my goals, a plan must be created to make things happen. I came across my written goals for 2009 today while cleaning up my desk. It was satisfying to see that most of them were accomplished. The two disappointments were beyond my direct control but I did do everything in my power to make them happen. Most years I write out the goals, contemplate what actions I need to take, and then set the sheet aside. There is something in this process that sets it internally for me. When I check the list at the end of the year, much has come to pass.

One goal I wanted to carry over from last year was to draw every day. I did a lot of drawing this past year but I missed the "every day" part. It started me thinking. What might I do to encourage this practice. It occurred to me that drawing on a calendar would keep me on track. Especially one of those 365 day calendars with a separate page for each day. I headed out for the bookstore today to find one. Calendars are 50% off now with many wonderful themes to choose from. Maybe I should improve my pathetic French with a word a day, or attempt Italian or Spanish. In the end, I settled on a perfect match for me. I am focusing on grids (especially quilt patterns at the moment), self portraits, collage, quick sketching. It will all come together with this neat daily calendar of quilt blocks. I am going to use them as a collage element after drawing on them. To reinforce the "daily" element, I have started a blog just for this activity. There is nothing like public declarations to embarrass ourselves into following through. Starting January 1 you can follow my progress on www.drawntothemirror.blogspot.com

This is my planned setup. I want to draw from life and there is a program in my MacBook called Photobooth which turns on the internal camera. I could just prop up a mirror but I like the Photobooth program for now. I can use all manner of pen and ink materials, icluding white ink. The calendar fits in front of the computer and has a built in easel so it is propped up at a nice angle to draw. Here is my trial sample using a bamboo pen and India ink.

If you want to improve your drawing, why not give this idea a try. You can draw any subject you like. At the very least, you need to get busy with your art goals for 2010. It's going to be a wonderful year!

INK SKETCH

Taking a workshop for a week throws off my schedule. Consequently, the following week seems to be filled with mundane but necessary tasks that were neglected the week before. It seems I'm not getting much art work done this week but my dreams are filled with ideas I am anxious to get to. In the meantime, I try to do some drawing each day. Here is one I did last night. I made about 5 or 6 drawings in my sketchbook and this is the best of the lot.

I did start a large charcoal drawing on YUPO today. I hope to finish it tomorrow. My idea is to do a detailed charcoal sketch then start glazing color over it with Dr. Martin's liquid watercolor mixed with acrylic glazing medium. We'll see how this idea turns out. I am wanting to experiment with charcoal combined with other media.

"COLLEEN"

I am proud to report that I worked on my taxes Friday at the Gallery Concord and now only have a few more hours of work before I can take them to the accountant. I have never completed this task so early in the year. I feel like a grownup!

Today I worked on my workshop outline and script for awhile, then went to the shopping center. I sat on a bench and did some sketching for about 1/2 hour. I had a clear view of the M.A.C (cosmetics) window. What fun! Most of the sketches were terrible because everyone kept moving. I think there is a painting in there somewhere. Anyway, I don't think anyone noticed what I was doing and I was highly entertained with my activity. I hadn't thought about this as a good spot for sketching. No weather to deal with and the bench was very comfortable. I shall do this again, but leave my credit cards at home.

The best part of my outing is that I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in so many years. What a joy to see her and catch up a little.

And that brings me to todays' image. This is a painting of Colleen. She was in the Charles Reid Workshop I took a few years ago. I thought she had such a wonderful face and expressive gestures that I kept photographing her while she was checking out the Master's work. I did tell her I had taken some photos of her and she was okay with that. I ran into Colleen at the Drawing Marathon in Oakland recently and she asked me to send her this image. It is a favorite painting of mine but I never get to show it because it is on Clayboard, not paper. The nice thing about a blog is it works like your own personal gallery, so now I get to show off "Colleen".

LAST THREE OBAMA SKETCHES DONE

I was impatient to get this project done, so the price was paid. When working with a new image, I like to do quite a few drawings in my sketchbook. One has the choice of working with an erasable mark or drawing over and over making mental adjustments each time. I prefer to do lots of drawings with no erasing. Consequently, some of these sketches look pretty accurate and others are way off. So, I guess I will cut up the book , mat the ones I like and gesso over the failed images. I may try this again sometime, but for now I will consider it completed.

I received a note from Jill asking about the manuscript part of the image. That is from a stamp. It is illegible so I'm not even sure if it is English, but it looks like a hand written document of some sort. I wanted a visual reference to the Constitution or some other important document. She also thought I had planned where the different elements would fall on the head. Actually I just moved the stamped things around a bit from frame to frame for variety. The fun is seeing how the random elements come together as a whole image after you add the drawing.

A REMEMBERANCE FOR AN HISTORIC DAY

This was such a special day in the history of our country that I had to create something to commemorate the occasion. I kept thinking of this idea all day. I finally had the time to prepare the accordion sketchbook. I took photographs off of the television this morning during the inauguration so I had my own original photographs of Barack Obama to work from. I have finished these three images. I will complete the sketchbook tomorrow. I really think the 2nd image is accurate and the 3rd misses the mark, but that is always the chance you take working this way. I started out using my Interactive Atelier acrylic paints for the stamps. By adding the slow medium, I can take my time preparing the stamp and get a good impression. After the stamped acrylic dried, I added some "dirty glaze". The last step was using the Elegant Writer and using a wet brush for contouring.

Congratulations, Mr. President!!!!!

SKETCHES FROM PARTY PHOTOS

This morning I decided to sit in front of my computer and do some sketches from the photos I took yesterday at the SCVWS party. I need to do this more often. I take so many photos that go languishing, never to be seen again. By sketching, I discover which images have the most potential for larger works, plus I get in all that practice with a wide variety of faces. I discovered one wonderful face that I want to work with in the future. If you think you recognize yourself in any of these drawings, you are mistaken! It's not you. Somebody else that kind of looks like you, wearing the same outfit and going to the same hairdresser. Names have been changed to protect the artist from irate friends.

I am using a Moleskin sketchbook which has pale yellow pages. If the yellow photographs too "loud", I just convert it to black and white. My old computer doesn't have the adjusting capabilities in the i-photo program that the new one does.

Yesterday was world-wide sketch crawl day. You can go to sketchcrawl.com to see some of the results and fun photos of the large groups all over the world. A great concept. There were very big groups in San Francisco in Golden Gate Park and other places. I hope to be able to participate next time I think it will be early April.

SKETCHBOOK COMPLETED!

I had a great afternoon. I was listening to a book on tape (cd) in one computer while I did the drawings for the sketchbook using photos from my laptop! (it isn't fixed yet but I brought it back while waiting for a part so I can use the photos stored there) I used the Elegant Writer Caligraphy pen and a wet brush. I like the results so much, I think I will try a half sheet painting using this combination of materials. The Frenchman better look out!

EXPERIMENT FOR THE MONTH!

Here is my experiment for the month. I wanted to create a little sketchbook with good paper. I liked the results from my drawing marathon, so I used the same kind of paper. My idea for the format came from some accordian sketchbooks I had seen on line. I liked the idea of being able to see one or two drawings at a time or the whole series all at once. I had some leftover scraps from a piece of taupe mat board. After cutting the covers for the sketchbook, they were collaged with hand painted and stamped tissue. I am very pleased with the results. I used some of the "dirty glaze" (1 part micaceous iron oxide to 8 parts mat medium) using a brayer to spread the blobs I put on the paper. I used some of my favorite stamps on tissue paper and collaged them on, Right now I am planning to keep the book together but I always have the option of cutting it apart if I want to. The photos show the full spread when totally open, the cover, a double spread page and how it folds.

I may do more experiments this month, but at least I have fulfilled my stated goals. Day 6 and I am still on target!

I also prepared a sheet to redo the Zentangle image since I totally ruined the first one. I am starting to put the patterns down after creating an interesting background. We'll see. It may take several tries before I get a workable combination, but then, that's where all the fun is!