PORTLAND DEMOS DAY 3: LINE!!! AND A SLIDE SHOW!!!!!

As luck would have it, my draw paired TEXTURE as a secondary element with LINE as the primary element.  These just happen to be my two favorite elements.  Here are my demos for the day.

The first painting is done on YUPO.  I used watercolor crayons, watercolor sticks and Dr. Martin Hydrus liquid water color straight from the dropper full strength.  Then I spritzed and sprayed with water and alcohol.  I am very pleased with the results.  I will work with this idea again!

The second painting was drawn on top of  an old painting that had been collaged with different hand painted tissue papers.  I used a Daniel Smith watercolor stick, a Stabilo watercolor crayon and acrylic inks.   I will be developing this combination of materials more in the coming months.

The class did some exciting work today.  Everyone is very engaged in the process.  I love when everyone gets into the spirit of experimenting and trying new things.  Sometimes what doesn't turn out is the best lesson.

I finally found a new place to create a slide show.  Thank you, Photobucket!!!!  Here are the paintings from day two dealing with shape and texture.

ONE DAY TEXTURE WORKSHOP SCHEDULED!

I have scheduled a ONE DAY TEXTURE WORKSHOP on Saturday, August 28th at the Sunnyvale Art Gallery.  This is a fun, fast paced exploration where I share ideas using gesso, tissue paper and stamps to create interesting surfaces for painting in water media.  Some of the techniques I invented and some are culled from various resources. 

Texture and Line are my favorite design elements. There are a million ways to create texture but we will focus on a few readily available materials to start with.   Come join me and discover some new ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

I set this up  yesterday, so it is not on their website yet.   There is  nice working space but it is limited to about 15 people, so  call and  reserve your space .

You can call 408-737-8188 for additional information.

DEMO PAINTING ON A GESSO SURFACE: WORKSHOP DAY3 SLIDE SHOW!

I demonstrated how to put a texture into the gesso surface this morning.  I painted this image on the paper in the afternoon.  Everyone was working hard at finishing up their first painting after days of drawing!   Here is a slide show of the terrific results.  Notice the interesting compositions everyone came up with.

Answers to questions in yesterday's comments:  If you are interested in painting tissue paper for collage, the best information is found in the Creative Catalyst DVD by Carrie Burns Brown  "Water Media Collage Workshop".  Someone asked if I stretched my watercolor paper before painting.  Not any more! I am in too much of a hurry these days.  I flatten them out after I have finished and don't seem to have a problem.

"KITCHEN SINK" Day at the Stroud workshop!

Well, here is the result of throwing everything at the painting, including the kitchen sink. Betsy's demo painting is below mine. It is spectacular. It is even more special because it is of a good friend, Jane Ferguson. I think I have a better idea how to go about this now that I have gone through the motions. The actual figure got away from me. Her hair and shoe are the best part. I may continue to work on this painting to see if I can resolve the figure better and produce better skin tones. The important part is that I learned a lot of new processes which I can incorporate into my own style of work (what ever that is !)

One of the exciting things we did was make collage paper out of newspaper! We also carved our own stamps. That is something I intend to do more of. Pretty easy with the few simple tools.

Another great week. Art fills my life with such pleasure. I feel very blessed.
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LAST DAY OF WORKSHOP: TEXTURE!

The last day of a workshop is bitter sweet. Texture is my favorite element and I always get a kick out of sharing my ideas and seeing what they come up with. Here is the result. Enjoy this great slide show.

It was a great week and I enjoyed working with this fun group of energetic. Thank you for a wonderful teaching experience. One of the greatest benefits for me is making new friends. I look forward to staying in touch.

"SPLASH GIRLS" ROCK!!!

Here is the slide show of the first paintings from the workshop. These women are a close knit group of friends who paint together and call themselves "The Splash Girls". Love the name and love this group. The close friendships and support that they show each other made the week extra special. There is a wide range of experience in this group from a "ringer" who teaches portraiture to someone creating their first portrait.

I had requests to explain my gesso transfer process. I will give it a try. I use this method to cover old paintings. You need two paintings laid out next to each other on a protected table top. Cover one painting with heavy gesso (I think Utrecht is the best but a few other brands can be found that are THICK like frosting in a can) While the gesso is still wet, cover it with a sheet of waxed paper. Immediately lift up the wax paper and deposit the gesso that is on the waxed paper to the other painting by laying the gooey side down on the painting and running your hand across the back of the paper or using a brayer. I do this a number of times with the same piece of waxed paper until most of the painting is covered over with spotty gesso. I want part of the old painting to show through. I sometimes take a sheet of press and seal saran and texture the gesso, as well. it has a micro dot pattern that I love. Throw away the waxed paper and Press and Seal Saran. I have been tempted to try and college the waxed paper but haven't tried it yet. Let both paintings dry and then put a new painting on them. I hope this explanation is reasonably clear. You had to have been there!

GERALD BROMMER WORKSHOP DAY 3: HEAVY TEXTURE PLUS LINE

Each day just gets better and better. I am very much attracted to this way of working. I hope to do a lot more in the future and have some greater insight into additional methods and ways of combining materials that I never thought of before. I have all the books but somehow they never sunk in. Probably sensory overload. There is only so much we can absorb at a time. I need to revisit lots of my books.

Today we built up the surface with collage paper, using brown bag or brown craft paper for the dark value. Covering the entire surface with layers of paper, then drawing and painting into the wet collage, especially adding white gouache which does amazing things on this surface. Then let it dry and then adding more line, paint, etc. Here are my two efforts for the day. I think this is the first workshop I have ever taken where I wanted to mat and sign anything I did. Amazing!

I am soaking up all of Gerald's wonderful stories and wisdom as well as his great techniques. He has traveled and taught for so many years that he has great little interesting adventures and experiences that he shares.

Tomorrow we will put gesso over the textural surface and paint on that. Gesso? I think I have died and gone to heaven!

'MY BROTHER'S KEEPER"

Here is the second painting I have done using the new Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks. This is a full sheet of watercolor paper. I coated the paper with thick gesso and impressed a texture sheet into it while the gesso was still wet. Some of the gesso had dried so the impressions varied throughout the rectangle. I think you can see the textured surface in the detail image. I will describe my process and try to address some of the questions from the comment section of my last post.

I drew the basic shapes onto the paper with a dry watercolor stick. Then I blocked in the shadow shapes with a thin wash using a wet brush on the cobalt stick. This helped me get a better sense of accuracy of my drawing and the general composition. I could easily make changes at this stage because this surface is very liftable. I then started to complete the heads from left to right. The far left head was done entirely with the sticks. I decided that it would be more economical to use regular watercolor paint for the washes and then draw and scribble into the image where I wanted richer, more saturated color or spots of color or lines drawn into the image. I could scumble one color over the other and then blend them with a wet brush. I had to be careful not to lift the color off entirely with this surface. The texturizing created ridges on the surface that the stick skimmed over. When I moisten the sticks, they will deposit quite a bit of color. Layering these colors in this manner creates a highly saturated dense concentration of pigment resembling other media, giving an unusual appearance to a "watercolor" image. They will also give the transparent light washes most often associated with watercolor by using a wet brush stroked across the stick or sharpening the stick and dissolving the shavings into water for a larger wash mixture. Very versatile.

The difference in these new paints and Caran D'ache is subtle but significant. The watercolor crayons will lay down creamy color when dry much easier. The watercolor sticks won't do that unless you dip them in water or work on a wet surface. When you wet the deposited pigment, the watercolor crayons turn milky and unpleasant (to me) but the new watercolor sticks dilute to beautiful watercolor washes. I have not tried these new sticks on traditional untreated watercolor paper yet, so I am going to try that next.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to post a comment on my last post. Be sure and share your own experiences with this new product.

HIGH KEY PALETTE PAINTING

I was determined to paint an acceptable (to me) painting using this palette from Nina Leland's new color book. I created each palette by using water bottle caps and loading each cap with the appropriate color, writing the color name on the bottom and putting them in a "gift card tin" I got a Michael's for $1. The tins come in different patterns, so I can distinguish one palette from the other. They hold all but one color from the palette. I should get an extra tin to put in all the lone colors from the different palettes.

Anyway, the first attempt to use this set of colors resulted in an ugly mess. I was trying to force the colors to go against their innate nature. This palette has no ability to create dramatic darks, and most of the colors are weak pigments, have a "waxy" feel and are semi opaque and granular. It's not called a "high key" palette for nothin!

I was able to keep the color mixtures from getting too dull and I didn't try to go dark. I was able to darken the Cobalt Blue a little. I used 5 of the colors in the palette: Cobalt Blue, Manganese Blue Hue, Cobalt Violet, Aureolin Yellow and Rose Madder. I'm beginning to think 5 colors is a good number to work with in any painting. It creates a natural harmony but I think these colors are not for me. A little too "sweet".

I think I will try a painting with the other pigments in this palette that were left out this time and see what I get.

I did create a number of drawings and value studies of this image. I was surprised how quickly I was able to simplify the subject and stylize it. It happened almost immediately! Wow, this practice, practice, practice idea has something going for it.

I hope to have the internet thing fixed today. In the meantime, I am working against time again to get this posted. I sat at the gallery yesterday so had a lovely quiet time painting. Here is my realistic version of the Frenchman on a textured background using a limited palette of Quin Gold, Burnt Sienna, Brown Madder, Payne's Gray and Neutral Tint. I'm not sure about the bubble wrap on the nose! Otherwise I like the textures with the traditional...makes it a little more interesting. I need to be more careful about where I put what textures in the future. I want to do one more stylized version of this guy. I had an interesting idea for presentation using four of them in one frame. Maybe I'll make him more "green". Green is in these days.

FRENCHMAN WITH SHAPE, COLOR AND TEXTURE AGAIN!

I am having difficulties with technology today. My internet connection comes and goes and it is my computer that is the problem. My "experts" can't figure it out. I am also having trouble adjusting my digital image to reflect the proper color and value. This is as close as I can get. Not quite right, but you get the idea. I tried some different stamps and texturizing ideas, then painted using the same palette as yesterday but I didn't use the yellows and Burnt Sienna. The only red was Brown Madder and the "yellow" was an olive yellow green. It actually is Seniellier 's (spelling is wrong but I am too lazy to get up and look at the paint tube) Quin Gold. It is very different from any other brand and is very greenish. Works perfectly for this palette. I used Neutral Tint, Payne's Gray, Indigo and Indanthrone Blue as my other colors. I wanted a dominance of cool colors. The value pattern was my attempt to follow the Rembrandt scheme as described by Robert Burridge in his last two newsletters. I'm not sure I achieved it but the results are satisfying. That really is the point, anyway. It doesn't matter if you "get the right answer". It isn't math. By having an idea to work from it gives you a starting point and then the painting takes on a life of it's own and you work to resolve whatever challenges show up. If the best solution doesn't match the original concept, who cares?

Tomorrow is the 80/20 warm dominant painting with this drawing. Then I am going to see how a more realistic rendering looks over all this texture.

FRENCHMAN WITH SHAPE, COLOR AND TEXTURE!

Today I sat at the Gallery. I was expecting to be alone so I was surprised to find the committee for CWA Annual Exhibit working in the kitchen, preparing the letters of acceptance and rejection to be sent out. I was treated to a slide show of the accepted entries which was playing on a laptop. I hope they make a cd available for purchase of these paintings.

Knowing I would have all afternoon to paint, last night I prepared a half sheet of watercolor paper with different textures in the heavy Utrech gesso. I had been experimenting with other acrylic mediums and was surprised that after they dried, if they were rewetted, some of them started to soften and dissolve. Gesso seems to stay hard once it dries. I used different stamps and stencils from my ever-growing supply. Once at the Gallery, I drew this stylized version of the Frenchman onto the paper and worked with my neutralized palette from Nita Leland's book. I am growing extremely fond of this combination of colors. I like this painting and had a very enjoyable afternoon painting bigger than a 5 x 7 inch mini! I want to try this again focusing on a stronger dominance of cool vs warm tones. I think they are too even on this one with no dominance of temperature. I may do two more...one with 80/20 cool vs warm and the other 80/20 with warm vs cool.

It was so easy to paint with the drawing decided, the color palette decided, the texture done. I had fewer things to concentrate on so less stress, yet there were still plenty of decisions to make to keep it interesting and surprises to experience. If everything was totally worked out in advance then the joy of discovery would have been gone. Today was the perfect balance!

TEXTURE AND COLOR EXPLORATION!

This is a quarter sheet of 300 lb hot press watercolor paper that was a failed painting. I was anxious to try some of the new ideas I have been reading in the new books I purchased recently. I spread some gesso over the ugly painting then I took some white wrapping tissue and gessoed it onto the page in two large areas and let it dry. Next I took Golden's fiber paste and a credit card for a scraper and troweled the paste over a stencil to get a raised relief image. I then took the stencil and laid it down on another area of the painting and ran a brayer over the back in order to transfer the residue paste creating a negative of the stencil. When the whole thing was dry, I used the triad of Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Paynes Gray to paint the page.

In Critique session this morning, Jane Ferguson had done a bunch of great little artist's trading cards. They are 2.5 x 3.5. I decided to divide up my page into these rectangles. If I want, I can cut this page apart and have lots of Artist's Trading Cards. As it stands now, this is a study page for some textural techniques and the range of colors I can achieve with this triad. I really like the colors and want to do a portrait with them.

This detail shows the number stencil I used and the metal stencil that I scrubbed out the color with a toothbrush .




This detail shows the fiber paste through a metal labyrinth stencil. I also used a few of the Derwent Graphite colored watercolor pencils to enhance some of the shapes.





Here you can see one of the metal stencils used in three different ways; fiber forced through the openings, residue pressed onto the page and color lifted by scrubbing with a toothbrush while stencil is held to the paper, then blotting.





Here is the positive and negative fiber paste stenciled. Looks like pressing the fibers through the stencil smooth it out. I like the bas relief effect.



This was a fun little project. Tomorrow I will try to do another 1/4 sheet with a different texturing idea and a different color scheme.

SLIDE SHOW FOR FRENCHMAN: LINE AS TEXTURE!

Here are some truly creative solutions to the weekly challenge using LINE AS TEXTURE! Tomorrow I will reveal the next week's LINE CHALLENGE for our Frenchman. I hope everyone is having fun with him.

FRENCHMAN: LINE AS TEXTURE #2

I'm not sure this really qualifies as "line" but it certainly is TEXTURE! The stamp I used was web-like lines, so I started out to do physical texture using line. I took an unsuccessful painting I started in a workshop (140lb watercolor paper) and covered it with my new Utrech Gesso. It was like icing a cake! The consistency is like buttercream frosting. It can be thinned down to whatever consistency you want, so it is very economical. I stamped into the wet gesso and then let it dry. Actually, that is as far as I got yesterday. Today I took my time and drew the image with my #4 Lizard's Lick Cheap Joe brush using diluted Cobalt Blue Hydrus liquid watercolor. I kept the board upright so I wouldn't get a distortion. The gesso surface makes lifting and correcting very easy. I then used Hansa Yellow Deep (yellow orange), Permanent Red and the Cobalt. Mixing Cobalt with the Red creates a very dark color close to black! I also drew into the image with my oiler boilers using diluted Magenta and Thalo Blue.

This feel more like me. I like the looseness and texture, lots of color but less abstract.

LINE AS TEXTURE PAINTING #1 FINISHED

I spent a few hours today finishing up the painting. My biggest problem was getting the support board to be perfectly level. I am painting on a French easel in my "Library" space. It has 3 adjustable legs. I have a large art glass marble that I placed on the board. Which ever way it rolled I knew to raise that side. It took awhile, but I finally got the perfect adjustment. I usually work on a table when I am painting on Yupo or Tyvek so it is automatically level.

The ink from the stamped images resisted the paint, creating some interesting effects. I will need to spray this painting with acrylic spray after I am sure I don't want to make any changes. I do this because the heaviest paint will remain tacky indefinitely. The spray seals it and gives an even sheen to the surface.

This painting is pretty wild. I limited my colors to Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, New Gamboge, Hansa Yellow Deep and Diluted Thalo Blue. This painting reminds me of a quilted image. It has future possibilities. I do think I need to tone things down next time. Hopefully, I will get my thick gesso tomorrow and can do a texture painting with it.

DOMINANT ELEMENT: LINE...WEEK 2...LINE AS TEXTURE!

Staying with LINE as the dominant element, use it as texture! Keep colors to maximum 5 tubes, your choice. Texture can be either visual or tactile. In some cases, both. Think of Van Gogh who used repeated lines to create visual texture but his paint was thick so it was also tactile.

Visual texture can be linear patterns that read as texture. Check out Ann Bagby ( I have posted one of her paintings but her website is full of incredible examples) She uses stamps to create the patterns. Here's my interpretation of pattern as texture:


I have posted some of my paintings and few from my "clip files" of other artists to give you some ideas.


The Vern painting was done with different striated combs into wet thick gesso. The Bone painting was aluminum foil collaged onto the watercolor paper after I created linear patterns with a stylus.

Notice with all these examples how the LINE grabs your attention and dominates.

I hope these examples gets your creative juices flowing!

TYVEK TEXTURE TO THE MAX!

I'm working on a new painting. I decided to try collaging with torn Tyvek. I saw a beautiful painting on Thursday by Leslie that had some areas of torn tyvek and wanted to try it. I took a failed Tyvek painting and made a small cut on an edge and then started ripping. It's pretty tough stuff but can be torn up with a little effort. I used full strength acrylic matt medium and glued the pieces in a random way over a failed watercolor. Much of the Tyvek was the unpainted part but I used some of the pieces right side up and I left a little of the original painting showing through. I brushed some red liquid watercolor into the surface of the collage while it was still damp. Then I set it aside to dry. I drew the image on with a Vis-A-Vis pen and then used acrylic inks to start layering the color. I bought the inks because I wanted the feel of watercolor but the non-lifting properties of acrylic. The inks are so transparent that the undercolor really interacts with it in a very interesting way! I am very excited about this result. I have posted two details of the painting. You can see how the original red is popping through and the texture is really amazing. I should be able to finish the painting tomorrow and post the final result.

OVERKILL!

I texturized the dickens out of this piece of paper then kept piling on the paint. I used some of my new stamps in dots and
checks for the pattern. After I looked at it for a few days, I decided today to add the face and words. I drew the head with a Vis-a-Vis marker, created a little contouring with a wet brush and tried to lift the paint for highlights. Surprise! The paint wouldn't lift. It should have because I am working on a gesso surface. I will have to think on why no lifting. Perhaps one has to lift the paint while it is fairly fresh. This has been sitting since the weekend. I decided to use the white watercolor from the Dr. Martin's set for highlights. I wrote the words with my quill in full strength Payne's Gray , let it dry, and then squirted it with water to let the color run. I like the overall idea of texture but I think I may have gone overboard with the background and the white looks too pasty. I may try to put a glaze over the face or maybe over the entire painting to pull it all together. It's not a "keeper" but I think I am moving in on something.

NEW PAINTING...NEW TITLE

The Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society has a theme for their annual show. This year the theme is "On the Edge". I was thinking maybe I would enter this painting into the show. My new working title is "The Edge of Perception". I am open to other suggestions, so don't be shy!

I like this angle of the head much better. It is more pleasant and a hell of a lot easier to draw! I covered an old painting start with Gesso and let it dry. Then I drew the head on with Sanguine Pitt permanent pen. Next, using my new alphabet stamp set I "iced"each letter as I needed it with heavy gloss gel (used a plastic knife to spread the gel over the letter) and stamped it onto the paper. This was the most time consuming part of the painting. When the gel was dry, i coated the paper again with gesso. I used a rubber brayer to even out the gesso and I like the subtle texture and even surface this provided. You have to put gesso over the gel if you hope to have any watercolor stick to it.

When the last coat of gesso dried, you could see a faint ink line of the image. Perfect! I started out with yellow ochre for the background and then proceeded from there. I layered a number of color on the background and was disappointed that I couldn't see them. It just looked like texture. Then I decided to try the tissue technique used by George James on Yupo. I wet the surface and lifted paint off and VOILA! you could see the letters. It's not really legible but you can tell that it is wording of some sort. You can click on the detail to see the effect better. I am pleased with the background and how it integrates with the foreground. Overall, I am pleased with the results. I see one minor touch up (a light spot under the chin) that needs correcting. I'm having fun and learning a lot.