SURPRISES!

I flew home from Portland this afternoon and found several wonderful surprises!  First was this tote bag I had custom made by Flashbag.  I didn't know they had sent it already.  This is a practical form of advertising if you have them put your artwork on one of the bags.  It cost extra to have a custom image, but what the heck.  I can't wait to take it out for an airing!

The second wonderful surprise was finding all three of my blogs mentioned on Donna Zagotta's blogsite highlighting 29 blogs to watch this coming year.  She had asked for nominations, so a big "Thank You" to Donna and all of you who mentioned my blogs.  It is such an honor to be singled out.  There are some other terrific blogs on the list, so check it out.

Tomorrow night is another live drawing session at the Palo Alto Art Center, so I will have something new to post to Drawn from Limb to Limb.

DAY 3 PORTLAND WORKSHOP SLIDE SHOW!!!

I had a nice visit from  a blogger friend,   Gary Everest , on Friday.  It is one of the great things about this internet world...an opportunity to make friends you would never meet any other way.  Pen pals with faces and interesting work.  Check out his blog and his work.  This is a very talented individual.  He was immensely flattering.  It's always a surprise to find people think you are famous and intimidating.  I'm just "regular folks".  Stop by if you are in my neighborhood and say "hi".  I would love to meet you, too!   

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.

PORTLAND WORKSHOP DEMOS!

Computers can be so darn exasperating!!!!  I have had the worst time trying to connect to the Internet using my host's wifi connection.  Somehow I figured something out tonight because I finally was able to get it to work.  

We just completed day 3 of the workshop.  All 21 participants are having too much fun!  They are embracing the concept and running with it.  I am hoping to be able to create a slide show to share with everyone.  That will be my next tehno challenge!  In the meantime, here are the first two demos I painted on Tuesday.  The first one is showing VALUE as the dominant element. Painted on Tyvek. Everyone, including me, draws a slip with a color combination to work with.  This one was green, violet and orange.  

The second painting has SHAPE as the dominant element with analogous colors of yellow green, green and blue green.  This one was painted on textured gesso.

The group talked me into dealing with texture tomorrow instead of Friday.  Half the group are already texture junkies.  I think I draw them to me.  The rest of the class will be texture converts by the end of the day.  

UNLEASHING MY INNER PICASSO!

I bought another Daily Boxed Calendar.  I decided to pass on the quilt one and settled on DOODLE A DAY...unleash your inner Picasso!
I am not much of a doodler but I thought this would be fun way to practice some of my pattern designing.  If the prompt suggests a figure or face, I am going with that.  Otherwise, I am dividing the space up and filling it with various patterns.  I am trying to remember to photograph the initial squiggle.  You will have to guess where it is in the first doodle.  The hand came out a little lame,  but the rest came out satisfactory.  This should be a fun project.

LIFE LESSONS!

This was my favorite drawing from the Tuesday night model session at the Palo Alto Art Center.  Only $5 for 2 1/2 hours.  I am focusing on figures this year, so I am making the effort to get to lots of live drawing sessions.  I am tired at night, so it is a effort of will to drag myself out.  The place fills up very quickly.  I barely had a place to work.  Initially I was sitting on a tall stool.  My back was paying the price, big time, so I found a chair.  Fortunately, I was able to see the model when I was seated in the chair.

I have started another blog dedicated to my figure drawings.  You can see the rest of the nights efforts there.  I had a difficult time finding a name that wasn't taken!  Lots of bloggers out there. www.drawnfromlimbtolimb.blogspot.com was available.

I found a fabulous new book EXPRESSIVE FIGURE DRAWING by Bill Buchman.  He has some different approaches to drawing the figure.  I love the combination of materials and the looseness of his work.  I also got a dvd of his creative painting techniques.  I am excited and ready to try out these ideas.

I received great news while in San Diego.  The trip to Bruge has enough participants to be a definite GO!  There are 3 spaces left, so if you are thinking about joining us, contact French Escapades asap.

LAST DEMO FROM SDWS!

This is the last demo I did for the San Diego workshop.  It is acrylic ink on very thin YUPO.  I am still not happy with the background.  It turns out that alcohol removes acrylic ink very easily, so I will wipe out some stenciled letters, I think, to make the background more interesting.  I was experimenting with the surface.  Lots to explore here.   I am very frustrated that the Slide.com website isn't working properly and I can't get the slide show accomplished.  I can't figure out the Blogger version, either.  Maybe when I get home I will try again.d

I am on my way home for the next few days.  Repacking and leaving for a workshop in Portland the week after next.  I had such a good time with everyone in San Diego.  A wonderful group of artists and an amazing workshop team.  Overall a very impressive group of people.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone in Portland again.  I love going around the country making new friends!