DRAWING MARATHON AT MERRITT COLLEGE!

This was one exhausting day, but loads of fun and exciting. This was the first marathon I have done at Merritt College. In fact, I was thinking of Laney College in Oakland all along. Fortunately, I went to Google Maps for directions and saw my misconception. It turns out Merritt College is a stone's throw from where I did the Oakland workshop. I didn't see any signs on the campus where to go so I drove around until I saw people with drawing material. I was a little later than I hoped, so finding a good place to set up was a challenge. A packed room! I wound up at the area where the 20 minute poses were held and that worked out very well for me. I met Dorise, an internet friend, for the first time in person. That was a treat by itself! She introduced me to a few others. Art is such a wonderful way to relate to others with the same passion.

The set up for this marathon was different than any I had been to and I loved it! There were 4 different large platforms throughout the room. One was for the long 3 hour pose, one for 20 minute poses, one for 5-10 min. poses and one for quick poses. The artists were all over the place around the stands. You couldn't switch once you had a place but the models moved around from platform to platform, so you had the opportunity to draw all of them. The best thing for me was how close I was to the models! I am extremely nearsighted and it was great to be able to see hands, feet, facial features so clearly.

I was going to make a slide show but I decided to show 4 at a time so I can describe how I prepared the paper in advance. Each set has the same treatment. I used my one sheet sketch book and it was perfect!!! Just the right amount of pages for the 20 minute poses. Actually, I was usually done in 15 minutes.

These four pages were collaged with some Asian paperback book pages. I'm not sure what exact language it is but I love the graphic look of it. Then I took a sheet of tissue paper and laid it over the pages and brushed some acrylic red ink through the tissue, then lifted the tissue off. I saved it and let it dry and used it on another 4 pages as a collage (tomorrows post) After the ink was dry, I squeezed out a blob of Cheap Joe's Coastal Fog watercolor and brayered it over the pages randomly. I used it straight so it was more like gouache. I drew the image with ink pens, most of which had ink that bled. The coastal fog color rewet and interacted with the ink when I used a wet brush. Overall, I like the effect.

EDM #13 AND OPINIONS ON ART!

Here is my latest Everyday Matters drawing. My office phone wasn't that interesting so I added the surrounding "stuff". I love my artist "Jack-in-a-box". It was a gift from a cousin.

I have added another website to the list. Susan Webb Tregay, a nationally recognized watercolor expert, has started a blog. Check her out. Her very first post has 3 things to thing about when looking at the art of others.

I saw this letter to the editor in the latest issue of The Artist's Magazine. What do you think of his observations? Food for thought.

"I've been a watercolor painting instructor at the American Academy of Art in Chicago since 2001, and over the years have seen my share of watercolor shows. Pretty much without exception, they are interchangeable collections of beautifully crafted images: still life, landscape, figure, etc. Once you get past the technique, what's left? Nostalgia? Don't you ever feel that if you see another bowl of fruit you're going to wreck something? There are many painters in other media who deal with the "pretty," but there are a great number of artists who are out there creating images that are intended to make us think-to enlighten us, to scare us and make us ask questions - images with content that we can agree with, disagree with, be revolted by or find great joy in. I find it hard to believe that so many talented watercolor artists are only interested in creating images for decoration. I'm also amazed at how revered this practice is within the watercolor community; it's like a self-perpetuating type of inbreeding. Maybe it's the show scene reinforced by the "how to" art book publishing industry. Maybe the watercolor painters of content are more common that we realize but the watercolor establishment seldom exhibits them. Perhaps it's the notion that unless a piece is pretty, it won't be accepted in a watercolor show, so why pay the fee and go through the trouble of entering it if there's no chance a provocative painting is going to be accepted, much less win a prize? Yes, you will see the occasional watercolor appear in broader or specialized art shows, and there are even the occasional watercolors that show up in museum shows. But, I'm afraid that the passive contentment for the status quo continues to cause watercolor to be marginalized by the greater world of art as a second-rate art form/ Tom Herzberg, Chicago, Ill.

ONE DOWN AND ONE MORE TO GO!

This is almost the last triad I will be doing. One more tomorrow and then on to split primarys. There are two versions of that. I am following Nita Leland's book and using her combinations. The truth is that there are limitless combinations of red, yellow and blue. So far none of these combinations I have tried work for all mixes. If the greens and purples look great, the orange range doesn't and if the orange looks good, the greens are dull. The split primary concept solves these color problems but I am getting ahead of myself.

This is the combination of a cool Yellow, Quin Magenta and Thalo Blue. Hansa Yellow was called for but I didn't have it, so I started to research. I do have Cad Yellow Lemon but I don't like working with Cad colors because I prefer a transparent color. Aureolin was the closest I came, so I used it. After all my research, I think Hansa Yellow Light is my prefered pigment for a lemon yellow color. Dull oranges with this combo because of the Magenta but the violets and greens are gorgeous I rather like this little man.

I spent a few hours roaming around Michael's craft store seeing what ideas I could get. I had it in my head that they had empty bottles with dauber tops.. I could swear I saw them when I was in Thousand Oaks. That is the biggest Michaels I have ever seen and they have lots more "stuff". Anyway, the closest I could find was a bottle filled with stamp ink remover. I will empty the bottle and fill it with a mid value liquid watercolor for fast sketching. I thought I could quickly lay in the mass and then go back with line. We'll see how that idea works out. If anybody knows where I can find empty bottles with this kind of top, let me know.

I bought a few $.99 magnetic picture frames for small 4 x 6 paintings I plan to give as little gifts for the holidays. They had ugly patterns on the frames so I covered them with thick gesso and stamped into them. I will paint them tomorrow. The frame is more trouble than the picture to go in it!

OH, NO!! ANOTHER ADDICTION!

I was quite busy today with my art. I accomplished a lot and then I was investigating a drawing done by someone on the Everyday Matters network and WHAM! I BECAME ADDICTED TO THE SCRIBBLE WEBSITE. You can click on the title to this blog and it will take you there, but be warned. This is a very dangerous site for artists! The drawing I first saw done with this "tool" looked like a cobweb wrapped with colored string. It was nice and I was curious, so I ventured over to Scribble and made a stupid little line drawing and started playing with the different controls. Then I looked at the gallery of other work and was blown away by the possibilities. I don't know how much time I spent just looking at the different work and then decided to try a version of the Frenchman. I am working on a MacBook so I was drawing with my finger instead of a mouse. It took me a few tries but this is the 3rd or 4th one I did. You can take a picture of the picture but I didn't close the directions window and I got a picture of the screen with the instructions covering up my drawing! I had to start again. Anyway, I now know how to take a picture of whatever is on my screen (didn't know I could do that!) so I took pictures as I developed this image. I am very excited about the possibilities for exciting line drawings using this tool and then developing them into paintings.

If you would like to try and do a version of the Frenchman on the Scribble site, send it to me and I will make a really fun slide show!

Tomorrow I will post the other work that I did today. Now I have to get back to scribbling.

PRIMARY TRIADS #5 & #6

These Frenchmen are sure looking strange! I paid particular attention to my value study today and then attempted to mix as many colors in that value with the 3 hues I was working with. Consequently, the paintings have more colors than I might ordinarily use in one area. I am also exploring the different neutrals. I am going to stick with this particular drawing for all the primary triad combinations and then I am going to pick a different drawing for the next series of color explorations.

The other thing I did today was make a sketch book out of one piece of watercolor paper. I am very excited about this idea. In fact, I dreamed about it last night and couldn't wait to make one this morning. Here is the website for instructions. http://ninajohansson.blogspot.com/2008/01/fold-simple-sketchbook.html

TWO MORE FRENCHMAN COLOR STUDIES

First, a disclaimer regarding the color of these pieces. I was not able to perfectly adjust the color in my photo program and then when I uploaded them, the color looks different again (less bright) on the blog. The postings are just for general information and you can see the small shifts I am making in the value patterns, trying different things and you can see the color is different each time .

I am following Nita Leland's color palettes in her new book. I have a lot of different tubes of paint but not EVERYTHING. When a color is suggested, I have gone to Handprint.com to find a similar color. I am learning a lot about color this way. It turns out that Azo Yellow and Transparent Yellow are really the same and Transparent Yellow is a better choice. Also Pyrrol Red is the same as Winsor Red or Sandal Red in Maimari (I have both! but no Pyrrol Red) As luck would have it Pyrrol red is not a good choice either so I used Winsor Red in this little painting. I am writing all this pertinent information on the back of the color cards (equivalent colors and best choices and brands)

The Thalo and Transparent Yellow made beautiful greens, so I decided to do a mostly blue and green painting. Winsor Red and Thalo Blue make very dull violets, so I worked around that. I also played with the neutral range for the background by glazing one color over the next. The other color combination of Quin Rose, Cobalt and Transparent Yellow gave the opposite results; Beautiful violets and dull, dull greens. Both combinations produced lovely orange shades. I am also exploring how dark a mixture I can produce with each combination. There is nothing more joyful than playing with color.

On the other end of the spectrum, I spent a little time this evening preparing some sheets for the Drawing Marathon on Sunday. Edward Betts has a fabulous book called "Master Class in Water Media". You can find it on Amazon. He sprinkled powdered graphite on a sheet of watercolor paper and then sprayed it with water to create this fabulous textural effect. I have the powdered graphite so I did three sheets. The directions make it sound so easy but I wasn't totally pleased with my results. It is amazing to me how difficult it is to get good results with some of this accidental technique type ideas. I can always Gesso over the ones I don't like!

A final note: Mike Bailey has tagged me. June Hymas passed on to me the Butterfly Award. I need to spend some time to consider who to pass them to. I appreciate the honors and want to be thoughtful about it.

FRENCHMAN COLOR STUDIES #1 AND #2

These 5" x 7" color studies are the beginning of my exploration for the month of December. It will probably take me all month to get through all the variations of color I want to explore. I am starting with versions of a primary (red/yellow/blue) triad. I spent part of the afternoon transferring this Frenchman image onto the small watercolor papers. I then created 6 different value patterns to start with. I will make more as time goes on. Once you have the shape drawing and the values worked out, painting goes quickly and is a lot more fun. After my first study, I discovered it was better to make a color card of the 3 hues and their mixtures first. That way I know the possibilities and the work looks fresher. I evaluated the value plan after completing the first little painting. I decided I would like to see the left side of the face without any light shapes, so that was the change I made for the second painting value plan. I like doing these little studies. They go quickly, give me lots of valuable information and are most entertaining to make! They can be stored in a sketchbook for reference. When I get one I am really excited about, I will make a larger painting.

When I was in France last year, I purchased a tin of blank watercolor postcards. I didn't like working on them because the paper was too light weight. They are the perfect thing for my colornote cards! It feels good to have a use for them. The paper has a slight rib to it, creating beautiful mingling of colors. I would like to find this paper in a 140lb weight. If anyone knows who makes this paper, let me know.

Be sure and check out the notice about the Variations workshop on the right hand side of the blog.