LINE AS SHAPE & PATTERN

While packing a box to ship to Lubbock for the workshop I am giving next week and packing supplies for the Gerald Brommer workshop I am taking this coming week, I came across the start of a painting with the Frenchman. I had drawn this image onto the paper with red ink. I decided to see how the Permanent Masking fluid would work on this paper. Using a calligraphy pen point with a flat nib, I covered the red lines to preserve them. I followed with a pale yellow wash and went from there. I used a wider nib and a ruler to keep my lines straight, I patterned some of the sections with stripes. The resist is very subtle on this paper and in some areas doesn't show up at all. This is my printer paper which doesn't seem to have much sizing in it or on it. I have some other papers to try it on. Overall, I am pleased with this one. I kept to 4 colors and their mixtures. Gamboge, Thalo, Permanent Red and Hansa Yellow Deep (Yellow Orange). It was very helpful to have my value pattern all worked out. I stayed with it most of the way. I was able to remove the color to create a black and white image in the computer. Comparing it to my value sketch, I am happy to say it measures up quite nicely! By outlining the shapes with a line I effectively combined two elements. Using line as pattern is another combination of design elements. Pattern is a form of texture. In fact, each element can be combined with each of the other elements to create an amazing array of ideas.

I look forward to sharing with you the Gerald Brommer workshop this coming week. He will be focusing on Collage and Line!!!!!!! How perfect is that? I am looking forward to meeting him and learning from one of the true master teachers. In fact he has been a teacher's teacher for many years. I know it will make me a better teacher as well as learning some exciting new ways of working.

"NEW" TIMES TWO!

Thinking up blog post titles can be as much fun as creating titles for paintings. The first "new" thing is that my redesigned web site is up and running. Click on the blog title to check it out. One of the best changes is that I can update it myself. It is also more interactive, so viewers can leave comments. Kevin is now ready to help other artists with a custom web site that they can self manage. $200 is his going rate but since I provide dinner every night, I get the deep family discount (free!) I have some rearranging of paintings to do and some workshops to add. Hopefully I will get to that by the weekend.

The second "new" thing is I am starting to work on the examples for the next chapter in my book. LINE is an interesting element and a big favorite of mine. It is most often used as an accent in a painting. Except for Asian Brush Painting, line is rarely the dominant element in a painting. I was searching for a new idea when I thought of reversing the process I used for my line painting in the Nick Series where I redrew the image over and over with successively smaller brushes and darker paint. In this painting I used Permanent Masking Medium. It acts like maskoid but can't be rubbed off. I changed brush sizes and started with pale yellow and went progressively darker with the paint. I did a final line drawing with a dark line. I think it reads as LINE as a dominant element and I am intrigued with the possibilities for this product. I would like to try it again. That's what is so wonderful about experiments. There is no attachment to the outcome and it leads to planned ideas based on the unexpected results.

EXCITING NEW DISCOVERY!!!

I recently purchased a new book on making books. Why? Because if I bought this book as a second book I would get free shipping on the book I was really interested in. I have a feeling there is no economy of savings in this plan but I did get two terrific new books. Anyway, in the "Book + Art, Handcrafting Artists' Books" by Dorothy Simpson Krause (North Light Books) there was this photo transfer idea I had to try. I was so excited when it worked!!! And it was easy with better results than I have ever had from other photo transfer processes. Plus, you can use the print from a home ink jet printer as opposed to the toner prints from Kinko's or other such places.

Here is one of my experiments on regular watercolor cold press along with the second print (referred to as the ghost print). You print out your image onto transparent plastic sheets designed for ink jet printers. There is a special setting on the printer for this type of product to feed through. I had no problems with it feeding or printing, I used Grafix brand (6 sheets for $6.29) The book called for some exotic product that I couldn't find so I thought I would try this and was surprised and delighted that the process worked. The first print I made I used the maximum ink and transfered the image to a smooth print maker's paper like BFK Reeves. A PERFECT TRANSFER! But, I thought I didn't need to use so much ink. This is my second try and I wanted to see how it would look on watercolor paper. I used the "normal" ink setting on the printer and I think there was plenty of ink.

Here is the very cool news....the transfer medium is the hand sanitizer, Purell, which is an alcohol gel!!!! You just spread it on the paper with a credit card or such, place the image ink side down on the paper and burnish the back of the plastic film. It takes just a minute and it is done! I tried a "store brand" of this alcohol gel and it had aloe in it and it still worked. I can get a large bottle of this brand for much less than Purell.

I'm not sure how I am going to use this transfered image but I am considering a lot of different mixed media ideas. I did a small transfer onto YUPO to see if it would work. A little trickier but it did work. However, I took a wet brush to the corner of the image after it had dried and, sure enough, it can wash off if care isn't taken to preserve it. I also tried cleaning off the plastic and reusing it by printing on the other side. This was not too successful. I'm not sure how light fast these prints will be. I will have to do a window test. I suspect they will fade.

LAST OF THE COLOR STUDIES (FOR NOW!)

Here is the last of the quartet of color studies. This one is ANALOGOUS COLORS (3 or 4 colors next to each other on the color wheel) As a random pick, I got Red Orange/Orange/Yellow Orange. I actually mixed the RO and YO together to get the orange as I didn't have one in the Hydrus line. My 3 forms of color trio was TINT/TONE/BLACK. I tried to stick to this but in the end I couldn't stand the total blackness of the side of the face so created a SHADE by brushing Red-Orange on top. I really like the result. I wound up "cheating" on my value plan, as well, as I was painting. In truth, this is the way to work. It pays to have a plan when you start but an artist needs to respond to what is happening on the page and make adjustments which may deviate from the plan to make the best painting possible. When I was a very inexperienced painter, many years ago, I remember being baffled by the expression "let the painting talk to you". It's exciting when you get to the stage that you not only understand this expression but have an engaging "conversation" with your painting.

THREE DOWN, ONE TO GO!

I redid the painting from the last post on traditional watercolor paper and I like it much better. I am actually using white and black pigment from the Dr. Martin's Hydrus liquid colors and I am pleased with the result. With GREY/TONE/SHADE, the tone parts look bright as long as I don't lower their intensity too much. I am a big believer in doing a painting a second or even third time until I get it right. Trying to rework watercolor just creates more problems than it fixes for me. I prefer a total do-over.

The second painting was my Split Compliment of Red/Blue Green and Yellow Green using the 3 forms of WHITE/HUE/TONE. I fudged a little with the hues because I wanted to try the Daniel Smith Watercolor Stix on this new paper I have. The colors I used were Quin Coral for the Red, Sap Green for the yellow green and Thalo Green, blue shade for the Blue Green. That's close enough. I actually like this one. It's pretty bizarre but fun. A little like a Baboon's bottom! The watercolor stixs actually worked much better on this paper than the tube paints I tried earlier. That means I shall take this paper with me for travel sketches in color. The stixs are good items for travel. I just touched a wet brush to them and painted directly on the paper.

The third painting used another Split Compliment combination of Yellow Orange with Blue and Violet. Faber Birren thinks that Split Compliments work best when there are two Tertiary colors and only one primary or secondary color. This one has only one Tertiary (yellow orange) but I am pleased with the results. The 3 color forms were TINT/TONE/SHADE.

I didn't get the last of the four paintings done today but it is nice to have something planned for the next day. It makes getting started so much easier. Tomorrow's painting will be with analogous colors. That should have a totally new look for Monsieur.

MORE COLOR SURPRISES!

I received a nice e-mail from Peggy Stermer-Cox and thought I would share it. She posed the following question:
"I've been thinking about asking you a question. How do you maintain your drawing skills? Would that be an entry you'd care to post? It seems to me your drawing skills are strong and an essential part of your successful work. Again, thanks! Peggy"
The answer is "practice, practice, practice". I'm sure we all have noticed how we get rusty when we don't use any skill we have acquired. I do love to draw, so it is easy to keep it up because it is pleasurable. It is the things we need to do but don't enjoy doing that are hard to maintain.

Yesterday I took an ART HOLIDAY with my good friend Andrea and we took the subway into San Francisco, had lunch and then went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Okay, so we detoured a little into a few shops along the way. It was Free Tuesday at the Museum! I didn't even know they had "free Tuesday" but a welcome surprise. The Georgia O'Keefe/Ansel Adams special exhibit was extra but that was why we came. We couldn't get into that part of the museum until 3 PM so we spent some time in the gift shop....a most dangerous place for me....and then we went up to the top to see the new sculpture garden. The top floor had some very unusual pieces. One was what appeared to be two photographs cut into strips and then plaited together like an Ikat weaving. I loved the idea, did a fast sketch with notes and took some photos. I am definitely going to do a piece in this manner put with watercolor paintings or drawings, not photographs.

The Georgia O'Keefe exhibit turned out to be so much more interesting to me since I have been reading and studying about color. I was able to analyze how she used color and break it down into the Faber Birren concepts. Her use of intensity, gradation, shape, et al was so exciting to discover with new eyes on my part. Now I have to get a book out of the library and really study at length. No photographs were allowed in this exhibit. In fact, no pens! I was sketching and the guard handed me a pencil. It's printed for all the world to read on the back of the ticket that no pens are allowed. Don't know how I missed that.

I am in the final stages of my color work. For fun and surprises I put all the variables on slips of paper and randomly pull them out and create a painting with those elements. I created 4 different value plans for this particular drawing. Then I pulled a slip with one of the Faber Birren variations. I added a slip from color variations. I did this 4 times and then matched each set to one of the value patterns. The one above was GREY/TONE/SHADE using Deep Rose Red, Gamboge and Viridian. The color choice was by writing all my paint tubes on separate slips of paper and pulling out 3 of them. I lucked out as this set wasn't too weird. I painted this on a new paper that I coated with gesso and textured slightly. One of the texturing elements created pin prick dots that look like measles on this guy. I think I will do this one over on regular watercolor paper.

The next painting is going to be a huge challenge to pull off because I have to work with the Split Compliment Red/Yellow Green and Blue Green. Sometimes you get very ugly paintings but sometimes you get some amazing results that would not have happened any other way. What you always get is a fun challenge.

TINT AND TONE EQUAL IRIDESCENCE

I have been re-reading Faber Birren's book from cover to cover in order to fully comprehend his ideas. He has a very formal way of expressing himself and often it is difficult to totally process the concepts. Putting words to visual expression is very tricky I am finding out. It turns out that Birren's contribution to color as it applies to painting was mostly in the area of figuring out how to express luminosity, iridescence and luster along with chromatic light effects and mist, etc. Much of this is strange to apply to a portrait but the attempt creates some very unusual results. I don't think you can really get an iridescent face but I decided to do something with the formula in today's painting. The general idea is to have the majority of the painting in the mid value range fairly neutral with TONES and then have small touches of TINTS. Instead of having the TINTS as part of the features, I decided to super-impose these squares on top of the image just for the fun of it. By masking off the areas for tints, I was able to paint more easily. I created the TONES by mixing complements. I have my palette arranged according to Stephen Quiller's recommendations for perfect compliments. It makes life so easy when it is established this way. All of his palette is pure hues so it works very smoothly with Faber Birren's 7 forms of color triangle. This color effect is all about INTENSITY of color and controlling the VALUE range. INTENSITY is the degree of purity of hue versus neutralizing or dulling it down. The confusion of intensity comes when you lighten the hue but don't dull it. Theoretically it maintains it full intensity but not full SATURATION which has to do with the pigment load, not the purity. I understand the concept. I just think there could be a better term to describe the situation. I like PURITY myself but the term INTENSITY is here to stay.

Art has it's own specific language and we have to be consistent in order to communicate these visual concepts. Many years ago when I was a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis in one of my first classes, the professor gave a talk. I remember thinking it sounded like English but I didn't understand a thing he said! I hadn't learned "art speak" yet. I'm still working on it!