FINAL THOUGHTS FOR THE YEAR!

As the year is quickly drawing to a close,  I wanted to thank all of you who have followed my Creative Journey.  I hope I have made as much a difference in your creative life as you have in mine.  Many of you have shared that sentiment.  What a gift to know that one can make a difference.  Whether you quietly checked in,  passed the word about my blog,  took the time to send me a note or leave a comment.......each of you have enriched my life.  I appreciate all the positive feedback, compliments and encouragement, expressions of friendship and efforts on my behalf to have me conduct a workshop in your area.  I have had the opportunity to meet many of my new cyber friends in person this year.  These moments are particularly exciting to me because of this amazing thing called "the internet" that makes the impossible, possible.   What amazing, impossible possibilities await us in the coming year?  I can't wait to find out!

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!

NEW DISCOVERY!

A few weeks ago, Jane Ferguson, (yes, the infamous Jane) brought this idea to Critique group. Jane and I seem to be tuning into the same channel of creativity. Lately, our work has been eerily synchronistic! Stamping and making my own collage paper is exciting to me. We had just taken a workshop with Betsy Dillard Stroud who showed us how to carve simple stamps from this soft material commercially available through art supply stores and catalogues. It runs about $3 for a 4 x 6 piece, on up. Well, Jane showed up with some vinyl floor moulding( you know the stuff they put around the bottom of the walls so the vacuum cleaner doesn't mark up the wall)....$2.50 for a very long strip from the hardware store...and it turns out one can easily carve into it with the Speedball cutters....the upturned edge even acts as a handy handle! You can cut the strip with a scissors, easily, into what ever length you want. Naturally, I rushed to the hardware store on my way home from Critique that day but Friday was the first chance I had to actually make some stamps. The first image shows the two stamps I have carved, so far, the Speedball cutter and the stamped sheet I made. I used a wet watercolor stick from Daniel Smith to "ink" the back of the stamp. I like how it stamped in an irregular manner. I had to spray the sheet with Acrylic Spray so the color wouldn't smear when I collaged it down. The second image is a collaged sheet of watercolor paper using the new stamped paper. I haven't decided if I will cut up this sheet into smaller images or use the entire piece for a background.

A word of caution....always push the cutter AWAY from you as you carve and keep your fingers behind the cutting blade. Most of the Speedball cutter handles have a removable cap where you can store the extra cutters in the hollow handle!

MARTHA STEWART, MOVE OVER!

Here is what the ATC book looks like put together. The Red Boot Bag is made from 2 lunch size bags fitted together and held in place with staples and decorative brads from the craft store. Our very own Martha Stewarts (one with a delightful English Accent), Jane Ferguson and Nancy Calhoun, made 18 bags....and each one was different! That's dedicated creativity. The whole idea reminded me of Valentine's Day in grade school where we decorated card board shoe boxes with doilies, red hearts, glitter, and what ever else we could think of, cut a slit in the lid and then every child put a valentine into everyone's box. I have forgotten what the boxes looked like but I still remember how I felt making them. Treasured memories of childhood. There was that same sense of excitement in the air yesterday as everyone admired each other's art and then went home with a small treasure from each of our friends. Here is a slide show of each "collection" for you to admire.

MY FIRST ATC'S

Today was the annual Holiday Party for our Critique Group. It is the highlight of the season for me. This is a group of very, very talented artists who have become wonderful friends. The annual party is very festive with great food, an extremely generous hostess who offers her magnificent home each year and lots of great art. This past year we had occasion to make a book of Artist Trading Cards from each of us put into a small book as a "Get Well" gift and a "Happy 80th Birthday" gift. The rest of us were jealous and trying to figure out how we could snag one of these "books" when we came up with the idea to create one for each of us as the painting holiday gift exchange. We each needed to make 18 little 2.5 x 3.5 A.T.C. paintings for the exchange. WHAT FUN! We had a great time looking at each artist's efforts. Then, we dropped one in each of the 18 bags (made to look like a Christmas Boot) After lunch, we each put our little books together and then everyone signed their card in each other's books. It reminded me of several fun times in school (Valentine's day, yearbook signing day, art projects).

Today I am posting my set of cards I made for this gift exchange. I collaged over an old painting and cut it up into the right size cards. A half sheet of watercolor paper will yield 18 cards. I drew this figures with a permanent fine point pen then colored them in with oil based colored pencils. The finishing touches were put on with a gold pen. (The gold photographs white!)

Tomorrow I will post the sets of paintings by the others. Jane Ferguson made a little video showing how to make the book. I am sharing that video with all of you so you, too, can have the fun of making one of these little treasures.

FINE TUNED AND READY TO MAT!

I think this is finished, now. You may not be able to see any changes, but it is the little touches here and there that can make the difference. I fixed a few highlights, corrected the shape of the lips, changed the color of the shadow under the nose, softened a dark shadow by the nose and integrated the garment with the rest of the painting. This image is the closest to accurate color of the actual painting, but it seems to be impossible to get it perfectly matched. For my purposes, this is good enough.

Someone suggested a slide show of the steps to this painting and I liked that idea. I hope this inspires you to rework a piece of watercolor paper into something totally different.

PROGRESS

Here is the progress I am making on this painting. The original painting is getting buried deeper with each step and is barely visible now. It is also getting more realistic. I do love coloring over the rough collage surface. I noticed some adjustments I need to make in a few areas. I also need to integrate the clothing with the face and hands, stylistically. I think I can leave the background alone. The painting is taking on a life of its own and becoming quite different than my original intention. That's fine with me. Sometimes original intention is just the impetus that gets us started and the fun journey is to see where it leads.