Saturday, November 29, 2014

It's Still Life :-)

A bit tardy, the final painting for Table Top: Drawing and Painting is finished.  Class was so enjoyable and I explored still life painting, a subject that never caught my fancy before.

Here's the still life:

"The Oval Table"

This is how it began:

Whoa, something is different...

The table changed, the flowers changed and some of the veggies became fruit.  How did that happen?  As I think back, I was focused on the paint and I let go of the power of the "line"; the application of paint and the colors indicated the direction of the painting.

As odd as it sounds, relinquishing control is empowering :-)

Monday, November 24, 2014

Fairy tales' end

Carla's online class, 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale drew to a close this month.  A great experience, I enjoyed the class structure where there is a research period followed by drawing, painting and mixed media work.

Final fairy tale art: adding some color to the title page.

Graphite, ink and colored pencil.

I benefited from this year-long class through exploration of techniques (new, old, experimental) so much so that I am eagerly awaiting "2015: Year of the...???"

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Miss You, mixed media journal page

The feelings reside in my heart and at some point crystallize into words:

My sweet Romeo.

I appreciate that creating art around the memory and emotion helps me in some indefinable way.

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Table Top Paintings

More still life work from Diane Culhane's online class, Table Top: Drawing and Painting.  I am finishing up the painting assignment.

The emphasis again is on laying down transparent layers and then building more layers, both transparent and opaque, on top.  I became so involved with the technique, I let my improvising slide (see this post).  I figure I will get better with practice :-)

Beginning with a graphite drawing (on a birch panel), transparent layers of primary colors are quickly applied, a nice way to get the paint brush moving and paint on the panel:

Initially two green peppers and a pear...

However, after laying down more and more paint, I decided that apples were calling me more than peppers, hence:

"Pear of Apples"



Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Mixed media, glazing

The world outside has gone cold and snowy white, but in my studio it's color-wow time :-)

Glazing (the current Table Top: Drawing and Painting lesson), layering transparent color upon color is a lot of fun and perks up this gray day.  Choose some acrylic color, gel medium.  Ink a simple still life sketch and then go...


 
The colors glow.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Improvise

No color this time, simply graphite line work and smudging - and still life, an assignment from Diane Culhane's online class, "Table Top: Drawing and Painting":

I love to sketch.  Vellum is a fabulous surface.

This drawing was fun.  First placing some objects, playing with a variety of line weights and levels of intensity - basically improvising the foreground and background :-)

Monday, November 10, 2014

Vellum-luscious

Ink and colored pencil on vellum - so enjoyable.  There is something about the application of either medium that is rewarding; very smooth, not slick, which results in a nice amount of control.

More class work from Diane Culhane's online class, Table Top: Drawing and Painting:

I have a greater appreciation of bottles :-)

Still life as subject matter... its appeal is growing.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Hatching(s)

Usually I don't gravitate toward still life drawing; and that is why I wanted to explore it.  When Carla Sonheim offered Diane Culhane's online class, "Table Top: Drawing and Painting" for a second time, it was an opportunity I had to seize :-)

I have taken two other class by Diane, Between Speech and Silence and Paint Your Garden and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  I like Diane's whimsical, exploratory approach to drawing and painting and her teaching style is fun.

So on to some drawing.  This is a warm up sketch, wonky lines and all:

graphite and charcoal

Next, all kinds of hatching...here, begin with a quick sketch for placement and then just let the colored pencils go:

colored pencil on black card stock



Monday, November 3, 2014

Inking

I completed an imaginary landscape:

It is waiting for color...but I haven't chosen a medium.

I documented this drawing from the initial sketch and over time the changes and additions.

Sketch:



Interim 1:


 Interim 2:
 

Interim 3:


Interim 4:


Documenting my process helped me to limit the population of objects.  Each time I stopped to scan the drawing's progress, I could evaluate the density of images and rein-in or just stop the addition of imaginary things :-)