Paper and Threads

This little elephant was painted using white and black acrylic paints - by someone who knows nothing about painting with acrylics!  I did a quick loose pencil sketch, squeezed out two drops of paint on my palette, and selected a brush.  Suddenly I felt just like I did back in 2003 when I opened my first tray of pan watercolors.  Yikes!  How do I even start painting?  

So what you see is one great big experiment - in my project to try all of my unused art supplies - while completing a series of elephant images.  I think I held my breath and only remembered that "darks" are painted first with acrylic, and last with watercolor.  But it was definitely trial and error for me as I tried to define body masses.

Then I put my acrylic paints away until next week, when my friends are coming to play with Gelli Art plates!  This elephant may be my only experience doing a figurative painting with them! 

Posted by Shirley at 7:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I spent the last several days in bed with a horrible virus and only have two more elephants to post this time.

The scratchiness of charcoal pencils and Conte pastels on paper makes me crazy, but I gave both another try in my elephant project.  Each elephant is drawn/painted with one of the many art tools I have in my stash.  This ends the various types of pencils I accumulated in the last 7 years (graphite, washable graphite, watercolor pencils, charcoal, and Conte pastel).  My pencil box is full, but they are all variations on one of these types.

I sketched Elephant #9 with a Derwent Charcoal pencil (dark) and blended it with a tortillon.

I sketched Elephant #10 with a Conte a Paris pencil (sepia) and also blended it with a tortillon.  

Posted by Shirley at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I chose the Long Stitch or "limp binding" for my February bookbinding adventure.  As I walked to Dick Blick last month, I passed a leather store (for shoemakers) and bought some leather scraps.  It is a sturdy leather - perfect for this structure. 

For my first book, which is always lots of trial and error, I chose the smallest scrap.  The leather was easy to cut with my Olfa X-acto knife and to punch holes with my standard awl.  I searched all of my books, finding the best instructions in Cover to Cover by Shereen LaPlantz and watched YouTube videos to learn more. 

The book is 5 3/4 by 4 1/4 inches - with 16 folios of card stock in 4 signatures.  I used LaPlantz's 6 hole pattern for my stitching, but look forward to using other patterns on future books.

This book will be used for all of my research notes.  In addition, I'm adding stitching patterns to the pages by sewing them with a regular needle and thread. 

 I envision 12 prototype books full of my research notes by the end of the year. 

Next month I'm planning to make a flag book!

Posted by Shirley at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I'm still drawing/painting elephants when I am home for the day and have 3 more to post today.  These were all done with different tools, to challenge myself to use more of the art supplies I accumulated over the last few years.

Yesterday I read Laure Ferlita's blog post about "Luring Back Her Muse" and realized that my elephant project is how I am doing the same thing.  I got to the point during these winter days where I was inspired to draw when out and about, but bored and apathetic when home. 

Elephant 6 was drawn with warm gray and black Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils and then painted with water. 

Elephant 7 was drawn with a Zebra Sarasa Clip 07 Brown gel pen and then painted with water.  I have several brown pens to use for drawing and I tested their water solubility, finally selecting this one for the pale color that I could achieve.

Elephant # 8 was drawn with a black Zig Millenium pen and then "painted" with a black Neocolor II watersoluble wax pastel - the only candidate in my box of 10 crayons.

I still need to try other tools that I have, including inks and dip pens, acrylic paints, oil pastels, pan pastels, and a variety of pencils that I hate using - including charcoal and Conte.  This project turned out to be fun and that was my intention.  These cold winter days mean that I am busy at home and less likely to get inspiration from walks/trips around New York City.

Posted by Shirley at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I missed live figure drawing this month, but did a little practice anyway during quiet evenings.  I set the timer on posemaniacs.com for 90 sec and then sketched quickly to get a basic shape drawn with a watercolor pencil during that time.  These are a few that I did.

Portraits are still difficult for me - so I practice quick sketches on the bus or subway and when desperate for a model I sketch half a face from a photo.  I cut a face photo in half and then draw exacty what I see in the photo to complete the face.  I don't remember where I read about this xercise, but it's fun. 

Posted by Shirley at 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)