Paper and Threads

I sketched today during a Gallery Talk on Rembrandt and Vermeer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Last January I outlined my art goals for 2011 - just to have a map to guide me through the days.  I maintain a sketchbook for pleasure and get joy from recording the little things in my current life.   No one is monitoring my progress, but I still like to reflect on how I spent my time, so I can make plans for 2012.  Here is my progress on 5 goals.

 1.  Continue to work on drawing skills with daily drawings and monthly live figure drawing. 

I averaged more than one sketch per day for the full year, and went to figure drawing monthly at the Society of Illustrators.  I also went to figure drawing at the Battery Park City summer program for the first time.  Although I want to eventually try using just a brush and watercolor to "draw" figures, I stretched a little and sketched figures, during the 20 minute poses, with a watercolor pencil and then water to shade the figures. 

I'm working on a 100 Faces project from Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab book and added 33 portraits - drawing from live people who usually didn't know they were being sketched.  I now have almost 70 done.  And I even tried sketching portraits of my mother and a few grandchildren, although I still struggle trying to schieve a likeness of their faces.

2.  Continue to work on watercolor painting skills.

I'm not sure that I'm making progress although I am trying to increase my range of values.   And I'm using watercolor pencils more in my daily sketches, especially when I'm sketching faces on subways and buses.

3.  Continue making my daily watercolor sketchbooks and expand my bookbinding skills.

I made and used 7 watercolor sketchbooks and one recycled watercolor book during the year and now I'm working on an artist's book -  collaging, drawing, and painting Christmas ornaments that I made over the last 30+ years to document my collection. 

4.  Continue education through on line classes, workshops, and directed reading.

Participated in the three 2011 Strathmore online workshops.

Took an online mini-class with Kate Johnson on watercolor pencils

Took an online class with Mary Ann Moss to make a "Remains of the Day" journal and then slowly filled it over the entire year.

Took a class with Judy Coates Perez at Quilt Festival, painting and drawing on fabric with Tsukineko inks.

Worked through several DVDs on Art Journals, Read Cathy Johnson's Artist's Journal Workshop twice, Reread Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit, Read Eric Maisel's Coaching the Artist Within and Peter Steinhart's The Undressed Art or Why We Draw.

5.  Enjoy and nurture connections to the art community. 

I blogged 8-9 times per month (2X/wk), met regularly with members of my Journal Study Group to visit museum exhibits, go on sketchcrawls, and "make art" together, attended 8 Central Park Sketching and Art Meetup Group sessions, and followed Everyday Matters (Yahoo Group) and many art blogs for inspiration and contact with the broader community.

I'm am thoroughly enjoying my retirement and I'm thrilled that I found another passion to add to my other lifelong interests.  My blog will be 6 years old next week and hopefully I will make some plans for 2012 by then. 

Posted by Shirley at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I participated in Pam Carriker's online classes as part of the Strathmore Journal Workshops and just finished the 4th and final week's additions to my journal page.  I worked on a page in my 6.5 "X 6.5 handbound sketchbook containing 140 lb watercolor paper. 

Week 1:  I scanned previous "trees" from my watercolor journals - some were Christmas ornaments and others were just visual journal pages from the Holidays over the last few years.  I printed them out on the paper Pam recommended, although it seemed a little heavy to me, and cut out the individual trees.  I tore strips of green tissue paper for the background and then layered as many trees as I could in my Magical Forest.

Weeks 2-4:  I followed Pam's instructions each week and added charcoal, graphite, oil pastels, and gesso.  Then I added to the negative space using sequin waste, a plastic screen, mesh, and a bottle cap.  And finally, I doodled some with pens and added words. 

I persisted with the classes even though I had to admit to myself that I don't enjoy mixed-media art nearly as much as I enjoy drawing with ink with watercolor washes.  I love trying new techniques and really looked forward to seeing what came next as the 4 classes unfolded so it was worth the time spent.  And now I have a set of oil pastels!  I look forward to another Strathmore workship in March,

Posted by Shirley at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Posted by Shirley at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Four really scarey-looking "almost one continuous line" drawings of a face.  In spite of watching Picasso do this on a brilliant DVD, I have trouble figuring out how to draw all parts of a face without lifting my pen. 

Many of my artist friends love drawing with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.  I have trouble controlling it, but in addition, it is not water-resistant on the Fabriano Artistico 140 lb soft press paper that I bind in my watercolor journals. 

So today I decided to test it in the Strathmore Visual Journals.  You can see all of the other tests I've done in these journals by clicking on the Strathmore category on the right sidebar.  The paper used on the bottom right was watercolor 90lb, but I lost the label while cropping.

I quickly sketched each face, waited no more than 10 minutes, and then added the watercolor wash.  The ink did not leak through any of the pages, and it was water-resistant on all of them.

These papers feel different to the touch, but I can't really tell any difference in how they handle the ink or the paint.

Posted by Shirley at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I felt like playing yesterday and worked on 4 Strathmore Visual Journals simultaneously.

I colored each page with 3 different Neocolor II watercolor crayons and then wet them, mixing the colors even more.  After they dried completely, I used my pregnant model fun foam stamps and random other images on each page using pigment inks (Staz-On).  The pages still needed something more, so I added tracing paper collages of some of my drawings - adding them with a Uhu glue stick and then coloring the edges of the tracing paper with more crayons. 

When my friend Melly saw them today, she asked if I was making the 4 Seasons?  It was not my intention, but here they are as "seasons."

Winter - 90 lb watercolor paper:

Spring - 140 lb watercolor paper:

Summer - 90 lb mixed media paper:

Fall - 100lb Bristol vellum paper:

Comparisons:  All of the papers handled identically with the watercolor crayons, stamps, and collage.  And as I previously noted, all of the pages curled slightly, but flattened out when the book was reclosed.  This happened even with the 140 lb watercolor page (my new journal), although it was the least. 

Mixed Media - 100 lb paper:  I can see a faint image of the stamps on the back of the page, but the ink didn't leak through at all.  I wouldn't use the back of this page in my sketchbook.

Watercolor - 90:  There are random faint images that show through the page, meaning I'd be less likely to use the back of this page

Watercolor 140lb and Bristol Vellum had no shadows.

I like working on these journals, partly because I think of them as places to play.  My regular hand bound, cased-in watercolor journals with 140lb paper seem more permanent and therefore less likely to be used for 4 simultaneous pages.  You can see other entries on these new Strathmore visual journals by clicking on the Strathmore Visual Journal category on the right side bar, below the Archives.

Posted by Shirley at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)