apophenia, journal entry, sketchbook

In the margins (more or less)

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It’s been a while since my last post. I took a summer art history course that ate up all my free time, and I let my blogging slip so I could concentrate on getting a good grade. I don’t regret it (I haven’t taken a serious college course since 2005), but I miss the process of picking a topic and art to talk about.

But then when I got back to my art journal, nothing seemed to go right. The words wouldn’t come, the art felt stiff…like I’d forgotten how to access that part of me.

I started with a shouting bird (redundant, I realize). Sometimes words have to be forced out, and the art reflects the strain.

Is shouting the serenity prayer counterintuitive?

Then I tried some Egyptian motifs, but my mongoose went poorly and I put the page in time out.

Egyptian motifs…not entirely successful

Finally, I just put random paint down on a new page and let whatever was lurking there decide what it wanted to be. As usual, I found weird creatures:

  • Laid-back troll?
  • Horsepig
  • Impressive Antlers
Random faces

My next class starts in a few days, and I’ll be learning to write specifically about art. I’m excited! Maybe it’ll help me find my voice in this area…I feel like I’m still too stiff from all of my years as a tech writer. I wanted to take a drawing class so that I could have some formal training and learn some discipline, but the only classes I feel comfortable with are remote only, and I’d have had to attend an in-person lab session. Oh well. Maybe I’ll take some online workshops instead! If you have any suggestions on good resources on YouTube or CreativeBug, I’d appreciate it!

artwork, exercises, sketchbook, Uncategorized

Trying something different (part two)

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So I tried the painting again! Started with a sketch:

blue lead pencil sketch

I’m really proud of this sketch, actually. I don’t usually sketch realistic objects or scenes, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to do a good enough job. But I did! Hooray for me!

Once the sketch was done, I decided to work on the background first, instead of last (like last time). And I used Derwent Inktense watercolor pans so that each layer would stay fixed, and hopefully not get muddy looking. Once I got the background in, I worked on the leaves. I switched to Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bombay inks, and did multiple layers of greens.

  • background stage one: blues
  • background stage two: adding greens and browns
  • time for leaves! blue highlights then grass green
  • now deeper green shadows…

After adding some frisket to protect certain parts of the flower, I started working on the reds in the blossom. I never realized how complex the red in a pomegranate are!

Finally the finish line was in sight! I’d started working on deepening the colors in the pod part of the flower when disaster struck! I knocked over a bottle of ink and it spread all over my desk…even worse, it splashed onto my painting:

jamming on the flower petals and all the many different shades of red, working on the pod, when OH NOoOoooOo

I am not ashamed to say that there was wailing involved. It was so shocking and distressing I could barely think of how to react to save it and the other art in the notebook. Luckily this painting was the only one that had any substantial damage, but even so, it took about three days for me to be able to work on it again and finish up some last details:

after three days of sadness and anxiety, I managed to go back and finish it up. final details on the (actual) branch, removed the frisket, dropped in the yellow pollen and pistil ends, and finished deepening the flower colors.

All things considered, I think I did a pretty good job. I’m thankful that the spill happened in such a way that it only barely touched the flower itself, and so it sort of looks like a weird branch.

What do you think? Have you had art disasters happen to you, and were you able to recover, or work the mistake into the image so that it didn’t stick out so much?

artwork, exercises, sketchbook

Trying something different

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My garden has a couple of pomegranate bushes, and they’re in bloom:

Pomegranate blossom from my garden

It’s so lovely and vibrant! They don’t have much fragrance that I can detect, but they make marvelous fruit. I’ll be very happy harvesting them in the late Fall when they’re ripe!

I’m trying to improve my watercolor skills, and so I’m pushing out of my comfort zone by trying to paint more realistically. So I got out my watercolor and inktense palettes, and gave it a shot:

A pomegranate blossom
Pen, watercolors, and Inktense on multimedia paper

I think I did pretty well, for a first try. Next time I’ll do the background first, and I’ll try to get the colors of the leaves closer to reality. But I’m really pleased with the layering on them!

I think I might try this same painting again. Usually I move on to something different, but this seems like a good exercise. I’ll update this post with the next version when it’s done. 🤓

artwork, unplanned

I accidentally created my own coloring page (part 1)

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When I had a little downtime last week I was looking for inspiration in the coloring book pages that’re being released by art collections and museums. The hashtag I saw is #colorourcollections… it’s random and weird and there’s so many styles and subject matters! I love it.

In the collection of The University of Sussex, I found a wonderfully weird person-pig mashup from a book called “The Works of that Famous Chirurgeon Ambrose Parey, 1678.”

(Great title, right?!)

Continue reading I accidentally created my own coloring page (part 1) →
inspiration, journal entry

Sunsets in my Mind

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There’s something about the colors the sun paints across the sky at sunset. Giant watercolor masterpieces, painted with light and air movement. It’s so stereotypical, right, for an artist to find inspiration in the event that defines the day?

But look:

Sunset light on the Organ Mountains, Las Cruces NM. September 2019
Continue reading Sunsets in my Mind →
inspiration

Emotionally cloudy

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I’ve been struggling with my art during this pandemic. When I’m scared, my ability to access my intentional creativity diminishes, and drawing specific things gets a lot harder. In times like this, when I’m so overwhelmed, just playing with color on the page is sometimes all I can manage.

I visited my friend Susan a few weeks ago, and as we were talking about what was happening in our lives and the world, she let me play with her new watercolor palette. I felt a lot of different emotions swirling around us…it was pleasant to sit with her and just let my unconscious take control of my brushes.

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journal entry

What to draw during a pandemic

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I worry too much, all the time, about all sorts of things. Whether they matter or not, are likely or not, regardless of the actual danger involved.

I did not think to worry about a pandemic, and now I find myself unprepared! What do I draw or paint when I don’t know how to begin to think about what’s going on? How do I visualize this virus that’s raging across the planet, on every continent but Antarctica? That we know so little about, and yet are becoming so intimate with?

Sometimes I can draw the thing that’s scaring me. I kept looking at the virus picture the CDC put out, the one with a gray body and red triangular spores haloing it. But I couldn’t get anywhere with that reference. It felt too real, too scary to caricature. So I went in a different direction and thought about the growth aspect of the virus, how it spreads so fast. Like a molecular pinball machine that sprouts with every bounce.

March 16th, The Coronavirus Pandemic (journal entry). I couldn’t find a way to draw the virus that looked anything like the version from the CDC that they show in the news. But I finally settled on rings and lines and vines.
Continue reading What to draw during a pandemic →

emotion in visual form