The Importance of Play

In the wee hours of the morning I was enjoying the cool and suddenly felt the creative urge stirring. I didn't have anything ready to roll so I decided to play. I got out granulation medium, a Micron pen, acrylic gesso and walnut ink. I use styrofoam disposable plates for palettes and, when the bits of leftover paint dry, I stack them and keep them handy. I sorted through the lot and chose my colors. Then I played. I found out what granulation medium does when poured onto wet watercolor and/or walnut ink. I also discovered what amazing textures are created when you mix gesso into wet watercolor and granulation medium. I painted a loon! I finished the session off by painting part of a field stone wall. Most importantly, I learned! Just by taking a half hour to simply play I now have a few more tricks in my arsenal as I move forward. Don't ever underestimate the power of play. There's no pressure. Let the creative juices flow and enjoy yourself. Isn't that what it's really all about?   

Miss Willmott ~ WIP 2-3 & completed

Complete

WIP 3

WIP 2

Rather than keep posting updates I skipped ahead, taking photos as I progressed. I just finished the painting this afternoon and managed to get a pretty decent image for once. I think I've found the perfect spot for photographing my watercolors, weather permitting.

As I went along I wound up tweaking my palette a little although no new tube colors were added. I also wanted this to have a loose look but not go overboard. I did employ a spray bottle in several areas and let the paint run where it may. Then I went back in with a darker shade, carving out the shapes lost that were important. I didn't worry about color accuracy or capturing details. My intention was to give this a morning kinda 'vibe'...soft light and muted colors. I think I accomplished my mission. 

Note: Sorry for the blurry images if you choose to enlarge them. I don't know why that's happening. Man, it's always something.

Miss Willmott ~ WIP 1

Yesterday I managed to transfer my drawing to working paper, in this case Arches 140# CP paper. I laid in some background color and today I started work on the flowers. It's difficult to get certain colors to appear correctly because they are so neutral. In fact, when I tried to scan my color study the scanner read it as a black & white photo so I had to photograph it. When completed, this painting will be approx. 21" x 9". Sorry the painting is photographed in pieces. I was too lazy to set up my easel and do a proper job of it.  

Miss Willmott ~ color study

The final

First layer

This is the palette I have in mind. Very neutral colors with a decent range of values. I'm questioning my choice of a 'pop' color, which is Quin. violet, but it looks better IRL. I'm also using some negative painting on this sample. It's a much softer look. I am reminding myself along the way that white doesn't have to be truly white to appear that way. So far my main color choices are cerulean blue, permanent yellow and perylene green...all neutralized with either DS Moonglow or neutral tint.

Miss Willmott ~ sketch completed

A little confusion in the center but you get the general idea

Part deux

I completed the second half of my sketch and put the two together in a panorama using Irfanview. I used scanned images and, without the aid of Photoshop, I did the best I could to merge the two drawings. Not an exact match but I did my best. I have a palette in mind but I want to do a few color studies before committing to a larger painting.

Miss Willmott ~ pencil sketch

Inspired by Miss Willmott, I drew up this sketch while watching another rerun of Jaws on the telly this afternoon. I'd like to paint this in a long(wide), narrow format so I need to sketch more blooms. I just ran out of space on my paper. To be continued on another sheet.......

Miss Willmott's Ghost Blooms Again

This has become an annual event in my moon garden. Miss Willmott's Ghost(eryngium giganteum) aka Giant White Sea Holly is a biannual plant that, once she matures enough to bloom, dies afterward but she's a prolific self seeder. This has been a stellar year with not one but six plants reaching maturity. The tallest are almost 3' high with many flower bracts. I hope to get more photos of her before she kicks the proverbial bucket. One plant has popped up in the middle of my Golden Tiara hosta, another in my August Moon hosta, and there's no digging her out without causing major harm to the hostas. Miss Willmott has a very deep and tough taproot. I may have to take some cuttings. I just harvested about 20 garlic scapes and together, they might make an interesting a floral arrangement.   

Fancy Goldfish ~paper sculpt complete

I just put the finishing touches on this. I chose the warm palette because the coffee filters took on a yellowish appearance when the gloss medium was completely dry. I added two wooden beads I found for the eyes. The beads were red so I gave them a coat of Adirondack Pitch Black alcohol ink and glued them in place with Mod Podge. The entire piece is mostly Adirondack alcohol ink. I did add some DS Duochrome Hibiscus watercolor to the scales and DS Pearlescent Shimmer watercolor to the smaller fins. Painting on gel gloss medium is a unique experience. The watercolor pigments became permanent as soon as applied, which surprised me. I did have more control over the alcohol ink, though.

Fancy Goldfish ~ color study

Sorry for the delay with an update but I've been having fun trying out a few mediums on some trial samples. So far, I've tried Jacquard Lumiere acrylic, alcohol ink and watercolor and I'm still going. It's been an interesting (to say the least) education. I really should be more bold with my experiments! I've also tried out a couple of different palettes...some pinks and golds, some greens, blues and purples. Not all scanned well so I can't show them all and because I've used duochrome watercolor and some metallics, I doubt they would photograph much better. I've used blending solution, alcohol and water(applied w/spray bottles), rubbed and manipulated the inks and paints with a brush and my fingers...what's next? To my visitors...which palette appeals most? I'm open to opinions.

Fancy Goldfish ~ paper sculpt WIP 2

I've just completed the sculpting process. Yes! The head was formed using another coffee filter and the scales near the tail portion were created from printer paper with a hole punch. The scales on the forward area of the body were fashioned from 90# card stock using the same hole punch. I added another fin that drapes below the chin area using more printer paper. Now it's time to let things dry. The gel medium is still tacky and probably will be for a day or two. If we get the rain they're predicting it may take longer. In the meantime, I'm going to create a few sample sculpts so I can try out various palettes and mediums. 

Fancy Gold Fish ~ paper sculpt WIP 1

I fell in love with a gorgeous fantail goldfish I saw online so I decided to use it has inspiration for my next attempt at paper sculpting. I had the brilliant (?) idea to use coffee filters for the long, flowing fins. I think it worked out fairly well but now I'm not sure how to tackle the body of the fish. This will take some more thought. I'm working on Yupo again, using gloss gel medium as my glue and sculpting medium. I did use facial tissue for the small side fins. I wanted them to appear more delicate.

I drew a simple sketch directly on the Yupo with pencil to guide me. I can still see the sketch through the layer of tracing paper I put down for my background (because I didn't want the background to be naked Yupo). That was a huge relief. Otherwise I would be flying blind.  

Blown Glass Rooster

I can't think of a title for this so I'll call it what it is....a glass rooster. It's a little tschotske that came from my parent's old house. I have no idea where they got it but it's a colorful little thing. I drew and painted this from life. I scanned the painting because it's small...roughly 5" x 9" so every little boo-boo shows up and the colors are a bit blown out. It was a fun exercise and I enjoyed getting my brushes wet again. I'll be on to another sculpted paper project tomorrow and it may take a few days before I have anything to show. I'll have to wait for each coat of gel medium to dry and I don't want to rush things. 

Alcohol Ink on Sculpted Paper

I've planned on trying this for months and finally got to it the last few days. This is sculpted paper on Yupo Col Mitchell style (link) using tracing paper and gel gloss medium. The little bird was cut from Yupo and glued in place with Mod Podge. I wish now I had taken a photo before I applied the ink so you could see the sculpt work. This is only about 4 1/2" x 5 1/2" and is really too small a format to get terribly creative. I just wanted to see if I could do it at all. I've said many times how I love to add texture to my work and this is certainly one exciting way to do just that.

Cornfield Crucifixion

SOLD

Sounds pretty glum, doesn't it? I also spelled the word 'crucifixion' wrong on my drawing. Oh, well. I'm having a time getting inspired. Another collage has gotten the best of me and I'm stuck on another project. Naturally my mind wanders to dark places. In this case, scarecrows. They have always 'creeped me out'. I think most folks see them as whimsical folk art-y creations meant to scare crows but I doubt they really work. Crows are pretty savvy. Creating a man-like 'thing' and hanging it on a cross in a cornfield has never set right with me. Anyway, it was something to draw while I think of something better.

Small Works ~ in progress

The rainy background is strips of newspaper glued to Yupo. The figure is soft pastel.

This one is still a work in progress. I'm not sure where its headed yet.

I'm working on a series of small 'creations' using various techniques I've been dying to try out. A little collage, some mixed media, ink...anything that floats my boat. Since these are all roughly 4" x 6", if a few fail it's no big deal. My style seems to be no style so why not go with that premise and see where it takes me. Last year I chose to stick with the alcohol ink but because my lungs have become so touchy I've been hesitant to play with these inks too often. I'm not planning to give them up by any means but I thought I'd mix things up a bit.  

Digby Redux ~ complete

I finally settled on a palette for this one and after that, things went pretty fast. I've painted this on Fabriano 140# HP with a color combo I love...Quin. Gold, Carbazole Violet and Quin. Sienna. I added a little FUB to the violet and the camera really picked it up. Hopefully I'll be able to get a better photo with colors that are more true to life when the light is better. It's too sunny today. I worked from the original photo and the posterized version so it turned out slightly stylized but I kinda like it! 

Digby Redux ~ value drawing

Value drawing

Posterized version #2

Posterized version #1

And not a good value drawing, I might add. I half traced, half sketched his outline onto tracing paper. At the time I didn't plan to add much more to it. However, I started fooling around with a grade B graphite pencil and one thing lead to another. I loved this reference photo. A white cat backlit by the sun. Very dramatic. I wanted to get the values sorted out but tracing paper is not a good substrate for this mission. A large amount of graphite will almost fall off it and certainly wipes off at the slightest touch. I found as much on my hands as on the paper. I did wind up putting the original image into GIMP, greyscaled it and posterized it to get a better idea.

I never tire of including Digby in my artwork. He was a wonderful subject to photograph and wonderful companion to me for many years. In my reference photo he is waiting 'patiently' for me to open the door and let him outside. I can see his patience is wearing thin by the upward flick of the tip of his tail. Gosh, I miss him.    

Drawing Tip ~ Flip it!

If you work from photographs and struggle with certain subjects, here's a tip that may help. For example...I'm not the best at free handing people, especially faces. I usually resort to tracing or if a perfect likeness is called for, I will use a grid. Several years ago I spent a great deal of time on Wetcanvas.com in the Drawing & Sketching forum and participated in the weekly drawing challenges. The reference one week was a photo of a little boy and girl having a big hug with each other. Loved the photo but it scared me to death. It was not only people but children and the faces were at very odd angles. I flipped the image upside down in my photo editor and worked from that. Flipping reduced the subjects to nothing more than various shapes and lines that made no obvious sense to eye. Then I proceeded to simply draw what I saw. When completed, I flipped my drawing over and surprise! It looked a great deal like the photo. Why couldn't I have drawn this with the image right side up? Probably fear and an untrained eye my brain didn't trust. I wish I could remember who suggested this to me because I would love to credit them. Give it a go. You might surprise yourself, too. 

Sketching Crows

We've had an abundance of crows in the park this year and I enjoy watching them interact. All the posturing that goes on and some seem to be holding conversations with each other. Intimate conversations. Backs hunched, heads close together...I can almost imagine them whispering secrets

only crows can share. They are such smart birds. I wonder if they gossip. One would think so watching them. I've spent time sketching these crows while I sat on my sofa and watched them out my front windows. I thought I'd share a few. They might find their way into a painting or two. Who knows.

                                                                               

Sea Turtle 2 ~ complete

Once again, I can't seem to adjust the colors so you can see the turquoise without screwing up the other hues. It still appears too blue. Try to imagine the water the same color as the sample swatch I posted prior and there you'll have it. It's also really hard to recreate a painting in watercolor. I thought it might be interesting to see how I've advanced since the first version was painted but watercolor still has a mind of it's own it seems. There were many happy 'accidents' that occurred the first time around that were simply not gonna happen again. Ever try to recreate a happy accident? Forget about it.