prismacolor pencils on western red cedar branch and creek rock
i drew the heart on the rock and then i thought, hmmmm... i could put this rock in the crook of this stick... and then i was delighted, hee! i've been working on this stick on and off all summer...
a poor pic of some of it... it's leaning near my chair - i like to gaze at it...
by the time this post goes up i'll be in ashland, oregon with the lovely roxanne, and the women in this post. we're getting together for another show, and i really do imagine i'll be laughing and talking up a storm right about now...
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“The real artist’s work is a surprise to himself.”
~ Robert Henri, via Mary Ann Wakeley's tumblr
XO
'i know a sensitive soul when i see one' ~ gouache, watercolors, oil and soft pastels,casein paint in milton book
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watercolors, casein paint and pogo print in milton book
the pogo print is of a photograph that i saw on tumblr. i made the image as full sized as it would go, then i took a picture of it and printed it out on the pogo printer. somehow it seems amazing to me that i can take a digital picture of a digital image and then print it out on 'paper'!
colored pencil, watercolors, gouache, oil pastel and pogo print
some people have asked how accurate the pogo prints are, and the answer is, it depends... sometimes they're accurate, and sometimes they're not. it helps to fool around with your camera settings and see what works best. but in the end i try to be happy with whatever comes out - i think of the printer as an artist who has her own mind about the way things should look. ; )
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'curtain call' ~ andrew wyeth
“There are no rules in my work. I don’t really have studios. I wander around — around people’s attics, out in fields, in cellars, any place I find that excites me. I dream a lot. I do more painting when I’m not painting. It’s in the subconscious. I begin to see an emotion building up in my mind before I ever put it down on the panel… Sometimes I do my best work after the models have gone away, purely from memory. And that’s what makes me laugh when critics say I’m photographic. I’m not photographic at all. Nothing against the camera, but it doesn’t work with me.”
~Andrew Wyeth, via tumblr
XO
casein paint, watercolors, inktense pencils, beeswax & muslin
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prismacolor pencils and beeswax on creek rocks
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colored pencils, watercolors and pogo print in milton book - 4" x 6"
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wild shasta lilies ~ july 19th
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analyzing the surface of audrey
clarification...
so i don't think that i made it very clear as to exactly *why* i'd be putting a fixative on beeswax except to keep the pages in my book from sticking together... the other reason is that i'm getting ready to be part of a show at the end of the month, and i can't sell these pieces unless they have some kind of protective fixative on them. i typed in all of the stuff that's on the surface of the wax on audrey... she was painted on the teabag too, but then this stuff was added to bring out what was underneath...
yeah, so that's why... ; )
if you're wondering about the buff titanium watercolor of her dress (i'd be!!), it's from daniel smith. it is dense, good stuff. roz has it in her gouache set; that's where i found out about it.
'her wings were invisible' ~ with wax and black casein paint
on another note, i put wax over 'her wings were invisible', and then black casein paint in the outline. i like her better now - she's more interesting to me...
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“It’s more like I’m having an experience than making a picture.”
Cy Twombly, via tumblr
XO
audrey ~ gouache, watercolors, colored pencil, oil pastel and beeswax on teabag
a few weeks ago a friend told me about the spray fixative, PYM II... at the time i was using krylon low odor, which in my opinion is anything but low odor, but it was one of the least toxic fixatives that i could find, so i got it. PYM II sounded good... it does not carry a CA prop 65 label and it's 'VOC exempt'. while it smells awful when you're spraying it, within a couple of minutes 95% of the smell is gone, and within a couple of hours there is literally no smell at all. the beeswax smells just like beeswax again...
this is how stiff audrey is with her beeswax and PYM II coating.
i wrote to the folks at PYM II as soon as i got it to ask if it was compatible with beeswax. within hours i got an answer from doug, the man who came up with the PYM II formula. here's the gist of what he said:
"You have given me a very good question....
I had to look up the chemical formula for beeswax. C15H31COOC30H61 that includes oleate esters of long-chain (30-32 carbons). Beeswax is a tough wax formed from a mixture of several compounds. TBAc is CH3COOC4H9 is the solvent in PYM II and is very similar to beeswax (tert-butyl ester) ...Yes it should have a good bond..."
gouache, watercolors, colored pencil, oil pastel and beeswax on teabag in milton book
in case it's helpful, i wanted to pass this on to you... i've sprayed all of the beeswax pages in my book with it.
gouache, watercolors, colored pencil, oil pastel and beeswax on teabag in milton book
it's slightly shiny, but not really as shiny as these pics make it appear.
adele ~ gouache, watercolors, colored pencil, oil pastel and beeswax on teabag in milton book
initially i left a few wax pages unsprayed, and then left my book out in the sun (what was i thinking?). there was no comparison between what happened to the sprayed and unsprayed pages. the unsprayed ones stuck like crazy (i.e. a lot of wax came off on the opposing page), while the sprayed ones were slightly sticky, but the wax was firmly in place.
it comes in an aerosol and a non aerosol (finger pump) version... i just bought the non aerosol to see how it works.
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shasta lily
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prismacolor pencils and beeswax on cedar stick
i've got this stick sitting in the sun so i can see what happens when the beeswax that's on it gets hot... in the late afternoon when it got *really* hot, the wax got shinier and softer, but nowhere near melted. i'm experimenting... it'll be interesting to see how the wax holds up over time outside, and how much it protects the drawing...
watercolors, casein paint & beeswax on teabag and muslin
more experimenting - this time i painted on a teabag, put it over a piece of muslin, and then brushed the front with beeswax. the beeswax holds the teabag and muslin together. again, it'll be interesting to see how it holds up outside - and whether the markings on top of the wax (the black outline of the bird, etc.) wash off in the rain.
janine got me going on the idea of teabags and muslin... i've had some computer kerfuffles lately so i don't have a link to the quilting arts article she sent me a link to, but it got me thinking...
mostly i'm not too focused on any one thing, though. i wanna play and enjoy the sun, the warmth, the creek...
i've found a lot of heart rocks in the creek this summer...
big heart rock, north beach, port townsend, WA; little heart rock, rush creek
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'thank you cy, you were the best scribbler' ~ gouache, china ink, watercolors, graphite & soft pastels on teabag in milton book
CY TWOMBLY
April 25, 1928 - July 5, 2011
"But Mr. Twombly, a tall, rangy Virginian who once practiced drawing in the dark to make his lines less purposeful, steadfastly followed his own program and looked to his own muses..."
~N.Y. Times
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cy twombly
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last week i bought enough prismacolor pencils so that i'd have a set that could stay in my daypack. no more hurriedly choosing pencils from the ones spread all over the table; these would be ready to go at a moment's notice. but i needed a box for them, one that fit almost perfectly so the pencils don't bang around when i'm out walking...
i decided to cut up an old box and make one that was the exact size i wanted. i reinforced it with masking tape, then i glued a painting to the top and put packing tape over it to protect it further. the lid is snug enough so that it stays on by itself.
everything i need... a mechanical pencil, my favorite colors (alright well most of my favorite colors), a small bit of eraser, and a piece of muslin for smoothing/cleaning off sticks, stones, etc. i'm using the new pencils that i just got at home, and i put my old ones in the box - i can fit more in that way.
i love this box!! i carry around for the slightest reason! it's my art kit for the woods...
and if you're wondering why i didn't just buy a set of 24 (which comes with a nifty tin), it's because i wanted to choose the colors i like best...
i also got a pencil sharpener for my pack... this is the best 'self contained' and portable sharpener i've found. it's not the greatest design because the shavings get caught between the sharpener and the side of the canister, but it does do a great job of putting long, sharp points on colored pencils. i just shake the shavings down to the bottom often... dick blick sells them here.
left on mt. shasta last week...
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“I am an artist. It’s self-evident that what that word implies is looking for something all the time without ever finding it in full. It is the opposite of saying, ‘I know all about it. I’ve already found it.’ As far as I’m concerned, the word means, ‘I am looking. I am hunting for it, I am deeply involved.’”
~Vincent van Gogh, via tumblr
XO
delphine ~ watercolors, gouache, derwent drawing pencil & oil pastels - 4" x 6", for sale here
delphine said it was time to move on from the tinas...
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XO
angel tina ~ derwent drawing pencil, watercolors, gouache, china ink & oil pastels - 4" x 6"
angel tina was the last tina that i painted... as you can see i was seriously veering away from the simple china ink and watercolors idea. at one point i wiped about 3/4 of her off and thought (something like) "i can't do this. this is too hard." there are a lot of times when i feel that painting requires me to dig way deeper than i really want to dig. or maybe it's let go way more than i want to let go... it sure isn't always easy. anyway, as is often the case, my favorite things about her were caused by sheer accident in the process of wiping stuff off.
i drew her with a venetian red derwent drawing pencil. that is one sweet pencil...
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prismacolor pencils on a piece of bone - stuck in the bark of a cedar tree
XO
prismacolor pencils on western red cedar branch and creek rock
