I got a bit heavy handed with the brown glaze. It's close to what I had in mind, but not quite. In retrospect, I should have glazed with Golden's glazes rather than watering down the tube acrylics. They are just too pigmented.

The last couple of days have been a real struggle with this theme and I'm not sure why. Maybe the photos aren't speaking to me. Well speaking to my muse at any rate or maybe I'm trying too hard or maybe I'm just preoccupied with real life right now. Whatever the cause these two featured here were hell on earth to wrestle to the ground and frankly, today's I'm STILL not happy with. But onward and upward.



Day 11 - I haven't been using a textured plain base as with the Shoes and maybe that's causing me gried. Regardless, I laid down a thick layer of Quin Crimson with a touch of Payne's grey. The combination caused a purplish haze that I wasn't too thrilled with so once dry (by the way, I just about ALWAYS use a dryer for quick results - I'm not above letting the paint bubble too for added texture - just thought you might like to know!) I laid a piece of canvas grid over and dry brushed some gloss black over the base colour. Once that was dry I went back in with some quin crimson and titanium white. Glued down the house and the number 27 popped into my head so stencilled that in Quin Crimson. I wonder if this house's street number was indeed 27?!?



Day 12 - Double "ugh" for this one. The base started out with a combintion of sparkly copper, Pthalo Blue Green and some sort of yellow - frankly the whole creation is a blur because it headed from bad to worse to I HATE THIS to blecccchhhhhhhh! I did lines. I did swirls. I did circles. I stitched the photo onto the substrate. I added some more marks. I stencilled some squares. I covered up the swirls. I scrubbed out the lines. I peeled the top coat of the photo. I despaired. I covered up some more of the marks and added some more squares and called it a day. I still don't like it but I've run out of time. And sometimes that's what happens in art making. It ain't all roses and blue skies, folks! Just sayin'.

I'm a little behind on posting, so here's the update from this week:

Leftover image floating in my head after watching the second season of Rome on DVD.
( more under the cut )

I didn't do much on day 11. I brushed some blue, green and white paint around on a journal spread, and left the soggy mass to dry.

It was such a damp evening that the paint wouldn't dry.

Where I want to go with this is to add some text and collage elements into layers of thin, mostly brown glaze. It's not an ideal project for artsomofo, but it's what I feel like working on.

Sea of Change is what I call this....

Not sure if this "counts" (well, to me it does. :) ) I took these photos in Kenya on July 15th, 2007 but today is the first day I really pulled them out, looked at them, decided which I liked and which I didn't, cropped, resized, edited and did everything else I generally do to my photos.



( + a couple more from that day )

I'm Jean, but most people online call me Dargie. I'm 55, and am coming down off a 15 year stint as a caregiver to my folks. My father passed away in 2005, age 90. My mother died in Feb. of this year, age 91. I expect that means I have a few years left to me to pick up my life and run with it. All my life I've been drawn to the arts, but haven't committed to them in any meaningful way, in part because I feared doing so, and also because in spite of my parents' support I knew they worried that there would be no real way to succeed at them in any meaningful way. When I grew up, women were still being turned into nurses or schoolteachers.

However I've decided if not now, then when? and accordingly am working towards becoming a self-supporting artisan/artist

The other day I wandered over to a local stained glass place and asked about classes, but was told that there was nothing in the works until the end of the year, so I decided that the first new thing I'd try was painting ceramics. I want to learn something new every few months. I want to know what I enjoy and what I don't. I want to know my limits and how to push them. So over the last few days I've made a number of designs for plates, with a side trip for an idea I had for a metal clay construction. They're under the cut.

( Read more... )

<just a photo reference for the reductive relief print I'll be making soon. Those are my two hands, but in the print it will be two people's hands joining together, sitting at a dinner table. I'll be sending 30 of them out with holiday cards. This is step one in the process.

No picture today... I am working on masks with my students and worked on the cardboard structure for a oversized dragon mask. forgot to take a picture before I left work. WIll be adding to it tomorrow. and more ladies with eyes coming soon.

just one little collage tonight. it is the end of the week and i am dragging. i just wanted to work with some pale texture and random leftover stuff tonight. the central thing is a "ghost" from an inkjet transfer. sometimes i like them better than the original. this is a good opportunity to just mess around and experiment this month. which is about all i'm good for lately!

( pencam images into the picture book tonight )

My friend firinel posted a link to a yummy recipe for cream of curried cauliflower and apple soup and since I don't usually cook, this seemed like a legitimate flexing of my creative muscle. I popped down to the store to pick up cauliflower and garam masala, and bought some fresh bread too. The soup was a hit with Eric and I felt nurturing AND artisitic :-) (Thanks, Fin!!)
[edit:OH! Fin posted a link to this and I futzed with it a little bit. I pureed some silken tofu and used that instead of cream, substituted veggie stock for the chicken stock, used basil instead of chive for a garnish and threw in some cayenne pepper for extra heat and lemon juice for a little acid. It was missing a certain richness - next time I think I'd substitute one cup of broth with light coconut milk.]

A simple one today -

Playing in Illustrator during class...

( Read more... )

Today I wrote another Moderately Challenging article and drew/painted "Harvest" while writing, for a total of about five hours of work. It came out all bright and holiday-cheery, I like it. I seem to be on a "paint for traditional Southern decor" kick lately!



The article, How to Draw a Pumpkin with Derwent Inktense pencils is a tutorial on Inktense as much as on drawing pumpkins, and I linked on the Resources to the Derwent site for the cool tutorials by Fiona Peart that they let you download for free. I love Inktense. Glazing over waterproof layers makes it so easy because the underlayers don't run!

Hello Everyone:
Sorry I have not been keeping up with this. Please don't laugh at my submission today, it's all I could think of so that I could at least get something in. It's a rose made out of tacky eraser. I did not have any Play Dough handy nor modeling clay so that is what I used. I am finding it difficult to draw, paint or create the things that run through my head and I truly need to just sit down and practice because it has been such a long time since I have done this. Be well all.

CrystlMgck (aka "m")

 

Another text-only entry:

Today, we made pirate maps. All kinds of pirate maps, various sizes and colors. What made this project a little easier on me was the fact that I could trace the maps out of the pirate coloring book. It sort of felt like cheating, but we still added our own color through use of crayons, colored pencils and markers. They're even distressing the edges to make them look authentic! It's pretty neat! :)

 

Ok, I'm another day behind, I know. I did do stuff yesterday but life kinda got between me and the comp. Anyway, I made a big effort today and am happy how this came out. Baba Yaga is a character that crops up in Russian folk tales. You can read about her here and also see some beautiful illustrations by Ivan Bilibin which put my effort to shame.

carlitojuanito.co.uk