NEW PAINTING: THE PLANNING STAGES

I dislike this drawing so much I almost decided not to post it. However, it serves it purpose so I put vanity aside. I have an idea I am excited about for my next painting but I have lots of choices so I am doing studies and experiments to narrow them down.

The first decision is which facial image I want to use. I have two I took with me looking up. I like the unusual angle of the head and the shapes of the features. One of the photos I really played around with in Photoshop Elements and distorted it a bit and rotated the head. This is the one I was drawing today. I think I may have gone overboard changing the angle of the head. I did about 4 drawings yesterday of this image in it's original orientation. Pencil drawings are hard to photograph, so I didn't bother this time. I will draw the image 5 or 6 more times at least until I feel confident I can draw it with pen onto a good sheet of paper. The size and placement will be important so I will probably draw onto tracing paper first and then transfer it. The other option is to put the drawing in my projector and then scale it up and down until I like the placement and size. It is easier to draw small and project larger. I have the projector on a rolling cart and the paper on my easel. Works like a charm. I only believe in tracing your own drawings, not photographs.

The second decision is the format of the painting. Right now I am thinking I want it long and thin with the head at the bottom looking up. I will be making lots of thumbnails to get a feel for the composition.

Third decision is how to put the writing on the wall in the background. Lots of options here, also. Today I tried gesso on watercolor paper using a variety of instruments to write with. Diluted gesso works better than straight because it flows. I was writing with the gesso on the untreated paper and letting it dry. Then, put a wash over the whole thing and the words show up lighter. Turns out the best lettering was done with a bird feather I picked up in Yellowstone National Park. I was going to make my own quill pens. I just used the feather in it's natural state on the end. The ones I tried to sharpen into a quill pen weren't good. Probably the wrong kind of feather for that. I want to try a bunch of other ideas before I decide on the background. The words are "stream of consciousness" all run together but can be read with a little patience.

I will try stamping tomorrow.

LESSON 2: CHANGING THE LIGHT SOURCE

Saturday's class was very small. Illness kept many at home, but those that showed up did a great job with a complicated concept. The idea was to keep the same image but change the light source on the head, therefore creating different moods and effects. You really have to think through each change. I had everyone do fairly quick value sketches in watercolor. We were all working on the same bozzetto at the same time. I had lots of reference material to share and a great book by Hogarth on dramatic light and shadow.

Everyone will have their bozzetto sheet as an excellent reference in the future. This is a great exercise for understanding the structure of the head. It also gives one more options than the lighting of the original image. I have posted my bozzetto sheet above. If you look closely, you can see that there is still some wet paint in the upper right corner! I finished the sheet today while I sat at the Gallery Concord and became a little impatient to photograph the page. It's always best to let things dry.

The slide show has the student's finished bozzetto sheets on the color for people of color and their full size painting done this past week plus the light changing bozzettos. I think they did an amazing job. Enjoy!

BOZZETTO #2 Change of Value

It was a very exciting day. I went back down to San Jose for the Tuesday Class of Watercolor Beyond the Obvious. So many talented artists producing amazing series of 20 paintings. I tried to photograph the first and last of each artist. I had to hold the camera over the painting so couldn't see what was in the view finder. My arm also cast a shadow on many of the photographs. Tomorrow I will try and "fix" the photos as best I can and then create a slide show.

In the meantime, I was very inspired to go home and paint. I kept fussing with this little bozzetto. The surface is so liftable, you can rework the painting over and over. Not necessarily a great idea but so tempting. I finally decided I was satisfied with it. My idea was to change the value on the left side and loose the edge on the side of his face. I still am working with traditional skin tone for awhile but creating more interesting color in the total painting. Hair is a fun place to start introducing unusual color.

BEGINNING A BOZZETTO SHEET

Finally, down to some serious painting. In preparation for my advanced watercolor portrait class, I have started my bozzetto sheet. The first session is about using color for people of color. This will be my example to give the class some ideas. It is always best to be able to illustrate one's words with visual examples. I find it easiest to use a half sheet of watercolor paper 22 x 15 and divide it into nine 7 x 5 inch sections. I found this wonderful very narrow masking tape to separate the sections. It worked well on the Tyvek, so I am anxious to see if it works equally well on the watercolor paper. This paper had been previously coated with diluted clear gesso but it was already sectioned off, so I didn't start with a new piece of paper. The class is going to work on 3 sections of diluted clear gesso, 3 of diluted matte medium and 3 sections of uncoated paper to get a better feel for how each medium affects the outcome.

The image I am working from has fabulous hair and lighting. I drew each 5 x 7 section with a mechanical pencil in a modified contour drawing style looking and drawing shapes. I did each drawing fairly quickly. I am not really concerned with likeness or traditional accuracy. I am looking to develop an interesting and compelling image that evokes some emotional response. These bozzettos are going to be color, value and composition studies. This is an opportunity to try different ideas. I will pick one when I am done and work it into a larger painting.

POPCORN BY ANY OTHER NAME.....

I have finished my popcorn drawing. I worked on a light gray pastel paper with powdered charcoal, vine charcoal and a pressed stick of charcoal for the darkest tone. I used white conte crayon and white hard pastel for the lightest tones and a kneaded eraser for blending and lifting. It is an interesting challenge to recreate all the values. "Is this area lighter or darker than that area?" "How much lighter or darker" These are the kinds of questions one begins to focus on. I stuck the popcorn down on the drawing board with double stick tape so it wouldn't move around. Now the problem is to find an image in these shapes. I photographed the drawing and then duplicated the photograph 3 times so I could see it in all 4 directions. Nothing much except flower shapes is coming to mind. I don't want to do flowers because that is too easy and seems like a cop out. I will stare at these photos for awhile until something jumps out at me. I think it will be like those "magic" images that were popular a few years ago. If you stared at it long enough a 3-d image showed up. This is turning out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. Feel free to contribute any ideas you have regarding hidden images in this drawing. It's all part of the fun.

GEORGE JAMES WORKSHOP...DAY 1

I spent a very enjoyable day learning to tame Yupo synthetic paper. I have done very few paintings on this material and welcome the challenge to master it...well, maybe not master it ... but at least have more control! Between Mike's (Bailey) class of Watercolor Beyond the Obvious in the next room and many of the participants in the James workshop, I had an opportunity to see lots of friends I don't see often. The morning was off to a great start.

George James is a very personable, relaxed master. He has spent 17 years working on this paper and being a former college professor, he knows how to communicate. He explained everything from how much water to have in the paint, the brush and the paper to how much pressure to apply when leveling the paint with the roller and glazing with a brush. Day one was mostly demonstrating different techniques and then we were unleashed to give it a try ourselves. He makes it look so easy but it takes a lot of practice and skill building to get it just right.

His main goal is to show us how to have control over the paint. His wet into wet technique is not very flowing, just softer edges. He kept emphasizing the goal was to control the paint, while everyone was having so much fun letting the paint flow and run all over the place, totally out of control. We were like kids splashing in a puddle, having the best time. In the morning we worked on small samples...I am going to put mine in my notebook for reference. In the afternoon I started a full sheet to try and put some of the techniques into practice. Tomorrow we will learn about designing the painting.

I have posted one of the samples... mostly it is about glazing. The second one is the painting I started this afternoon. It's not nearly finished but thought I would show it in the beginning stages. I did a sort of floral image much wetter than he suggests for the wet into wet. When that dried, I started going back into different areas with different techniques. Most of this is in the upper right of the painting. I am totally making it up as I go, which is not how I work at all! I think I will really enjoy tomorrow where we will plan the painting first. I am going to try and use my February Pose Maniac figures.

THE PLANNING STAGES FOR FEBRUARY PAINTING CHALLENGE

This is a very frustrating week for me. I am down to the wire for working on my taxes so I spent all afternoon at the computer entering data. Tomorrow I have to ready my paintings and information sheets for Thursday's set up for a weekend exhibit. I will get to paint tomorrow night because I am doing a demo for the Santa Clara Art Association. Friday and Saturday is the exhibit and then on Sunday we leave for Kansas City for four days for a family celebration. Sometimes other things besides painting have to take center stage.
In the meantime, I have done some value studies and discovered some additional compositions from the original composition. I am starting to see that with these three figures there are unlimited combinations just for composition. Each composition can have many value arrangements. When you add in color and all the various techniques, there is a potential for years of work. One of the value studies wasn't going well, so I just let it go and started on another one. I was able to put 4 on a sheet of typing paper and printed out a number of copies. It makes it easy to work up these studies. I will take some of these sheets with me so I can create some color studies while I am traveling. Once I get the time to paint, it should go quickly with all these decisions made in advance.

POSE MANIAC ADDICTION! A new drawing challenge

I did a lot of drawing today. I have posted a few of the drawings from my sketchbook with the recycled paper. Let me tell you about the amazing website I used to do these drawings. Somewhere in my roaming about the internet from website to blogsite, etc. I found in a links column the Pose Maniacs blog. The title intrigued me so off I went to explore. It is in Japanese with a few words in English. I saved it in my computer and didn't do anything with it until today. Now I am hooked. I am going to try and draw from this website a little each day. The best way to get to this blog site is to Google it first by putting in pose maniacs (keep it two words) The blog site comes up first and you can click on the "translate this page" so it will appear in English.
http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/

The images are computer drawn with all the muscles showing (no skin, hair, genitals) and floating! You can see the bottom of the feet in many of the poses and other amazing angles. You can also rotate the figures so you can get the same pose from 360 degrees! There is a pose for the day, every day. There is also a cast shadow on many of the poses. You can also do fast poses. I did the 60 second one, but there is also a 10, 15, 30, 90 second option. You choose. They put up 15 different poses which change every 60 seconds (in my case) so it is like having a life drawing session as often as you want. I believe they have a different set of poses each day. Having the muscles showing is a great learning experience which you absorb as you draw. There is probably much more on this website but I haven't taken the time to check everything out. They do have a section where the figure is solid gray but I personally didn't find that worthwhile. There are also U Tube videos of people drawing the 30 second fast draw that are very fun to watch. They also post some suggestions on how to do the fast draw exercises.

This website is designed for artists and designers, cartoonists, etc. and they encourage you to utilize it with total freedom.

So this is going to be my drawing challenge to myself and others. If you do some drawings for this site, send them in an e-mail and I will make a fun slide show. You don't have to do the fast studies, just any drawings based on the material on this web site.

DECEMBER PAINTING CHALLENGE #5: Permanent Red, Cobalt blue and Burnt Sienna

Well, finally a set of colors I liked! The permanent red was to the scarlet side so the purples were muted. Mixing all three colors together yielded some interesting darks. The Burnt Sienna mixed with the cobalt yielded a greenish hue so I was able to create a wider range of colors and intermediaries this time. The drawing was also improved over yesterday's version. Overall, I like this one. I would make a larger painting using this color combo. I will file it away for future reference. In fact all this little paintings could go in a sketch book as color mixture reference material.

Tomorrow I will be sitting at the Gallery Concord all day so I will have lots of time to work on my commissions. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello.

SKETCH BOOK DRAWINGS - SELF PORTRAIT

It's been a very long day but I did manage to do some blind contour drawings of chairs at the hair salon while I was waiting for the gray to magically transform into reddish brown. Better living through chemistry! It is great practice for eye-hand coordination. The practice is so beneficial. This type of drawing is not results oriented. The value is in the action. The results were not worth posting so I thought I would post some drawings from my sketch book that I did in preparation for my self portrait paintings. Click on any of the images for a better view. These were done in a "modified contour" drawing technique. I am looking back and forth from the photo to the page as I draw without picking up the pencil. I often draw with the image upside down. This is my favorite way to sketch. A good description of this technique is in any of the books by Charles Reid. It is how he draws. I learned to work this way by following the instructions in one of his books.

BLIND CONTOUR DRAWING

After a long day it is good to put your feet up! I spent the day hanging my show at the Gallery Concord. It turns out I have an amazing opportunity. Since there is no additional guest artist this quarter, I have soooooo much space to hang even more paintings. I can now show lots of my Vern Series as well as the Nick series. I will have to fill the additional space on Saturday when I will be sitting at the Gallery. Keeping my committment to myself to produce some art work each day, I decided I could draw my feet. It's easier to see them when you are relaxing in a lounger chair! I placed my sketchbook on my lap and took out my pen - An Elegant Writer fine point designed for caligraphy - and did several drawings. Then I wet a brush and let the lines bleed into a beautiful blue and pink shading. My friend and student, Rita H., shared this wonderful drawing tool with my class. It is inexpensive and easily found at craft stores. The pen comes in different colors but black is the only one that seems to have this two-toned effect.
I have been promising myself for "ever" that I will work through the "Experimental Drawing" book by Robert Kaupelis, so today was my first drawing exercise. Want to join in? I am starting on page 21 for assignments. The description for Blind Contour Drawing is on page 17. It is best to draw something from life rather than a photograph to begin with. Basically, you can't look at your drawing while you are drawing but can stop, look, and reposition your pen, then draw some more without looking. The results are wonderfully quirky. Want some inspiration? Do an internet search for Grandma Elizabeth Layton. Her contour drawings are incredible and she didn't start drawing until she was 68 years old!

TENNIS BALL WITH INK

After framing 9 paintings today, I finally took a break and did a fast painting. I used Lana watercolor paper. First I sprayed it with water to dampen the surface then I dipped a new tennis ball into a dish with India ink and swiped it across the top of the paper, sprayed some more and worked the ink into the paper, let it run and generally toned the paper. Then I dipped the ball into more ink and started to draw. What Fun!! After things had dried somewhat I dipped a large bamboo pen into the ink and drew some details. Went back with the ball and added some more full strength ink in places for more contrast. Any ideas for more tennis ball experiments? Leave your ideas in the comment section. I am thinking liquid water color next! Click on the image to see it in greater detail.
Tomorrow I hang my 10 paintings (out of 20) of Nick with Guitar in the Gallery Concord. This is the first time I get to see them all hanging together. You can view the entire series on my website: www.myrnawacknov.com under the series section.

TENNIS BALL, ERASER WITH CHARCOAL

Since yesterday was a religious holy day, I took the day off from any work. Today I decided to do two pieces to catch up. Working on pastel paper, I used the tennis ball and powdered charcoal. Wow, is that messy!! I decided to work upright rather than flat to avoid a distortion in the image. Today I used a photo taken in Bordeaux of a street musician with wonderful hair and a beautiful face. After working back and forth with the tennis ball and the kneeded eraser, I became impatient with getting more precision so I started using my finger to apply the charcoal and then a paper stump for finer detail. The charcoal is much more maleable than the graphite powder and lifts much easier also. Nicer paper doesn't hurt either! I am much more satisfied with the image than working from my imagination.
The second drawing, I toned the paper all over with the charcoal using the tennis ball, then started lifting out with the eraser. A little back and forth with charcoal, then eraser. No fingers and no stump this time.
The last image is using one of my favorite drawing tools, a Japanese brush pen on top of the last drawing. Tomorrow, tennis ball with ink and paint!

TENNIS BALL & ERASER DRAWING

I was up early this morning, so, before water aerobics class, I decided to get to work and created this drawing using powdered graphite on a large sheet of newsprint. I was excited to see what kind of marks the ball would create. Had to use a new tennis ball - we used to have millions of used ones floating around but never when you need them! It is a messy process, so I think I will mark this ball graphite and the next one I will use charcoal and then I want to try ink and paint and see what happens. Then comes combining mixed media. One can always put acrylic spray over the image to fix it and then work any material on top. This image was from my head as I didn't take the time to find a picture to work from. I was just making marks and lifting with a white eraser and a kneeded eraser to see how it would work. The ball fit nicely into the top of the graphite powder jar so that made things easier. A shake or two and the ball was "loaded". This was great excercise as the whole arm and body become engaged drawing this size. It will be interesting to try smaller images for less detail. Also I will be trying different surfaces. Lots of exploring with just one new "tool". I finally downloaded my images from our trip to Israel. There are some very interesting faces to work with. So many images, so little time!