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Archive for the ‘Expressive drawing’ Category

Studio Fun

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

aspentrunkspostcard

I needed to get my studio tidied up because I have 10 artists coming on Saturday for the Oregon Fiber Artist’s critique. We meet twice a year. I know somebody is going to want to see where I work. I went down there this morning and instead of cleaning, I did another expressive drawing and finished one of the post cards. I forgot to get a photo before I stuck it in the mail. It is for someones 50th birthday. I love putting a stamp on them and just sticking them in the PO box. I have never had one get lost.

I finished the Aspen trunk postcard in my free minutes today. I am loving the Colorhue dyes. They are so easy to work with and give instant results. I dyed the back of the tree trunks to give them more definition. Looks so cool.

My expressive drawing today was a variation of the first workshop, using the non-dominant hand, which is the left for me. So we start with a drawn shape using paint and brush.

leftdrawing1

Then, you stand back and decide what lines to add.

leftdrawing2

Then you keep adding lines until it seems finished.

leftdrawing3

It is very freeing, especially using the left hand.

I forgot to show this lovely postcard that Beate included with the things I purchased. It is very beautiful.

beatepostcard

By the way, I managed to get my studio in pretty good shape. My office is still unsightly; I will hit that tomorrow.

Fun in the Studio

Sunday, October 18th, 2009

drawing5

This is the result of my first “automatic” drawing for my Expressive Drawing workshop. (Just me in my studio!) It is 3 x 4 feet. You are instructed to stand with a paint brush loaded with paint held as if you are fencing. then you make a mark on the paper.

drawing1

Then, stand back six feet, look at it and think of what you would like to do next, etc etc, until it seems finished.

drawing2

drawing3

drawing4

And, of course the final drawing is up at the top. It was fun!

Then, I worked on color mixing with the colorhue dyes. I was on a  quest to get brown. I was told to add green and yellow to the purplish brown. Here is what I got. I am happy.

colorhuemixing

And that yellow green? Oh my goodness, I love that. It happened in my first mix. I wasn’t happy with the brown that I got so I added more yellow – to much for brown, but what a happy accident it was.

One of my students wondered if she would be able to do a creamy color. I diluted the brown and I am quite happy with these two colors.

dilutedbrown

I also did some work on the black hole. It is coming along.

Good Things

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

silkpinecone

Isn’t this gorgeous? It is a one of a kind copper silk pine cone made for me by my daughter,  Stephanie. She fuses silk to wool and cuts strips and then cuts the little pine cone pieces and stitches them to a wool core. Click on the photo to see it larger. We had a great family dinner tonight.

I got some good mail today. I purchased the following pair from the Art Now for Autism auction. I gave them to M & M.

chuygustavo

The artist is Georgina Lopez from El Paso. I was touched by her artist statement:

I enjoy making funny and at times, macabre pieces of art, but it’s still considered whimsical. The reason for donating this work is that I’m a parent of an autistic adult child. He was the 3rd and last of my children and our lives changed dramatically after his birth, as those who have gone through it know. Since then, he’s taught us about being more compassionate, especially to young mothers who look as if they’re ready to eat their child in public…who knows what their story is, love in a way that can sometimes be impossible physically and mentally, learn to say no to the small stuff and yes to new adventures, think outside the box…way outside the box, and has brought out the best in all of us.

As for my little pieces of art, I’ll introduce you the “the boys.” Chuy and Gustavo are brothers lying side by side. As you can see from Chuy’s little grin, he’s the prankster. He likes to play jokes on his brother and older cousin and the other dolls that surround him on the wall.

I also ordered an Art Now for Autism t-shirt which arrived today. The art work is by Karen Friday. It makes a great logo for the shirts.

artnowtshirt

I did some more stitching on the black hole piece. I did some bobbin stitching with some gold yarn and couched some copper Perle cotton. I quilted the background with a black/silver metallic which gave me fits. I still want to do some embellishing on this.

warmcolorsblackhole

This is another black hole that I painted which I didn’t like at first, but it has grown on me. It has cooler colors. I painted the background with some mica chips.

coolcolorblackhole

I finished chapter two of the Expressive Drawing book which has the first workshop in it. I had to go out and buy some more black acrylic paint and a large pad of paper and some proper brushes. I am gonna love drawing with paint and a brush.

So far I have learned the difference between descriptive drawing and expressive drawing. As you can imagine, descriptive is the kind that most of us think of when we say we can’t draw and is the default approach in Western culture. Those of you who know me probably understand, now, why I am so excited about this book’s process. I hope to have my first drawings to share, tomorrow.