Drawing #92 - Halloween

Our mixed media class met on Halloween, a dark day with bright foliage on the trees. I started out with a gray paper but went with a real Halloween look. It was fun and just right for the day. But the left side of the drawing intrigued me as something of its own. So below you can see the whole drawing (11 x 8 1/2 ") and also a slightly digitally finished piece done with the left edge rotated. Dick says it looks like a sea creature. Part of the collage contains warbler images from a state wildlife magazine.

 

Don't forget to click on the images to see them larger and separately!

 

 

Drawing #91 - Loft and Swoop

Inspired by drawing at the natural history museum, this piece began on a watercolor block primed with liquid gesso, three colors of acrylic paint plus white. The paint was applied with a palette knife. I like the matte finish from the gesso. The collage elements include pieces from the falling apart copy of Tennyson's The Princess. A new effect comes from a pearlescent watercolor paint in the color blue silver. The paper is 12 x 9." I also used watercolor pencils. Looking forward to your impressions. And as always, click on the image to see it larger.

Drawing #90 - Ned Told Me So

This fun drawing could have many names, but this phrase is in the schoolbook text and just seems right. It is done on a 12x12" sheet of a textured pearlescent paper featuring lovely gold and silver toned papers with long fibers, the schoolbook bits, other collage, gold ink, other inks and colored pencils. The shapes began with a quick sketch of three large (huge?) gourds brought to our class. All the potentially shiny things combine to be something other I think. I'm sure there are lots of scenes for you to discover here. As always, click on the image to see it larger.

Drawing #89 - Make Like a Phalarope

Our mixed media class resumed after a summer break last week. I found this wonderful 12 x 12" paper and set to work. I had it nearly finished at home but was in need of a gauzy paper I thought I had but didn't. As luck would have it, the teacher brought three papers for me today and one was the very missing one. I finished it and used one of the other papers too. I started with shapes suggested when we watched a shorebird at Howard Marsh last week that took to swimming when it reached deeper water, making like a phalarope, a smaller shorebird than we were watching. The drawing never really became about that and maybe I should name it for one of the words from my mother's reader: luscious. Bits from her plane geometry book are here too. I haven't worked with background paper in colors much and combined with the square shape was a bit of a challenge. Since my digital scrapbooking is almost all in a square that was a surprise. Once I signed off on this one, I started another square one in a very different color. We'll see how that goes. Don't forget to click on the image to see it larger. What mental images does it suggest to you?

Drawing #88 - To a Tangent

As always, this mental landscape will reveal itself to you with your own unique vision. For me it began with the concept of a circle of light. Circle led to my mother's old plane geometry textbook and pages regarding circles. There are three areas in which I've added text. One is about my mother and her book, one regards the family of moths called Geometers and the last is about going off on a tangent. None are meant to be readable now. The title of the piece is in one of the bits from the book. It is from my new 14 x 11 inch pad done in collage, colored pencils and ink. It is bigger than my formerly normal size but delicate in that I've only used fine ink lines rather than heavy ones, for the most part. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Drawing # 87 - Experiments in Watercolor Crystals

In class yesterday we geared up for being messy and experimented with watercolor crystals. I've never seen or used them before and was eager to try. We used watercolor paper and diffuser paper, something like that used in coffee filters. The teacher brought lots of stencil materials and dried leaves. I'm not keen on the realistic filters, but did use a small plastic grid and a dried leaflet. My first attempt got very wet but that created some nice flowing color in contrast to the partial grid and grittier areas. I'm calling it a new drawing. I also found blotting the leaflet created some interesting looks and share one on the soft paper. Nothing else looks like much, at least at the moment. Here's the first one on watercolor paper, 9 x 12.

This is a nice little look at the leaflet.

And here is last week in class with the piece I was working on then. I'm still working on it, but it is coming along pretty well. I'm also working on a larger piece. Yesterday I had it at class and got an old postcard glued onto it with some of the class ModPodge which the teacher thinks would be better than the glue sticks I normally use. Also from last week, I took in my smaller pieces with the wallpaper now in appropriate mats (not just the digital ones you see here) and the teacher has them displayed in the classroom.

We only have two more weeks of class and I'm going to try to make the most of them.

Drawing #86 - class collage

The teacher brought a few bins of collected pictures for use in collage. I chose one from a bin labeled cool colors. It is really a photo of basalt pillars in a sea cavern, but I turned it sideways to become a stairway to the light. I really can't take much credit for the result as it is all based on that amazing photo. Still it looks really interesting and something to share. It gives me ideas about color and shape and repetitions, so a good stimulus. Because the 4th of July is on Thursday, our class will be skipping a week. Hope I can keep working despite the heat in my studio. Enjoy this one. This is smaller, using 12 x 9" paper with collage and watercolor crayons in interesting colors.

Drawing #85 Revised - Dragon Flight

I did a little more work on this larger piece with the embossed wallpaper and got an idea from my husband about it's having a bit of a Chinese look and a mention of dragons. That gave me a new name and a little more appreciate of the piece. See what you think.

Drawing #85 - Pretty Bird

This is a larger collage with the embossed wallpaper. It is a heavy watercolor paper 20 x 15 inches, the largest size I've used, and that only once for the piece called "Somebody's Mother." I added more collage elements in various shades of white then went to acrylic paint applied with a palette knife. After that I added more collage, more paint, some watercolor pencil and standard colored pencils. I'm not sure it is really finished, but for now I don't think I can go any further. The title is again taken from part of a page for a Third Reader. I think the embossing appeals to me as a substitute for my black ink lines, having instead white lines. See what you think.

Drawing #84 - Starts and Slides

This whimsical piece is on a 9 x 12 inch sheet using acrylic paint left over when working on my latest collage with embossed wallpaper. I added collage, watercolor pencil, colored pencil and a bit of pastel. I've left out any inked lines just to see what it's like. The title comes from a line in the text collage, part of a page from an old copy of Tennyson's The Princess. Originally this size was a step up for me, but now it seems to be my small size. Don't forget to click on the image for a larger view. I think the possible ideas it will generate for you are many.

Drawing #83 - Clouds to Elsewhere

My mixed media class resumed yesterday with a collage project using the embossed wallpaper I enjoyed earlier with the "little trip" piece. The teacher had cut segments for another class to use and the remnants of that provided perfect pieces for me, similar to the one I used before. I also used a sheet from the gelli printing session done with a cloud stencil by another student who didn't want it. I added bits of dark blue paper, watercolor pencil, regular watercolors, and colored pencil. It is on a 14 x 11 sheet, a little larger than my normal size. The teacher commented that it had a look of fantasy. The look is quite different depending on the amount of embossed texture you see. What do you think?

I brought home more of the wallpaper to work on a watercolor block that is a little larger. The designing will need to be a bit different and challenging, I hope.

Drawing #82 - Than Ever

Another sheet of colored letter-size paper is the basis of my drawing from life of our wonderful white azaleas beside the front steps. This time the subject is pretty clear but there is still room for your imagination to roam. I've also written about the flowers across the image in the usual decorated, not-meant-to-be-legible style. The end of what I wrote became the title because they bloomed so well this year, better than ever. The collage is from pictures with acrylic paint and watercolor pencils as well as ink.

Drawing #81 - Study for "The perfect little trip"

The teacher of my mixed media art class brought some embossed wallpaper to class Thursday. It was part of some she got at a house sale. We both tried working with it. My effort used a corner for collage in a drawing. I combined it with bits from a birding tour brochure, text and a photo from a trip to France a few years back. I worked with other papers, watercolor crayons in interesting colors the teacher brought, watercolor pencils and regular colored pencils. The wallpaper is deeply embossed giving a lot of dimension but its softness tends to absorb and blur some of the watercolor. I thought it was just an interesting sketch until I looked at it with a mat when it became something more. It's on a larger sheet but ends up being about 8" x 10". See what you think.

Drawing #80 - To A Tea

This did not come out as my normal sort of abstract. Large circles immediately become faces and the teapot is very definite, and hence the title and the bit from my mother's old elementary reader that says "It seemed...made just to suit." Still I enjoy some of the effects such as the design made from writing across the image and embellishing the text so it isn't really readable but has a nice horizontal quality. Also the blue background areas were created with watercolor pencil which allowed a textured look. This is from a new mixed media pad that measures 14" x 11", larger than I've normally worked. Comments welcome (and remember to click on the image to get it larger.)

Drawing #79 - From Any Point

The title "From Any Point" appears in the text of the collage papers coming from my mother's very old plane geometry book. But it has meaning for this drawing as from any point, it is a matter of perception. At a distance or made small in your browser, it is very abstract, or perhaps seals on a beach. At some point it should become clear that it is a drawing of a pair of shoes. Close in you may find in the details small creatures like dragon flies. Thus a drawing of something specific invites the viewer to interpret the image as in any other of my mental landscapes.

On the technical side, I bought some letter-sized colored papers and started with this one and the few watercolor pencils that I also got. I also used regular colored pencils and some watercolor along with the collage and inks.

Drawing #78 - Black Horse

This drawing was not a class project though surely influenced by the class. It began with the idea of our four new rhododendron plants along the back edge of the back yard where the prominent feature is our oak tree. Of course it went in its own direction and the title comes from one of the bits of paper from my mother's elementary reader that seemed to fit. It includes collage, water color, acrylic paint, acrylic ink, colored pencil and even a bit of watercolor pencil. Truly mixed media! It is on a 9" x 12" sketchbook. Do click the image to see it larger.

Drawing #77 - Tennyson in Bloom

In class this week I quickly sketched the basics of a few daffodils in a vase on another sheet of colored paper, this time a nearly neutral but textured one. Then I used pieces of an old, falling apart copy of Tennyson's The Princess in the flower places. Shiny bits of a pinkish paper are accents (and the devil to photograph) on them. Then other papers for leaves and negative space and colored pencil for more interest. It wound up far too delicate for heavy black lines to be added so my teacher said I should stop with it as is. See what you think about this very different result.

 

So far I've worked on three class projects that all began with drawing from plants brought for our work. I've also completed two pieces that are all my own idea but that had been left unfinished. Here's what the three from class look like together. Amazingly different but all based on real plant life.

Drawing #76 - Joyous

I added acrylic paints and acrylic ink to the collage I began in class. Only a very little else was needed, some finer lines and a little colored pencil. The deep paper color was probably the driving force but also the plant shape that was the underlying drawing. It is a happy little piece to me. The paper is 11" x 8 1/2".

Drawing #75: Robins Tell Leaves

This is my first class project in a mixed media art class I'm taking at our senior center. Some of us began with drawing from plants provided by our teacher. I used one with lots of leaves and no flowers. From a preliminary drawing I went into my usual interpretive mode making it mostly about the shapes. I've done a lot of collage on it along with colored pencil and my various ink lines and designs. It is probably finished at this point unless I think of any changes or additions later. My photo of the drawing has the paper color rather darker than it really is but the colors and design look pretty close. (And click on the image to see it larger.)

 

In today's class when I reached this point with the first drawing, The teacher interested me in using some colored papers for my background. I chose a deep color and did a light drawing of another interesting plant. Then I got the collage started. Below is my beginning phase. Next I want to use some acrylic paints before starting the defining black ink lines. Then I can evaluate and work on my fine line designs. I'm very interested to see how this goes with a deep color background. It is just a small sheet but the drawing above is a bit larger than my usual these days of 9" x 12".

Drawing #74: Force of Water

Last September our trip to Oklahoma brought many views of patterns in the mud created by copious rainfall. I did a very preliminary drawing of the ideas the patterns gave me but only followed up with it recently. It is a softer, lighter drawing using colored pencil and watercolor rather than bold acrylic paints. The drawing is about 9" x 12".

Drawing #73: Bask

I started this drawing a long time ago in summertime but could never get back to it until now. The warm colors and metallic accents relate so well to warmth. Don't forget to click on the image to see a larger image.