Drawing #100 - Suddenly Feathers

 An oversized card, this drawing is still probably bigger than the early ones. The scraps from a book had the words suddenly and feathers, but the feathers didn't survive the glue stick, but it's still the name. Really liked doing a color background with acrylic paint and a liquid gesso.

Drawing #99 - They Had Hoped

 Well, I'm back. The beginning of March was fabulous! I had a piece in a members' exhibit that opened the night of March 6 and that was exciting. Then I attended a two-day workshop in mixed-media collage over the weekend. This was wonderful and very stimulating. I did several pieces during the class and one small one I really like just after. And then the pandemic started shutting everything down. Somehow I've only managed to do drawings as birthday cards, one in May and one in June, since. Until now.

 The new drawing continues the previous numbering without counting anything from the time of the workshop. The beginning lines were from my memory of drawing drooping daffodils in the spring but quickly took their own direction. The collage uses parts of a page from my mother's accounting textbook, some from her elementary reader and a little from a nature magazine. The title is in the reader text but it could also have been "fear of trouble." The base is 14" x 11" Bristol paper that is sturdy and bright. I used ink, acrylic paint, colored pencil, and watercolor.

Drawing #98 - On the Rocks

My usual paper elements, ink, acrylic paint, watercolor pencil and colored pencil are joined here with a red thread. The title comes form the text of an elementary reader and inspired some  of the design. (And I didn't misnumber this but gave #97 to a drawing I started before this one but haven't finished). It is on 12" x 9" watercolor paper that was primed with a dilute transparent (and matte) gesso. Remember to click on the image to see it larger.

Drawing #96 - Bountiful

I gathered material to draw last year, a big basket, huge pine cone, gourd, etc. The result was more conventional than usual and I seem to have forgotten it in the 14 x 11" pad I used until I started #95 last week. This week I did some more with it and felt it was complete. It is unusual in having no writing either of mine or from old books. I think you can find hidden meanings and still enjoy the setting.

I did start another drawing this time using a sheet of 14 x 11" Bristol paper from the classroom. I've now bought a pad of this type as it seems really good. Here's a peek at the beginning of the new one.

Drawing #95 - All Their Powers

This is a little different in shape, on 14" wide paper but not the full 11" tall. I used some wonderful reddish papers in the collage and it demanded this treatment. The title is found in the text of the old book paper. Click on the image to enlarge.

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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #72 - Could Have Been Swiss

"Could Have Been Swiss" was done on my 9 x 12" sketchbook with acrylic paints, watercolors, colored pencil, collage and inks. The collage elements are old book fragments and a number of old Swiss stamps. My husband's paternal heritage is Swiss. Back in the day, before he and his brother turned 21, they could have applied for dual Swiss citizenship through their paternal line. That's if they had known of it and known the lineage back to Switzerland. Today the laws have changed and it is no longer possible and it was only for minors I believe. The stamps come from a mystery box my brother-in-law and I purchased on a lark at a stamp auction long ago. I feel the drawing is rather joyful, but does address things that might have been.