Drawing #93 - You Can Fly

This is a 12 x 9" watercolor paper with a gesso and acrylic base, collage, watercolor pencil, pearlescent paint, and ink. It began with a drawing of a wild turkey in flight, but isn't meant to be realistic, just a suggestion of being airborne. I was happy to work with these warm colors and the ink mostly in brown rather than black.

It will look better if you click on the image to see it larger.

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.