Getting Personal & Playing

Last night around midnight I gave in to the pull I'd felt towards drawing all evening (too tired to act on it before), and I finally just sat with my journal and a Koh-i-noor Magic pencil and played. I colored on things that were already in there, and I also did some of the doodling I used to do as a child over a whole page. On yet another page I made marks on it guided by what the song I was listening to at the time was doing ("My Father's Face", by Leo Kottke). I had a great time!

One thing I found had a very interesting effect indeed was using the multicolored pencil over a stamped image (one of Stamp Zia's nudes) that had been partially painted with Micaceous Iron Oxide (Golden fluid acrylics). Great texture and look, and I discovered that when I rubbed my finger over it all, I created a glow around the figure from the pencil particles that had been deposited on the iron oxide.

Also got a very nice look rubbing the pencil over the onionskin paper. The raised veins picked up the color, and it's a more subtle effect than using ink.

I Painted! It was Really Fun!

A.'s suggestion for proceeding with my water nymphs piece was to do a series of acrylic washes on the canvas rather than using a collaged paper background. I thought that sounded like fun so set to work tonight. Put the canvas on my new desk easel (I am such a sucker for new supplies!) and applied washes of Cobalt Blue/Titan Buff/Titanium White, Green Gold, Raw Sienna, and finally Quinacridone Red (all Golden Fluid Acrylics). I stayed with the same oval movement of the brush as I had with the original background of Cobalt Blue.

One of the most fun things is that once I was done with the wash, I applied the remainder to pages in my new moleskin journal (someone's suggestion for getting into art journaling--stamp ink of rubber stamps onto a journal page instead of scrap paper, dry brushes off on the pages, etc.--then you have a built-in background for journaling). They were ungessoed so will probably wrinkle, but you know what? I don't care! It was fun! I used different brushstrokes to apply the washes and enjoyed seeing how that came out. Since I am coming to this so late, I don't even know which brushstrokes I like, how they interact with each other . . . it's all so new and so thrilling to discover. Anyway, using up the leftover washes in my journal was at least as much fun as painting on the canvas itself.

I also used the leftover QuinaRed wash on a mini canvas that got assaulted during my time challenge piece and has lurked in my unfinished pile ever since. I'd tried inking it with Distress Ink first but that looked terrible (and I realize now I may not even have gessoed the canvas first), and I then ended up experimenting on it with Golden Crackle Paste. Then it was dimensional and kind of interesting in that respect, but it was also gray and thus ugly. I sprayed it with the LuminArte shimmering red spray, and that helped a little but not a lot. Painting over it with the red acrylic wash has helped to make it more interesting, and the shimmer from the LuminArte spray is still there, which is nice. I know it will go somewhere in the end; I just don't know where that is yet.

What does "harmony" mean to me?

I checked this morning on Mixed Media Monday to see what this week's challenge was, and it's "harmony". (My jaw dropped when I noticed that before noon there were already 24 responses. How does anyone do that so quickly?)

So I am considering whether I can produce anything for this and trying to think about what harmony means to me. With so much interest in music, I have to say that the first thing I think of is audible harmony, but I don't really know what I could do with that. Perhaps my challenge is to figure out how to represent aural harmony in a different medium?

When I think of harmony, I think of different things coming together and finding some common ground. Rather like the saying about the whole being more than the sum of its parts. How could I represent that? Maybe go back to the prism idea, showing how all the different colors become one.

Or, perhaps, harmony means peace. I could make something that just feels peaceful, like coming home. The opposite of dissonance. That makes me think of strings vibrating, as on a harp or any stringed instrument. Could I use that imagery in combination with colors? Definitely vertical strings, not horizontal.

As I write this, I find I am thinking only of colors, since sounds are not an option (lack of ability to make my own chimes!). No images are presenting themselves. Interesting. I wonder why not?

Harmony. Also speaks to what my yoga teacher said this morning--we are all happiest when we are doing what we are meant to do. Find what you are meant to do, and do it. That is harmony, being at one with the universe. So I could do something involving an image of someone or something doing exactly what it's meant to do, fulfilling its purpose. There's no greater harmony than that.

I shall have to think about this some more!

20 July 2008

Thoughts on the “foggy” challenge: I thought of the fog of memory and how people can suddenly pop out of one’s mind when if asked an hour before you wouldn’t have recalled anything about them.

So I thought about having a piece that had a foggy look all over but with faces emerging at certain points between the clouds (use Stampscapes clouds stamp recently purchased?). Not clearly defined, maybe some kind of transfer. Or transparencies.

Have to think about how to make it interesting and also how to make it pretty, or at least not dull.

I did have the idea of having the faces appearing in a circle on the piece.

Maybe the idea with “foggy” is that all the images should be obscured in some way, as though there was a fog or haze or veil in the way. Encaustic? Vellum? Angel hair? Nothing too hard, like metal or wire mesh. Fog is soft, no hard edges, can’t be contained in a form.

NOTE: for dolphin/sea piece, try using heat-transfer method to put a celestial map in the sky (p. 18 Collage Discovery Workshop).

Apply transparent colors on top of each other.

NOTE: try using Cobalt Blue first then Turquoise Phthalo on top for ocean (pp. 22-23 Collage D. Wkshop).

NOTE: try using a combing tool to make waves in the paint (p. 26 CDW).

NOTE: sprinkle sand or crushed shells onto the paint?

Something to try: apply plain white vinegar to copper sheeting.

Something to try in the right piece would be to use incense sticks, either tied together or just glued in place, to frame an element (p. 60 CDW).

25 June 2008

Other things I like, that maybe I can figure out how to work into my art: rain, rainstorms, the brightness of things after a rainstorm, being cozy inside when it’s raining outside. I like twilight and I like midnight with lots of stars in the sky. I like campfires outside and I like candles inside. Did I say earlier that I like bare trees? I like water—oceans of it and rivers flowing by. I love the sound of the waves and watching them come in from the deep ocean. I like the way liquids look in a clear glass with light behind them.

A good idea from Claudine Hellmuth is to look at pieces of art that speak to me and analyze them. What first catches my attention—images, colors, placements? Why is the image successful? Note the colors used to get an idea of the color palette the artist used. This would be a good thing to do while in England.

Placement ideas to remember:
For high energy, make focus go from lower left to upper right (try positioning a stamp at an angle).
Use a primary color for focal point of composition.

23 June 2008

So, what to write about today? One of the things I’ve learned recently from all the reading I’ve been doing in various magazines (lots of Somerset ones plus a few others) is the basic concept of beginning with a color palette in mind. I didn’t know that was how real artists thought! But I understand why, and I can see how it will help the various elements flow together coherently in a piece. I just find it so hard to take the time to make those decisions before beginning the hands-on part—the planning is so hard! I want to stamp, and cut, and emboss, and have it just work!

Maybe one thing I will try while on my month-long visit to my in-laws is to design one piece a day in my notebook. I won’t be able to do it, since all my stuff will be at home, but it would be good to force my mind to think this way, to make these decisions. I could easily see it coming up with three different variations, which would be great. The hard thing, though, is that many times it really does happen on the fly—I see that something is needed, so I go through my scrap box and happen across just the right paper, with just the right texture—I couldn’t have planned that, because I didn’t know it would be just right until I saw it. Hmmm. How to strike a balance here is the question. And of course I need to recognize that the more I begin things with a color palette in mind, the easier it will become. Right now this is just an education process of familiarizing myself with the color wheel and what approach to take to achieve a certain mood.