Sketchbook Inspiration

I’m still doing Valri’s challenge and had an aha moment in the process.  I love to draw and often do the drawing first before painting; however, having done a very careful drawing, I end up being too tight when I paint. 

When I started doing the poured paintings I thought I had the answer; however, being a master at being a Jack of All trades and masking fluid having a shelf life, when I finally got to painting my masking fluid was too gummy.  The only answer was to buy it fresh when I was going to paint.  That has other complications but it’s doable.  If you’re not a regular follower, here’s an example of one of my poured pieces,

carefully drawn and then mask and pour the paint so it isn’t tight.

With the challenges I’ve been doing them in a handmade sketchbook made from junk papers that I’ve used to mop up paint or clean a brush or roller when making monoprints or monotypes.  Since the paper was already marked up with paint I could do a careful drawing and not worry about how I painted it.  The result is a loose look that I like very much.  So, the AHA moment – why not put some marks down on a larger sheet and do the same thing.

Next week I’ll be in Harbor Springs, one of my two annual art retreats with my friend Terry.  She doesn’t have a web presence for her art so I can’t provide a link.  However, I can tell you she is an excellent pastelist.

I’ll post the results of my week when I get back – good or bad.

Discoveries

More sorting and reorganizing in the studio and this is one of 4 sketches I found that I had forgotten about.  It’s from our trip to England back in ‘98.  I love the sketches’ have to figure out what to do with them.

Here are the other three….

 

For now I think they’ll live on one of the walls in the studio.

More Challenge Images

I have no idea what kind of fish this guy is but I sure do love all of his wavy lines and colors.  A couple more from the fish challenge,..

This one was just there in the tea bag…

And the last  day I did two on the page, the bottom one I planned to do, the top one was just there.

I may flush him out later but for now, it’s on to the next challenge, Pigs.

Sorting and More of the Challenge

I’m in the midst of sorting, rearranging and getting rid of stuff in my studio so I’m not getting much art done.  I am managing to work a little by continuing with Valri’s Art Challenges.

The next round of Valri’s Challenge was Still Life.  The pears and strawberries is my favorite of the ones I did.  I’ve been doing all of them in the same type of sketchbook I used for the birds, handmade out of junk papers that I used for picking up paint or cleaning a brush or roller. 

I shouldn’t call it junk paper, some of it is Dick Blick’s cheap drawing paper and it’s a decent paper. After the Still Life challenge we did people.  I decided if I was going to do people on junk paper it ought to be me that is looking a lot less than perfect so I did some self portraits.  This is my favorite of those….

The next challenge was boats which is a favorite subject of mine; however, it was during my husband’s rehab from the knee surgery and I was not getting much done.  I did manage to do one very day but not as well as I would have liked.  Here’s my favorite of those…

And now we’re doing Fish…. It’s another subject I like but I do more fantasy fish than the real thing.  I did manage do do one that is real, a rainbow trout, and I’m pleased with how he turned out….

The partial circle top left is part of a coffee filter from our hotel at Disney World and the rectangle lower right is a tea bag.  Both were glued to the junk paper just to add another dimension.

Time to get back to my sorting….