Until we did a major cleaning out of the garage, I had no place to put the nice drafting table I was given several years ago, when a man I worked for, who owned a sign company, retired. It is a heavy duty piece, with shelves and drawers, and a tilting work surface. I like it because I can stand and work, and I can work on bigger pieces, and with paint. Also, the light is the best, coming from a window to my left. And since our garage is now insulated and drywalled, it doesn't get brutally cold in winter, or like an oven during the summer. Right outside the window is the fountain we have in the entryway, so as I work, I hear splashing water, and the birds who come in to drink chirping and talking to each other. Perfect!
It doesn't look like much, but for someone who had nothing but a dark room, a flat table, and carpet under foot in the only other place I could work, this is heaven.
I want to put a cork board on the wall next to the window, and get a bigger supply table (you can see my stuff is bleeding over to the top of the freezer). The cork board will be for ideas and pictures pulled from magazines or the Internet. I have them pinned and taped to the cardboard protecting the surface of the table, but a real "mood board" would be more fun. The tall thing is a portable standing easel that my first husband made for me. Back in the 70s I used to do really BIG acrylic paintings. These days, the biggest thing I will probably do is 16" x 20" which is what is on the table right now.
With that all set up, I can now work on my next picture in the Gypsy series. This one is Gypsy 2 - Gemini. I am working on illustration board, which I picked up at Craft Warehouse and had them cut to size. There is NO PLACE in Grants Pass, where I live, where I can get illustration board. I have to drive 35 miles into the next county to find it. Nor does my lovely town have any kind of art supply store, so the only place I can attempt to find things, which tends to be limited, is the local JoAnn's, which is a small one, so it only carries the basics, and mainly for crafters, not for painters.
But I really like working on illustration board, so when I have used up the three pieces I currently have, I will have to make that 40 minute drive again. I will console myself with lunch at Olive Garden. I'll call my mom and see if she wants to make a road trip with lunch included.
Here is the preliminary drawing for Gemini, my first attempt at two figures in the same painting, and then a photo of it inked - which is another rant. I was out of my usual pens in the softer colors I like, so settled for what I could get at the grocery store's teensy art section - JoAnn's only sells kits of pens in a bunch of colors I never use. I got two blues I thought would work, and a fine line black. The blues were too blue, so I used the black, which I don't really like, and isn't as fine lined as I had hoped or was marked on the pen, but I wanted to get started, so I used it anyway. Will have to slog back to Michael's in the next county to stock up on pens again.
After looking at the drawing for two or three days, I decided that the face of the figure on the left was too small. I adjusted it, and had to also adjust her features, and lost the original expression on her face, which I like better. But these drawings/painting are all part of my learning curve in getting back into this kind of work, so it just shows I need lots more practice. But boy, did I wear out an erasure trying to get it right. You can see the difference in the inked version. She looks sterner, like she is the sensible one, as compared to her happier sister.
The pose I got from a fashion magazine, and it was of three figures, but I only used two, which for me was scary enough! The garments the women are wearing, and the jewelry are ones I made up. The tattoo on the righthand figure is the astrological symbol for gemini. Gotta love a Google search when you need one! It gave me tons of designs to choose from. I picked one and modified it.
Before this, I had been working on paper, and the paper had a texture that created a bit of drag when I inked things in. Wow, forgot how slick illustration board is, and nearly skated my first lines way out of whack before taking a deep breath and starting again. Next step is to add color, which has me hyperventilating at the very thought, but I will battle on!
Lastly, just an FYI to clarify. I am throwing these preliminary drawings on here not so much for comments on whether they are good or bad (feel free to do so, but be kind!), but to show the trials and many tribulations of someone like me, or anyone, who is trying to reclaim a talent that has been dormant for over 30 years. It is fun, frustrating, and a little sad, when I think of how much better technically I would be had I kept honing those skills for all those lost years. But I am excited as well, and even if this piece turns out to be a total bust, which it probably will, I will have learned from it and will move on to the next one.
All I am trying to say with these posts about my journey back into art, is that anyone wanting to reclaim a talent or skill they once had can do it. When I posted about this on Facebook, I had several people remember things they used to do years ago and had let slide. For one it was playing a musical instrument, for another it was a loom she used to work on which had been sitting idle for years. And so it went.
I am lucky in that I now have the time and the space to work. It makes this journey, bumpy as it will be, a bit easier. It is a journey I am already enjoying, and it has only just started. It would be nice if, by posting these early attempts, I could inspire a few others to start their own journey.
