Motivational Slump

I admit, for the last month and especially after Tuesday's election, I have been pretty depressed. For lack of a better term, my "muse" has gone into hiding. I don't blame her.

There were two projects started.

 Back in September/October it was the cropped jacket experiment, the inspiration for which I found on Pinterest. I got as far customizing and futzing with making the pattern, getting the material, and cutting out the outer layer, which will eventually be stenciled and beaded. Part of the delay with this was the stencil I had intended to use just didn't work, so I will have to drive into the next county, hit the Michael's over there, and try to find one that works. The other setback was the work table I use for cutting out cloth and stenciling got buried under...stuff. So I had to clear that off...again. It seems to attract "stuff" like honey attracts bees. Then the election became utterly terrifying, and my worst nightmares came horrifyingly true. I cried! I actually cried over the results of an election! Unfortunately, I am still depressed. I decided to give myself time to grieve before attempting anything creative. I am afraid it would color in a negative way whatever I tried to do.

The other project was a painting I started toward the middle of summer. I love the concept, and I am really happy with the drawing. I struggled with the painting, but felt things were moving along okay. Then some outside circumstances put things on hold for a few weeks, then the light fixture over my drafting table wouldn't work, then the weather got cold and rainy (I work in the garage), then the election added to the gloom. For me, it was a no-win situation. Now the garage corner where I paint is cold, and because we get no sun until late in the day, if at all, my corner, even though the light fixture is working again, is still on the dark side. That is something that needs to be addressed. Also, some kind of heater will help with the cold, but it has to be radiant heat, not something with a fan, or the paint will dry too fast.

This probably sounds like a litany of "woe is me" and to a certain extent, I guess that's true. But when your soul is in such despair, it's really hard to get motivated. I look at my poor painting, which is pleading with me to finish it, and I have good intensions, and then...just can't. Until I can reboot myself, I have brought it into the house so it doesn't get dusty. Since it is in the same room as the computer, it also forces me to look at it guiltily every day. Maybe the guilt will eventually overpower the depression, or something will happen to get me fired up again. Or maybe a week or so to do nothing but read, work my horses, and just breath will solve the problem. At this point, I just don't know.

This is the progress/progression on Embrace the Night so far. The last photo was taken in the house today, which is why the colors look darker, although parts of the painting were darkened before I left it. At this stage, I consider the painting about halfway finished.

Hopefully, this artistic funk I am in won't last. Maybe I can entice my muse out of hiding with a nice glass of wine, one of my favorite art books, and a lovely chat about inspiration?

Firing The Old Girl Back Up...With Photos of Projects Past and Present.

Recently I got asked by a Facebook artist friend why I had let this blog site sit silent for so long. I told her it was because I didn't think anyone was really interested, and that most exchanges of info and photos was happening on FB rather than on blog sites. She agreed, but lamented the loss of the way blog sites used to be. I know there was one blog, Notes From the Voodoo Cafe, done by Rice Freeman-Zachary, that I loved to read, and listen to her pod casts, but eventually she dropped it all and went to FB. It made me sad.

So, I thought about it, and decided that I would fire this old girl back up, and do it just for me as a type of diary. I will post a notice on FB when I add something here, and those who are interested can ck it out, and those who aren't can ignore it. I may only post things once a month or so, but if it keeps me connected with a few other people out there, then that is all for the good.

This first post will be photos of projects that have been completed, and projects that are in the works. It would take too long to describe each one in detail, but at least it gives an overview of what I have been doing for the last few months, and what is coming.

Hope you enjoy.

Wedding circlet - commission

Stenciled T-Shirt

Beaded back stitch over stencil

Eco-print experiment

Near completion, The Message

The Message competed

Preliminary drawing for Embrace the Night 

There you have it. A run down of the things I have finished, and the latest painting in progress. There is also a cropped jacket sewing project going on as well, but I don't have photos of that yet. 

If you are so inclined, please leave a comment. It's nice to know there are actually people out there reading this. Thanks!

Travels of the Amulet Seller

Ever since I finished the small painting The Amulet Seller I started thinking about a journal based on what her life might be like. Nothing fancy, with short entries describing her journeys with a band of gypsies, selling her handmade talismans and reading tarot cards. She has a love interest named Tadao, but they are not married. I don't know much more about her at this point, but as the journal progresses she will reveal more of herself to me.

Since I have a love/hate relationship with journals I don't know how fast this one will progress, but the idea has me pretty excited. The pages will be made up of my own drawings, stencils, and collage. I will do the text on the computer, because if I did it by hand, it would be a mess and unreadable. This is meant to be her (I don't even have a name for her yet) travel journal, so will reflect, over time, the wear and tear of being toted around from village to town, and over the long roads in-between.

We'll see how it goes. Here is the first page.

I also noticed, after I glued it down, and after I posted it here, that Spellcheck, that lovely, annoying automatic demon, changed varda to varga...or my dyslexia popped up, which is more probable. I corrected it with a pen on the original. At first it ticked me off having to go back and mark it, but then I thought, "Hey, she's a gypsy. Spelling might not be her forte either, same as me. Maybe she goes back and edits herself, like I do?" See, she has revealed something new about herself already!

The Amulet Seller — Progression

In this series of photos you can see the progression of the small painting The Amulet Seller, number four in the Gypsies series. In a previous post, I said that I had trouble with the drawing—didn't like it, but couldn't figure out why I didn't like it. I set it aside for about a month, in a place where I could look at it as I walked by. It slowly grew on me. Once I got paint on it, I liked it even better.

The Amulet Seller — Acrylic and Micron pen on illustration board, 10"x12."

I ended up really liking her narrow-eyed expression, as if she is thinking, "If you don't think my amulets will work, then piss off." I have several other ideas for paintings in this series, and have been doing a bit more research into the history of gypsies, their beliefs, and superstitions. All very interesting. Most of us have a rather romantic view of gypsies, but throughout history, their lifestyle has not been an easy one. In this series of paintings, I did not want to veer too close to a stereotype—you know, like the typical paintings or tinted photographs of smiling gypsy dancing girls with their tambourines. I want to keep the paintings respectful.

Studio Corner - New works In Progress

I must say, I am really enjoying my new little corner of the garage. It is slowly getting organized, and developing a personality. My inspiration board is finally up, with photos of figures and interiors I am using for the two series I am currently working on = Gypsies, and Ghosts in the Ruins.  More and more photos and various pieces of flotsam and jetsam will no doubt be added to the board as time goes on. I have another board in the room where I make my jewelry and do my beading on clothing, which has ideas, colors I like, clothing I would like to try and make, etc. I seem to have always had some kind of inspiration board—or mood board, as they call them these days.

In one of my trips to the library I found a wonderful book on painting with acrylics, titled  Capturing Light in Acrylics by John Hammond. He paints in an impressionistic style, which I don't, but he gives great visuals for tone, color, palette, composition, and light. I loved the book so much I ended up buying it through Amazon. One of the techniques he uses that I tried and loved, was mixing gloss medium with the paint rather than water, to make glazes. I also learned, and experienced personally, that if you water acrylics down too much to make a wash, the bonding medium in the paint won't adhere to the paper as well.

There was another book on acrylic painters that I got from the library that I didn't like as well, but did learn a new trick for drawing on paper/canvass and sealing the drawing with gel medium. I had just bought some Krylon sealant for a previous painting where I had used watercolor pencils. It made me wonder if I could use the Krylon, instead of the gel medium,  to seal the pencil drawing onto the illustration board. It worked like a charm. It also sealed the board, so the paint didn't soak into it as much, which had been a problem on Soul Mates.

So, this is what is in the works right now. Another in the Gypsy series titled The Amulet Seller, and the first one, which is VERY experimental at this point, in the Ghosts in the Ruins series. That painting is titled Lost Dances.

Here is the pencil drawing for The Amulet Seller. I loved being able to work from a drawing instead of having to ink over the drawing and erase the pencil lines. Original drawings have way more life in them, and I don't even mind if some of the lines remain in the final painting.

I struggled with this drawing. I did it, didn't like it, but couldn't figure out why I didn't like it. It sat for about two weeks in a place where every time I walked by I could glance at it. The drawing slowly grew on me and I left it alone. Once I started getting paint on it, I liked it a lot better.

This is the painting in progress. Still need lots of work on her hair, and I need to finish her skin tones. The blue shadows will be toned down a little. The amulets, earrings, nose ring, and hair beads will be the last things painted. The size is 10"x12" on illustration board.

The other painting is truly an experiment. I don't usually put a tinted wash down before I do the drawing. This new series is all about decayed buildings, lost memories, and bewildered people. There is going to be a lot of texture in the paintings, so I gessoed a 16"x20" masonite panel, then added this acid green wash, letting it drip and run so it would look like mould and mildew. I used a sepia water color pencil to do the drawing, and wiped off mistakes with a cloth dipped in water. This is where I found out that if you water down the acrylics too much, they don't stick. As I rubbed the pencil off (I make a lot of drawing adjustments, so I did a lot of rubbing!), some of the green paint came off as well. I'm kinda okay with that this time, since the painting will have lots of layers and glazes—all done as a total experiment, which may turn into a disaster. But it will be fun!

The drawing will be sealed with Krylon spray. Right now, I am still working on the drawing, but you can see the wash, and where it has rubbed off where I have done corrections...lots and lots of corrections with, no doubt,  more corrections to come.  It's not clear in the photo, but she is standing in a building, with an archway behind her, where a plant is growing into the room.

Here is one of the photos of abandoned building that I have been collecting as references. Again, Pinterest was where I found most of the resource material.

So, that is what is going on in my little corner studio.With winter coming, I suspect I will have to invest in a small heater. Even though the garage is insulated, it will still get cold out there. I am also going to buy a better supply table, as currently I am using two small folding tables that don't give me much room. They have nice, four-foot plastic portable work tables at Home Depot that aren't very expensive, so that's what I think I will get. Once that is set up, the only thing I still need to do is replace some of my paints. I tossed about five old tubes yesterday, that were so dried up you couldn't get anything out of them. Of course, the fact that they were all about 30 yrs old might have had something to do with it. That means a trip to Central Art Supply in Medford (35 minutes away) is in order before I can do much more painting.

Oh, and after the first of the year, I am going to join the Josephine Country Art Association. I used to be a member when we first moved to Oregon twenty-six years ago, and I had two collage paintings in the member's show one year, but let the membership drop. We were just too busy, and too broke, with getting our new place squared away (it needed LOTS of work)  that I didn't have the time or money for either the membership or paint supplies. Let's just say, for a lot of years, we were REALLY broke. Which makes it all the more wonderful that I have my little corner to play in, and enough cash to actually buy paint and brushes. Right now, it feels good to be me! LOL

Word for the Week = HOT

For the last week it has been swelteringly hot. Between 95 and 110 degrees. I love summer, but trying to get anything done in that kind of heat just makes people and animals wilt. I have to do things either early in the morning, or later in the evening. However, that doesn't always work, as the day it hit 110, at 7:00 at night it was still 95. Usually, this kind of heat wave in our area doesn't last long. Maybe two weeks, on average. However "They" say this year it could last, on and off, all summer. With this being the fourth year in a row of drought, our biggest fear is fire.

The heat also affects the plants in the gardens. The squash and pumpkin leaves collapse in self defense, the basil wilts, the flowers fade out, and leaves get crispy around the edges. The potted flowers on the deck must get watered every night, or within hours they are wilting. But, some plants, like the peppers and tomatoes, love the heat and thrive.

Last evening I picked our first tomato of the season. Kinda cute, doncha think?

Even though I really liked this photo, and thought is very zen-like, it didn't show how tiny the little guy was, so I stood a wine cork next to it to show scale, and took another photo.

The plant this little fella came from is loaded with fruit, so we will be eating lots of these. I plan to put them in a big bowl on the kitchen counter, and we'll grab them to snack on as we pass by. This one was very sweet, so we are looking forward to using these in salads as well.

Other than tending the gardens and yard, and trying to keep them all from withering in the heat, I have been working on the painting Gypsy 3 - Soul Mates. Here is a photo of it after I inked the drawing and then erased out the pencil. Currently the base coats of paint are on parts of it, but I don't have a photo of that yet. I want it a bit further along before I show it again.

The other thing I have been working on, besides riding my horse - which the other day was so miserably hot I felt like a fried piece of bacon - is a new costume project. Robert and I didn't compete in the Rogue Mounted Archers International competition this year. We sweltered as ground crew. Next year we want to ride (I did the previous year), and for that we need "warrior" costumes. The norm is for everyone to go black leather, corsets, medieval, or native (which could be from any country, as riders come from all over the world). I can't ride in a corset, I have NO desire to wear black leather when it's 90 degrees plus, and I wear medieval when I do SCA stuff, so wanted something different. Then we watched the new Mad Max film, and shazam! Road warrior! Robert and I have already trolled the Goodwill for bits and pieces of stuff, and got pretty lucky. The idea of ripping, shredding, and coffee dying all of this has me very excited. Also adding bits of flotsom, and metal hardware to the clothing, is going to be way fun. It's all so different than what I am used to working on, so that is the really exciting part for me. Here are the items, other than two belts, we picked up from the Goodwill, laid out on my work table. This is the "Before" shot. Every item is between 90 and 100% cotton, so even if it gets hot, it will breath. All of this has to be comfortable when riding a horse and shooting a bow, which influences the design. A fun challenge. So, let the ripping, shredding, and dying begin!

 I will post updated photos of these pieces as I go along.

So, that's what's happening in the heatwave of Southern Oregon. Well, at least at our place.

Nomad 3 - Blue Wall

Still trying to make time for my art, which for the last five days was kinda tough, as Robert was home due to mechanical problems with the truck he drives at work. I would be in "drawing mode" and he'd come into the room to use the computer and want to chat while he surfed the internet. I finally had to tell him, "Um, I'm not trying to be pissy here, but, I am not going to talk." He finally "got it" and left me alone. It gave me a hint of what it will be like when he retires in five years, so there are some things we need to work out before that happens. Like, I need my space, and he needs his.

So, once Robert and I came to an understanding about me being "In the zone" I worked on the third in the Nomad series. Since the last drawing I did "I Am Watching" was really complicated and busy, I wanted to keep this one simple. I kinda had no choice, since the size of the drawing is small, only 8 1/2 x 11.

Nomad 3 - Blue Wall. Colored pencil on paper.

I found the photo of that beautifully textured wall on Pinterest, along with a photo of a woman (not pictured) dressed like the one in the drawing. After I finished the piece, I decided it would have looked better painted rather than done with pencil. Even with wanting to keep things simple, I couldn't get that great rough texture of the wall, or the deep blue of the paint. But, I still like the way it came out, and I think the colors work. Color is still something I struggle with...a lot.

Even though I am having a hard time getting the deep colors I want with the pencil,  I am going to  keep slogging away at it until I feel like I'm ready to move on to paint. I need the drawing practice and color studies. By the time the weather is reliably warm, I will be able to move out to my drafting table in the garage (and Robert can be free to use the computer without me grouching at him) and work on larger pieces, although I doubt I'll go much bigger than 16" x 20".

It also appears that I now have three series to work on, which is fun. First it was the Nomad Series, then I added the Gypsy Series, and then, out of nowhere, came the drawing "I Am Watching" which is what I refer to as the Mother Nature is Pissed Series. I have lots of ideas for all three, and have been collecting photos from Pinterest, or will use my own photos taken around our place, as sources.

My plan for the summer is to rotate my days between horses/yard/garden and artwork—which will include beading, sewing, and jewelry projects along with drawing/painting. Going back and forth, one day on, one day off, rather than trying to do, say, artwork in the morning and outdoor work in the afternoon—which wouldn't work, because once I get in the zone, I lose all track of time. Or the reverse, which would be worse, because by the time I'm finished, temps can be over 100 degrees and sometimes as high as 107-110. Sweating in the summer heat working horses all morning doesn't put me in the mood to paint. A bit of beading might be okay, but that's about it. I'm usually so wrung out and tired by the time I come in, I don't want to do anything but take a shower, sit on the couch, sip iced tea, and read. 

But despite that, I love summer, and look forward to playing both outside and inside. Beats the hell out of days and days of gloom, fog, and rain, which turns me into a major grumpas!  So, bring on the sun, the blue skies, the summer garden, and BBQs. I'm ready!

The Frustration of Photographing Art

When it comes to photographing my art...whether it's a drawing or an article of clothing, I always seem to have problems. One, my house is dark, so anything photographed inside, has to have lots of light focused on it, which with drawings, creates glare. If I take things outside, depending on the weather, the color can be off.

Then we come to scanning. I thought if I scanned this latest piece, it would show better, and the colors would be truer. Alas, no. The scanner's bright light washed all the color out of the drawing. I fiddled with the dpi, and the image got darker than the original. So, I gave up, and went back to just photographing the piece in my "studio." Which gets a slanted angle, but truer color. Gah!

Here is what I mean.

Scanner run...the first.

It looks like this went through the laundry by accident, and all the color got washed out.

Scanner run...the second.

This is the scan after I fiddled with the settings, and in all honesty, I like the richer colors in this version, but that is not how the original looks.


Lastly..my photo of the work.

Bad angle, with one corner cut off, but the colors here are truer...even with a slight bit of glare from the lamp.

So, that is my frustration. I think I need to take a tutorial on how to photograph art so that it comes out looking like the original, instead of my dorky attempts at getting the color right. I have had success with my scanner before, so I am not sure why it wouldn't work this time.

As for my assessment of the artwork itself, well, a few things. It still looks too "flat" to me, and my attempts to make tree-ish background shapes are more distracting than anything else. Also, I couldn't get the intensity of color I was after (which is why I like the seconded scanner version) , and this is probably because I haven't worked with the colored pencils enough to understand layering. I've seen it done, so it's just my lack of experience that is at fault.

Bottom line, these early pieces are learning exercises. Trying to get my mojo working again. So far, Ms. Mojo is standing over in the corner with her  arms crossed, shaking her head, and saying, "Not yet, deary, not yet."

Nature is a Presence

I believe with all my heart that nature is a presence all around us. She has eyes, ears, and a voice. She sees what we do, she hears our loud existence, and speaks to us but we rarely listen. Sometimes nature fights back, but most of the time she can only watch as we slowly destroy the very thing that gives us life. I suspect that most of the time, nature is angry. She has every right to be.

This will eventually be colored in with pens, watercolor pencils, paint, and gouache. 

"I am Watching" 8.5" x 11" done on 130 lb, 25% cotton drawing paper.

Pencil drawing, with just a few lines inked in. When I am figuring out a drawing, I work really rough and kinda sloppy - more of a quick gesture drawing. I get focused and a bit anal after the pencil is done flying around, and the paper is full of erasures. Which is why I need tough paper or board. Otherwise I would rub big holes in the drawing before it was ever finished.

Here is the drawing now inked over, with most of the pencil erased out. I used a Micron 05 pen in a dark blue. I mainly ink drawings in dark blue, dark green, dark brown or dark grey. I rarely use black.

This is the inspiration for the drawing. The photo is one I took on our property, of a an oak tree bole. The woman figure was cut from a fashion magazine. The leaves and twigs are ones I picked up on my way back from the barn.

The only thing I am concerned about is that the paper has a slight bit of texture to it, and I am used to working on illustration board, which is smooth. If I don't like the results on the paper after I put in the color, I think I will redo the drawing on board.

So, while it has been raining and foggy, this is what I have been working on. My husband and I have pulled back on quite a few of our horse activities this year, for a variety of reasons. One of the big ones for me was, wanting to get back to my artwork, which has been on the back burner for years. The pencils and paints still feel a bit clumsy in my hands, but...

I have missed them. 

Introvert Chronicles

Now that my horse event season is pretty much over, I can go back to drawing, painting, sewing, embroidery and beading. Also, journaling. As I have stated before, I have a love/hate relationship with art journals. I love them, but am not very faithful. Over part of the summer I did a quickie, small-page, slap-and-dash journal that was fun...but still has empty pages. Event season just got too complicated and I just got too tired to play with it.

A while back I popped into Michael's craft store, and they had all of their art journals/sketchbooks/drawing pads on sale. Buy one, get one free. Seemed like a sign, so I bought one 6"x8" sketch book and got another one free. I had already purchased a bigger sketchbook to use for drawings, but these smaller versions are perfect for an art journal.

The covers are bright yellow heavy paper. Not something I could paint over. So I cut up an old collage I had done at the end of last winter, and that I didn't really like (I had just slapped stuff on paper to get back in the groove of playing with paint and collage, so it was never meant to "be" anything), cut out a corner of it which I thought worked with the title I had decided on, "Introvert Chronicles."

Haven't done anything but the cover, yet, but am looking forward to filling it with whatever catches my fancy, or with whatever angst I am feeling at the time. I might post some of the pages, if they aren't too personal or depressing! Mainly I hope to fill it with a lot of ideas for beading and embroidery as well as drawings and more collage. My main concern is to keep it from getting WAY too serious or complicated ,which usually happens, and is usually why I've walked away from so many other journals.

So here is the cover of the Introvert Chronicles. I still don't like the bright, in-your-face yellow coming through, so may end up trying to paint it and hope the cardstock doesn't crinkle. We'll see.

Looking Forward To Winter

Most of my friends reading that title would ask if I was feverish or delusional. I usually rant and rave about how much I hate winter and the months of rain and cold. This year things are a bit different, and it surprises even me that I am actually looking forward to winter this year. And since we don't have a covered arena, and our place turns to mud after the first rains, I don't have to feel too guilty about not getting outside and working...either in the yard or with our horses.

It's mainly due to the fact that this summer has been a busy one of horse events, or trailering the horses to the Rogue Mounted Archers site for practices. Then things really ramped up when the RMA decided to host an international competition Sept 9-14. As members of the group, we were driving back and forth (it's about an hour and fifteen minutes one way) to help get the property ready for this first time event. Also, things got even more antsy, for me, as I ended up deciding to compete. Since I had waffled back and forth over that decision — yes I will, no I won't, yes I will, no never mind — then had several friends tell me to just go for it, so I did...or will. Which put me in a tissy, because I had let things slide, thinking I was out of the competition and the pressure was off. Now it's back on.

Then, just two weeks after this BIG competition, Robert and I are involved in putting on the equestrian part of an SCA event Oct 3-5. We had hoped to kinda bail out of setting things up for this, but it turned out that we still needed to be involved, which just added to the stress level we were already under.

You can see why I am looking forward to winter. After that last event, I want to be a slug for a few weeks, then start some art/sewing projects that I just haven't had time for, as my limited brain power has been focused elsewhere.

Here are a few of the things I want to play around with...some new, some old friends.

Gelli printing. I had never heard of this form of mono-printing, but stumbled on an example on Pinterest. I then did a search of gelli printing on Pinterest and got tons of photos and how-tos showing what it was all about. It looks like fun, seems to be pretty easy, and you can do it on fabric as well as paper, just use fabric paint instead.

Using resin in jewelry making. This is another thing I have been wanting to play around with for quite a while. With the new kits available it seems an easy process and I have seen some really wonderful things done with resin.

More beading on fabric. I got really hooked on beading ever since I started doing the boleros. I want to try using stencils for beading designs, and incorporating paint, stitching and beading all together on pieces of clothing I pick up at the Goodwill. There are just so many wonderful beading ideas out there, and I get all excited. But I don't want to start anything until after all these events are over, so I can really hunker down and get busy.

Back to drawing and painting. I started drawing and using colored pencils a while back, but due to all the time spent trying to get ready for these upcoming events, I put it on the back-burner...again. I did buy a new and better sketchbook with paper than can stand up to wet media, so I am ready to go when everything else calms down.  I can also use this sketchbook as an art journal, which will be fun.

Here is a list of some other crazy things I would like to play around with during The Dark Days: Bleach pens, dying fabric, embroidery, making beaded bugs (I bought a little book on how to make them), and printing photos/artwork on cloth so I can use my own in designs on fabric.

Now you can see why I am looking forward to those long, cold, rainy months. I have a lot to do, and I can't wait to start playing.

What Do I Want To Say...If Anything?

There are some artists who make you think. Lately, Zom Osborne has been doing that for me. She asks questions or makes observations about her world through her artwork that cause me to pause and think about things. This is good. This is what art should do, at least to me. Which had me asking myself a few questions about my own work, the biggest being, "Why do I do it, and what do I want it to say, either about me or the world I live in?

It bothered me that my first answer to that question was, "I don't know." It bothered me even more when I realized that I have never really thought about it, or felt compelled to make, for lack of a better term, "statement" art. So, the next question I had to ask was, "If I have always thought that good art made some kind of statement or made you think of the world in a new way, why didn't I ever require my own work to say anything?" After thinking that one over long and hard, I decided the embarrassing answer was, "Because I had no idea what I wanted it to say." I do it because I enjoy it, which is fine, and because I feel compelled to do it or I feel lousy, and that is fine too, but it has never said anything, I don't think, about who I am and what I believe. I have never tried to change people's way of looking at the world, or tried to make them understand the way I view my world.

Maybe artist automatically say things through their artwork even if nothing was originally intended? I suspect the very act of creating something says something about you, no matter what you create. And, since people interpret works of art differently, maybe you end up saying something to one person, but draw a big blank from someone else.

What all this introspection boiled down to was, making me think more about my art and what I truly wanted it to say about me and how I view my world, and how I might go about making that happen. I had to dig down into my fairly shallow brain and find out what was in there worth saying. And I think I found it.

There is a line in the movie The Tempest (the old one, from the 70s) that has the main character facing an incoming storm, raising his arms, and saying, "Show me the magic." I have a favorite author, Charles de Lint, who writes of urban magic all around us, but unseen by most because they don't believe it is there. I believe it is there. I look for it. I don't always see it, but I feel it often. I'm willing to believe. That's what I want my art to show. That magic is out there — old magic, new magic, light and dark magic — and that if you would only stop and look, you would see and feel it as well.

This doesn't mean high fantasy art. I like some of that genre, but that's not what I do. I want it to be more subtle than that, and still make it work. Will I succeed in making people see what they may not believe in or can't feel? I don't know. But for me, at least it is a new focus. It is a new way to think, and that's always a good thing.

Two New Projects

I've got two new projects going, which is kinda nice. The first is another drawing in my series Nomads & Gypsies. This time it is a gypsy. I loved the pose and the position of the woman's hand (Taken from a photograph of a real gypsy woman I found...of course...on Pinterest). These drawing are slowly, ever so slowly, getting better as my drawing skills creak out of retirement.

Gypsy 1

It has been pointed out to me by another artist that her hand is a bit large. I agree. However, I redrew that hand about ten times, trying to get it right, knowing it would be the focus of the drawing, so I have left it "as is." If I had messed with it any more, I would probably have wrecked the whole thing, and rubbed a hole in the paper. Maybe she's just a girl with big hands? Another person viewed it as her beckoning the viewer toward her, which I thought was a lovely way to look at it. I'm going with that. Also, I realized she didn't have any ears! Oops. In the photo I used as a model they are barely visible under her hat. I have added them to the drawing since I took this picture. Also, I am out of the soft grey ink pen I use to outline, so she is waiting to be finished with ink and colored pencil.

William Morris Bolero

The second project is a new bolero. I haven't done one in quite a while, and the T-shirts had been stashed in a drawer while I worked on other things. Today I pulled them out of hiding, and cut out the pieces. I barely...barely... had enough of the patterned shirt, which reminds me of William Morris wallpaper, to get the front and back. Even thought it was a woman's size large, I guess there is large, and then there is large. I had found another shirt in the same color of light green, hoping to use that as the binding, but ended up having to used it for the sleeves instead. The question still remaining is, what new color of trim to use for the binding, which will determine what color of embroidery thread I use to sew everything up. I am leaning toward the soft rose, but will think about it a bit before I commit.

So, those are my two new projects. The weather has waffled between really hot...109 the other day...to a little milder...mid 80s. So I have lots of time in the middle of the day, when it is the hottest, to work on these...and other things. 

Hope you all are enjoying the summer weather...or cooler temps if you live Down Under.

Nomad 2

This is another drawing from the series I am working on, so far called Nomads & Gypsies. I like the composition of this, but don't think the colors are quite as successful as the ones in Nomad 1. Color work is hard for me, so I struggle with it and don't always get a successful outcome.  But since these are for practice, to get back into drawing and using color, I don't think it came out too bad. I like the pose so much I am thinking of doing the same one, only bigger, and on illustration board instead of paper.

Anyway, here is the process again, for those of you who are interested in this kind of thing.

Drawing with source material...again, found on Pinterest.

Here is a better one of the drawing. Sorry, I didn't realize the photo was so crooked until I uploaded it, and by then I had already done the color work, so couldn't re-shoot the photo.

Next is the drawing after I inked it with a Pigma Micron 05 pen in dark blue. I started to add color then went, "Whoops, need to photo ink drawing first" so that's why there is that bit of blue on her head scarf.

And at last, the finished drawing. I think I got a nice melancholy expression on her face, as if she is day dreaming of something a bit sad. The design on the green (meant to look like tile) was a stencil I drew around then colored in.

I am going to have to press this one for awhile, as the paper wants to curl up on the corners. I tried carefully rolling the paper in the opposite direction of the curl, and was only marginally successful...barely enough to get the photo. And, in looking at this, I think the green background needs more work. It still looks rough. Like I said, these are practice runs, nothing too serious — yet.

Other than working on these drawings, I have been practicing mounted archery in order to get ready for a clinic in two weeks. So far the weather has been steady, except for a few rain sprinkles, so that has helped. I have also taken a deep breath, for fortitude, and started reclaiming my garden from the weeds. I bought a cherry tomato plant and a basil plant, which are still sitting on the deck in their original pots, so those need to go in the ground soon.

Best part of the warmer temps = sitting out on the deck in the evening, sipping wine, sampling snacks, and having a nice relaxing moment with my husband...who drinks a beer instead of wine, 'cause tasting wine makes him make funny faces and hand the glass back to me.

Nomad 1

Yes, I really am making an effort to get back into drawing and painting. Unlike a lot of people, I like to draw. Always have. To the extent that, as a kid, before sidewalk chalk, I would draw on the sidewalk with an ice cube wrapped in a wash cloth. My mom's idea of cheap drawing tools. With five kids, it was the best she could do at the time. I didn't mind, and it was really fun on a hot summer day.

Anyway, I have been thinking about a series of drawings/paintings on nomads and gypsies, with a bit of fantasy thrown in for fun. Not too much of the fantasy element in this piece, because I am trying to feel my way back into things, using colored pencils. So, this is basically a practice run. However, it turned out better than I thought it would.

So, I thought I would share the stages it went through.

The two sources I used, both found on Pinterest, and the pencil drawing. 

Here is a little bit better one of the drawing.

 

The next one is after I inked the drawing, using a dark grey Pigma Micron 05. I usually ink drawings in either dark gray or warm brown, rather than black.

And here is the finished drawing, using Prismacolor and Karet colored pencils. The spot on her cheek is a tribal tattoo, similar to the one in the old postcard photo.

Two of the design features I really want to play around with a lot more, are the silhouette of buildings against a sunset sky, and getting a bit more outlandish with the costume. Anyway, I thought for my first dive back in, she didn't turn out too bad.

Only big thing I will change will be doing the drawings on illustration board instead of on paper. The Karet colored pencils are watercolor pencils, but I didn't dare use them that way on this paper, which was just some Strathmore sketch paper.  It would have crinkled up like crazy. Crinkles = NOT good.

This last photo is just of my work table, showing the finished drawing, the source pictures, and the scratch paper with color tests, which I do as I go.

So, that it. Can't wait to start on the next one.

Mixed Bag Wednesday

Here are a few updates on things I have been working on, and a new journal project. Also, a bit about the Nick Bantock book The Trickster's Hat, which I just bought, and am looking forward to playing around with the 49 creative exercise challenges he writes about.  Here we go.

First, the Drunken Spider Vest. I have pretty much finished the web part...I think. I will add more beads as time goes on. I still need to find little bugs to add to the web, and a nice spider pin for the center. I have also started beading around the armholes, and will bead around the neckline.

This is all done in back stitch with either embroidery floss or doubled quilting thread.



Next is a photo of three of the many hair ornaments I have done lately. I sold several of these at a recent SCA event, and got lots of positive feedback, so that made me feel good. I was attempting to rig a quickie light box by holding a white sheet of paper behind the ornaments, but with dubious success. Light box is still on my "to do" list. The wire is either hammered copper, aluminum, or steel. I really enjoy making these and unless I add vintage pieces to the prong, I can keep the price fairly low. These three would have gone for $10 each.

Moving right along...

I bought Nick Bantock's book The Tricksters Hat, mainly because I love anything by Nick Bantock, but also because it was a play book for creativity. By play book I don't mean a list of tunes from the local radio station, I mean play...as in get out in the dirt and build a town with whatever you can find (yes, that is one of the lessons). I am not going to go into detail because I would much rather you bought the book ( I imagine Nick would rather you did as well). All I am going to do is give the lesson number and post a photo of what I did. Maybe it will pique your interest enough to go see what the fun is all about. I hope so.

So, this is a photo of lesson one. The lesson only involved the two 1"x1" boxes, the rest of the doodles I did on my own 'cause I was having way too much fun to stop.

Lastly...and you might want to sit down for this one, since I have posted many times here how unsuccessful I am at this...I am starting another journal. Now, before you scoff (and you would have every right, considering my past stalling out with previous journals), this one is a bit different. I put a limitation on it, mainly so that I wouldn't get bogged down and too serious. The journal itself is small, only 5 1/2" by 4 1/4", so I can't get too carried away. It was a thank-you gift given to me last October. The cover is actual vellum (sheep skin) and the pages hand bound. It has been sitting on a shelf in my "studio" ever since it was given to me. However, with this new spur from my Nick Bantock book, and the fact that I really do like journals, I am giving it another go. Here are the limitations: I can only pick one thing from the day to write about, and the artwork must be quick and small. Actually there is a third limitation...the artwork must be done within 15 min. The reasoning behind this is that, with my previous journals I would start out gangbusters with wonderfully complex pages...then slowly lose interest because they took too much time. Also, my handwriting is ghastly and my spelling worse (which I am going to ignore) With this small journal, I am forcing my brain to KISS — Keep It Simple, Stupid!

I did the first page yesterday, the day after the lunar eclipse, which I thought a good omen for starting something new. I stayed up until 2 am watching the magic of it, and even woke Robert up from a sound sleep at 1 am because I couldn't bear the thought that he would miss it all. I think he was grateful, but he was still half asleep, so it was hard to tell.

The last photo is about the farrier coming to trim the horse's hooves this morning. The number three is because we have three horses. Sorry for my finger in the picture, but the journal doesn't lay flat so I had to hold the page open.

Again, the main focus of this journal is to keep it quick, simple, and not overworked. Besides, my days aren't all that exciting, so for today, the fact that the farrier was due was sorta the high point. Endless entries about where I go (pretty much nowhere), how I worked the horses, or did blah, blah, blah, is what got me bogged down before.

So that is Mixed Bag Wednesday, with lots of fun stuff to look forward to all summer.