December Challenge

December’s challenge: 

Step outside your comfort zone and 

use various media together or 

use a medium you don’t normally use.

I can’t wait to see what you do!

Pieces of 8

I used to meet weekly with a painting gang that had all kinds of ways to stimulate and inspire us.  Lately they have had monthly challenges and everyone posts their results on the blog.  As an "emeritus" member of the Pieces of 8, I occassionally join in.

My challenge (in addition to the assignment above) was that I was mostly housebound recovering from my knee surgery.  Nevertheless I found a way to use what was laying around.

The two photos above show the results of my "Forest Floor" cards, steam printed on watercolor paper using leaves gathered in the High Country.  They are beautiful but invariably there are some pages that are real "duds" and just don't print well enough to sell.

See what I mean?

But I happened to have some of my homemade ink on hand (no brushes so I used q-tips) as well as a 

couple of colored sharpie-like pens.

I set to work "enhancing the colorations of the leaves by using the acorn grey ink, the tumeric yellow, the hibiscus magenta (which sometimes turned bluish) and the brown ink made from tea.

The leaves were definitely more pronounced but not as interesting as I wanted them to be.  So I dug out my colored pens and set to work doodling tiny scratches, dots and squiggle lines to emphasize eye flow and certain details.  This part was the most fun as I got lost in the mediative feel of making tiny marks and trying to blend colored dots as done in pointillism.  Once I got over the idea of natures colors and felt free to use what I had, I found it hard to quit!

Here are two - can you match them from the start? 

Ta da!  Calling them done.  I think I was outside my comfort zone the minute I took up the colored pens and I certainly used a brand new (to me) medium with the homemade inks from my kitchen.  Challenge completed.  To see what everyone else did you can check this post at the end of the month.

I need to think about what I learned and how it might apply to future work.  I definitely want to play with the inks more (and make a for-real blue ink).  These were good learning pages and were definitely a good distraction from all things medical. 

Have you challenged yourself lately? Moved out of your comfort zone or tried a new product, ingredient, a foreign method or even different radio channel?  Reporting on these prompts makes me more likely to follow through on them so feel free to share with me your latest experiment. I promise to be impressed!

EXPERIMENTALLY YOURS,

Cindy

Sticking with it: Painting with Sticks?

“Faites des lignes. Faites beaucoup de lignes.” 

("Draw lines - draw a lot of lines")
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - 1780 – 14 January 1867) 

This was advice given to an art student named Degas very early in his painting career.  I think it is still worthy today for anyone who wants to make art.

my collection of "tools"

When I made the decision to pursue art I asked Sandy Johnson, Melbourne, FL,  for private lessons.  One day she sent me to her garden to find a couple of sticks.  That day she insisted I set aside the brushes in favor of painting only with sticks.  I wasn't quite sure at the time what I was supposed to learn, but I diligently complied and although frustrating, I painted that day using a stick.

So in my voyage to rekindle a spark, I remembered this class and set about collecting a variety of sticks to work with.  Yes, I put it off for a bit as I remembered how maddening it was to get the shapes I saw in my minds eye but I finally pulled out paper and paints and got busy.

scratch, scratch, scratch

found some buds that were softer

ok, not too shabby

I like the roughness

While I was in the mood (or mode) I kept on, changing out paper and reference photo.

not my favorite stick!  right about now I am having visions of

the cavewomen, using sticks to carve art into the walls of

their homes and realizing that altering the stick with

fire or pounding the tips with stones would produce

a slightly different mark for their work

I cannot be critical of the form...it's from a stick for gosh sakes....

one more

I began making notes on the paper around me to capture my thoughts as I happily disposed of the sticks and here is what I jotted down:

• use all parts of the stick, turn it, find the edges, try it flat
• be content to suggest, details are almost impossible, stay loose
• color mixing is not precise, can't be done very thoroughly but leaves an interesting combo of the colors used
• select only the most essential parts of the subject to render, reduce it to the shape
• this is messy, paint is everywhere and either wear gloves or be content with the mess

I think those are good notes for painting with a brush...in fact, they are critical things to remember.  Well, maybe not the messy part but all else should apply if, IF, the painting is to remain interesting and artistic.  Maybe that is what Sandy was trying to show me?

No more sticks but I certainly hope the notes I made stick with me.  (uuuugh!)

SCRATCHING MY WAY,

Cindy