Thursday, October 26, 2017

Between Shadow and Light-Drawing Exercises

I'm currently working on yet another class with Ivy Newport, called Between Shadow and Light. It's a mini portrait course, which during the month of September Ivy donated all the class fees to help the victims of the horrible hurricane in Texas. That helped me make the decision to take the class, but I'm really glad I did. Ivy is a good teacher and I'm learning a lot from her! See the sidebar for the link!


Exercises 1, I misunderstood the directions. I deliberately didn't set a timer and sketched these, and the one below, with my non-dominant hand, using magazine photos, and taking no more than 5 minutes per sketch. I used a hard charcoal pencil on 18" x 24" mixed media paper in a large sketchbook.


The models would be horrified, but I wasn't going for a likeness. Besides, who knew I could sketch/draw with my non-dominant hand?!!! So excited!


This sketch, from an old photo of mama, was done with my dominant hand with a hard charcoal pencil on 18" x 24" mixed media paper. Again, I deliberately didn't set the timer, but took only 5, or so, minutes to sketch. I'm amazed that it actually resembles mama!

A few days passed after I did the first exercise, then I re-read the material and watched three more class videos.

I found that I had misunderstood directions on the first exercises and did them over.


 I set timer for 2 minutes each sketch, because I could barely get the head shape down in 1 minute. I used the same paper and pencil as the first ones and did one sketch with left hand, then same one with right hand. I used the same magazine images as the first exercises, only this time I sketched each image using right and left hands on same page. Image 1- Left on left, right on right. Still amazed that I can even sketch with my left hand!


Second image with both hands. Very interesting how my mind shifts with each hand when I compare the two images, and how it feels during the sketch.


For the third image for this exercise I used a photo of my cousin instead of the magazine photo with the hat. In many of these sketches, I prefer the one done with my non-dominant hand. Who knew?!!


A two minute blind contour sketch from a photo of another cousin when she was young, although this one is semi-blind, because I forgot and looked at my paper a few times. Again, two minutes each, one with each hand, same paper and pencil.


Four different color pencils, same paper, using the same photo of my cousin, two minutes each, four overlapping sketches, two with each hand. I forgot to take a picture of the first sketches. This is after I had tweaked and added to them some.


I have a tendency in these classes to get carried away an "do my own thing", so I overdid what the exercise asked for and went over the whole thing with a brush and water, making the sketches very vibrant because three of them were done with inktense pencils. The other was in watercolor pencil.

There is a bonus video on this exercise, which I am currently attempting for practice before trying an actual portrait, so stay tuned for more of my feeble attempts at these class assignments! More photos as I progress...

Plus I have several works in progress from other classes I have yet to finish! :o

Sacred Landscapes (of a sort) 2012

These are not part of the Sacred Landscapes class that I took from Ivy Newport this past year (although I recently shared them in the group with Ivy), but some I took from another teacher a few years ago. In this class we used only 3-4 colors, layering them over one another, creating textures, and letting the images emerge after they dried, then developing them further with pencil. I love doing this!


Just lately, I went over the images with a black Pitt marker, when I re-discovered them in an old sketchbook. 


Same image in shades of gray and black...


Different images in different colors. The images aren't showing up as much, because they're still outlined in pencil.


Same image in grays and black...


Same painting with the Pitt marker lines added to emphasize the images more.

These are all done in fluid and open acrylics on mixed media paper in a mixed media sketchbook.

I don't claim to be an artist, but I sure do love trying! Happy Arting!

Denim Tote Bag

This tote bag belonged to my mama. I found it one day when I was in her house looking for something to put papers and stuff in to bring back up to my house to go through to destroy or keep. A painful job, but it had to be done.

She had a drawer full of tote bags from various groups and trips she had participated in over the years, but this is the only one that she had made, and it immediately brought back memories and a smile to my face.

In her late fifties-sixties, she belonged to a clogging group called the Riverbend Cloggers, where she had learned to clog and loved performing with the group at various places. One October they performed at a Halloween event, possibly a nursing home, and they wore costumes.

Mama dressed in patched overalls, straw hat, flannel shirt, sort of like a scarecrow, and she made this bag out of old jeans that she had gotten somewhere. She lined the inside and made the gussets with patchwork fabric. The embellishments were already on the denim. She sewed the denim pieces together, leaving the raw seams on the outside. And, wallah, she had a bag worthy of a scarecrow! :)


Front


Back

I thought it was cute at the time she made it, but I treasure it now that she's gone. It has made several trips back and forth between our houses, as I continue to sort slowly through her things, and I love it more with each trip. 

I have a picture of her in her costume somewhere, and I wanted to include it in this post, but haven't gotten around to finding it yet. I am missing her so much, and most days I feel so overwhelmed right now that I don't get anything accomplished, and there's so much to be done...

But I didn't mean to sound depressing, and time will help, so I will just say treasure the people you love while you still have them, because any day they can be taken away from you, and you can not even begin to imagine how much you will miss them.

Take care and keep making stuff! It feeds your soul!

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

More Recycled Teabags

Still playing and experimenting with used teabags! I think I'm addicted!


Some of the teabags are a little larger and don't have the strings, tags, or staples to help the environment, and the herbal teabags don't stain as dark as regular teabags. I used watercolor and inktense pencils, gel pen and waterbrush  on the imaginary lady above. 


The stains, and any loose tea that didn't come out, add to the imaginary flower painting, also done with watercolor/inktense pencils and gel pen with water.


Different teabag with an imaginary landscape, using the same media as above.


I wanted to try some prints on teabags, so I put black gesso on a mini gel plate and made marks through it with a plastic fork, being careful not to scratch the plate. When that dried, I made dots with a white gel pen, which died on me, and then I laid the teabag down on some semi-dry red acrylic paint for sort of an abstract look.


Again, I used black gesso on the rectangle mini gel plate and stamped into it with the wooden elephant stamp for a black and white print, but it didn't come off plain enough, so I stamped over it in red acrylic paint and with black acrylic paint on a mandala type wooden stamp. I also used a bit of raw umber acrylic ink to darken the pale tea stained teabag.

Four more currently in progress! More experiments and more fun!


Recycled teabags drying. Just waiting to be turned into fun little treasures!

Monday, October 2, 2017

Mama's Rose Jar

Mama passed away in June from cancer, which we didn't know she had until about a week and a half before she died. There were many beautiful flowers and other memory gifts at her funeral, and I didn't even see the beautiful rose basket from one of her nieces until we went back to the cemetery after the reception. All of the potted plants, throws, etc were in the back of our SUV, and since mama's only living sister was leaving after the funeral, I gave her some of the potted plants to take home with her.

There, among all the other plants was a small basket with a dozen beautiful cut red, yellow, and peach colored roses arranged beautifully with some fern, daises, and strawflowers in it. So delicate looking!

I wanted so badly to preserve them in some way while they were still fresh and beautiful, but I had lost my voice during the funeral, and the day after my husband and I both came down with one of those awful flu/virus things and we were very sick for three weeks. By that time the roses had died, but I still couldn't bear to throw them away, and left them sitting on my piano drying for several weeks.

I was afraid they'd fall apart if I touched them.

I found many ways of preserving dried flowers on Pinterest, but I particularly liked putting them in a pretty jar.

One day while I was doing some stuff in mama's house, I noticed the jar she kept her sweetners in, sitting on top of the wooden breadbox on the counter. Perfect! I emptied the jar, brought it home, and washed it, but it was still several days before I got up the nerve to try putting the roses in it.

I was still afraid of them falling apart.

But the day came when I was brave enough, thinking if they fell apart I would just put the petals in the jar and save them.

Luckily I had some long surgeon's tweezers that had been given to me years ago to place the roses down in the jar, because my hand wouldn't fit.


The roses were tougher than I thought and didn't fall apart when I cut the stems off. Of course, I handled them carefully and held my breath! The jar fit them exactly with some empty space in the center, which I filled with the strawflowers and a small packet of silica gel to help absorb moisture. 


I folded the sweet note from my cousin and lay it on top of the roses, and along with the small yellow ribbon from the basket on top of the note, I put the glass lid on to top it off and let out my breath. It was done and I didn't lose a single petal, besides a couple that had come off from handling during the funeral process! I tried putting some of the leaves in, but they were too fragile and crumbled easily.


I am not a pro at arranging flowers, but I'm very happy with how the rose jar turned out. It looks vintage to me...


Mama's roses are in her jar, and in this photo, sitting on a doily that she crocheted many years ago and gave to me shortly before she died.


I don't know why, for sure, that I was so drawn to the rose basket out of all the beautiful plants and flowers at mama's funeral, but I think, somehow, it was like a beautiful reminder that I also watched helplessly as it died and became a beautiful shell of what it once was.

Mama's shell is gone, but her spirit and essence lives on through me and those that loved her. The freshness and live beauty of the roses is gone, but their essence lives on through the beauty of their dried petals, which I can now hopefully keep and treasure for a long time to come.

I don't need anything to remind me of mama, and I don't know how long they will last like this, but I love this jar of roses for her and will think of her especially every time I look at it.

I love and miss you so much, Mama!