Back to Work

 

Well, the chatter from classes is dying down in my head, at least when I'm awake, and the quiet of the studio is drawing me in. I ended up standing in front of this painting for a while, and saw it with fresh(er) eyes.

    I was pretty much ready to give up on this painting. I have been feeling like I had completely lost the thread of it. The last time I posted about this piece, I was considering the nest idea, and I had sketched them in. I'll admit I was a little intimidated by the idea of drawing nests. Between then and now, my inventive sculpture students made their own nests. The images of their work is still in my eyes, and they are helping me make sense of the construction. 

    All but one of the nests my students made were traditional cup nests, made out of sticks and grass and various found objects. The other one was a leap forward in concept, although I'm not sure the artist was conscious of it at the time. It was unique because it was constructed out of 1/4" armature wire, lined with some sheets of tissue. The idea of this traditionally cozy place being made of metal and a fragile material like tissue struck me as brilliant. I will admit, I am tempted to steal the idea :)

    Here's why I probably won't: The little figures are demons, so their skin will be blue. They were a joy to work on today. It's such a relief to draw what I want! Anyway, if the nest is metallic grays, the demons won't be very visible. I could make an argument for that, because baby birds are brown in brown nests; it's good camouflage. But not necessarily good composition. And that will most likely win.

Sketches of dreams

 

Dickens and the Sealed Off Heart

My friend Olive always reads Dickens during Christmas time, and so, I searched through my Kindle and there was a little set of stories by him that I didn't know I had! And even though his stories have a sad side, they usually cheer me up in the end. So, I started making my way through "The Seven  Poor Travellers" and got stopped by the sentence, "His heart was in the right place, but it was sealed off." This condition could apply to many people I know. 

    At the same time, I've been thinking about easy ways to cast molds, and came across some ideas about using paper as a casting material. I did it 100 years ago, and guess what? They still look good! 

    This is my first idea for combining the two: Dickens' excellent observation and a sketch for a paper bas relief of a sealed off heart. It is probably too direct, but maybe it will lead to more sophisticated ideas :)

 

Not much, but it's a start

Yesterday, I walked into my studio for the first time in weeks, I'm ashamed to say. It drew me in and plopped me down in front of my easel, I mentioned before that I've been thinking about Lilith, and the punishment she endured for sticking up for herself. When I sat down, without much planning, I sketched in some nests with little demons in them. Right now, they are kind of hard to see, and at this point, they look like big blue flowers, but it's a start.

 

That Round Painting and Lilith the Djinnia

 Well, I haven't posted in a long time. Teaching has taken every ounce of energy and creativity that I've had.

Every now and then I walk by that round painting, and I still think it is too pretty. But I haven't known how to change that. I may be making some progress on that front. 

During the nightmare of this semester, a theme of monsters has emerged, both from school assignments like the gargoyles I posted earlier, and from a friend's generous gift of Djinn stories, as well as a recommendation to listen to the podcast  The Hidden Djinn by Rabia Chaudry.

One of the references that has come up is that in some cultures, Lilith is considered to be a djinn. And she is usually incredibly beautiful. She is often painted as a spurned woman, but it seems to me that she is the one who refused to be dominated and was punished for it. I guess that would tend to make one cranky. 

So, I'm trying to think about how I could give the girl in the round painting an edge, to make her refer to the Dinija Lilith. I have one idea about it, but I'll save it until I get it worked out.

Maybe it takes some monsters to get us through this tough time. 

Please stay well and wear a 😷.

    

   Well, since I have to make a mold for my students tomorrow, I figured I should give it ago before I have to do it on camera. It turns out, it's like riding a bike. It actually felt pretty good to control the plaster again. I've got a huge sculpture lab to work in, and where do I decide to do it? My home classroom, of course. That's where the music is, among other things. 

    I faced the fact that I didn't want to rush that gargoyle face just in order to give them a mold making demo. So I made a quick nose, which, along with the base, presents the kinds of problems they are likely to run into.

     The first coat of plaster is very thin, and the main job is to tap out air bubbles as they rise up. It takes some patience, because at this point, the plaster is so thin it runs. I just keep dripping some on slowly, and tapping, making sure it doesn't expand past the desired thickness of the mold. 

     The fun part is when the plaster starts to thicken and you can actually shape it. I like to make one-part molds really flat on top so when you cast it, it will lay flat with no props.

     So that will be two parts of the process they will know: the Life (clay) and the Death (plaster). Next will be the Resurrection :)

 

Four Gargoyles

Four drawing classes, four demos. Reductive charcoal on Strathmore paper. About 30 minutes each.

My first sculpture in years and years

I really thought I'd be printmaking this semester. But, things change. 

My sculpture students are doing bas reliefs of gargoyles, and since I have to demo on something, I started this based on an old drawing.

I have to admit, with all the troubles right now, it is lovely to use my old tools again and lose myself in this face.

 

Sculpture assignment

   These are three of the sculptures from the first full assignment in my sculpture class. They made a figure out of wire and then added materials of their choice to fill out the forms. I'm proud of what they were able to accomplish, especially since all of their lessons have been online.

    Their next project will be bas relief gargoyles. I'm looking forward to them :)

 

The Volunteers, All Grown Up!

 

Tiny steps

I made some small changes to the moon today. I like posting, because it helps me see what needs to be done. And I think, more leaves! And I also still think it is too pretty, but starting anything new right now is out of the question.

    The upper image is from my sculpture class. They made wire figures and then added to them with paper, fabric, more wire, beads...anything that wouldn't overwhelm the wire. I'll post some more, but this stingray is pretty nice! 

    It occurred to me this week that now that I am teaching sculpture, we could totally have a team to compete at Zehnder's Snowfest, in Frankenmuth, MI, where (in non-Covid years) they hold an excellent snow/ice  sculpture contest. I've always wanted to do it. I think 2022 might be our chance:)

 

What a beaut

 This beauty formed outside my studio wall. Right now, my sculpture students are starting with an existing form and making abstractions from them. I wish I'd had this around when I set the assignment. I hope I can harvest it after the owners leave it. Maybe I'll have it for next semester.

Covid Classroom

  Well, this is what it looks like in a college classroom during a pandemic. No fun, smart, wise-cracking kids in the room. Just me and two cameras and a tenuous hold on the workings of Zoom.

   The kids are there virtually, and let me say, they have been very sweet and kind. They help me with my tech difficulties on a daily basis, and they put up with me pestering them about turning on their cameras so I can see their faces. And best of all, sometimes, one will stay after class on Zoom just to chat, or even to ask how I am. So while this is one of the hardest ways to teach, I have a feeling we will find some silver linings come out of it, too.

 

Three for a Key

    To be honest, this is looking like it is going to be a bit too pretty for my taste, even though the flower she is blowing away is henbane, and it is associated with mental illness. 

     For a little while I thought about adding mosquitoes to add to the misery, but, mosquitoes are too small, unless I decided to turn the image into a '50's horror flick. So, I opted for crows, which are very smart and communicative, and are the stars of their very own counting rhyme. 

    I'm glad I got this far before the semester really takes over my life. There is still a lot to do on it, but for better or for worse, the composition is mostly set, and I can work on it in bits when I have the time.

    I think for my next painting, even if I decide to do the toe dancer dream, the subject is going to be older. And not too pretty.

 

Into the storm...with a little hope

Tomorrow is the first day of classes. 

I've been touching up this little painting up over the summer. It is sort of a description of my life: lots of things are lovely, but also, all hell is breaking loose.

But, I think one of the painting's messages is hope in the face of a storm. And there is a big one coming. 

A dream

Well, I said goodbye to my colleague this week, and now, I am officially the Keeper of the Keys.
Then, the same night, I dreamed that I had some ballet toe shoes, and when I put them on, I could dance on air. I danced with a tall man, and still towered over him. Maybe that will be my next image.

Trusty Blue

  I’d like to say that the reason I’m busy is artwork, but alas, it is not. Since my colleague retired, I inherited his responsibilities. That, plus preparing a new class and the prospect of another semester online is making it hard to get to the studio. But, every little step is a step in the right direction. 

     This is a first layer of leaves, and it’s hard to see, but there is the beginning of a flower above her hands. There will be a lot more leaves, I think. But this was a first step to see if it would work. So I got out my trusty blue pastel pencil and outlined the shapes, and then filled them in with a light wash. I don’t want the contrast between the leaves and the moon get too big. Probably, having to go slow will keep me from getting it too wrong.

    I still don’t know what to do with her hair, poor thing. That’s something she and I have in common at the moment:)

     

Buskers

       I think I like color pencils. I still need a lot of practice, and I’ve given up limiting myself to the 12 colors students may only have at their disposal, but I’m developing some habits for color application that I can pass on to my students. So that’s one thing off the list.

        Next up: a new Online learning platform at school and a new prep (3D Art). Since we are going to be mostly online, the trick will be making sure everyone has access to the tools they need to get the job done. I keep thinking about how many sculptures I made in my kitchen, with improvised tools. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished with kitchen cutlery and toothpicks. I reckon if I could do it, I should be able to expect them to do it, too. I hope.

     

Volunteers

     These lovelies have popped up at the edge of my yard; right where the pumpkin landed after I rolled it down the hill in November. They probably wither very big, but they still feel like a gift.

Working the Highlands

Even though I loved the creamy color I used on the highlands of the moon, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to balance the color with the ‘maria’, or the dark parts. So. I sort of impulsively layered a light grey over the cream. I hope I’m not horrified when I look at it tomorrow.

Sculpture, again

   The one thing I can usually count on is that things change.

My colleague at school retired, and I am inheriting his classes. So, after years of being away from sculpture, I’ll be teaching it again this fall. I think these two were about the last pieces I made ( in their place of honor in my bathroom!) 

   It should be interesting, given we will be mostly online again this semester, because of the COVID monster.

    Change is good, right?

New busker

Well, I hated to do it, but I had to leave that grid behind. I’m sorry to see it go, but I figured it was time to start defining the shapes from the dark side as well as the light. I’ll go back and forth between them for a bit. It’s a pretty intricate puzzle.

Getting there

With Molly’s help, I'm starting to see the logic of the color application with this medium. It’s a curious mix of putting down certain lights, and then building up from dark to light in other places. I hope I can explain it better when fall semester rolls around.
    Molly thought my main problem was that I wasn’t using the pencils thickly enough.
    I still don’t have the hang of skin tones.

A moon picture is coming soon.

Good golly Miss Molly...

...she sure loves to draw! Molly is my very dear friend who, in addition to being my partner in crime for many adventures, was and will always be one of my drawing teachers. Every year, Molly comes up to my house (we live a little ways apart) and we sit and catch up and draw for the day. She is coming this week, and because of Covid, we are masking and drawing outside, but at least we still get to do it!
    Last year, I was envying Molly's illustrations in colored pencil for a book of poetry about bugs that that she has been working on. Molly is a master drawer and illustrator. I'm pretty sure that statement included the sentence "I wish I could do that". Molly looked up and said, ok, here! Try it! And she proceeded to give me a lesson.
    This time, since I made the (hopefully not rash) decision to assign colored pencils for my ARTS 101 classes this fall, I'm going into our session prepared with my recent efforts so she can help me figure out where I'm going wrong, and a new drawing that I can work on under her supervision.
    The new one is another little sketch I did of the Wheatland Music Festival kid buskers. This guy helped himself to one of our folding chairs in front of our tent and started strumming away. He was playing with all his heart, but wasn't really making any chords. So, to save my sanity, I went over and taught him how to play an e minor chord. It made a big difference in the atmosphere around our tent, I can tell you that.
    The colored one is my practice attempt on copy paper. Molly will have her teaching work cut out for her!

Our Tubman Banner

At least it's not green anymore

       

    

    In the last post, the moon looked green because of optical mixing of the application of yellow over the blue background.  Now, a couple of layers later, the moon is starting to shine. 

     Talk about an exercise in figure/ground! Every time I sit down, I negotiate the lines between them. I think I will miss how this grid looks on the dark parts. I'll have to see if there is a reason to keep them.

     

     In the meantime, I shortened her left arm, and the elbow isn't quite right yet. I may have to break down and get out a mirror to model for myself.

Starting Layers

I know, I know. The moon looks green so far. It's just because there is some optical mixing of the blue in the background and the yellow I applied over it. It will get better! 

The Tubman Exhibit is Up!

Well, in spite of heat in the 90's, all 18 decals are up and looking good. It took my partner and me (the excellent Carrie Weis, director of the Ferris Fine Art Gallery) three days to get the job done. Let's just say we learned a lot about decals in the process. Here are a few nuggets: vinyl stretches out of shape in extreme heat, a squeegee is a wonderful application tool, and a few bubbles are ok, since they can usually be erased with a straight pin and a nice soft cloth. 

    I think Carrie is going to post an online show on the Ferris Gallery website (Facebook page, maybe?). If she does, I will pass along a link.

    Carrie got the idea for this project started with her "She Persisted" theme in honor of the centennial of the 19th Amendment in the U.S., (women's right to vote). Then I got hooked up with Voca Lyrica, our local women's choir, because they were doing The Journey of Harriet Tubman by Ron Kean this season. The two combined to make this project happen. 

    I'm really happy that in a time that there is so much upheaval in my country, my students were able to create images that celebrate a truly persistent African American hero, Harriet Tubman. Harriet spent her adult life helping others and never gave up finding ways to do it. I reckon if we all took a page from her book, the world would be a better place.

Size Matters

     

     Well, I lived with this for a bit, and the size of the guy's face bothered me, even though I could justify it proportionally. So, I've been fussing with it on and off for the last week. I think I like it better. He looks older, more like a dad.

Mapping the Moon

Background reference and an old trick

I love this trick of finding the center of a circle: Draw two chords. Mark the center of the chords and draw perpendicular lines from each, extending them inward until they intersect. And then, viola! The center!  

Phone Call with the Dean Doodle

More Photoshop

Okay, I think I'm doing the moon. 

I changed this to greyscale in Photoshop to see if I might like it if the background were a moon.

A Wrinkle

    This isn't exactly a stellar example, but I've figured a few things out. I wasn't looking at an apple when I drew this, so it isn't like the photo real pieces in the how-to books, but I'm getting the hang of the color application. By the time I got to the leaf, I realized that the trick is to vary the complements by light and dark, according to the light and dark areas, because it is difficult to layer lights over darks. It can be done, but there is a limit, depending on how dark the first color is and the opacity of the top one. So, I'm starting to get an order of operations in mind for the process.

    The wrinkle is that at the school bookstore, they want to charge the students over twice the commercial amount for a set of 24 colors. I'm probably going to have to settle for a set of 12 colors, which will mean the students will have to mix a lot of the colors they will want to use. 

      I think I'm going to supply them with a list with the Dick Black order numbers so they can order from there instead. It's kind of treasonous to my school, but geez. College is expensive enough.

   Having a limited palette isn't all bad, though. When I started painting, I only had five colors to use, and I learned a lot about color mixing because of it. With colored pencils, since they are a dry medium, mixing really means layering. It is a little harder than squeezing out two colors of paint and swirling them together. 

    Because my students will probably only have 12 colors, I'm having to stick to those twelve myself. That denies me some of my favorites that I use in painting all the time, but, sometimes simple is better. I like the Steinberg book, Masterful Color, because the color theory is in line with my process. But, she must own every color Prismacolor makes! (I'm jealous!). We'll see what we can do with just 12!

New One

Lately I've been going back and re-visiting some of the images I made early on that were sold or unresolved in some way. This one is based on a painting that was sold before I had a chance to live with it for very long, and I've always wanted to do it again. There are two elements still missing, and I promise she will have hair. It's just easier to save that for after a few other things are in place.

    This is meant to be a companion for the painting below, which was also based on an earlier painting. I always liked the idea, but not the execution. I'm much happier this time:

Also, it is lovely to work on a commercially prepared canvas this time. Except I can't get the darn thing to hold still on my easel!

First Try

This is one of my first tries at colored pencil. It is not a model of control. 

About a year ago, I wanted to do a series of pieces based on the child buskers at Wheatland. I flirted with colored pencils then, but gave up to paint instead. This time I'm going to stick with it, and this little image will be my marker for improvement.

I just read that Wheatland is cancelled this year, so maybe I can help keep the Happy Wheatland spirit alive in this small way, until we can all meet again.

Plan B

Well, it's June, and while I'm usually in the mental state of my 9 year old self (making art, going outside and playing music like no one is watching), this year my mind is on the fall already. 

     Switching over to all online classes this spring was not a pleasure. Not having face to face lessons really sucked the joy out of teaching art, I can tell you that.

     Now, assuming I have classes to teach and we figure out ways to do it safely, I have to build in a Plan B for my classes, in case we have to go into quarantine again. Which means I have to have a way to teach color that will suit everyone, and it has to be sa medium students can easily do at home.

     To that end, I hauled off and ordered colored pencils for the class, instead of our normal route of pastels and watercolor. 

      Here's the rub: I don't know a lot about them. And, the books and videos I've seen don't discuss color theory, and so how they are creating the values doesn't match up with the rules I use everyday.

    Until, Ta Da! I found this book:

  The description says that it uses color like the Old Masters, which means there is an underpainting and shadows are constructed using complementary colors. Just what I've been looking for! I have to wait six more days to get it. But I think it will be my ticket to a coherent teaching strategy. And maybe a whole new medium for my personal work :)