Sometimes I get to draw with my students in class, and sometimes I even get to finish those drawings. We have some pretty cool objects in the still life closets. This is a spine from some creature and I just couldn't resist drawing it. We were working with contour lines this day.
We've also had to practice drawing hands holding objects to work with shading and proportion. I know, not the most exciting images. I think they turned out good and were worth sharing!
So....everytime I look at this drawing I think of the Nirvana "Nevermind" album cover. I know it's different, but the floating baby seems to be similar for some reason. This was another India ink study I did with my students. I surprised myself (alot) with this one. It started off looking really crappy, but now that I look at it, it's not too bad. Right?
I was working on some India ink drawings with my students a while back and got really excited about the ink effects. I love the greys and blurred edges the ink can create.
Here's a fish in a soda can. He's giving you the cold stare down.
Another bat I did in drypoint. Tricky little guy. So, I've been thinking that bats are so very misunderstood. They're not so terrible, they eat bugs for us. This one, he just wants some candy or something. Check out his pointy teeth!
I've been excitedly working with one of my friends on some metal. Heather Kita is one of the most amazing jewelry makers I know. This is a piece from one of her displays that she's working on, we decided it would be fun to goof around with it and do some inkless embossing. We're scheming some pretty sweet things, so stay tuned, there's more to come!
Awww look at the cute lil guy nibbling on a leaf. Don't you just want to snuggle up to him?? Just a little watercolor study for you.
A woodcut from a drawing I did last year. I like how the brown sits inside the palm...what do you think?
You thought I was finished doing seashells..ha! This is just a little guy, around 4"x4". I couldn't resist. I had plans for this one to be part of a bigger piece, hopefully I can still fulfill that vision sometime.
This is my first drypoint etching that I had done in a while. The plate is 9"x24" and it took me a few months to work through this bad boy. A drypoint, in case you don't know, is a drawing on a metal plate with a metal tool. I started working on this months ago, and thought I could have it finished fairly quickly. Oh...how silly I was. After doing the first small rows of feathers I realized that if I continued at that pace I would have severe arthritis. I had to slow it down and eventually took a month off to give my hand and arm a break. But I endured, and am so glad I did. I truely love this print.
I really really really like this one. When I was working on it, I was being playful. I wasn't so determined to make it just right or a certain way. There are many layers of acrylic decals and silkscreen prints. Sometimes art can just be 'pretty' right? It doesn't have to mean anything or 'say' anything...it just looks..good. Well, I think this one is good.
I love this piece and all the layers that went into it. A ton of acrylic paint, acrylic decals, and tidbits of silkscreen coral...can you see them all? I was stuck on this reddish purple for a while, not sure if I have shaken it off yet. It's pretty, just accept it.
My first (successful) chine colle, done at Anderson Ranch. The image is a solar plate print from a photograph I took outside the Uffizi. A profile of a lions head, a man standing between pillars holding a severed head along with an "Industry and Resources" map of Italy. I was so very excited when this image was pulled from the press.
This was the first solar plate that I had made since undergrad. It looks so weird because I think it was overexposed. If you look back in my blog history, you'll find a watercolor painting of a duck in an empty space. That is where this guy came from, and the negative space was a texture I found in one of my moms books. This is the beginning of my new solar plate adventure. There will be more to come.
I really really like this piece. It's a digital print of a photograph I took when in Cinque Terra on some really delicate stringy rice paper. The canvas board was coated with blue colored wax and I left the brush strokes as another layer of texture. Then I attached the digital print with more clear wax. Love the textures and colors.
This originally was an etching, I believe, that Kate Leonard had made and brought to class at Anderson Ranch. She let us add our own image and manipulation to her light atmospheric piece. I added a couple layers of digital information. One layer was wood grain in gray, then another grain in orange, the last bit was a circular pattern I found walking around the Ranch compound. I really liked that she let us utilize her prints. I probably would have never attempted something like this if she hadn't suggested it.
Thought you'd like to see them all together. Scroll down to see bigger images of each panel. I pieced them together to draw the bird, but broke them down again to make each piece have its own composition. DIG IT!
The last section of the crane pieces. I really like the way the space curves and bends with the purple. Also, I dig the yellow silkscreen on top of the purple-it looks really poppy to me. The best part is the cluster of shells on the wing.
Another section of the Crane...materials used: watercolor, acrylic decal, silkscreen, marker, and poor man's litho. Quite the combination there, eh? There are alot of subtleties in this drawing that I really like, especially that little celtic face.
Part two of my "Crane Series". I have to admit this one is my favorite, I love how the space kinda flips on itself.
The first day of the workshop at Anderson Ranch we did 'poor man's lithos'. I had a stack of them and wasn't quite sure what to do with them once they were dry. The lithography part is the aqua blue text area, other materials used in this piece were, silkscreen, acrylic decal, watercolor, and pen. I have a group of four of these that match up together, but wanted to show them to you as individual works. These pieces were a really good project to keep me loose and informal. I would work into these 'drawings' while my paintings were drying.
I was juggling this painting along with the "Celtic Bird" the first couple days at Anderson Ranch. I really like this painting because of all the layers of color and the texture that reveals those layers. I really worked the surface with sandpaper and washes to come up with this cloudy 'chaotic' space for the bird to hover in.
Please excuse my absence from the past few weeks. As you know, it's summer, and I tend to disappear for chunks of time over this holiday break. I just got back from Anderson Ranch last weekend, and I have to admit that I'm having serious withdrawl. Spending all day everyday for two weeks in the studio is something I knew I needed. So...here is the first work from a handful of pieces I made while at the ranch. I learned so much from the amazing Kate Leonard. This is a 9"x12" panel and is a good sampling of some of the techniques I picked up.
A little watercolor study I started a while back and finished last week. There is a collection of souteast Asian birds with these long swirly feathers coming out of their back ends. Really quite amazing. Maybe these fly around just like a robin would here?
First stop on the art excursion was the de Young Museum in Golden Gate park. High fashion by Balenciaga actually amazed me. I am the farthest thing from fashionable, but his cuts and styles are still being emulated today. While in the park we checked out a fantastic show on wicked plants at the Conservatory of Flowers.
I was most excited to see the awesome show at the lovely Legion of Honor. A special exhibit of Japanese Ukiyo-E Books on loan, all woodcuts (my favorite). My jaw dropped and my stomach clinched, these prints were perfect in every way.
I was very excited to see a good friends show at the Blackfish Gallery (a piece from her show above). Palmarin and I worked together at the San Francisco Art Institute back in the day. We also saw an amazing 'heavy metal' art show at Land Gallery on Mississippi street. Finally got to see Art From the Heart workspace and gallery, my friend Emily has been working there for many years. I was only there a few days, but got a good taste for the city. It was wonderful to see friends and family!!
