Tag: arting
In Progress
I added another layer this morning. This is only the left-hand side of the canvas. It’s actually in landscape format, not portrait.
It’s been a few years since I’ve really painted in oils. I don’t know why, maybe because I’ve been sidetracked by working in books. Anyway, I forgot a lesson I learned years and years ago: be careful to cover the wall behind where you are working. Oops! I now have a lovely spattering of fine dark teal polka dots on the wall above my work bench. I need to re-read my lease. I’m pretty sure that it says that they don’t charge for re-painting if you live in a unit for two or more years. I hope so!
Stretching a Canvas
I was digging in the studio closet the other day, and noticed that I had some old stretcher bars stashed there, so I pulled them out. It’s been awhile since I’ve stretched a canvas, and I’d forgotten how hard it is on my hands to do all that stapling. Ouch!
I didn’t get the back margins perfectly even, so the miter isn’t as nice as it could be. It’s tidy, though, and that’s what counts, right?
Now, on to gessoing.
Underpainting
This is just the first layer. It’s a little more army green than I’d intended, but it’ll eventually be mostly blue.
I hate working with paint thinner, but there is just no other way to get this sort of spidery wicking of the paint.
True story: In a rebellious fit of stupidity, I once tried to use a mixture of linseed oil and paint thinner. The drippy effect was pretty good, but apparently, I’d used too much linseed oil and too little thinner. When I went back to the studio the next day, the entire painting had slid off the canvas. Weird, huh?
The Automatons
I promised art a couple of days ago, but obviously, I lied. And by the time I finished last night, it was way past my bedtime.
This one has another packing tape transfer (a phrenology model), but it’s even fainter than the last one I did. I like the way it turned out. Tape transfers are kind of hit-and-miss for me. Often, the image pulls completely away from the tape, no matter how careful I am or how well I burnish. Some folks recommend soaking the taped image for a few minutes, but that makes the problem even worse. I’ve settled on taping, burnishing the hell out of it, then using a baby wipe to remove the paper from the tape. I haven’t had 100% success with doing it that way, but close to that.
This is a totally adorable demo for making tape transfers. I love that it’s a young boy doing it. He uses clear contact paper, instead of packing tape, but the technique is the same.
collage (altered Polaroid, anatomical illustration, packing tape transfer, and fragment from antique curtain) with watercolor pencil, watersoluble crayon, and found poem in altered book
9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches
The Automatons
(a found poem)
More valuable than anything else,
his own desire for becoming.
The work and the excellence,
The common instincts of humanity
regarded as the highest virtue
And in the duties of tradition and custom
A convert denied
that destiny ruled his life,
Rejected demands and expectations
To devote himself
to the obstacles that were within him.
Only those who dared
could claim their autonomy.
Composition Book Journal
I managed to finish up my current composition book journal last night. I don’t normally care if a journal is spread across two years, but since this one was nearly full, I thought it’d be nice to complete it.
These last pages were done with collage and Portfolio watersoluble crayons, using a dip pen and India ink for the writing. Like I said, this is about the only reliable way to write on some surfaces. In fact, at the art museum, one of my jobs was to put accession numbers on objects. For hard surfaces (metal, plastic, ceramic, etc.) we used a base coat of clear acrylic (nail polish will do in a pinch), then wrote the numbers with India ink and a dip pen, let it dry thoroughly, then put a protective top coat of acrylic over it.
Productivity
I regularly read several art blogs, and the main theme lately has been that folks feel they are in a summer slump. I am surprised that I don’t feel that way, because I’m used to thinking of myself as a slow worker. That, despite the fact that I’ve gotten several e-mails from people wondering how on earth I manage to do so much. Ha! I don’t. Or, at least, I don’t think that I do.
But, it’s true what they say about creating new habits. I’ve somehow managed to get into the habit of arting pretty much every single day, whether I feel like it or not. I’m really not sure how or when that happened, but I think it’s been fairly recently–the last 6-8 months, maybe? It’s become ingrained, so that I can’t even sit down to watch the news without working on something.
Linky Monday
First, I bring you these fun filled time wasters:
- Cats in Sinks. Yes, that’s right, pictures of Cats! In! Sinks! Rory would approve, I think.
- Stuff on My Cat. Have you ever felt the need to pile stuff on top of your cat? Well, you are not alone.
- My Cat Hates You. Some cats are bad seeds. Other cats are really bad seeds.
Happy Monday! It was a pretty useless weekend, so I didn’t bother to bore y’all with the details. Some highlights, though: I went to see The Libertine on Saturday. Johnny Depp does not disappoint. And, who knew he’d look so good with ’80s heavy aluminum hair? Then, I spent most of yesterday on the couch, watching fil-ums: The Road to God Knows Where (Nick Cave, like Mr. Depp, rarely disappoints), House of 1000 Corpses (revolting), and The Craft (I finally got around to watching it; not bad. At least I now know why Charmed insists on ruining The Smith’s How Soon is Now.).
At one point yesterday, the cat and the dog–who were lazing on the couch with me–started to yawn at the same time that I did. Now, that’s when you know you’ve achieved ultimate uselessness. I’m blaming it on the weather. I always get sleepy when it rains for days on end.
There’s not much to report from the Department of Arting. I didn’t finish anything over the weekend, but I did some preliminary work. I coffee-stained three pairs of toddler’s tights and a baby’s dress, which means my hands smell like coffee. I’d bought them–the tights and dress, not the hands–ages ago for a series of paintings, but they were so starkly white that I didn’t end up using them. I also primed several largish sheets of paper, which means I have a layer of gesso perm-a-bonded to my coffee scented cuticles. Because, you know, I apparently can’t apply anything even vaguely paint-like without using my hands.
While watching movies, I went through a pile of magazines, cutting out junk to use for collage work. Which reminded me of a tip from Andy. You can erase the clay-coat printing from magazine pages. A regular old eraser will work (but is a bit tedious). I found that a foam sanding block or super fine grit sand paper works great, too. Here’s the fun part, though: you can place objects, like coins, keys, or buttons, under the magazine page, then erase/sand over them, leaving a reverse rubbing of the object. Pretty cool, eh? You can do the same thing with larger patterns. The planking on my deck is old and weathered, with a raised grain that would lend itself well to this sort of thing. Many old buildings have interesting wrought iron grille work that might make nice reverse rubbings, as well. I don’t recommend doing any sort of rubbings of grave markers, though, because no matter how gentle you are, it deteriorates the stone. Sad but true. The kindest thing to do with grave markers is to take photos instead of doing rubbings.
And now, the inevitable crankypantsing: While upgrading some of the software on my computer, I decided to give iTunes a try. Boy, was that ever a mistake! For some reason, it doesn’t work on my system. I don’t know why, and I really don’t care enough to figure it out. I tried uninstalling it, redownloading it, and reinstalling it, and that’s as much effort as I’m willing to invest in it. The problem is that the audio is garbled. I assume it’s a compatibility issue. I can play music just fine with other programs, so I know my sound card is not faulty. I think I’ll stick to my old copy of MusicMatch Jukebox, thankyouverymuch. It’s not perfect, but it works well enough.
My Inner Smurfette
I’m not a big fan of painting with acrylics, though I use them for priming backgrounds in my journals/sketchbooks and, occasionally, for painting. I do, however, love to use them for dying fabric. Even the ubercheap (44¢/bottle) craft acrylics work well for this. I use about 10-20 parts water to 1 part paint. It’s not a precise measurement–you want to water down the paint enough that it doesn’t affect the hand of the fabric, but not so much that the color becomes washed out. It should look like a nice, rich dye bath. The reason I prefer acrylics over dye is that the acrylic will not fade. In fact, you can even bleach it without lightening the color.
So… I had some left-over paints from the Blue Book and thought I’d use them to dye some of the little paper scraps I’d reserved for making more miniature books. I got out a small mixing bowl and went to work. I combined a pearlized teal with phthalo blue, which made a gorgeous Mediterranean blue. The paper is absolutely beautiful, with just a hint of shimmer. My hands, alas, are also blue. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, but I couldn’t remove all the blue dye.
red paper boat 