Tree: Waiting

Tree in Norwood Local Park. About 4"x 4", on tinted (did it myself, with watercolor wash) Aquarius II wc paper, done with a Kaimei "Natural Hair" brush pen, and then watercolors and gouache later. From the front seat of my car on a frrrrrrrrigid + gloomy day but I just effing HAD to get out.

Soundsuits, from Mr. Cave

This is an image from NYC's Jack Shainman Gallery of Nick Cave's Soundsuits. These are waaaaay cool. Saw a review of a show of his in Sunday's WaPo (scroll to the bottom).

Back to the Slog?

After all the revelry, excitement, and celebration of the past few days, are we all back to the same old slog? This is a little (7"x4") top o' the hill "study" that I found while tidying (re-arranging) the desks. It has a nice spring breeze going through it. What shall we do to get ready for Spring?

The Crash of Two Realities

I am trying to reconcile the two "creativity" workshops that I took this past weekend with the resumption of school this week. I suspect that there are common threads between them but maybe I'm too tired to concentrate hard enough to see 'em.

Postscript: Here are some other pix from this past weekend's workshops. Okay, I admit it: it's still all twisted.

Bundled Up Turtled Up

Getting closer and closer to Inauguration Day. Today Virginia feels marginalized and victimized. Hey! Who said the War of Northern Aggression is forgotten? As per Alexandria's Congressman Jimmy Moran: the closing of all the Virginia bridges is "security on steroids." Paaaaah-leze! Like the Secret Service ever gave a flyin' fig about the every-day functioning of this city. Of course it's security on steroids. C'est leur point fort. Ils sont goons. Qué será, será, eh?

Happy New Year!

Sketchbook page from the last day of the year. Detail of the edge of a cabin (and some other nearby neighborhood elements) in New Market MD. About 7"x7", on grey charcoal paper, on the spot (albeit inside the car --- hey, it was about 29º and windy!) with pen+ink and then (later at home) with watercolors, gouache, and mushed-up watered-down pastel (for the sky). Cool.

(This was scanned using the new HP Photosmart that Santa brought. Works wonderfully!!)

Merry Christmas! Here's a Clump o' Trees . . .

This is about 7-1/2" x 10" on very rough Saint-Armand Colours paper in a washed denim color (nice flecks in it, obviously hand mixed / hand made). I coated it with clear Colourfix primer. Then I started out with a big sloppy mess of an alcohol wash, washing in the (sort of) complementary colors to what I was intending for the finish layer.

One question is this: What's the difference among a water wash, an alcohol wash, and a wash done with Turpenoid? (And here is the answer to that question.)

Mr. Enormous Ear

Experiments with an alcohol wash underpainting, coloring a "print" of an old sketch, and a strange Art Deco color scheme plus eerie detached (sleeping?) floating-head subject, the later two attributes both ala Redon.

Well, c'mon. Practice is good/useful in it's own right, I suppose.

I have just received and watched the DVD Plein Air with Pastel: A Complete In-Depth Demonstration of Pastels as a Wet & Dry Medium, starring Greg Biolchini. He spends quite a bit of time and energy fiddling around with the alcohol underpainting. Interesting.

The best part of the DVD were the sounds of the birds happily singing in the forest throughout the entire demo. It took place in the woods somewhere in North Carolina and it was a lovely day. Real nostalgic for (a) North Carolina and (b) summer!!!

La Coquille Genteel?

La Coquille Odilon Redon (22-1/2" x 22-3/4")
I am not at all sure what to make of this turn-of-the-20th century French artist Odilon Redon (1840-1916). His drawings and pastels are both thoroughly creepy and quite lovely. About this particular piece, according to Roseline Bacou in Odilon Redon Pastels (1987), "The source for this well-known pastel is one of the shells which Mme. Redon, a native of the Ile-de-la-Réunion, liked to keep around her. This work, now in the Musée d'Orsay, was placed on the fireplace mantel in the Redon's living room . . . and often served as the starting point for Redon's musings." (page 178)

As I was reading that Bacou book, I turned the page to this piece and I kind of softly shouted, with surprise and then instantly with pleasure. So I had to post it. This shell, it talks.

Determine the Extremes

The painting sequence / process, from Professor Bob Rohm:

1. Formulate the Idea - Why am I doing this? What do I want to communicate? What's the point? Have a concept, a raison d'etre. It may change, but have one initially.
2. Simplify the Shapes - Six to eight shapes. Lay 'em in.
3. Average the Values - Four values. Decide and depict.
   
4. Average the Colors - Each value shape becomes a color shape. Assign colors. Decide on relative temperatures.
5. Determine the Extremes - Find the darkest dark, the lightest light, and the most dynamic edge.

Done! The rest are just modifications and refinements. Questions for the rest of the process:
-- How much detail?
-- How much information?
-- How much color variety?
NB: "Always make these modifications in relation to the extremes that you established. Nothing you add should be darker, lighter, more intense, or more dynamic than your established extremes."

[From The Painterly Approach: An Artist's Guide to Seeing, Painting, and Expressing, by Bob Rohm (2008)]

Glove? Deprived of.

Back to drawing again! This is a page from my everyday sketchbook, done with PR Velvet Black ink and (the faces at the bottom) with Noodler's Red-Black ink in my two Lamy pens with the calligraphy nibs (one for each color!). On Strathmore Aquarius II watercolor paper, size approximately 7" x 8". I added some watercolor and some gouache (the blue!) later.

Navajo Man

This was my best drawing from the Crash Course In Drawing class this past weekend, using a grid and transferring the layout from the photo. It's overall 18" x 24". Done with charcoal, Char-Kole, and chamois, paper towels, and erasers!

The instructor, Deirdre Saunder, was great! It's a shame that she doesn't teach more classes at the Art League. I'd sign up.

Winners in New Mexico

See the winners of the Pastel Society of New Mexico's National Show 2008, here. I especially like the work of Bill James, the winner with this, and Lelia Hall.

Jowl Study

Here is a pastel paint-by-numbers piece, using one of my carborundum prints as a base drawing.

I wanted to test some of my brand new Intense Darks II from Ludwig. The spaces on either side of her head are layered with some really interesting deep deep reds/burgundies. Very nice! 'Tho you can't see them here. Leastways I can't on my monitor.

It's about 7-1/2" x 11", on real bumpy Saint-Armand 'Colours' watercolor paper upon which I ink-jetted a blow-up of my print. I then sealed it with a coat of Colourfix Pastel Primer in clear.

Sycamore Scaffolding

These are some sycamores below my window. As the season moves on I'll see more and more of the white bleached-bone skeleton. They say the best way to learn to draw trees is by careful observation. Maybe I'll make these my special study. Since they are quite handy.

Tan Pot

This is part of the homework for the last session of the pastels class at the Smithsonian. I tried this same ceramic pot in a number of different colors on different surfaces/backgrounds. I liked this one the best. It happens to be (a) the actual color of the pot and (b) the first one I did. Lesson: Observe closely and then savor beginner's luck.

It's about 9x12 on Daler-Rowney pastel paper (which I had bound with a spiral binding so I could use it as a sketch pad) coated with clear Colourfix Pastel Primer. I used Townsends, GAs, and Ludwigs. Mostly.

I bought three Roches the other day and for the life of me can't figure out what all the big fuss is about. The Townsends are nicer, to my mind.

Pastels (etc!) Book List (revised 3Dec12)

Revised 3Dec12
"A" List -- Excellent books. I refer to them over and over:

• The Pastel Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist, by Bill Creevy (1991) -- This is my favorite by far. It's considerably out of date with regard to the materials (some of his delightful-looking papers don't exist anymore) but his diverse and out-there-on-the-edge techniques are all fascinating and show the versatility and vitality of the medium.
• The Pastel Artist's Handbook: Materials, Techniques, Color and Composition, Style, Subject, by Sally Harper (2004) -- Good advice, very complete.
• Degas Pastels, by JS Boggs and A Maheux (1992) -- Inspirational! Ed Degas is thought the modern 'master' of the medium. Good reproductions. Useful commentary on each piece.
  
• Raw Color with Pastels, by Mark Leach (2006) --- Again, as with the Creevy book, examples of how far and how wide pastels can take you. Buy this one just to see the surprising images.
  
  

"B" List -- Interesting but certainly NOT necessary. The "A" List books are far better:

• The Art of Pastel Painting, by Alan Flattmann (1987) Very dated, but still containing some good advice with regard to materials, studio organization, and techniques.
  
•  Painting with Pastels: Easy Techniques to Master the Medium, by Maggie Price (2007)
• Pastel Workbook: A Complete Course in 10 Lessons. by Jackie Simmons (2007)
• Pastel Painting Techniques, by Guy Roddon (1987)
• Pastel School: A Practical Guide to Painting and Drawing with Pastels, by Hazel Harrison (1996) -- Along the lines of the Harper book. Nicely illustrated.
• Capturing Radiant Light and Color in Oils and Soft Pastels, by Susan Sarback (2007) -- This is the spiritualist/kumbaya approach to color theory. A controversial book! Suzie says stare at the shadow of a banana long enough and you can see all the colors of the rainbow. Well now. We'll have to take High Preistess Sarback's word for it!
• All About Techniques in Pastel, by "Parramón’s Editorial Team" (English version dated 1998). Translated from the Spanish. Nicely organized. Well-illustrated.
  
  

Other EXCELLENT books of note:

• Confident Color: An Artist's Guide to Harmony, Contrast, and Unity, by Nita Leland (2008) --- This is her new edition of the old classic Exploring Color. A very well-done and very clear guide to the skillful use of color. For those of us that came to pastels from drawing and for whom color is a dazzling wash of confusion, this books is very useful. Very comforting.
• Mastering Composition, by Ian Roberts (2008) -- Excellent and very clear intro to composition.
• Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, by John Carlson (1973) -- Totally lacking in quality reproductions and color illustrations (there is nothing reproduced in color -- not even in the chapter on 'Color' -- ha! absurd!) and totally lacking in 21st century political correctness (all artists are either "men" or "he"), it more than makes up for with excellent tips, charts, illustrations, and advice. 
• Abstract Painting: Concepts and Techniques, by Vicky Perry (2005) -- This is an interestingly practical presentation of the tenets of the abstraction. Ignore the two chapters about oil and acrylic painting (about 20 pages).
  
• Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking, by D Bayles and T Orland (1993) -- Get past all your excuses and just get to it.
  

Torso in the Twigs

Here is the sketch from yesterday's Intro to Pastels class. It was a very strange day outside, up to about 74º, wet, humid, and balmy. But with very dark clouds zipping around, interrupting the sunlight. (There was a tornado warning later in the afternoon!) Anyway, we got out again to paint and this session was in the Hirshhorn's Sculpture Garden. I was attracted to this black shiny wet slick tree and wanted to connect it with that equally slick black torso on the pedestal above.

This is about 9" x 12" on Wallis Belgian Mist paper, using the usual mix of Great Americans, Townsends, and Ludwigs. I found myself really needing a shiny black pastel. Heeding all the books and all the instructors, I don't have one. So I used my charcoal pencil for the blacks. It really isn't sparkly and dense enough. Okay then! Lesson learned on stashing one pure black away in the corner of the box! And again, my Blackfoot is the bomb! Love it!

Question: is the color of the Belgian Mist paper too drab? Yesterday it kinda matched the atmosphere in the garden: drab, muted, brown, skanky . . . .

Pug-juggly

This is one of the homework assignments from class. I have incorporated the critique suggestions from Professor Gobar, softening both the background and foreground. It looks so 3-D I can't get over it.

Broken as Spoken

From class #4 of Intro to Pastels at the Smithsonian. Finally we had a fine day and we all went outside into the adjacent Enid Haupt Garden to draw/paint. I was using my brand new Alla Prima Blackfoot, which is small but great.

This is 8"x10", on rough Saint-Armand watercolor paper, coated with Colourfix Pastel Primer in clear. Hence the 'broken color' technique. I am happy with the Castle wall at the top and at the left and am always going to take along a small packet of pastel pencils and my beloved Pierre Noires, for this kind of line work. (Although the Nupastels would have worked just as well, I betcha.) I could probably spend some more time "refining" the lamp post and fixture as well. Hmmm.

Next experiment: Lay on a base pastel color on the rough paper, rub it into the grain, then apply 'broken' color on top. Use two colors that are the same value.

Making History

"Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Barack could run. Barack is running so our children can fly."

Addendum Day Two: "It felt like Berlin after the Wall was breached. Something that had been imagined for so long, yet seemed impossible, just . . . happened. It felt like the American promise, fulfilled. At the foot of the Key Bridge just after midnight, hundreds of Georgetown University students poured off the campus. "White House!" they shouted to one another, and off they ran, along M Street NW, down Pennsylvania Avenue, picking up pretty much the entire student body of George Washington University on their way." the beginning of Marc Fisher column, usually our daily dose of glum pessimism, in today's Post.

Emperor in the Basement

Week 3 of our Intro to Pastels class at the Smithsonian. The weather was less than ideal so we stayed in yet again and painted from photos brought by Michelle, the TA. I was lucky enough to find this cool pic of a Roman sculpted face. Very interestingly lit and nicely cropped. I should have used the orange-tinted paper, instead of the blue. What a waste of a good opportunity. Next time! And neither the right nor left sides are entirely "resolved" but oh well. I was afraid that further fiddling wouldn't help. (How do you know when a thing is finished? You just know.)

Visual Warm-Up Exercises

From the 1st day of class of Introduction to Pastel, taught by Sandra Warren Gobar, an ingenious stepped warm-up exercise, which can be done all on one sketchbook page (9x12) as shown:

1. first, walk around the area (if plein air), your scene, or around the still life set-up and find your view, the view that you want to engage; situate yourself in front of that view.
2. do a preliminary 1-minute warm up sketch
3. next do a 40-second two-step (look up and look down) contour drawing
4. now a 10-second gesture drawing
5. then do a 30-second blind contour drawing
6. finally, do a 1-minute warm up sketch

The theory behind all this is that, in the first minute you initially engage and explore, without being allowed to get too anal. During the first contour you find the lines. The gesture finds the movement. The blind contour forces you to look more carefully. And the last sketch is the one with the most "visual information". Is it your final composition? I dunno. But putting all these on the same sketchbook page is very handy. You can actually see your thoughts. Very revealing and instructional.

ADDENDUM: Possible plein air locations, in DC:

• Sculpture Garden at NGA
• Bishop's Garden at the National Cathedral
• Hillwood Gardens
• Franciscan Monastery in NE
• Pierce Mill in Rock Creek Park
• Tudor Place in Georgetown
• National Arboretum

Jugglery joculari

ScumbleWorld! This is Arches 300lb 'Rough' paper, coated with clear Colourfix Primer, so it's like painting on aggregate concrete. I could have added quite a few more layers with no problem at all. That squatty foreground jug is a shape that I keep coming back to time and time again, even though I don't have anything in my real universe that is that shape. It lives a very chunky and substantive life in my imagination, however. It's a standard doodle shape for me.

PS: 8 hours + 17 minutes until Hockey Season!

Pauvre Mauve Pears

This began as a sort of tea-stained board. The pear color is the 'compliment' of that tea-colored surface. Blue-violet being the compliment of the drab ochre. Palette below. The four there in a row that all look black are actually various tints of a wonderful deep deep Terry Ludwig aubergine (technically a "violet"). Neat color!

Inspirational pears here.