still life

Wonderful relaxing day today. My drawing time was spent trying my hand at a still life watercolor. I intended to create a drawing with simple lines and light washes of color. The reality: not so simple. I ended up with a muddy mess. But. Good learning experience.  Oddly, the values were ok when viewed in black and white. 

The Path

I am currently on a bit of a "holiday"-- i.e. I'm between jobs (starting anew in January) and am trying to cram in as much creativity and practice as I can.  I'm absorbing all the art books I've purchased over the last couple years within a crammed four week period.  My main "texts" are the Art of Responsive Drawing; Urban Sketching: the Complete Guide to Techniques; and Urban Watercolor Sketching.  I'm working my way through a series of practice drawings and paintings and trying to absorb as much as possible.  

Responsive Figure drawing ( 2 min, 20 min etc):

watercolor portraits:

and, of course my almost daily Sktchy portraits:

starting again

there comes a point when the words build up so deep, I have to break the dam.  It doesn't matter to me in many ways whether or not anyone else ever reads this blog, but I have to write.  All the social media in the world (the IG, the flickr the facebooks) just do not provide the same type of outlet. 

I have been going through a personal revolution.  An emotional and physical collapse, a renaissance in my personal art.  I can not express clearly enough how important art and drawing and painting are to my own self esteem and healing and moving forward.  I've been experimenting with so many mediums, styles, drawing daily.  I am in a seventh heaven of art. I'm drawing, I am reading, I am experimenting.  I'd like to (try) to post a daily drawing, a daily post.  I will not make it a promise.  I promise (to myself) to DRAW daily...but whether or not I post is another story.  

Here are some of my recent works.

Excited, overwhelmed, intrigued

What an amazing week. I sometimes despair of understanding what strange ways the world works. This week I was honored that the P1xels Art Exhibition showed a series if my self portraits in a gallery in their site. My image Metaphoical Me as The White Queen (how pretentious I am now) was picked to be highlighted in the *Spotlight* Series for The Portrait and Nudes Group - March 26 * gallery on Flickr, an a sweet soul named Yuni *liked* 160 of my images in one day on EyeEm. I highlight all these things together because they all fill my soul. And, drumroll, I "came out" at work about my self portraits and painting.

I've been posting images if my work in progress, tentatively called Three aspects of Motherhood, to various places and I'm delighted and intrigued at people's reactions. It is funny how people love to give advice if you post  an ongoing WIP.  I love feeling like a real "artist" worthy of commentary.  I'm having fun.

I'm a bit overwhelmed, simultaneous wanting to fly in five directions. Photos, paint, blog, social, media, life, work. Is that more than five?


Here are some of the items mentioned in this post:

Metaphorical Me as the White Queen. iPhone only digital editing.

Stages of Three Aspects of Motherhood. Mixed Media

In progress,  Three Aspects of Motherhood. Mixed Media

In progress, Three Aspects of Motherhood. Mixed Media

In progress,  Three Aspects of Motherhood. Mixed Media

Image from P1xels gallery. (Are you coming home?)

Still life and layering

Last night I tried drawing a still life for my daily practice. I chose watercolor crayons after my initial line work. I am semi-pleased with the effort. I was reading a book on cubism before and after and would like to think my lack of depth is due to that :) I keep telling myself, practice is how you get better.

I had no idea what to do for my self portrait of the day. I just started glazing and blending and trying to make something work. I liked my result but am lost on what to title it because in someways the images weren't meant to be together. I've shown the "clean" glazed version of the self image and the drawing they were layered.

The drawing is doodling I had done in my 5x7 journal, background but also possibly and idea for a more complete piece.

Bananas and pepper

Late night inspiration

I absolutely adore the way digital editing can click so quickly. Last night, I was ready for bed but hadn't done my self portrait (sp) for the day. I had no idea what I wanted to do.

One of my "tricks" is to find an abstract or other image I like and just start combining it with a strong SP. Earlier in the day, I had started playing with a phenomenal new iPhone app called Repix. I created a poppy image. I tried overlaying a face image and WOW, immediate inspiration! I was suddenly not tired and totally enthralled by colors and brushes.

A few more swirls and sparkles back in Repix and I was done! I will be doing some tutorial posts over the next few days showing some if these techniques. But for now, here are the finished images an some of the interim steps.

Metaphorical Me as The White Queen. March 20, iPhone photo and digital editing.

Metaphorical Me as Queen of Spring. March 20, iPhone photo and digital editing.

Poppy! iPhone image, digitally edited.

Initial Blender blended image.

Unedited poppy image.

Unedited self portrait iPhone image

Love in many forms

I feel very blessed today as it has been one if those weeks where things seem to be clicking artistically. I have had so many lovely things happen recently- I was recently the lead photo in Life in Lofi's Flickr showcase, I just had two more images accepted to the P1xels exhibition online (images are located under the "People" category), I was asked by some friends on Mobitog to share some "process" posts- showing how I achieve my images, and I spent an evening with a friend "teaching" her about art journaling .

These things are all "baby steps" forward in this journey, but it takes my breath away when I think how far I've come just this year. At the beginning of the yer I couldn't imagine any of those things happening, I feel like such a novice still, but I am really beginning to have a gut feeling for My style, my "voice" if you will.

Looking for Light.  Hyacinth taken with iPhone.

Art journal, background page from my art "play date. Mixed media, watercolor crayon and ink.

Feeling Torn. Self portrait, iPhone image edited in Kitcam