Traveling

Posted on by
In progress: water soluble crayon & colored pencil

In progress: water soluble crayon & colored pencil

My husband and I are visiting Oahu Hawaii. The destination was not our exact choice, but the conference that he is attending is located here. We have been to the Big Island, Maui, and Kauai. Oahu is so very different than the other islands.  We are not city folk, so we are a little less comfortable. We were lucky to find a really nice spot on the North Shore for the days before the conference, and that was great! I have spent my time taking lots of photos and thinking of future drawing and painting subjects. Today was the first day that I really had enough time to devote to some artwork. It is super hot in the city though, so I have to watch my materials closely for melting!

Shell sketch: North Shore of Oahu

Shell sketch: North Shore of Oahu

Painting

Posted on by
Black-eyed Susan

Black-eyed Susan

The thing I like most about encaustic painting is that you always have some sort of surprise. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t, sometimes you can fix it. I have discovered that casein paint works really nicely on birch panel and that they encaustic works really nice over the paint. Now the experiment is to see where the balance is between ground, underpainting and encaustic painting. I enjoy both of these mediums and I am going to keep trying to find the balance to see how they can work best together. Oh, and in the end, for some reason I decided to scratch into the wax surface,  liked the way that turned out! There is so much learning to do!

middle ground

middle ground

Here is the casein underpainting with the encaustic ground.

underpainting

underpainting

and here is just the casein underpainting

Mixing it up

Posted on by
Super Moon!

Super Moon!

All of the sudden I decided to change it up! I think that I was inspired by this photo that I took of the super moon (I think it was July 7 or 8). The photo itself didn’t turn out, but the scene in person was pretty awesome. We had gone out on the boat with friends to watch the fireworks from the water…when I turned and looked back there was all this water churning up behind the boat and this really big moon with a super reflection. So, in order to keep the memory I did take a photo…which is working as a good reference. I think I will do several of these as paintings and drawings. The encaustic painting was really fun to do. It’s not my usual style…but I found it very liberating!

Cone Flower

Cone Flower

After that I decided to try a more impressionistic approach using encaustic…and the cone flower is the result. It’s a difficult medium to work with, so this is more of learning experience. I used casein to paint the ground and then worked on top of the wax medium with a combination of oil pastels and encaustic paint. I really like working on the birch panel.

I am keeping up pretty well with my 5 minutes sketches! Good warm ups.

coneflower5min

All over the place!

Posted on by
Rooster warm-up

Rooster warm-up

A sketch here, encaustic there, painting, drawing, waxing….a chaotic week with no discipline! No excuses for any of that other than I guess I haven’t dedicated the “time” to work on finished material. The Art Shed did get electric this week! That took me out of the studio and left me with the dining room table (which is fine). I am on my 4th Derwent Art Academy lesson–drawing a rooster with colored pencil. This seems like it will be a challenge, so I started with a warm up drawing of the rooster and then decided that I should do a warm up using colored pencil only. I should be warmed up by now, and now I am just procrastinating! I am not going to do one more drawing until I finish the rooster!

colored pencil warm up

colored pencil warm up

Because I got electric, I felt obligated to do a little encaustic. I am happy with the two dandelions. The photo was printed on tissue paper and then adhered to a found wood block, encaustic paint and medium over the image. I also did a piece on stone–round shell in casine, colored pencil and encaustic. Not as pleased with this one. I think that the stone needs to be smoother–and the color ran, which I would prefer didn’t happen.

photo-encaustic

photo-encaustic

On to the rooster!

Learning

Posted on by
Stippling

Stippling

I am really enjoying taking the Derwent Art Academy free class. Not only am I super excited to get through the lessons in order to get my choice of 18 pencils, I am actually learning from each lesson! They seem so basic in some ways, but unless you go through a course you forget some of the basics that are really the backbone of successful work. The stippling course was not my favorite though. The lesson is good, its the production that is was difficult for me. I have done stippling with ink and I think that with paint i would like it. Pencil stippling is a long and tedious process! Even with such a tiny little drawing I found myself wishing that it was all over! It was all I could do to stick with it. But, it did teach me to slow down and the slowing down helped me really look very carefully at my subject.

Onto something a little more fun. Lobster claw study in color. Maybe I will add some controlled stippling as a tribute to my lesson!

Lobster claw study

Lobster claw study

Finishing

Posted on by

threemussels

This morning I decided that rather than start something new I should finish something I have already started. So, back to the mussel drawing. This piece was really the inspiration for the encaustic I did yesterday, and now that has inspired me to return to the original piece. I am really happy with the strength of the colors and the composition. I like the way the water soluble crayon handles–which is interesting because when I first tried these I really struggled. I am making a kind of light colored wash to do the outline of the composition/drawing and then laying down washes over top. I have discovered that this medium mixes perfectly right on the paper you are using–so you need to have the same type of paper available for mixing. No graphite for this, just colored pencil over top for the details. I think this is working out alright.

I am taking the free art class at the Derwent Art Academy website. It is super fun and the way it is set up keeps you looking forward to the next lesson and project. Here are my sketches from the perspective lesson.

pear3

pear2

pear1

Shells

Posted on by

roundshell1final

I am stuck on shells. I love the shapes and I have collected so many that I have immediate resources for life drawing. I have discovered that I really like the water soluble crayons and colored pencils together. I am going to try, try, try to stick with just these two mediums for a little while…I will still do some graphite sketches every day.

I ran out of time today and couldn’t finish the one below, but I am having fun with it!

mussles

 

Studies

Posted on by

magnoliasketch

Trying to maintain a loose style. It is so easy to get all worked up and tied tight while drawing and painting. I have done some pages in my sketchbook with just random color…they have been sitting in my book for awhile now. I have decided to try some drawing over top the color, it’s oddly liberating. I will keep trying this for awhile. In some ways the color suggests the drawing and in some ways the drawing leans towards one of the previous done grounds. I like the way that works!

broken shell

broken shell

Happy Daffodil

Posted on by

Happy Daffodil

Spring brings these beautiful daffodils! I love them. They are incredibly cheery! It’s still on the chilly side here in Maine, so it’s great to have a little color to cheer one up. I think that I will do a series of these. This one I have decided to give to a friend, but I will miss it, so on to the next one.

I thought I would be able to open my Art Shed last weekend, but it was still too cold and other chores caught up to me. I am hoping that this weekend will be full of good weather and some extra time. I need to open the shed and make a plan for the summer projects.

Spring Time

Posted on by
sketch for painting

sketch for painting

It’s funny, I keep thinking that I will get back to my snow shadows (I have several that need to be completed!), but the spring weather is pushing me to the flowers. Especially when they are growing in my own back yard. Inspiration everywhere. I really like the sketch above, I am going to work on a water color and a casein painting for this composition. I am still finishing up the Iris painting, but almost done.

I found a little stretched canvas at the Goodwill for 99 cents, so I am experimenting with that. I am trying a casein painting of a seagull sitting on a granite wall. The layers will be really thin in order to make it work on this substrate. So far, the ground is really fun, we will see where it all ends up. So different to work on from paper.

light layers of casein on canvas

light layers of casein on canvas