Persimmons and Mint Tea

From my Sketchbook

I have posted this before, but it's day 27,  Thanksgiving Eve .   .   . 

I've been baking pies today, getting out the tablecloths, the guest bedding, ETC.  Are you traveling?  Getting ready for guests?  Having a quiet day?  whatever you're doing  -  relax, enjoy the day, and maybe get in a quick sketch.

Travel Palette

Contour Drawing

This is a contour drawing (continuous line) of one of my little travel palettes, brush, and water container.  As you can see, I was struggling a bit with the water container. I was pretty pleased that, when doing the palette, I ended up with the line where it needed to be. I have to get into my right brain to do that, and sometimes I begin to let in a little fear (okay, maybe "fear is an exaggeration, but maybe not) that it won't connect in the right places, and then I begin to be distracted by that insecurity and start to slip out of the right brain mode, and then that really goofs up the drawing and .  .  . 

Day 26 of blogging-every-day-in-November.

Snow

Looking Down the Street

This is what it has been looking like around here for the past couple of days.  This storm going across the country isn't hitting us as hard as in other areas..  We are not snowed in, and I made it to the grocery store today.  When I saw the weather forecast, I was getting a little worried about getting our turkey!  All set. 

I am not a multitasker, and planning and buying food for the days leading up to and just beyond an event (Thanksgiving) is multitasking as far as I'm concerned.  I have no idea what we'll eat Tuesday and Wednesday and the weekend will take me by surprise.  I am hyper-focused  on Thanksgiving.  So now that I've said that, it had better be good, huh. 

Orange Geranium

Poor Straggly Thing

My bright orange geranium is pretty wimpy looking.  I'll try to baby it through the winter and see how it does in the spring.  I love the color, and have never seen another one exactly like it. 

It has hovered around 21 degrees all weekend.  We have snow, which should make the ski resorts very happy.  Skiing is important here for our local economy.

Now I'm going to go warm up some leftover homemade chicken noodle soup, we'll pick out a movie, and call it a day.  It's been a nice one. How about your day?  I hope it was good!

Sketches

A Page in my Sketchbook

This is a page in a 9 X 12 sketchbook.  The drawings are done with a 6B drawing pencil.   The houses are value and composition sketches for future paintings, and the chair is just because I love drawing chairs.

I t has been soooo cold here today  -  about 21 degrees with strong winds.   We went out this morning to run errands, but after a couple of stops, decided to just go home.  The wind was bitter cold and it was getting slippery. 

What is the weather like where you are?  Hope you're staying warm.

Workshop Lunches

Some of my Lunches from Summer Workshops

In my journal workshops I usually have the participants paint their brown bag lunches before we eat.  I'm always on the look-out for pretty paper plates to add some color and pattern to my workshop lunches.  That way I can have any old unattractive lunch and just put a couple of things on a pretty plate and still have a colorful little watercolor sketch. Also there are no rules against painting  the lunch of someone else in the class if it's prettier than yours.  The only rule is, you can't then claim it as yours and eat it.

Because we are hungry and in a hurry,  we really don't care how it turns out.  Those are usually the best sketches.

Colored Pencils

 

Colored Pencils for my Birthday

I posted this old black and white picture very early on in my blog.  Yesterday, with my paper-making friends, we were talking about our art supplies, and how much we love them, and I thought about this photo. That set of pencils was my prized possession.  I loved those pencils.  They ranked right up there with my bike and doll house.

Look at those bangs!

Our Creative Endeavor

 Paper Making

We made paper today from dryer lint.  It was not a pretty job.  It was slimy, chunky, stringy, hairy (pet and human).  Have you ever seen the Bassomatic skit with Dan Akroyd from Saturday night live back in the mid-seventies?

 I think the paper will turn out much lighter after it has dried  -  which I think might take days.

We had a great time! And I think the most important thing we learned  -  start buying much lighter clothes so we'll have better lint.

Troupe Tent Flower Bed

 

Sketchbook Demo

Back in July I did a two-day workshop at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.
This sketch was done to demonstrate continuous line drawing, rocks, blob and smoosh, and negative shapes.  "Blob and smoosh"  is a term I use for softening edges  -  you blob the color on, then you smoosh it out a little.

I've been painting a little wicker plant stand, and that is about as creative as I have been for several days now.  I'll see if I can step it up a little tomorrow.

Day 18

 Color

This is an old medicine cabinet where I keep bottles of acrylic paint. It's  a bright spot on the wall, and seeing the color in the bottom of the bottles makes it easy to grab the color you want.  I don't paint serious ( ? ) paintings with these craft acrylics, but they're great to have around for a fun project, and for the grandkids to use.

To be honest, I haven't painted an acrylic painting in a long time -  serious or not.  I like painting with acrylic, but watercolor is just SO much fun!

Certainly nothing like the storms hitting some other areas in the Midwest, but it has been very very windy here.  Winter is upon us. So just stay inside and play with color!

Early Summer Workshop

Flowers at the Harbor in Harbor Springs

This was a demonstration back in June for a one day workshop with a groupof great painters who meet every week in the city chambers to paint together. 

The page on the left is Mi-Teintes pastel paper.  It comes in a huge variety of colors and I often put a few pieces in my sketchbooks.

It's nice to look back at summer sketchbooks on very dark, rainy, stormy, November days.

Studio Shelves

Bookshelves in my Classroom/studio

I love looking at pictures of artists' studios, so I thought I'd post this picture of a corner of mine. 

I am a huge advocate of having a space of your own to be creative in.  It doesn't have to be large, but it does have to "call" to you, so you'll want to be there, and you'll be inspired.  If you want to create, you really have to be able to leave your tools of the trade out so they're handy  when the mood hits.  Of course the mood hits more often if you're space is waiting for you. 

Some artists like their creative spaces very clean and organized  -  that's what calls to them  Others like to leave a project out in mid-creation to return to. Others like a real mess they can get lost in.  The key thing here is personal creative space.

Do you have a space to call your own?   Art supplies are beautiful  -  they don't need to be put away when company comes.

Are you sketching this weekend?

Day 15

Sketchbook Pages from Summer

Today is the first day of firearm deer hunting season in Michigan.  This is almost a national holiday in Northern Michigan.  When our kids were in school, students could even get excused from school to go hunting on opening day!  Maybe they still do that.  Everyone up here knows that if you are hiring  some work done, it had better be completed by the 15th or it will set there unfinished for two weeks.  I had a friend who was in an accident many years ago during hunting season in northern Michigan, and the whole volunteer emergency crew was deer hunting, and there was no one to respond to the call.

On the left side of the pages above, are some little vignettes I did at the lavender farm.  That's all I did  -  there are just too many people to talk to.  The right hand page is a demo I did the next day in a Bay View class.

Here we are in the middle of November, and it seems like only yesterday that I did these sketches.

Happy Birthday to granddaughter Katie!!!

Pears and a Persimmon

More Fruit

We painted small still lifes in class today.   This was a color demonstration that I did using only prussian blue, quinacridone burnt scarlet, and new gamboge.  At least I started out using that triad, but I wasn't really happy with the quinacridone burnt scarlet as the red  -  it just wouldn't allow for the bright  rosy red or glowing orange that I wanted.  I added some quinacridone red.

That little palette in the lower right has the triad colors in it that I used in this painting.  Isn't it the cutest little palette you've ever seen!

Some Colorful Fruit

Pears, Persimmons, and a Lime

This watercolor sketch is painted in my journal on Aquarius II paper.  This journal is a Coptic (my version of Coptic) stitch.  Coptic is nice because the pages open flat, but it is a little awkward at the point where two signatures (sections of paper) come together.  There is a gap there, as you can see,  but it is a sketchbook  -  we are not doing masterpieces in them.  I could choose not to cross over to the facing page with my sketch, but this space really doesn't bother me.  Then why am I talking so much about it? i have to say something  -  I'm blogging everyday.

Are you painting today?

Day 12

 View of the Bay

I almost expected the street lights to come on this afternoon. It is dark, dark, dark here.  I went to the grocery and bought some colorful fruit  -  pears and more persimmons.  That will give us something bright and cheerful to paint in class tomorrow.

This is day 12 of blogging every day in November, and I have nothing artistic or creative to post.  Of course I could go back through my summer sketchbook and post things I haven't posted yet, but the summer  sketches just didn't seem to fit the day.  Do you realize that we will have this "gray-ness" for months now?  If you're not from northern Michigan, do you understand how drab it gets?  I'm askin' for a little sympathy here. 

Actually, the changing of seasons is really nice,  but I think we'd all just like it to change back to spring a little earlier.

Well, let's see how productive we can all be this winter. We could make daily sketching a habit .  Maybe you already do.  I've been slacking.  Here I go.

Yellow Leaves in Snow

The Last of the Colorful Trees

I painted this tree this afternoon in my sketchbook to capture the last of the bright leaves.  The sky and the hills across the Bay were a very dark gray-blue.  The wind was blowing and it started to snow.  It's very likely the leaves will be gone by morning. It's a rather delicate looking tree, but apparently very strong willed  -  all the large trees have given up their leaves long ago.

I liked the contrast of the warm yellow and the deep blue.  Doesn't nature have some fabulous color combinations?!

November 11th  -  thank you Veterans!!!

Bay View Cottage

Bay View

This is a continuous line drawing / watercolor sketch done in my sketchbook one morning this past summer while I was waiting for my class to show up.

From the look of things here today, summer is long gone, but it's nice to remember. It was very windy this morning with dramatic clouds.  This is a good time of year to do some cloud studies.  I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Hope you had a good weekend.  Did you sketch?

Persimmon

Persimmon 

I was craving color after doing some value sketches in gray scales.  Nothing cures that craving like a persimmon. 

This was done in gouache on  Bogus Rough Sketch paper. Gouache is an opaque watercolor that acts and smells kind of like tempera.  It's very different from painting with transparent watercolor because you can paint from dark to light as you would with acrylic or oils.  It's very "blend-able" and can be made more transparent with more water.

It's been a dark, drippy, cold day here today.  I haven't had to be out in it, so I've just enjoyed the cosiness of the day.  It's been one of those days that is pleasantly long  -  like a gift of a stretched out day.   We even did some chores.  In this quirky old house, the storm windows go up on the inside, so that was our main project of the day. 

Okay.  I think it's time for nachos and a movie.

What are you doing this weekend?

Another Value Sketch

Drawn on Bogus Rough Sketch Paper

"Bogus Rough". Don't you love that?  It just sounds gutsy, doesn't it?  Actually it looks and feels a lot like a heavy kraft paper.  You can buy it in a tablet, and it's made by "Bee Paper".

Using a toned paper allows you to use the paper as the mid value, the use charcoal for the deep shadows and white chalk for the highlights.  It's an altogether different look than the hard edges you get with markers.  The markers are fast and simple.  The chalk and charcoal are slower and more "artistic".   Someone in class said, "Oh, this is fun!  I feel like Leonardo, sketching on this brown paper."  I wonder if Leonardo's paper was brown to begin with.

I'm having a lot of fun with value sketches,  but I'm beginning to crave color.  Maybe tomorrow.

Value Sketch

Chartpak Markers on Drawing Paper

"Value" means the lights and darks

In this week's classes we are discussing, and doing, value sketches.  This one was done with some new markers I sent for.  They come in a whole range of gray scales in warm or cool shades of gray.  I just bought three  -  numbers 2, 5, and 8 in the cool series.  It shows up very cool on my monitor, but very warm in real life.  I can't imagine how warm the warm grays must be.  They are Chartpak markers.

Lemme tell ya  -  they are very smelly and very "bleedy". 

I know gray scales are used in a wide range, but I do best working with three values.  Once I get those three established, others begin to fill in as I continue to draw or paint, but three is definitely enough for me to think about.

We're also working on mid value paper with chalk and charcoal.  More later.

Day 6

The Recycled Sculpture at the Transfer Station

I took my sketchbook to the recycle center yesterday when I went on a field trip with our youngest granddaughter's class.  It was really very interesting. It's nice to know there is so much recycling going on and that it's so worthwhile.

This little sketch is a continuous line drawing that took only two or three minutes.

In class this morning we did value sketches using various pens, pencils, chalk, and charcoal.  More tomorrow. The excitement builds, huh.

Cathy's White Birdhouse

A Sketch from this Summer

This was from one of our bookbinding workshops.  On Day two of the workshop, we paint in the books that we made the day before.

Today I'm going  with my youngest granddaughter's class to the county transfer station.  AKA the dump.  My husband says, "Don't bring anything home."

What are you sketching today?

Day 4 of "blog everyday"

Margaret's Birch Trees

This page in my journal was a demonstration during a class this past summer.  We were painting at a student's home on a beautiful lake.  It was one of those intriguing places with lots of family history, long front porches, multiple cottages, a tennis court, a long winding drive back to the lakeside property .  .  .

Now winter is setting in, but they can't take that day at Margaret's away from us. All of us who were there that day have something in our sketchbooks to remind us.  Photographs remind us of an event or place, but sketches help us to remember how it felt, smelled, and sounded, and tasted of course  -  we did have lunch on one of those looong porches.

Carry your sketchbooks around with you so you don't miss anything.

Light Shape in Dark, Dark Shape in Light

Demonstrations of light shapes in dark, and dark shapes in light.

Awhile ago we did these in my classes.  I love little house shapes.  They're fun to move around the composition and play with the values.

The lightest light against the darkest dark  is the focal point  -  whether it wants to be or not.  Also the pointed shape of the gable end draws our attention.

With a large brush, these little paintings quickly give you what you need to know for a larger, more serious painting. You've worked out a simple composition, a value pattern, and a harmonious color scheme.  If one or more of these elements didn't work out for you, you probably have, at that point, a pretty good idea of what might have gone wrong.  With your large brush you just do another little painting until you get what you want.

We lost a lot of leaves overnight  -  it's beginning to look like winter.  Today we had sunshine and the trees with their red or yellow leaves still hanging on were beautiful. The trees have been slower to drop their leaves this year  -  the city has even delayed the leaf pick-up to an, as yet, undetermined date.  This is big deal stuff, huh?  Day three of Blogging Everyday in November!

Small White Cottage

Watercolor Demo on Arches 140 cold press paper

This is a small watercolor sketch that I did for my class a couple of weeks ago.  We have been talking in my classes about WHY we paint a certain subject.  How can we paint it very simply and still show WHY we painted it.  So  -  we were concentrating on composition, value and simplicity of strokes and shapes.

I was attempting to show sunshine and contrast, and it was painted in just a few minutes with a large brush.  I painted in the flowers first  -  always lightest brightest first.  Then just swooped through with a medium green, being careful to paint around the house shape and the flowers. Next were some dark, negative shapes around the cottage, and in the trees and flowers.  The last thing was a series of squiggles of green for a little foreground interest.

I love doing small watercolors with a 10 or 14 brush  -  it moves it right along.  Instant gratification.

Here We Go.

Some of my Art Supplies

Okay.  I signed up for "blogging everyday for the month of November".  I know I'm supposed to put an official link in my sidebar, but I struggle with that process every year, and I just don't want to do that right now.  Here is the link to BlogHer if you are interested in more information about the challenge.

I started doing this in November of 2007.  I have been a very sluggish blogger for the past year, so I'm thinking maybe this will get me going again.  It didn't last year, but you never know.  Of course, I know there are bloggers that post everyday all the time, but as you know, I'm not one of them. 

I'm not promising quality posts every day, but I will try to have something relevant to an art blog once in awhile.  It may border on food  blogging now and then too.  I also have some sketches from summer that I'll dig out and post. 

One day down.

Last Week's Demo

 Concentrating on Lights and Darks   -  7 X 7

This past week we were talking about values in my classes.  Values, as in lights and darks.  I think value contrast is more important than color.

We started out talking about why we want to do a certain subject.  We want to get the "why" narrowed down to such a small concept that it is easy to simplify the scene and get right to the point.  Then we work out the composition and values.

This small painting was done from a photograph and everyone in class saw something different that was their "why" .  To me, it was all about the shadow on the porch.  I was so intent on the shadow and balancing the values, that it took me completely by surprise  when someone asked me how I was going to make the house yellow at that point.  Yellow?  Yeah, the house was yellow.  I was so into the lights and darks, I was really not thinking color!  I don't know if that is good or bad.  Just a little embarrassing.   I think this week I'll show them how to paint a yellow house.

Apple etc demo

Black eyed Susans and Apples  -  Demo

I started my new season of weekly classes this week, and picked some black eyed susans for a little still life.  I went back into the room a few minutes later, and the flowers were strewn all over the table, and Rudy the cat was madly devouring the blossoms.  I knew from past experience they are only mildly toxic. 

Right in the middle of my demonstration, he came in and threw up. Nice. 

The bowl didn't turn out the way I wanted, but at least with a demonstration, I am talking as well as painting my way through it. The students get an idea of what and why I feel it is wrong  -  even if I don't get it right.

Good way to start the new season  -  I paint wonky bowls and have a cat that throws up in the middle of class.  Want to join us here  -  we're havin' some kinda fun! 

White Flowers

Demonstration Page in my Sketchbook

It seems as if white flowers are the most requested demonstration in the summer watercolor journal classes.  They really aren't too difficult  -  you don't paint them  -  you just paint around them.

We have just finished our last bookbinding class of the season, and now, this week, I'll begin my fall watercolor classes.  I had a summer's worth of stuff on my work tables  -  lesson plans, books, lots of sketchbooks, bookbinding materials, ETC!!!  Now I'm trying to put things away in some kind of order, and clean up and make room for students. 

Okay.  I'm running out of steam.  I'll do more studio cleaning tomorrow.  I need to go to bed.  Oh dear, I have to walk past the bag of potato chips  -  that's gonna slow me down.

Playing Around with more Books

A New Style of Journal

at least for me

This journal has an open spine with ribbon as part of the spine construction.  I put drawing paper in it instead of my usual watercolor paper.

We have a couple more bookbinding workshops to go in the next three weeks, and we are already thinking about some fun, new projects to teach next year.

Right now I am a little concerned about my very sloooow progress getting my worktables cleared off and things put away.  This happens to me every year at this time.  I have come in from classes all summer and dumped my things on the tables.  Then I repack for the next day and never really take care of the stacks of things piling up.  Now I can't just put it away  -  I have to re-think and rearrange,  and evaluate what I taught and how I could do it differently next year  -  what I can add  -  what I can subtract.  What I can leave stacked on my tables!

Okay  -  I'm giving myself 15 minutes and those tables better be clear!  

Chalkboard Wall and Don't Cry Over Spilt Gasoline

My Latest Project

I have wanted a chalkboard wall for a long time.  What better place than in my studio/classroom! It was as easy as painting any wall, and that's never really as easy as you think it's going to be.  Just painting this one wall displaced so much STUFF.  I had to wait awhile before I could second-coat it, and then I had to wait three days before "conditioning" it (rub it all over with the side of the chalk and then erase it).  I haven't finished hanging all the paintings or putting everything back on the shelves (to the right  -  out of the picture), but I have managed to sort a lot of things.

I'm not finished with my summer classes and workshops, but I seem to be getting a head start on my fall nesting.

I go about my uneventful little life, and then WHAM, something  ridiculous happens.  I stopped for gas, filled my tank, and THE GAS WOULD NOT SHUT OFF!  What do you do with a nozzle pumping out gasoline when you already have a full tank??????  So the girl inside at the counter says, "Would you settle for $25.50?"  YES!  Just let me the heck out of here!  Here's my $25.50. I won't be back.

Going Through my Sketchbooks

The Old School House at the Interlochen Center for the Arts

The summer has been speeding by so quickly!  I'm going back through my sketchbook to see just exactly what has happened throughout the season. 

I conducted a two-day  watercolor sketchbook journal workshop at the Interlochen Center for the Arts 
earlier in the summer.  I stayed on campus in the old Stone Hotel, visited some friends I hadn't seen in forever, and had a great two days with the workshop participants.  Interlochen is refreshingly simple  -  there is nothing glitzy there except the music.  We used to live in Interlochen, and I hadn't been back in a long time.  I had forgotten how great it smells  -  pine needles and wood fires!  Very little has changed, and it almost made me want to live in the woods again.  But I'm happy where we are, and I really don't feel like shifting gears right now.

We can always re-live things a little in our sketchbooks.  That's good enough.

Sketchbook Journal Pages

Painting in Bay View

It's been so long since I have blogged, let's see if I remember how to do it.

Last week I finished up a busy week of classes with torrential rain for a few minutes on the last day.  Fortunately, one of the ladies in the afternoon journal class had a wonderful front porch with a ceiling fan.  It was an extremely hot week, and the thunderstorm didn't really cool things down.  In spite of the heat, we always seemed to find a shady spot with a little breeze.

At the beginning of June, we went out to California and brought back our two California grandchildren. 
Between the kids and classes, summer is speeding along. I'll go back through my sketchbook and try to get up to speed posting some of the sketches and demonstrations.

Are you sketching?  How's your summer going?

Lilacs

Lilacs for a Still Life

Finally  -  I think we have spring.   I had to scrape car windows yesterday morning, but the sun is shining, and I think we're gonna be okay.

I'm busy getting ready for summer  -  we go from winter to summer here, and it always seems to catch me off guard.  I've spent the past couple of days on the computer registering people for classes and workshops.  That's a good thing.  I am trying to get a little bit done in the garden so I'll be ready for my summer kick-off workshop. There are also things inside to do, such as shaping up my lesson plans, and packing up for the bookbinding workshop next week.

Last weekend, my friend Karen and her husband came over, and the four of us cleaned up my garden.  Karen directed, I made decisions, and the guys dug holes and lugged plants.  Actually we all lugged, and felt like we had really put in a day's work when we were finished.  It looks great!  What fantastic friends!!! I still have to put in, and pot, some annuals, but I'm going to wait until there is no chance of frost. Whenever that might be.

It's Memorial Weekend, the official beginning of summer, and the time to remember all those who have died serving our country. 

Watches

A Glass Vase of Pocket Watches

I had these pocket watches in a box in a drawer  -  never to be seen.  I put them in a square glass container on a shelf, and every time I walk past them, I think I should take a minute and sketch them in my journal.

I had a nice long conversation with friend Cathy this morning, and one of the things we covered was how we were not painting and sketching.  Painting in our sketchbooks seems especially "therapeutic" to each of us. Aha  -  that's what's the matter with us!

Things have been a little "off" around here, and a bit of  therapeutic sketching couldn't hurt.  Almost two weeks ago, our son and youngest granddaughter were in an accident.  He was not hospitalized, but Isabelle was transported to a hospital downstate, three hours away, for a fractured vertebra.  She is home now, in a tortoise shell brace, and probably will miss the rest of the school year.  Scary!

So while I'm telling Cathy all of the things that are "off" in my life   -   like the weird wiring problem in my car,  some plumbing that just came loose, the critter noises we are hearing near the bathtub ( ! ), I find cherry tomatoes in my purse!

Okay  -  so I sketched, and now I'm feeling better.  I just may sit down and do some more. 

Hot Sauce

Sketching at Dinner

This is a quick little watercolor sketched at dinner a couple of nights ago.  The blocks of color on the right are just some color mixing samples used in class today.

This week in my classes we did some review of the basics  -  brush strokes,  the application of paint,  and color mixing.

It may be April, but it is not spring here in northern Michigan by a long shot.  Today it is 33 degrees, dark, and snowing.  This can't last much longer, can it?!

I have been doing very little painting and drawing, but as I begin to get lesson plans and schedules ready for summer,  I'm getting motivated again.  But right now I'm going to snuggle into my big fuzzy blanket on the couch with a cup of coffee and watch the snow fall.  Well, maybe I won't look.

Photographs and Pencil Sketches

 

In a previous post, Terry asked if I could show the photographs and how they were cropped to use as reference to work out the composition for the paintings shown below.

We're ignoring the photograph on the top right.  I'm sorry these aren't in order, but I think you can see which photo is cropped for which sketch.

These were all pictures that I had taken.  They all mean something to me, even if it is just the fact that I poked around a bit, getting pictures because I like the subjects, and had either spent some time there, or passed these spots on a regular basis  -  a little bit of an emotional investment.

If you click on these images, you can see them larger.

 

I just picked out what I liked about each image  -  what it was that made me take the photos in the first place.  I could have cropped and composed when I took the pics, but then I would have lost the extra details that I felt contributed to the whole thing.  The details are not necessarily things I would need to include in a painting, but they might have been part of my "emotional investment".

 

Crop some photographs, work out your lights and darks in a sketch, and paint a simple painting.  Have fun!

Folded Journal

Closed  -  Opening  -  Opened

I have no idea what this is called.  It is a folded journal, but I'm sure it has a name   -  I mean, there are a million ways to fold a folded journal.

Last summer, or fall, one of the participants in our bookbinding class showed us a beautiful book she had purchased that was folded like this.  My friend, Joanne, took one look at it and went home that night and made one.  I was still googling it with no luck.

A few days ago, Joanne showed me how to make them.  Without getting into detail here, it is made with three square pieces of paper overlapped and glued together in the middle  -  the squares at the center "X".  Book board, covered with decorative paper, is glued onto the squares at each end.  The cover is not hinged.  The size is about 5 X 5.  Each of the three folded sheets of paper started out 10" X 10".

I am not the one to ask how this is folded, so I am not going to do a tutorial.  I'm sure I will have to have Joanne standing by the next time I make one.

Now I have to decide what to use it for  -  a special weekend?  A trip?  Gardening?  A "collection" of some kind?  If I analyze the possibilities too long, I won't use it.  Just do it!

Simplicity

Demonstrations from Recent Classes

I am always talking about keeping things simple.  KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Don't try so hard.

Because it is winter (very winter here in northern Michigan) we certainly can't paint outside.  We get a little tired of still lifes, so we paint from sketches and photographs. When we look at a photograph, our brains seem to tell us we have to paint the whole thing  -  the whole scene and all the details.

Each of the paintings, above, was done from photographs with a lot more information.   The photo reference for the painting in the top left showed the whole house and the garden next door.  The painting in the top right was taken from a photo that showed a lot of dark cast shadows from the trees and and a cottage on the left side.  The bottom painting was done from a photo of a whole house and the door was very plain.

What we talk about when we're looking at our reference photos is what is it that attracts us, and how simply can we state that.  These are very small paintings  -  about 8" X 5".

A big painting project is always fun and challenging. but keeping the brush moving with some small, quick paintings is very rewarding too.  Dig out some photographs and see what you can crop and simplify.

Another Triad

A Demonstration Using a Different Triad

The watercolor sketch on the left was done for Wednesday's class using the colors mentioned in the previous post and listed in the picture, by the palette. The sketch on the right was done for Thursday's class using Phthalo blue, Quinacridone burnt scarlet, and Quinacridone gold.

These are just sketches of a portion of what might turn into a "serious" painting.  In the sketch on the left, I like the way the foliage breaks up the shape and color of the red brick chimney.

Painting with a triad is fun  -  it makes us think about color mixing and sets a mood for the painting.  A triad is just three colors which are a variation of the primaries  -  red, yellow, and blue.  A triad can also be done using the secondary colors, purple, green, and orange, but I think the mix is muddy and dark.

Try some variations of triads  -  see what you come up with.

Working with a Triad

Today's Demonstration  -  lower left painting

Keeping in mind that this was just a trial run, I sketched and painted this very quickly, using a large brush.  I learned from the first two sketches what I did and didn't want to do as far as lights and darks and balance.

I knew I needed to get rid of the bright white porch pillars.  In the two-color painting (on the right) I scrubbed around a bit to dull down the white, but knew the three identical shapes just didn't work, dulled or not.

For the full color sketch, lower left, I used only three colors  -  you can see them in the little mixing saucer.  The colors are ultramarine blue, quinacridone red, and hansa yellow. If I'm painting with a triad, I like to keep them separate from  my regular palette, because, without thinking, I will just start grabbing for other colors.

The colors in the painting got a little muddy, and I'm not pleased yet with the foliage at the top.  I have to do the same demonstration again tomorrow, so I'll see what I can do to fix those problems.

By the way  -  isn't that little saucer the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life?!  A friend bought some in England.  We all fell in love with them, so she called the store and had them ship some to us.  I think they are called china tinting saucers.  I really don't know what they are used for, but I thought they were perfect for triads.  The fourth space is good for keeping a neutral mix going.