Catching Up

Hello!  It's time to bring you up to speed on the creative happenings in my life the past few months.

The art show back in January went well.  I received wonderful feedback on the pieces I entered in the show.  Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the artists' reception so missed out on the opportunity to meet new people and celebrate participation in my first art show.  Not to worry... there will be more art shows and artists' receptions -- like the one in August that I have just been accepted in to!

I have a few new pieces to share since my last post:

Mount Baker, Watercolour, 6" x 12"  --  SOLD

The "Mount Baker" picture was inspired by the view from Cattle Point in Victoria, BC.  Mount Baker is in Washington State, USA, but on a clear day we can see it from Victoria, Canada.  The paint was barely dry on this piece when someone asked to buy it.

Beauty at Rest, Watercolour, 6" x 12" 

The "Beauty at Rest" watercolour was just accepted in to a local art show to be held during the beginning of August!

Peach Rose, Coloured Pencil and Water Soluble Art Bar, 5" x 7"

I am crazy about roses.  Aren't they amazing flowers?  The "Peach Rose" is another piece accepted in to the August art show.

Inspired by Kristy Patterson of Flying Shoes Art Studio, I have been also playing around with coloured pencil art on old book pages.

Pear, Coloured Pencil on Book Page

Tranquil, Coloured Pencil on Book Page  --  SOLD

Working on pages from old books has its challenges.  I think I prefer the look I get when I put a thin layer of white ink under the coloured pencil.  On the "Pear" piece I used coloured pencil directly on the book page and decided I didn't particularly like how the text showed through.  On the "Tranquil" piece I put a pale white ink wash over the entire page and a slightly more opaque layer of ink under the bird and flower petals.  I prefer how the ink "under painting" mutes down how much of the text shows through.

My camera has been busy, too.  I had opportunity to visit a petting farm full of adorable animals and even more adorable babies - particularly baby goats and rabbits.  Here's a sneak peek at some of the pics.  Perhaps some of these (paired with humorous text) will become future greeting cards!

So there you have it... some of the things that have kept me busy since my last post.  I'm currently working on more watercolour paintings, which I'll share as they get a little further along in the process.  

Hoping all is well in your respective worlds, and that you're finding time to nurture your creativity.

Taking Exciting New Steps...

Here we are at the start of a new calendar year and I can't believe I'm about to enter my first art show!  Wow... how did that happen...??  : )

I've been very inspired by fellow alumni of the "Creative Courage" e-course who have done amazing things like found galleries and shops to sell their work, offered on-line courses of their own, pursued licensing opportunities and secured studio space outside the home.  But I didn't think I could do those things.... at least I didn't think I could to them yet (and I really can't say when I thought would be the best time, either!... lol...).  Fellow watercolour artist, Richard Wong (whose masa paper paintings I introduced you to a few posts back) had encouraged me to join some local art organizations and consider participating in some of their events.  Somewhere along the line, the inspiration and encouragement tipped the scales (in a good way!) and I submitted artwork that was accepted for a local art show in January.  The show is specifically for emerging artists.  Somehow that feels like a gentle way to dip my toes in the local art scene - to display my work along with other new artists who may just be as apprehensive as I am!

What pieces have I entered into the show...?  I thought you'd never ask...  lol...

First is an 11"x17" B&W photo of a maple tree.

I loved the backlighting and how it accentuated the trunk and branches.  When I look at the branches on this tree it reminds me of the branching nature of veins and arteries so I've titled this piece, "Patterns of Life."  

Originally there wasn't going to be a second piece entered, but just a few days before the deadline I finished this watercolour painting and decided I should enter it, too.

This watercolour is 6" x 12" on 140 lb Strathmore cold pressed watercolour paper and I've titled it, "On delicate wings".  Funny, but so many times before it was finished I quite nearly chucked this painting.  It seemed to go through an eternally "ugly" stage and it wasn't until I was nearly finished before I decided I was really rather pleased with how it was turning out.  That's a lesson for me - don't write a painting off too soon!

I tried something a little different with this painting and decided to leave the background with a soft washy look rather than painting in stems and leaves.  My thought was that the soft, blurry background would focus more attention on the detailed wing patterns.  I also tried some different paints.  

One new materials was the Shinhan brand of Sap Green that I used along with my regular Winsor & Newton, Da Vinci and Veniza watercolour paints.  I've read that the Shinhan watercolour pigments are suspended in something other than Gum Arabic and that they behave a bit differently.  While my initial impression is that they do behave a bit differently, I'll have to try the brand again to really know how much differently they behave. What I am pleased with is how intense the Sap Green colour was - it was really a challenge to water the paint down enough to get a light green. 

In the picture above, the Art Bars and paint tube are sitting on a "test piece" on which I tested whether the Shinhan Sap Green would "play nice" with my other watercolour paints.  I love how intense the dark Sap Green is while still maintaining some translucency. 

The other new material I used was some Derwent Art Bars (water soluble).  They are amazing!  Derwent Art Bars and Inktense pencils are going to be a permanent part of my watercolour painting kit.

So that's my exciting news for the start of this new calendar year.  Let's hope the viewing public like the pieces I've entered into the show.  If you happen to be in the Victoria, BC (Canada) area please visit the show!  It's running from January 9 - 20, 2013 at the Coast Collective, 3221 Heatherbell Road.  

I've also checked out upcoming shows... who knows, I just might get brave enough to enter more!

Thank you to everyone who has directly encouraged me or indirectly inspired me to enter this art show.  A special thank you to Stephanie Levy for her "Creative Courage" e-course as it and the support I've found in the discussion group that grew out of that course have greatly contributed to me having the courage to participate in this art show! 

So, what's everyone else going to do that's creatively brave?

: )  Fern

A Collection of Hearts

Hello all!  A special "Hello" to Yvonne who FaceBooked today about dusting off her box of Inktense Watercolour Pencils and playing around with them.  I was playing with my Intense pencils today, too!   : )

It's been a couple of weeks since I participated in Jennifer McLean's "Artist's Play Room" challenge this week.  The theme is to gather five or so items from your home and create a still life.  Who would have guessed that while contemplating what to draw I would discover about myself that I have a number of heart shaped pieces of jewelry!!  (Interesting these curious quirks that we discover about ourselves from time to time... lol...)  So I decided to use some of my heart jewelry to create a jewelry still life...

This is the first time I've tried painting reflective metal surfaces.  What a challenge!!  The silver watch pendant actually turned out pretty easy... somehow silver was easy to capture.  Gold on the other hand turned out to be really difficult for me to paint.

This was done in my Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journal with Intense watercolour pencils.  The gold... well I finally gave up trying to render it in watercolour pencil and brought out a bottle of gold liquid acrylic and a Pentel gold Slicci pen.... oh, and also a white Sakura Jelly Roll pen.  The outlines of the pieces were made with a dark sepia Pitt pen.

The liquid acrylic was painted over everything that was supposed to be a gold metal, and then I added bright highlights with the Jelly Roll pen.  On the heart pendant (on the right), the liquid acrylic seemed too dark and flat -- it didn't convey the many shades of gold on the piece especially around the top and centre of the filigree work.  Since the Pentel pen has a slightly lighter shade of gold than the liquid acrylic I used it to draw in some lighter shades of gold rather randomly around the face of the pendant and then I added the extreme highlights with the gold Jelly Roll pen.

I feel like I really stretched myself (my abilities and patience... lol... ) on this challenge, so thank you Jenn for bringing me to the realization that I seem to have a 'thing' for heart shaped jewelry and for providing an opportunity for me to step outside my comfort zone.  : )  It will be interesting to see what the weekly challenges are for 2013.

The other fun thing I did this week was to visit one of my favourite art supply stores.  I  have a mixed media type project rolling around in my mind and needed to pick up a few supplies for it.  Well... that was the official reason for visiting the store....!  And you know how it goes... I came home with a few more items that I originally intended to buy and a head exploding with ideas for more art project.  : )  Don't you just love hanging out at art supply stores?  

So there you have it... that's what I've been up to creatively this week.  What about you??
: )  Fern

The "Heart" Challenge

Today Andrea Hiltbrunner from the blog "DreAm heArt sMart ArT" has challenged people to post something creative on the theme of "Heart".  Given how much fun I had participating in Jennifer McLean's "Shadows" challenge last week, I thought I'd participate in this challenge, too.  (I'm thinking that participating in these creative challenges could be a bit addictive... but in a healthy way, that is!)

So here's my heart...

It's a "Zentangle inspired" piece of art -- inspired by the art form of Zentangle doodling but not holding to the rules of it.

Back in high school I doodled a lot in the margins of my notebooks.  Then my inspiration game from faces -- I doodled eyes, noses, mouths, eye brows...  (In retrospect, it probably looked pretty weird to have disconnected facial features surrounding my class notes... but I digress...)

I was intrigued when I first heard of Zentangle art some months ago not only because I used to love doodling so much but also because I'd been reading about the stress busting benefits of doodling.  Doodling helps us relax... lowers blood pressure and heart rate... improves concentration and memory.  (Quick... hand me a pen and some paper... I need to save as much of what's left of memory as possible...!!!  lol...)  One article I read pointed out that as children we intuitively did things that were stress busting -- like hugging and doodling.... things we really should do more of as we navigate this complex adult world.

So to me this heart art is about more than art in the shape we associate with the heart.  The heart is often associated with creative inspiration, deep emotion, or our "true selves" and this art illustrates my journey to explore and reconnect with my creativity.  But in creating this heart using a style of doodling -- a form of art that brings health benefits to our physical heart -- I am also more literally nurturing and caring for my physical heart and the figurative source of creativity.

Hmm... that's a bit of a mind bender...  That something as enjoyable as art can also benefit us physically is one of those things that never ceases to amaze me.  Somehow I grew up with the notion that anything that physically beneficial - like medicine - will be unpleasant.  This (creating art) is the kind of medicine that's a pleasure to take!

So what kind of creative medicine are you "taking" today??  : )

Shadows and Skies

Today I'm being brave and trying something just a little different.

I've been following the blog, "Just Add Water Silly" by fellow Vancouver Islander Jennifer McLean.  She's a watercolour artist and hosts the "Artist's Play Room" where people share their interpretations of a weekly theme.  I've been quietly observing (and enjoying) the submissions to the Artist's Play Room all the while thinking that maybe it would be fun some day to be brave enough to join in...

Well... today's that "some day" and I'm joining in.  It's a little nerve racking to do something you've not done before and expose your art to a whole new audience... but (...pausing for a deep breath...) here goes.....

The theme this week is "Shadow" and below is my interpretation...

The artwork is based on some fall leaves I collected today...

When I began the art piece I rearranged the leaves and I positioned a desk lamp off to one side of the leaves to create more dramatic shadows -- the type of task lamp that creates a bright spot-light effect on things it is close to.  In real life, the part of the shadows closest to the leaves include a bit of reflection from the yellowy orange of the leaves.  I tried to suggest that in my shadows.  I'm not entirely satisfied with how that turned out, but this is all about trying things and learning from our experiences... right?  : )

The art piece was done with water soluble coloured pencils -- Inktense brand, to be exact.  I'm working through Dion Dior's online workshop about watercolour pencils and I'm really pleased with how the Inktense brand are working for me.  The leaves are outlined in a fine point Faber-Castell Pitt pen in Dark Sepia colour.

The next part of this post is in response to a blog post by Suzi - another alumni member of the Creative Courage class.  Suzi writes the blog "Vignettes de la vie by Suzi Poland" and in her post of October 26th she posted a beautiful pastel night sky picture and posed the question, "Have you been to the desert and seen how big the sky is?" Now, Suzi's in Australia and I've never had opportunity to visit that country (yet...), so I can't say that I've seen how big the desert sky is that she's looking at.  But I have been to Phoenix Arizona (USA) and I was blow away by what the desert sky is like there.  Suzi's post inspired me to find some of the sky pictures I took in Phoenix last winter/spring and share a few with you.  The sky here on Vancouver Island has (in my memory) never looked quite this amazing!!

Not much else happening creatively at the moment.  I'm hoping to do more experimenting with the Inktense water soluble pencils.  Perhaps Jennifer McLean's next Artist's Play Room challenge will fire up some more creative neurones in my brain... who knows where the creative whim will lead me!

So... what's inspiring you this week...??
: )  Fern

Playing With Watercolour Pencils

Hello again!  Thank you all for your lovely, supportive comments on my last post about printmaking and my hand coloured prints. There were some really great questions and suggestions which I want to respond to in a moment.  But first I want to share the fun I've been having with my Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils!

Like my busy, brightly coloured table cloth...?  : )  My workspace is the dining room table, and this is my art making table cloth - paint spills won't show much on a busy patterned surface like this!  And I love how cheery and colourful it is - it helps inspire me.

First I decided to just do something "fun" to test out the Inktense pencils...

I love how bright and intense they are when washed with water.  My other "regular" watercolour pencils look so much more pale and washed out than these ones do.

That was so much fun I decided to try something else.....

In my minds eye the "Hearts can mend" piece was supposed to look much lighter and brighter, but somehow it ended up looking somber, dark and heavy.  But at least it demonstrated that the Inktense pencils can create some lovely rich colours.  : )

I surfed the internet to see how other artists are using watercolour pencils, and came across an online workshop by Dion Dior.  Her preference is to use Inktense pencils.  So I'm trying some of the exercises she suggests in her workshop.  One exercise involved blending colours using the image of a cherry.  Here's my version of her cherry illustration...

There are several layers of pencil 'washes' built up on this cherry to achieve the final image.  Once I was satisfied with the colours and shading, I went around the outside of the cherry, stem and leaf with a 0.03 fine tipped black Micron pen.  While I'm pleased with how it turned out, it made me want to try pencil-painting a "real" cherry.  There are cherry trees in the backyard where I live, so I found a photo from the spring and started my own cherry picture.

I love the soft look of the underpainting of the cherry (fuchsia pink blended with deep yellow)...

When the green cherries on the backyard trees were beginning to ripen in the spring they went through a phase of being a soft yellowy pink similar to the colours in this underpainting.  But today my intention was to pencil-paint a ripe cherry... so more layers of pencil were added and washed with water - layers of warm orange red, cool blue red, and a deep wine red.

And there you have it... a ripe cherry hanging from the branch!

I signed my artwork with every intention of it being a finished little piece... but the more I looked at it the more I felt like something was missing.  So I decided maybe it needed a little background colour. Out came the sky blue pencil...

The colour wash is really pale (and hard to see in the photo above!) but I think it finishes the piece quite nicely.  (Since you can't really see it, you'll just have to trust me on this... lol...)

One thing I like about using the watercolour pencils is that when you wash water over the pencil it doesn't completely dissolve the pencil marks.  I deliberately used that feature when laying down the blue pencil in the background - I don't know if you can see in the photo below (particularly the lower left corner) that I stroked the pencil in a bit of an arc.

I tried to stroke the pencil in curves and swirls over the entire background and even after it was washed with water you can still see faint traces of the original blue pencil strokes. I think this adds some nice texture and motion to the background.

Oh, almost forgot to say... one nice feature of the Inktense pencils is that once you've washed them with water and the paper has dried, the ink is fixed to the paper.  Subsequent washes of water will not lift or smear previous layers of pencil-paint. What a lovely feature of these pencils!  Makes glazing layers of colour so much easier than with traditional watercolour paints. : )

So there you have it... the fun I've had playing with watercolour pencils! 

Ok, now I'd like to respond to some of the comments from my last post on printmaking.  Hollace asked, "I am curious about the over-printing. Is that necessary?" In this instance it was necessary because the inks we were using to print with were water based inks.  Using water media over top of the inked lines created smeared ink.  : (  Not a good look.  There are waterproof inks available - oil based I believe - and if they were used a person could apply watercolour paint over them without any  problem at all.  But oil based inks require clean-up with chemical paint cleaning agents, etc, and the workshop instructor preferred to use the less toxic water-based inks.  So how do you use water-based inks and still over paint them with watercolours?  The instructor had come up with a method of printing her first image in a very pale colour of ink. For my prints I chose a pale grey so that if some of it smudged when I applied my watercolour paint it wouldn't be so noticeable. I did experience a little bit of smudging/smearing - applying your  paints with a single, light stroke is definitely preferable. 

Hollace also commented, "I think I would just try to 'color inside the lines' if the print were compromised by the wash."  You know, I never thought about just using watercolour 'inside the lines' but that could work nicely, too.  : )  "The blocks I've done were lino on a wood block. What you are using seems softer, like a rubber eraser. Did you like the product? The linocuts were hard and it was easy to lose control with force." Ah, yes... I remember the tough-to-cut lino from high school and yes, the vinyl material I used feels a lot like a rubber eraser!    This product is MUCH easier to use.  The instructor recommended a vinyl product called "Saf-t-kut".  It was quite soft and very easy to carve without a lot of pressure which gave me good control over the cutting tools.  Speedball makes a pink coloured material that seems similarly soft - it wasn't the instructor's preferred material so I haven't tried it yet and can't tell you much about it.  If anyone out there has worked with the Speedball product I'd love to hear how it's worked for you.

Suzi suggested, "I wonder what adding a little inktense pencil over them would look like."  Great suggestion Suzi! I'd not thought about doing that but I think it would work well.  The pencil stroke marks that show even after you've washed them with water would create more texture. That would have worked especially well in the foreground area of my print - the area that was to represent grass and vegetation.  I'll have to play around with colouring prints with Inktense pencils.  : )

As for the input on which print people liked best - it's a tie.  Between comments on the blog and comments on Facebook, it would seem that the first (blue greens) and third (all blue) prints tied for most popular and the second (warm sunset colours) print was many peoples' second favourite.  Thank you all for taking time to give me your input!

Not sure what project I'll be working on next.  I might play around with mixing traditional watercolours with the Inktense watercolour pencils... but then again... I guess you'll have to check back next week to see where the creative muse led!

-- Fern  : )

More Fun With Print Making

Two posts ago I told you about experimenting with print making.  At that time I had three prints that I was going to hand colour with watercolours and then over print in black ink.  Well... they're done!... and I'm excited to show you how they turned out.

Peaceful green and blue-greens...

The warmth of the late day near sun-down...

Icy cool blues...

Three different versions - different moods.  Which one do you like best...??

If the last one (the all blue one) looks a bit blurry, don't run out and get your vision checked.  When I over printed it with black ink I didn't pay quite enough attention to making sure the plate was going to accurately line up with the grey lines previously printed.  Oops...!!  You can see the grey lines showing a little above the black lines in the picture below...

So, good lesson learned... check v-e-r-y carefully before overprinting to make sure you have everything lined up as closely to the original printing as you can!

Other than that little glitch, I think my experiment with hand colouring and over printing went quite well.  I'd like to try more printing and learn some new carving techniques.  So many thing to try... so little time!  lol...

In an earlier post I wrote about the fun I was having with pearlescent paints.  Unfortunately it does not show up so well in these pictures, but I used some pearlescent paints on the top of the mountain to try and create the idea of sun glistening off snow.

And I thought I'd share pictures with you of what the printing "plates" look like.

This is what the whole plate looked like before I cut the sky away.  The black parts are the uncarved parts that pick up the paint when the inked brayer (roller) is rolled over the print, and those are the parts that press the ink onto the paper when you lay paper over the plate and press down on the paper.

And this is my plate now - cut in two, so I can print the sky separately or not print it at all if I want to leave a blank area to hand colour (like in the three prints I hand coloured).  Notice that everything on the plate is reversed from the finished print?  You have to account for the reversed image when you are planning how you want to carve your image.  : )

Here is a view of the side of the "plate" - you'll see that in some placed I gouged a bit deeply into the rubbery material.  Good thing it was thick!  Practice would help me make more uniform cuts.

Other than that, I've been playing with my watercolour pencils again.  I bought some Derwent "Inktense" pencils and I'm loving the beautiful rich colour I get when I wash coloured areas with water.  Next post I'll show you what I've been working on...  (don't you love 'cliff hangers'...?? lol...)

I hope you're making time for some creativity in your life - it's a great stress buster!
: ) Fern