First, pictures of my new sketchbook! I made this over the weekend. It took me longer than it probably should have, considering how complicated it isn't, but it's been a while since I made a book. Also, I didn't have the right glue, and had to do some dodgey substituting, and then also spray the covers in waterproofing stuff. .... don't ask.

The front cover.

The back cover. The covers are made with a fabric scrap I bought in the Ikea clearance room a long time ago. I bought it with no particular purpose in mind, but knew I would find something eventually. And, so I have. Vindication!

Laying open. Because it's a coptic binding, it opens pretty much totally flat, which is nice. The crease in the standard hardcover sketchbook is problematic. I'd been buying spiral bound for a while, but I don't really love them, they are just a compromise between not opening all the way, and using plain old loose leaves of paper. Which I might do next time.

Here's a shot of the spine, in case you were wondering what coptic binding means in practice. Each signature (group of pages) is stitched from the inside to the outside, connecting to the signatures that come before and after it. The first and last signatures are attached directly to the cover boards. It provides exceptional flexibility of the spine, and can also be used for a book of almost any thickness.

This picture shows the inside of the back coverboard, and some of my drafting tools. Not that you really needed to know about that, I just liked the shot.


I know it's been a while since I posted the current work in progress, and technically I am not really doing that now. HOWEVER! Here is a picture of my workspace as it sits right at the moment. The panels along the back are the pieces of a custom crate, the center of the desk has a belt buckle design I am finalizing with hopes of begining the actual piece today, and the rack on the right has a bunch of work on paper that needs to be matted, imaged for the portfolio, and filed. Also, some Sequential Tart review materials are there, and my new sketchbook that I made over the weekend.

All the little containers are writing implements, tools, etc. The pink things on the top / left are tape dispensers, which I have needed for a long time. (Yes, it IS "the little things" that make happy happen.)

Little file cabinet is full of more tools / utensils, paints, inks, etc. Trash can on the left, and the cubbies on the desk supports are full of random crap that I need without warning ... but then set aside without warning. It's a functional system, don't judge!

Chair is a swiveling kneeling desk chair. It's not super duper comfortable, but it does save my back and hips. And shoulders and neck. Also, it's really good for keeping my herniated cervical disk from pinching the nerve in my right hand. So ... comfort isn't always immediate gratification.

Shotgun Updating

Check me out, two posts in one month! It's starting to get crazy around here!

The formatting on these pictures is going to make me nuts if I goof around with it. So I'm not. Here's the rundown.

Couple sheets of paper with barely visible sketches... sketches for my next couple of projects. Hopefully those projects will be visible.

Bunch o' sticks.... if you can guess what tool I made there, you win a prize!* Double prize if you can guess whether it worked or not.

The re-do on the frame / edge. It took much less time than the first time, and is a thousand times better, but I'm still cross to have had to re-do it. Ahh, well. Live and learn. And re-do crap sometimes.

Quick watercolor painting to test out a brush brought from Beijing by a friend who visited there recently. That sucker can lay down some SERIOUS paint! Highly diggable. It will be my go-to brush of choice for watercolor tidal waves.










224214152 - sorry I didn't answer your question sooner, more pictures to come... behind the windows are pigeon holes.... square openings (16cm I think, a bit deeper than that?).

There will be more pictures when I have the front panel opening and closing and stuff.

Yes.





* There is no prize.

Also on the worktop -

Painting the panels for another storage crate. Thinking I might use this one for paper... This has reached that stage where I hate it, and if I look directly into the abyss, I'll just paint over it and start again. However, I'm NOT looking into the abyss, I'm just filling in the lines with the paint as planned. There is still hope for this.

There are a couple of problems, though -- the paint is not holding its pigment. Surpassing strange, given that it's friggin' acrylic paint. So I'm going to have to put a sealer coat over this when it is done, and possibly the one I finished a while back, as well. Ahh, well. So much for quick & easy. Another problem is that there are a couple of 'sides' of the design that for some reason weren't colored in, and I'm not sure why, or what color to use, and I am limited by how much of these colors I have left. Oh well, not the end of the world. This will be happy when it is over.

... and then you threw an octopus at my window.

Been working on a variety of things, none of which are complete. Possibly as a consequence of multi-tasking? But paint has to dry, dammit! Here's one avenue I've been treading... dabbling in a combo of ink and watercolor that has been entertaining me.

Basically, the technique is to draw some lines/forms in non-waterproof ink, and then fill or not-fill the spaces with watercolor paint, which draws in some of the ink. It's a little blurrier than I'd like in some places, but some bits of it work quite well, I think. The top one is smallish, maybe a 5"x7" paper, and the top one is like a page of notebook paper size. I think I'll have more use for this technique in the future, I find it both satisfying to do as well as pleasing to have done. These are good things.

coming out of cold storage

The design on the right will eventually emerge from the collection of swirls on the left. And you will be amazed.

AMAZED, I say!

Aww, crap.

Whoops. I made a picture of this last week, and didn't realize I hadn't posted it. Until now, when I just posted the update to it, only I was updating something I hadn't posted. Anyway, this one is older than the other one. And, yes, it is in some ways better.

You know there is an expression, it takes two people to finish a painting.... one to paint it, and another to shoot the sumbitch before he f's it up...

Just sayin'.

A Painting

Another picture of this thing. I learned a lot about how I should have done this, if I wanted it to look cooler. Enough that it has become difficult for me to be excited about finishing it.

The lighting is weird in this (there is a fluorescent tube above it, so the top really pops and the bottom seems dull), but the color actually is funky in the middle (the sections that seem too-blue actually ARE too blue).

However, in the interest of science, and having a better painting next time, I'm going to finish this one. The knot is monochrome, but it's going to get some highlights and low lights. The background will probably get some of the same. But... different.

"It's Art, you wouldn't understand...." (ha!)

And, I'm on the fence about outlining the knot with black. That was the original plan and I probably will do it because of that. But I figured out how to make it super cool without that. Next canvas, I guess. I picked up 6 of these 50cmX50cm squares on Very Discount last week, they were €3/each. I had been thinking of doing a set of 4 related paintings (Diptych, Triptych... Quadratych?) But I can decide about that after I've done the next one in this flavor, but will all the learning experiences applied. One of the things I'm learning about is effective use of low relief with acrylic paint. Most of my other paintings have been very flat (no relief) which robs them of depth, even if I painted some shading/depth modeling into the composition. This one has much more texture – I'm still getting the hang of that – and is a better painting for it.

Finished that Box!

There is not much to say about this, except... here are the pictures of the finished box. I took one from each corner, so you could see how the pattern lines up. This is the size box for storing an adult male Maine Coon cat, apparently.
I probably won't do another box with exactly this design, but I did learn lots of useful stuff I can apply to my next box (there are 3 more to paint, so lessons learned are good things).
I probably would have preferred to paint the corner hardware black, for instance, but I wasn't sure what to paint galvanized metal with, and the handle hardware was pre-attached, so it seemed like a lot of hassle. And I got to a point where I really just wanted to get it FINISHED instead of having it hanging around my workspace any more. But maybe next time I will think it is worth the hassle.
I have not yet put any little roller wheels on this, and I haven't worked out a lid for it. Heck, I don't even know what I want to store in it yet! I did put a bunch of couch cushions in it when I vacuumed last, and the giant ridiculous cat has been pretty conscientious about moving all of his toys from where they are stored, into this box. So I think it will be pretty functional around here. And I like it! I probably will wish I'd put another coat of a sturdier sealer on it, and I might do that later, including the inside. Or I might leave this one alone and subject my next project to all that hard earned wisdom...

Progress on the storage box

I'm still working on the box to store art supplies in, it's taking a lot of layers of paint, but is starting to come together. Couple more bits of paint (white and color), and then a couple of layers of polyurethane so it is sealed and relatively defended from dings.

And then! Assembly. With little wheels. And a lid. And more pictures.

the death march of progress

I had to take it off the easel and put it back on the wall to start liking it again. There is something about staring at a painting very close up that ruins it. Unless it's a Persian miniature watercolor, which this categorically is not.

and so it goes

The big painting has reached a phase where, although daily changes can be seen, they are increasingly subtle. So today I am posting one of my favorite bits, something I just started blocking in yesterday: The Upper Left Corner.

It's not much to look at now, but someday it will be a real highpoint of this painting.

... or so I hope.

It's always so nice at the beginning.

As always, click for bigger.

This is the canvas I've just started a few days ago. It's not going to be B&W, I haven't even started painting yet. It's going to be acrylic paint. I really like the design, though. This is why I filled sketch book after sketch book, for years, with black line drawings, and consumed countless black Sharpies along the way... I'd start something like this, intending to color it in, and then fall in love with the B&W, and not be able to bear adding color. What if I didn't love it?!

Then I learned about photocopying...

This won't photocopy, though. It's 30cm x 150cm.

Proof of Paint 2

I don't like it, exactly, at least not ALL of it, but I believe it gave me a good idea for the next thing. In any case, I'm done picking at it with the paintbrush.

Proof of Paint

Started a new painting today (watercolor). Actually want to do something like this in acrylic, but I was in the watercolor mood. Anyway, here is the beginning. It's probably impossible to see, but this is entirely sketched out. I'm just coloring it in at this point.

Thanks to Regan for asking me for a proof-of-painting photo!

If you wondered at all, I was on vacation the last couple of weeks. Didn't do pretty much anything but read, wander around, and sleep late. It was great. Oh, and I signed up for a Japanese woodblock printing class in early December. Loooking forward to that. Even if the sample print in the catalog looks like crap.

If at first you don't succeed...

... keep making little disasters until you run out of paper/patience. Figured this was better than posting each one of these individually before they go in the bin. There are about 4 square inches of awesome up there. I maybe cut them out and glue them together. The detail on the pic isn't great, even if you click through, but that's OK, they look better that way. Promise.

Progress +

This photo was taken after the 3rd layer of glaze was applied. Will be putting a 4th layer today. Probably ought to start putting in some side/background paint, hey? Too bad about the dark green just left of lower/center. It just doesn't match anything else--not even the smaller bits of the *same* color on the 3 o'clock position. Grrr.

In other news, can anyone explain to me why cheap toilet paper roll tubes should be a thing? It never occurred to me before that the little cardboard tunnel supporting my TP was over-built. WTH??

Success!

On the left is the printing plate-- a sheet of glass with a designed taped to the back side of it, so I know where to make marks. I've colored the design on the top of the glass with watercolor/water soluble crayons. It's faint, because I've already pulled a print from this. On the right is the print that I pulled. More vibrant than the plate, probably 2/3 of the color transferred. There is enough color left on the plate that I can pull one more very faint print without recoloring, or I can add more color and print again at full strength. Or, I can clean the glass and start over entirely.

This is a crap photo of the final print. It's successful because it is more or less exactly what I was trying to do. The coloration is a little weird and uneven, and not just because it's a low light photo. It's actually weird. The whole image could benefit from some additional paint/ink detailing, and I'm experimenting to find out how much of what's on the page is water soluble (ie, I can alter/move it around with just water), and how much is just pigment, which means it's basically part of the paper now, and everything else goes on top.

Also, if you find yourself wondering, What the hell IS monoprinting, anyway? ... Wiki to the rescue!

Monoprinting?

First try. Not bad, considering how poorly the next several turned out. I taped a pattern to a sheet of glass, and painted the design on the other side of the glass in watercolor. I tried to pull the print by placing heavy things on top of it all, with the paper being wet enough, I thought, to suck up the paint, most of which had already dried. This *might* have worked if I'd rubbed the paper with a smooth thing, instead of letting it sit--the paper tore a bit when I peeled it up, because it had adhered to the glass, instead of just taking the paint and running off with it.


This is the 2nd try. The paper was FAR too wet, and the paint was... unwilling. After this, I decided I should probably just go read about how to make watercolor monoprints at home without any print equipment, instead of screwing around wasting a lot of time, energy, paint, and paper. Oh, and enthusiam. For reasons I can't guess, I'm really into this idea right now.


After doing a bunch of reading about how watercolor monoprints can be made, I tried a few of the recommendations. All together. On one plate. As you can see, it made a relatively uniformly unattractive print. Those recommendations were: a thin base layer of hand soap as a release agent, rub the paper by hand for the transfer, use paper designed specifically for watercolor paint. Although totally uncool, it encouraged me anyway. I'm easy, I guess.


A print to give me hope! Water-based pens on the left, water soluble/watercolor crayon on the right. The unevenness of the transfer comes from me using a bone folder tool to rub the transfer over. If you click through to the full size pic, you'll see how that's not a very good way to lay the color down, even if it seemed good at the time. I don't have a brayer, or a rolling pin, or anything. Outsider art, baybee!


This is the first really successful test. The big pink blob is from the paper being a little too wet, but that also was informative. The ghost image at the top is a 2nd pull from the original drawing with easy-wash-out kid's pens. The really vibrant bits of this were added in after I pulled the print, with those same pens. The actual base print was made with watercolor crayons, though.

Oily!

After saying the other day that I don't have the skill with oil paint to make this go, I got annoyed and tried to do it in oil paint. Using a glazing technique (many thin layers of paint, instead of a few fat layers), and a tiny, soft brush.

This is after 2 layers of paint. I have NO idea where I'm going with the colors, or what it's supposed to look like when it's done. The asymmetric colors on a tri-symmetric pattern makes my brain really cranky, but it's probably good for me.

Things that makes me cranky are good, right?

Another Incomplete

This is the current project. The drawing is good, I will probably use it for multiple versions of the finished piece. I *was* trying to set up something for an oil or acrylic painting, but this is too fine detailed for my oil paint skills, and for some reason I'm a little sour on acrylics right now. So, another watercolor/ink deal. Which is FINE. It just wasn't what I'd intended when I started.


Here is a detail from the ink wash part of this (click it for full size). I'm probably going to start coloring it in today, although I'm not yet 100% what the color scheme will be. Probably something I'll be excited by at the beginning and annoyed with at the end, or the other way 'round...