Abstract Adventure: Assignment 1

Hiya,
So my next quest in the 21 Secrets playground is the Abstract Adventure with Connie Hozvicka. It's been pretty interesting. My first asignment was to paint using the FEARLESS(TM) technique. It was pretty cool. So while the course focuses on abstract painting, it is mostly about being in the moment and being absorbed in what you're doing.
So, this the set up in my new studio at the new house:


The studio and the bedroom and pretty much all I've managed to sort out.
What I quite like about this workshop is that it focuses on painting BIG. Whenever I paint, it's usually tiny little things with a discrete plan and I spend most of my time hunched over my precious little treasure. In this workshop we use cheapy-cheap paint and just give'er on the biggest page we can find. It's great! You stand up at an easel or a wall and really get into what you're doing. It really gives me an opportunity to put my body behind the brushstrokes.

So, this is what I came up with after my first attempt at the first assignment which was to focus on getting colour down:

I'm not terribly pleased with it for a couple of reasons. 1) I don't mind how it looks, I'm just not thrilled. I'm really not a fan of muddy colours. I prefer my pigments to mix/blend well and vibrantly. There were a couple of spots where I mixed complementary colours or even black accidentally and the result was not pleasing 2) I really wasn't really doing the assignment. I didn't set an intention before I started, I wasn't really going with my gut, my mind was not focused AT ALL and I think it's reflected in outcome. Needless to say, I gave it another go.

Here's my Round Two:



I really like how it turned out. My intention was "Cathartic Peace". I'd been under a lot of stress lately and the intention was appropriate.

Here's another shot. I quite like it, I feel it gets across what I was aiming for a bit better than a view straight on.


Later I will get around to Assignment 2, which focuses on the use of Line.

Draw Happy: Beautiful

Last post for the night/morning. This is the third exercise from Draw Happy and starts off with a charge to gesso your art journal pages and use it as part of the design.

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Reply by Ashley E M Miller 1 second ago

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And this is what happened when I primed my paper with gesso.

The paper was primed with gesso mixed with Reeves Guache (in Blue Lake). I spattered it with a bit of Emerald Green and some dollops of Sap green spritzed with water.

This is the finished product:

The beast was created using black felt tip pen and painted with Violet Ink (Windsor Newton). A similar technique was used to create the rocks in the background. The water's texture and depth was created using oil pastels in various shades of blue (blended with lots and lots of rubbing) and the jelly fish were made around the green paint blobs, using a black art pen (that bled lots), Canary Yellow ink and a white Oil Pastel pencil crayon (which I've fallen in love with). The white was also used to make the bubbles and the 'wakes' of the tail.

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Draw Happy: Getting in the Draw Happy Mood

For this exercise Jane instructed us to think of what made us happy before we even picked up a pen. I thought about it for a bit and while listening to the Juno soundtrack, this is what I came up with.

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Reply by Ashley E M Miller 1 second ago

This first image is after thinking about what made me happy.

Apparently at that moment it was my beau's eyes, the apology orchid and some waves.

Go figure. What I did like a lot is the wonder and glory of gesso to cover a failed sketch attempt.

The drawings were done with pen and oil pastel. I really like how the waves turned out.

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Watercolor Techniques: Floral fun Day 3

PANSY!!!!

That's what we worked on during the final class. This class focused on blending like with the narcissus, but also on glazing. I obviously didn't finish because I felt compelled to create massive flowers, the likes of which will only rival O'Keefe's. The thing with flowers though it that you need quite a lot of pinks. You could mix them yourself, but it's difficult to get just the right shade from bending over a hot palatte blending away. The color I used for the central purple pansey was called Rose Violet. I borrowed/acquired it from my neighbor. I tried to mix a color like it usin rose madder, but it really just didn't work.



This is just a close-up of a section that I quite like. I think the petals of the yellow flower blended quite nicely. I was impressed. The reason why it's so pale in spots is because that particulate flower was nearly white from reflecting the sun.

I also liked the precision and delicate nature of the fine veins we created using a skewer. I decided that I would like to get a stylus in order to recreate this effect consistently. The problem with the skewer was that it did get dull after a while.

Later I'll take a stab at finishing this up.

Watercolor Techniques: Floral fun Day 2

Blooming....
ugh.

If you can get this technique right, you can created lovely organic edges to things. But more than likely, mastery of the technique will elude you and you will do what I did and just scribble in the mess with your brush.
I did manage some success on my second attempt and created quite a passable Narcissus flower. (The blooming effect was used to create the 'ruffled' edge of the flowers center)

Other than blooming, the other technique that we learned here was blending using wet-on-wet brushwork and also developing an eye for color. For all intents and purposed, narcissus flowers have quite petals, but if I just left the petals white, the painting would have looked more incomplete (i'm still not done with it lol). What I really got help with was developing a sense of value and shading. In the photo I was working from, there were hints of pink through the petals, violet in their shadows and yellow closer to the center.

Of course I took to long and ended up rushing at the end. The background was done with mostly pyrelen green and a veridian i mixed up in class.

Draw Happy: Drawing Tools

This is my posting for Exercise #2 that deals with different drawing tools. It was quite insightful, and learned lots.

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Reply by Ashley E M Miller 18 minutes ago

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This was my drawing tool test page. I had a stripe of Windsor Newton Canary Yellow ink, Crimson Acrylic, White Gesso, Black Gesso, Blue guash in ultramarine, and a strip of clear gesso.

I was impressed by how matte the clear gesso was, making it quite easy to draw on. The black gesso was neat, but obviously has a limited number of colors that can be drawn on top.

The acrylic was incredibly difficult to draw on, it was way too shiny. The Guash was much easier to work with as it was surprisingly matte. If I were to use this acrylic again, I would have to put a layer of clear gesso on top.

I love working in pen (I tend to use the felt-tip kind), but the surfaces they can be used in are limited. Perhaps a brush pen would be easier.

Overall, I was impressed with the ways that gesso can be used on paper. I had never really thought to use it like that as the paper is already "primed"

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Draw Happy: Doodles

So, I've been taking part in 21 Secrets Art Journaling Playground. It's been great so far. I've done one class: Drawing Happy by Janet Davenport. Here are my posts for the first assignment:

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Reply by Ashley E M Miller 1 hour ago

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Hi,

Thanks for the lovely workshop. It really helped get the creative juices flowing.

Here's some stuff in response to the request for doodles. I found a nice page from my lab book that I doodled all over while I was waiting for something. I decided that/have always known that, my thing is eyes. I draw them everywhere. Ever since I learned to draw them in art class at around grade eleven, they've always been something I can sketch on the fly. So, the first picture is the magnificence of waiting for science to happen. The second image is my doodle/warm up sketch for the workshop.

Permalink Reply by Ashley E M Miller 36 minutes ago

le sigh,
internets is being Crappy McCrapper Crap.

Here are my doodles...again.

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