Poll: Stages of Drawing

Hello again friends!  I am about to conduct my second ever poll,  and I hope that you will participate…if not, you will suffer the consequences!  Not really.

If you’ve ever taken an art class, you’ve probably been nagged about sketching on a daily basis.  I am ashamed to admit that sketching is something that I hardly ever do since graduating from college.  However, today, I just felt like drawing.  I took pictures of each stage, but it’s hard for me to decide which stage I like best.  I wonder if you’re like me.  Do you appreciate the different stages?  The simplicity of the lines in stage one, or the full contrast and detail finished product?  Or are you somewhere in between?

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

A Road-Trip, Dead Bodies, and a Casting

I’M BACK!  …with no TV filmings to prepare for.  As my mother-in-law Carolyn said, “Melody will continue her “Works of Art” in York, PA.”

Carolyn and her sister Amy took me to NYC.  These two are the funniest people when they’re together.  I laughed so hard that I left with  four-pack abs, and came back with a six-pack…OK, well it felt like it!

We left PA on Friday morning, and arrived in NYC before the check-in time at the hotel.  So we walked to South Street Seaport, ate lunch, and visited the “Bodies” Exhibition.  Between us being conned into paying for the audio guides which we barely used, and witnessing Aunt Amy’s sneaky illegal touching of one of the bodies, it was quite an experience.  The best room by far was the fetus room.  It’s one thing to see pictures and diagrams of the stages of development, but it was amazing to see it with my own eyes!

The next morning we woke up at 5:15, got ready, and took the subway to the Brooklyn Museum for the casting. I was told I can’t  say anything about the actual casting, but I can give you a few details.  I arrived at the Brooklyn Museum at 6:37am.  Casting wasn’t going to start until 10am, but there were already 45 people in front of me.  The line was relocated once, and I ended up in position 104.  From the time I arrived to the time I left, I had spent about 6 or 7 hours in line.   Thankfully, it went really quickly, because I had Aunt Amy and Carolyn to keep me company with comments like, “Wait, isn’t this the line for Real Housewives of NYC?”.

Carolyn and I scoping out the other contestants.

My chat with the judge only lasted 5 minutes or less.  After I was done, Carolyn and I checked out Abdi Farah‘s exhibit which was even better in person.  In case you don’t know, Abdi won the last season of “Work of Art.”  On our way out, we noticed that the line had grown by about 1,000 people, and it stretched down the street as far as the eye could see.

I later learned that while I was in the casting room, Aunt Amy and Carolyn sat outside making up fake questions to ask the people in line.  Questions like, “What is your perspective on the directionality of the medium of your work, when it is merged with the past experiences of your lifetime?”  I laugh when I think about how any of those poor unsuspecting people would have tried to answer that!

If I had been chosen for a call back, I would have received word by 10 o’clock that night–but after an afternoon of shopping in jam-packed NYC, I was praying for the serenity of York County!  I don’t think I’m cut out for city life.  All-in-all  it was definitely a great experience, and a weekend of fun and laughter!

Empire State of Mind

If I had to use a song to represent my trip this weekend, I would choose “Empire State of Mind.”  I love the line, “Now you’re in New York, These streets will make you feel brand new, the lights will inspire you.”

I’m going to New York City for a casting for the Bravo reality TV show Work of Art, so the line seems pretty fitting.  My mother-in-law and her sister are taking me, so I’ll have a great support group.  I may or may not stand a chance of getting on the show, but I HAVE to try!

Rest in Sheep

The following is a fairly thorough documentation of my latest painting.  I wanted to see how fast I could complete a painting, and finished this in less than 10 hours (as opposed to the usual 15-30 hours).

Remember those sheets of dried acrylic paint that I was making?  Well here is my second try at making a cool design.  Instead of squeezing the paint right out of the tube onto the disposable palette, I used a paintbrush to transfer the paint onto the disposable palette*.  This left cool brush marks on the underside.  After applying the paint with a brush, I smoothed the surface with a palette knife.  This helped to make the sheet fairly thin.

*If you don’t have disposable palettes, wax paper would probably work just as well.

 

The next step was to allow the paint to dry.  This took approximately 5-10 hours.

In the mean time, I started my painting.  I chose a photo that I took at the York Fair as a reference.  I think these sheep are so funny and pathetic at the same time.  But their little turtlenecks reminded me of my new technique with the acrylic paint.

In order to speed up the process of this painting, I tried to do a good amount of it in acrylic paint, because it dries faster.  I started by painting a canvas black and sketching my image on the canvas using white chalk.  Then I started the under painting.

I went as far as I could with the acrylics, then I started using fast-drying oil paints called alkyds.

Once my sheets of acrylic paint were dry, I peeled them off of the disposable palette and flipped them over.  The underside is what I wanted because it is very smooth and has some really cool designs.

I took tracing paper, placed it over the painting, and traced the shape of the sheep’s turtleneck.  I left it a flat gray on the painting so that it would be an easy shape to trace.  After tracing the shape, I placed the tracing paper over the acrylic sheet, and used an x-acto knife to cut out the shape.

I glued the cutouts to the canvas using pH neutral glue that I bought at Stamp-ede.  I worked on the painting a little bit more.  The reason that I glued on the cutouts before I was totally finished, was so that I could adjust the colors of the painting with the cutouts in mind.

I used these dried acrylic cutouts for a painting this time, but I am also excited to incorporate them into my drawings too.  Thanks for reading!

Acrylics are cool…who knew?

First, I want to say sorry for slacking on the updating!  I have been preoccupied with a trip I am taking this weekend.  I will fill you in on the details another day, so you’ll have to wait in suspense.

Then again, I guess it’s only suspenseful if you:                                                                                                                                                                                                      A) Don’t already know about the trip                                                                                                                                                                                                      B) Care to know about the trip

Moving on! You may know that I am a major snob when it comes to paint variety.  There was a time when I wouldn’t even glance at a tube of acrylic paint.  I thought, “How can painting with acrylics possibly compare to oils?  They are dull and flat-looking, and they dry so fast that it’s hard to make them look smooth.”  It wasn’t until my college professor suggested that I utilize acrylic paint for my under-paintings that I grudgingly acknowledged the existence of this inferior medium.  To my surprise, I discovered that it works well for under-paintings.  Later still, I found that it can act as a complimentary companion to oil paints if used right.

My latest discovery is a technique that I discovered in a moment of pure boredom.  I was sitting in my studio checking my email and I picked up my disposable palette which had some dried acrylic paint on it.  I began to peel the paint off, and that’s when I noticed that the underside of these peelings were fascinating.  They were these swirls of color.

My husband suggested that I make large sheets of this dried acrylic paint, so I did.

It took several hours to dry.   At first, the pattern (pictured above) came out too contrived for my liking.  I tried it again with more success, and was able to come up with some really cool swirly patterns.  I’ll keep you posted on those, and how I incorporated them into my newest painting.

A Place to Put My Coats (part 3)

The other day I completed the painting for my coat hanger.  I mixed a huge batch of gray acrylic paint to paint the border.   I applied two layers of this color.  Then I replaced the inner panel with the painting on it.  As for the coat  “hooks,”  I chose five cool kitchen cabinet knobs from Lowe’s.  I like them sideways, but I’m not sure if it will be practical that way, so I’ll have to wait and see.  Now I just have to find a good sturdy way to hang this on the wall.  Here’s a look at the before and after:

A Place to Put My Coats (part 2)

Ok, are you ready to hear about my texture secret?  I’ve been known to use fabric paints in my paintings, but I took it one step further in this project.  This is a great technique for tree bark.

I applied some fabric paint in vertical lines on the trunk of a few of the trees in the foreground.  I didn’t do this to any of the trees in the background, because it would make all of the trees look like they were near the front of the painting.  When painting or applying texture keep in mind that things in the foreground have the most texture because of how close they are to the viewer.

Next, I took a palette knife and ran it down each of the lines of fabric paint which flattened the middle of the line, but created ridges on each side of the tip of the palette knife.

Once the fabric paint is dry (usually in an hour or less), paint can be applied over it.  If you use this method with oil paint, the fabric paint must go down before the oil paint, because it is water based.  In this case, I’ve been using only acrylic paint which is also water based, so I don’t have to worry about which one goes down first.

 

 

 

The Big Studio Clean-Up!

Surveying the damage.

Now that I’m a full-time artist, I decided that making my studio a functional space  should be my first priority.  Before it was so messy that I could barely find a space to walk.  With some help from my sister Harmony,who is a master organizer, I was able to clear out the clutter.  My mom faithfully attended yard-sale after yard-sale helping me collect heavy pieces of furniture.  These finds help to provide storage for things like jugs of turpentine, paint sets, and book-making supplies.  I think the most I spent was $10 for a rocking chair.

I placed my easel in the corner so that I could take advantage of the natural light from the only two windows in the room.  Corner shelves help provide storage without taking up a lot of space.  Two wall-mounted shelves from the dollar store are the perfect place for my brushes.

A tall set of shelves was given to me by my mother-in-law.  It’s a great place for all of my art books,  and old bottles for still-lifes.  The smaller set of shelves holds my fabrics for still-lifes and fabric paintings.  The image on the right is of my rest area.  It’s a good place to sit down and take a break.  The low cabinet next to the chair provides more storage as well as a place to rest my cup of tea.  The wall behind the chair has a bunch of nails in it.  I can place my paintings here when I’m not working on them.  The painting in the picture is Harmony’s work-in-progress.

Pictured below is a low desk that my brother made for me a few years ago, because I like sitting on the floor.  I also love how the desk has a large surface area, but isn’t tall enough to block any of the windows.   This gives me a great place to work on stuff like this blog and bookmaking.

Well, there you have it!  My new and improved work space.  It went from a place I tried to avoid, to a place I don’t want to leave.  Thanks for reading!

A Place to Put My Coats

I recently started on a project that is different from what I normally do.  I’ve been doing a lot of  yard-saling lately searching for storage shelves for my studio.  I found this old–well, I’m going to call it a coat hanger.  It was priced at $5, but I payed $3. 

I removed the nails that were for hanging things and removed the panel in the middle.  Then I sanded it, and primed it with white gesso.

It’s not often that paintings are functional, so I thought it would be cool to paint something on the panel.  I found a reference photo, and drew my version of the scene on the panel.

After drawing the image, I sprayed it with fixative to keep the pencil marks from coming off when I applied a layer of burnt sienna.  I like painting on a layer of burnt sienna for two reasons.  First, it is a mid-tone so it helps me to accurately see the true values (lights and darks) of the colors I use.  Second, sometimes the burnt sienna shows through a bit in the final painting, and it looks pretty cool.

I began to paint the colors using acrylic paint.  I will probably switch to oil paints later in the process, because I think that they are easier to control…but we’ll see!

I do realize that it’s a bit early to be thinking about coats, but when the time comes, you can bet that I’ll be prepared!  In the mean time, I can use this thing for bags, and other stuff like that.  Stay tuned for the results of this project.  I plan on using a top-secret technique to add some texture…but I’m willing to share it with you!

A Great Night at CityArt

My show on Friday night went really well.  What I loved most was the support of family, friends, and professors who came to the opening.  I also loved sharing the gallery space with the other featured artist, my friend Rita King.  Rita and I took painting together at York College.  Her work is very different from mine, so it created a really cool contrast.

Below is a picture of Rita, me, and our painting professor, Ry Fryar.