making your own mini paint tins

I always have watercolors with me, with a variety of waterbrushes and pens. In the metal tins I put empty half-pans (stuck down with double-sticky tape), then filled them with Winsor-Newton tube paint in primary and secondary colors.

In the lid of the tiniest tin I put 2 colors in the lid, separated by a line of silicone seal so one doesn't get wet when the other is being used.

In the eyeshadow box I put a variety of Daniel Smith tube paint.I also have half-pans in an Altoids tin and a larger Penguin mints tin.

I like fiddling with art supplies almost as much as I like actually using them.

Mailbox meaning

Painting with Crystal yesterday, discussing what I'd read about recurring symbols appearing on one's art. One artist said her symbol was mailboxes, so I drew one.

Yes, the leaning post is intentional, indicating that if we don't take care of our communication lines, they'll collapse and we'll get no messages.

Tech pen and w/c on Strathmore Wet Media paper (which is 90#).

quick cat

I managed to catch this pose before sound from the street woke him. Nothing like cat models to teach speed sketching! (Took about 6 minutes, standing and holding the pad.)

Ballpoint on drawing paper.


And a quick paint sketch of the other cat--with water-soluble pen, then random red and blue w/c added.

The paper is new and I like it: Strathmore 90# Wet Media paper.

bile-colored tile

I stayed at a convention center last week and had to draw the bathroom sink. See the nose and the eyes and the huge mouth? And even a teeny top hat.

The tile was a little greener than this. Sickly, indeed.

Tech pen and w/c on lined journal paper. The lines are vertical in this drawing, so tile came in handy to camouflage it.

Ghoulish floating head

I found a photo of this actor, Chris Lee, in a book and thought he'd make a perfect horror-film star. Maybe he is, I don't know.

There was no neck in the photo either, just the white face in a black surround.

Following Danny Gregory's recent videos of how he draws portraits, I did this upside down, from the upside-down photo. It helps distract the left-brain analysis of proportions.

Rapidograph .05 pen on Aquabee Super Deluxe paper, plus some w/c. (I never predraw with pencil.)

Sturdy and solid

One of my standby drawing models. He never twitches and even waits if I go off to answer the phone or make tea.

One might say it's a rather wooden expression, though. He's leaning a bit to balance on that slanting floor.

Palomino HB pencil (which marks like most 2Bs) on cardstock.

Alphabet Art

Fun with stencils, stamps, and spatters.

Happy Spring! May all your puzzles be solvable.

Mixed media on Bristol paper.

penciled in

This time Chaucer stayed still in his sleep and napped long enough for me to capture his parts.

Pencil and wash on journal paper. The scan washed out the pencil lines of his coat markings. Imagine subtle tigerish stripes.

The essential egg

Someone on the web has a project of taking a picture of every meal he eats in 2007. I'm only going for part of one breakfast.

When we were in Paris in 2005, Carol took photos of our meals. Brings back great memories, laughs, and longing to go back!

Anti-Art

Keri Smith has a new project and website called Wreck This Journal. It's a great idea for combatting judgmental perfectionism and the inner voices that claim "not good enough."

So I did the first wrecking with smears of watered-down acrylic, then liked the pattern enough to put on a border, smudge with added pastels, and yes, post it. Better than a wreck now.

Just as more snow came

There's been knitting lately. We got ten inches of snow last night, so I can wear these before they're put away for Spring.

My own pattern, 40 stitches in a k2, p2 ribbing, using Noro Silk Garden. I made a 6-stitch horizontal slit (buttonhole) for the thumb hole. Simple and super warm!

Playing

This was originally a monoprint attempt using old, grainy, cheap acrylics, and turned into a cutout of color blobs (just to salvage something). Next I'm going to glue it somewhere . . .


on acrylic black, as in "who turned out the lights?"

Two green backgrounds

Water color background, green acrylic brush swathes, then ink drawing. Just to play.

Rorschach art

Dribbles of acrylic on plastic, smashed with paper, cut out, pasted, pastel background added.

Now I think it's a picture of an animal with a pink tail, blue head curved back to lick its rump.

What do you see?

Sunny calls

I love the water soluble ink, until I decide not to use it for a wash. Trying to keep it unsmeared through glueing, washed background, and pasting is not possible.

I added yellow pastel here to deepen the watercolor after the piece was glued into my journal. It adheres well to the water-softened paper.

Catching the Cat

You can see here how thin the journal paper is. Catch the cat in a quick ink scribble before he moves!

Then I painted in the footstool.

Brown kitten

There's a "kitty loaf" picture on the internet that called me to doodle in fast ink and blobby wash. That squashed face works in any medium.

Gel pen and w/c on Stonehenge paper.

spinning marble

My first attempt at doing a little digital manipulation. I used the blur tool on a circular swirl. It's nothing to Gimp experts, but for me a long delayed door into technical playing.

W/c on Stonehenge paper was the first step.

Tunneling

Playing with circling sweeps of color to see how they blend is a constant source of play.

W/c on Stonehenge paper.

cat meditation

Sometimes Chaucer meditates in my space.

Rabbit and Deer

I've drawn cats often, now I'm trying other animals. From my imagination, which really shows whether I know rudimentary animal anatomy. These appeared this morning.

W/c pencil, mostly undissolved, on Aquabee SuperDeluxe paper.