Did these two drawings very quickly last night after everyone had gone to bed....





The charcoal & water method again.

I like this technique - very good for small quick sketches.
Wonder how it would work for more in-depth studies?















This one done with china marker.
Also used eraser to smudge the lines.

Just drew it from imagination - was noticing people a lot yesterday in my travels & how much you can read from a person's face. A lot of people look so sad underneath their expressions...

We arrived back in Calgary last night about 11pm. Nice to be home! The last night out we camped in the rain - ugh! Setting up a tent in the rain is not much fun.
Luckily, we are old hands at camping and we work well together so it didn't take long & our tent was dry & snug throughout the downpour. We set up beside a small river & awoke to the music of its gurgling. The rain had stopped by morning so we didn't have to pack up a wet tent.
Ha ha - the only thing worse than setting up a tent in the rain is dismantling a tent in the rain!

All in all it was a lovely holiday - spent some time on the beach, visiting with friends & buying lots of tropical fruit - ripe & cheap & plentiful in Vancouver. O the lychee! the mangoes! Nice to have some for breakfast this morning.

Didn't make any drawings on the trip home, but have got an image in my mind of evergreens in a heavy fog as we were driving through the mountains. Perhaps this image will make its way onto paper or canvas.

For now I will post a picture of this little camera bag I made before we left town. It is made of leftover scraps of nylon which I got at work and a bit of flowery trim which I had at home. Sewed velcro across the closure & more flower trim over the velcro to hide the stitching.


I don't know whether this is "art" - but at least it is design, yes? My own design for a little camera bag.

The strap is a perfect length - when over my shoulder, the camera sits at waist level under my arm.

Stylish and serviceable.



Today I want to get back into the studio - the break has been lovely but now I am eager to be working with colour again!

An old painting on panel which has been sitting buried behind my painting table for a couple of months. It had got to a point where I liked the background work & then didn't know how to continue.
Originally I had thought to make a landscape - nature landscape, not city.

Today I had some red paint left over & decided what the heck, the worst I can do is ruin the thing.
So I mixed a little solvent & oil with the paint to make it more fluid, and began drawing some red lines in the bottom part, holding my brush on its edge to create the thin lines & using the flat part for the wider lines. Then I worked a little of the red into the top part, kind of scratchy scribbly filling lines.
When there was very little paint left on my brush I hit the middle areas with a bit of softer shading.

Then I used a wide flat brush which had a bit of yellow paint left on it & just touched some areas.



Hey look, I think I didn't ruin it!

Looking back, I think this was a very nice diptych once upon a time...



But then I thought it could be improved! *groan*

I layered several glazes over the fuschia & brown colours, losing the lovely transparency of the fuschia & richness of the brown. I knew immediately that I was making a big mistake, but I kept adding more glazes, hoping to recapture what I'd lost.
Silly girl. One can never go back, only forward. Which is why knowing when to stop is a major part of the art-making process.


Finally, I stopped. I looked at the mess I'd made. Then quickly I thrust them out of sight behind some other half-finished work.

There they languished for many moons. Occasionally I would peek at them and tried to think what I could do to solve this mess. No ideas came.

Then last night I suddenly realized my time on 30day is two-thirds finished! Have I been keeping up? How many works have I made, how many still to go? The slow process of layering glazes on those 25 small canvasses seems like a crazy idea - I want to do something, quick!

Ok, haul out the old abandoned diptych & have another look. Don't think too much. Just go with my gut reaction. I want to obliterate these two, make them go away. Too much work to try to make anything beautiful of them now...

I know! Paint them black!
Undiluted black paint, just a little dryer: feeling impatient. Use a large brush. How satisfying.



Hey, not bad. At least now I can see the sewn design again, not distracted by lousy colours.
Difficult to photograph, can't get even light. Try to adjust in photoshop, but still not great. Oh well.
(Have you ever tried to photograph a totally black painting? It's very hard to do!)


This afternoon went back to look at them, still think they're not bad. The black paint is dry. Good.
Mix white paint with some solvent, very thin wash. Use the same big brush, slap it on quick. It's not evenly applied but I don't care.


The white paint pools into the ridges & textures of the surface - more interesting than a uniform coating. I like how the brush left its mark in the top parts, where there is not much sewing.

Are they finished?
Dare I risk making the same mistake twice by continuing to add more glazes, when the result now is "good enough"?
I am too much a perfectionist, I still think there is room for improvement here. But I am also afraid. I think I will call them finished & think of them as such.

Unless, of course, sudden inspiration hits...

Worked at my day job all day, came home & my lovely boyfriend had made dinner, so we ate together & then I went to work in the studio while he went to watch a hockey game. Sometimes my life seems beautifully balanced...

Inspiration hit tonight - now if only the glazes would dry in 5 minutes instead of 24 hours, I could immediately work out the ideas! Patience has never really been a strong point for me.
Maybe that's why I use this slow process - it's an attempt to discipline my mind.

Anyway it's far later than I had intended to work, so I'll just post a bit now before going to bed:



Remember these?



I've since added several layers of violets, blues, greens & a bit more yellow.

The colour in this photo seems quite accurate.












Tonight I added the clouds @ top & bottom.
I think these two may be finished.

The colour here on my monitor looks more green & less violet than the real thing.
So, try to imagine a softer, more rainy-looking effect.

Meanwhile I will take a photo in clear morning light & post it later.









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Details of a couple more things I worked on tonight - entire images tomorrow.


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Good-night!

Canvasses # 13 & 14


Thin violet glaze over red.
Bluish green on other parts.

Hmmm... I like them. Yes. They are finished to my satisfaction.

The first of the 25 to be completed!


& here is a detail:
















Also got a better photo of these two last night:











& a couple of details:


I really like these two now!

The texture on the surface looks like snowflakes.

It's a city scene in the winter - at night or very early morning - during a blizzard.


No wonder I like them now - I love winter.
Snow visually defines the basic structure of everything it touches. I think that's why I love it so...

Ha - I never thought I'd like these paintings again!

Did these portraits tonight.
Felt like I couldn't draw. Bleagh!

The top picture here began with a charcoal wash painting of the entire model.
It was so bad - utterly insensitive & clunky lines.
Then I made the portrait on the left side of the paper. Took 15 minutes to make.
Results not bad...
Black out that first painting & now the black side balances with the drawing on left side.
















More portraits.
Don't like these but I'll post them anyway.






































Then I played with some of my pictures in the photoshop.
I think they're much better-looking now:


Painting with my computer.
Pretty nifty.

Kinda looks like 1970's poster art...