Making something new to play on

Surprise! I know it's weird to see another post so soon after the last one but I just wanted to share a quick look at what I was playing with this week. When I was shopping at Sam Flax a few weeks ago I was admiring the accordion sketchbooks, or what some call concertina sketchbooks, and I was also admiring the price! I didn't want to spend that much on a sketchbook so I decided to make my own. I certainly have enough paper lying around the studio so I didn't have to purchase anything.

I used a full sheet (22x30) of 140lb Winsor & Newton watercolor paper. I cut two 8" x 30" strips from the sheet. I measured and marked every 6" on the two strips and then folded each one accordion style. Then I attached the two strips together to make one long one and glued the two ends to pieces of mat board that I had cut to 9x7 so the covers would be slightly larger than the pages. After the pieces were assembled I gessoed both sides of the paper and both covers.

I made the sketchbook Monday and yesterday I started playing with it. Here's a bit of video of me working on it. Yep, I know the camera should've been on the other side of the drawing board but the way my studio is currently set up I don't have a lot of options for placement. If I put it on the left side, it would have to be attached to the drawing board and the motion of me working at it would have the camera wiggling all over the place. I don't post a lot to my YouTube channel for that reason and I'm not a video producer. I'm just sharing little clips for folks who want to see a bit of the process. Hopefully I'll get better with time but right now, honestly, all my focus is on the painting process itself. I'd rather be painting than dealing with a tech learning curve. Sometimes, us old schoolers have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the current century. At least I've quit putting two spaces between sentences when I type and I'm even going to learn about NFTs! That's big and it might take a while for my brain to wrap around that concept. LOL 

Anyway, have a happy hump day everyone. I hope you're doing something creative. 

Lovey in 3 little videos

Last time I shared the portraits I was working on and I mentioned another one in acrylic with gold leaf. Here are 3 video clips of me working on that portrait and a picture of the finished painting.

I was inspired by the first acrylic portrait where I finished the other artist's work. I really was afraid to start that one because of the pressure I felt to do well. I had always done portraits in colored pencil so not only was there pressure because of the circumstances but pressure because it was a subject I don't usually do in acrylic. After doing that one and getting such a great reaction to it from the client, I gained enough confidence to give it another shot. 

I'm constantly stressing to my students that reference material is HUGE. I'm sure they get tired of hearing about it but it really is that important. Sometimes I see them painting away on something while their reference photo is hidden somewhere in the mess of supplies on the table. How can they use it if they can't see it. You can't paint well if you can't see the subject.

Anyway.... the reference I used for this painting is a photo my daughter Sarah took of her daughter Scarlett. It's a good composition and clear so it makes a great reference. And what better way to play with a new portrait than of my granddaughter! I'm a mom so of course I'm also going to put a plug in here for my daughter's new blog about her photography so click on those words right there to see it and some more of her pictures.

Below I'm applying the gold leaf. You don't see it here but first I applied adhesive size to the canvas- that's the glue. You usually have to wait anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes for the glue to get tacky. Once the color has gone from milky white to clear, give it a tap with your finger to check if it's tacky enough to hold the gold.

In the last one I'm working on the face. I don't use portrait smooth canvas like some people. I love texture so why change now? I did my usual slathering of super heavy gesso on the canvas with a palette knife. I just didn't make it as rough as I usually do so when I drybrush color on it you can see the texture on the skin. I'm ok with that because there's texture everywhere else and it keeps the look consistent.

And here she is finished - Lovey is 11x14. When I was on video chat with Sarah and Scarlett the other day, I showed them the painting and the first thing Scarlett said was "my lovey!" so the title was a no brainer.

Lovey

11x14

acrylic and gold leaf

I'm still working on the colored pencil portrait of the 2 little guys on the bed. Look for the finished one in the next post - hopefully!

Acrylic to graphite to colored pencil and back again.

It's been a busy time with lots of projects and that's a good thing! I love having multiple things to work on. I can go back and forth between projects when I get tired of something or just frustrated with how things are going and need a break. 

Switcharoo time..... I went from nests and landscapes to portraits all of a sudden. First I got a very special commission. This is a portrait that was started by an artist friend many years ago. Sadly, she passed away before finishing and her sister asked me to finish it for her. Talk about pressure. I was scared to death to do it but once I got started I was ok. I just wanted to make the artist's family proud because really - what an honor that they asked me to do it.

The other challenge was figuring out how much painting to do. There was the obvious - everything that was left undone - face, hair, both shirts and bits of the rest of the clothing. There were other things too where she had done first layers but I was afraid if I did too much it wouldn't be her painting anymore but mine. I couldn't let that happen. So anyway, this is the finished portrait. I worked mostly on the figure and the jacket he's leaning against. Irene, wherever you are, I hope you're pleased.

While working on that one I got another commission that I finished and can't show you because it's to be a surprise gift. So pretend I'm sharing a photo of a graphite portrait of 4 people. You'll see the real thing at the end of November.

⬜

Then I got another commission to do one in colored pencil. I went from acrylic to graphite and now to cp. This one I can share in progress so I shot a little bit of video while I was working on it. I'll share again when it's done.

And now I'm also working on another portrait in acrylic but I'm adding gold leaf to it. Just because. It's from a photo my daughter took and I just love it so I thought I'd play a bit. I'll share that one in the next post.

Until then, keep on painting and playing.

A short and speedy clip

I discovered the hyperlapse setting on my phone! Yay! I love watching artists in their speed painting videos so I decided to try it myself. Yesterday I set up my little blue flexible tripod with my phone in it and did a clip of me working on the next bird nest painting. This is only the second time doing this. Hopefully these little clips will get better with practice. Light can be an issue in my studio so I might have to experiment with the placement of my easel and I have to figure out a way to get closer to the canvas too.

Anyway..... here's a short clip of a work in progress. It's an 8x8 canvas that I first textured with super heavy gesso. After letting that dry overnight I painted the whole canvas red, sketched the design and then applied gold leaf. Here I'm working with acrylic. I'm not done at the end of the clip, I still have some work to do so I'll share it when it's finished.

Thanks for watching!

Painting, sharing, shipping, bingeing

It was a busy week in the studio last week. I got lots of painting done, talked to lots of people, shipped artwork to the Signature Art Gallery and even sold a few paintings! And btw.... the Signature Gallery has a bird room- all things bird so if you're a bird watcher or are just fascinated with them like I am then go see what they have in there. So anyway, it was a banner week and the best of all was Friday when this article came out in Arts Business Institute. A big thank you to Carolyn at Artsy Shark for contacting me. Check it out and if you would be so kind.... tweet it or share it on whatever method of socializing you utilize. Thanks!

This is the latest bird's nest I did and it's sold so it's heading to NV this week. I have another one on the easel in the ugly stage.....

Kind of weird lighting in this shot. I had my spotlight on the nest I'm using for reference so the canvas looks a little dark. My laptop is there so I can message with people while I work and of course binge on Netflix shows- right now I'm bouncing back and forth between the new episodes of Walking Dead and old episodes of NCIS.

This is a little Instagram snippet from the process of applying gold leaf to my canvas.

Artist friends.... what do you do when you paint? Listen to music? Watch TV? Are you a binge watcher? Need silence? Just curious.

Carry on and happy painting.

Yes, I still do colored pencil

I know I've posted a lot of stuff about acrylic painting but I do still paint with colored pencil on occasion. I do portraits in colored pencil using the tonal layering technique that gives such a smooth finish to children's skin. This is one I did some years ago but it's new to the portrait page here. I just added it recently. This is my niece Kayla (she's now 22 yrs old!) and it was one of my favorites to do along with the one of her playing with bubbles - click the portrait tab above and scroll down to see that one.

I also added the portrait of Kayla's brother Grant....

The background on this one is a lot looser. I like the scribbly pencil stroke look sometimes plus it's faster to do and is a nice contrast to the smooth layers on the figure.

Then there is the super fast way to work with colored pencil and that's what I'm doing now on an abstract piece. I use mineral spirits with the pencils to turn the dry pigment into paint. I LOVE working this way. Yesterday I turned the camera on to show you a few minutes of how I paint with a pencil.