Kinda sketchy.

I started a new gouache painting the other day, and I’m hoping to take into account some very good points from the comments in the last post. Nope, ink over gouache is just not where it’s at.

You might wonder why I even bothered in the first place, expecially now that my first version seems so painfully cartoony. I would just drop the whole pen + ink thing and try to be a painter, except that I happen to really like sketching. More honestly, I like my sketches, and liking my own work is not something that happens automatically.

Ever since we started going out (over the phone!), husband has been perplexed by the fact that a self-styled artist/illustrator could hate 75% of her drawings. And I couldn’t deny that he had a point–I mean, why would someone who hates public speaking become a teacher?

Most times, when I finally decide that a piece is finished and put down the paintbrush/pen for the last time, my first reaction is to rip the whole thing to shreds. So, I have to put it away for a day or two and try to calm down.

There are times when sleep itself does the trick…most things really do look better in the morning. But there are other times when it has taken me months to come to a point of grudging acceptance, and still others when I never like that particular work. At all. And then I wonder why I spent all that time sitting at my table painting instead of talking with friends or reading books or walking the dog.

Part of it must be the compulsion to paint that Lauren describes very eloquently on her Etsy page. Sometimes, you just gotta draw.

But I don’t think that’s enough to keep me going. Every once in a while, I have to draw something that I like. Something that I think is good, even if it’s not technically perfect. That makes me smile and want to stick my neck out by saying “I did this well,” even if it opens me up to criticism.

I feel this way about my little sketches sometimes, but very rarely about my larger finished pieces. Somehow, my brain and hand seize up as soon as I decide that something is the final version. The one that everyone is going to see, and that one person might want to buy! When I know that the drawings can be safely tucked away in my notebook, the pen moves freely around the page–but not so when I think I might show it to someone else.

So that’s why I keep trying to find a way to take the paint that I like and the ink that I like and make the two live happily together. It might take a while, and I might have to work at it in a roundabout way. But I’m going to make it work someday.

And if you have any suggestions, please please please let me know!

Thank you again for your input this week, and I hope you have a lovely weekend. :)

A little experiment.

(Warning–Big long post about painting ahead!) 

For the past few days, I’ve been working out the wording for a want ad. It goes something like this:

Freelance artist seeking part-time style for a permanent position. Style must have experience with a variety of media (pencil, pen, watercolor, gouache) and be willing to work 4-12 hours per week. Pay dependant upon experience. If interested, please submit resume, references, and portfolio to Paula Gibbs at blah blah blah.

Perhaps it’s not quite that bad, but I’ve been having some problems with consistency lately. As I begin each new piece, I think, This is it! This painting/drawing will finally coalesce everything I’ve done so far into one really awesome style that I can use consistently from here on out! And then the book illustration deals will start pouring in! (*cough*)

I manage to sustain this enthusiasm until I put some paint or ink on the paper and it doesn’t do exactly what I want. And from there on out it’s more about trying to fix what I’ve already done than creating something new with each stroke. The thought process then becomes something like, Wait, did I say I’d finish this by Tuesday? Oh yes, I did. Phooey–I guess there’s not enough time to scrap the whole thing and start over. But maybe if I just make the corner a little brighter and fix the face…And where on earth did that big streak come from? Aaaargh!

Obviously, this leaves a lot to be desired.

Since I think that some (= a lot?) of my frustration comes from technical issues, I decided to do a little experiment last weekend with ink + gouache. I think I’ve talked about gouache before, but in case you’re not familiar with it, it’s basically an opaque form of watercolor. I like watercolor too but am more attracted by the creamy color and matte finish of properly-applied goauche.  

One of the goals of the experiment was to find a way to successfully combine ink and gouache, since I’ve been doing a lot of ink doodles lately and want to find a nice way to put some color into them. So I took the same still life made from some of my little beach treasures and did two versions, one with the ink on top of the gouache and the other with the ink underneath. This tested my patience a bit since I never paint the same piece twice, but in the end the results were worth it because I discovered that…

…I don’t really like either of them!

I’ve heard a number of scientists describe how the process of discovering that every answer is wrong is actually quite productive. While I’m sure this is true, I have a lot of sympathy for the poor grad student who had to run the same tests over and over again without good results. (Hear that, Tim?)

Okay, this wasn’t a total flop–there are things about both paintings that are kinda fun. The colors don’t look that great in the scans, but the paint in the image above looks about like I wanted it to. It looked good enough that I had this long moment of hesitation when I brought out the ink pen and hovered the nib over the paper, waiting to make the first stroke. Don’t mess this up, I thought.  

And then I made a line, and it looked really funny. Somehow I always forget that ink pens really don’t like drawing on top of gouache–the tips get clogged, big blobs come out, it’s impossible to get a thin line…I think I’ve made this “discovery” about three times now, so I guess I need to write it down on my pen case or something.

Ink over gouache = technical failure.

The second piece is more painterly and three-dimensional (although a real 3-D representation wasn’t what I was going for), but I had a lot of trouble figuring out the ink vs. paint ratio. Should I do a complicated ink drawing with a light wash on top? Or just a few lines with more paint?

In the end I settled for about a 30/70 mix and then found that the gouache significantly greys out or covers the nice black lines of the ink, so it doesn’t really matter.  Oh yah, that’s why people usually use watercolor on top of ink. Duh.

Gouache over ink = technical failure.

I’m out of time (thanks for reading this gigantic post!), but I don’t want to end on a down note. In the end, it really is nice to know that two options really are knocked off the list so I can move on to others. I have a goal of finishing four beach-themed paintings in the next two weeks and plan to keep trying until I find something that works…though at the moment, I think that ink + watercolor or just gouache are my best options, rather than ink + gouache.  

I almost titled this post “Dear Lauren” since I’m hoping that she might have some helpful tips, but if anyone else wants to chime in about technique I am definitely interested to hear what you have to say. :)

What, she still paints?

You probably already know this if you stopped by husband’s blog, but I won this year’s Moscow Renaissance Fair poster contest! Long-time readers might remember that I thought about entering last year, but we were about to move and I just couldn’t whip anything together in time. This year was a little down-to-the-wire as well…I set my brushes down at 1 am on Saturday morning and went jogging down Main Street with painting and printout in hand at 11:45 to squeak in just before the noon deadline.

For those of you who are curious about details (=Tim), I can tell you that the painting process ended up being a little rocky. I went ahead and inked the whole piece first thinking that the style would be more line-y than paint-y and have just a light wash. But then I discovered that my new walnut ink is really really watersoluble and my nice crisp lines melted all over the page. After a small moment of panic, I decided to paint over the whole thing and blend the ink in with the gouache. It worked pretty well, but I’m not sure I’ll do that again on purpose.

Seeing as there was some time pressure involved, I ended up feeling rushed and went to bed on Friday very tired and rather unhappy with how it turned out. And then on Saturday afternoon I found out that the contest involved public voting and became absolutely convinced that I had lost, seeing as Moscow people tend to have very hippy-ish taste and my piece is much more children’s story-bookish. So, you could have knocked me over with a feather on Saturday night when I got the call!

I was going to show you the whole piece but realized that it would probably be bad form since the grand poster unveiling isn’t until April 10. I hope I won’t get it trouble for showing you a little detail.

Locals, you’ll be seeing posters go up around town in April!

Pretty birds all in a row.

I managed to start and finish something in only a week - now that’s progress!

The new painting was done in watercolor, gouache, and ink on rough watercolor paper. I found that my pen trips a bit on the paper’s surface, leading to a few extra blotches and blobs. Adds character, right?

The parrot is an homage to my sister’s green-cheeked conure, Stewart. (Or just “Bird Stew”, if you prefer.) Hmm, he’s a lot cuter when he’s not biting anyone.

The budgie is in memory of all the ones I’ve kept as pets over the years (= many), although I’m not sure we ever had a yellow and blue one.

All the other birds are for decorative purposes only, but there are some that I’ve drawn so many times now (like the bluebird and cardinal) that they’re beginning to feel like old friends. Part of my imaginary aviary, perhaps?

I think I’ll turn the painting into a postcard instead of the usual print, since I’ve been wanting a new freebie to add to my Etsy orders. Might just go ahead and change my business card as well, since I’m almost out of the first batch. I was going to ask for your opinions on this design, but it’s looking a little color-by-technicolor, eh? Hmm. Back to Photoshop.

Anyhow, excusing the neon glow, what do you think? And do you like the new font? (Thank you, Dafont.) I liked my old one, but it could be a little spindly and I can’t find a version that will open on my Mac. Am hoping that Danoise will be a little friendlier…I prefer the look of Ecolier, but I can’t get the file to open just now.

New birds on the block.

Please say hello and how d’ya do to my two new friends, Mr. Puffin and Mr. Cardinal.

As you can probably tell tell, Mr. Puffin is the more opinionated of the two. But I’m sure that Mr. Cardinal could turn around and give you a piece of his mind if he wanted to.

These newbies just made their way into ye olde shoppe, which has been languishing a little due to lack of attention. But I plan to fix that soon, oh yes I do. I’ve got something rather large and bulky up my sleeve that might be just-the-thing to drag me off the couch and back to the kitchen table. (It’s quite nice to know that I’m not the only one who feels that way!)

I thought about spilling the beans right now, but I think I might wait just a little longer. I managed to make myself draw for a little while last night when I was stuck on the couch feeling lousy, so I think my enthusiasm might be returning.  Mr. Puffin and Mr. Cardinal were supposed to be little samples, but they turned out rather differently than I’d expected and I think I’m going to move in another direction. But it will be a fun one - you’ll see!

I hope you have a lovely weekend drawing, painting, or curling on the couch. :)

Happy little trees.

Did you ever watch Bob Ross and “The Joy of Painting”?

When I was about 10 years old, Bob Ross was my hero. Every time we went to grandma’s house I would channel flip until I found him, in all his afro’d glory, painting his mountains and lakes and barns. And trees, which he always referred to as “happy little trees.” He’d take his palette knife and his fan brush and–without using any reference photos–come up with what I thought were incredibly realistic leaves and branches. I was incredibly jealous of his painting ability.

When I got older I decided to have more discerning taste and poor Bob was deemed too kitschy. I still don’t disagree with that classification, but I have to say that at least he enjoyed what he was doing. I mean, if you had the choice between a depressed artist who plumbs the depths of his soul to create tortured masterpieces and cheerful Bob Ross, wouldn’t you rather be friends with Bob?

Anyhow, all that to say that I painted some happy little trees and a happy little bird the other day, and I found the process very satisfying. The original is now in the shop for $12, which I think is pretty affordable. ;)

I needed something happy because, quite frankly, this has been a very stressful week at work and there’s just no end in sight. Way too much to do + way too little time = lots and lots of stress. And it’s not just me, which makes the situation worse…I look around my office and every single person looks as though they’re doing as much as they possibly can, so I can’t really try to redistribute the work.

I’m also a little put out that two bloggers haven’t taken the time to respond to some emails I sent them. I was hoping one would write up a little shop feature before the holidays, but it looks as though that might not happen. Kinda disappointing.

Buy hey, we’re getting a Christmas tree tomorrow! And I’m going to put up lights and garlands and light candles to make our apartment smell like cranberries. So it’s going to get better, right?

Have a good weekend, all.

Illustration Friday: The Zoo.

I’m interrupting the felt trees tutorial because I set them aside last night to finish this week’s Illustration Friday theme: The Zoo.

It may seem strange that, when I thought about “the zoo,” monkeys and hippos weren’t the first things that came to mind. So you have to understand that when I was growing up my family had lots and lots of animals. Small animals, mind you - we weren’t horses-and-cows people, seeing as we lived in town. But what our animals lacked in size, they made up in quantity.

The pets shown are only a few of my favorites: our loyal family mutt, a selection of our dwarf hairy-footed hamsters, one of several hedgehogs, the boa constrictor that my brother found in the school parking lot, a few fish (Bert? Ernie?), the lovebirds that let out the loudest shrieks known to man, one of our budgies, and a lonely little finch.

Animals not shown include a lot of cute (but smelly) mice, more hamsters, a gecko, some anoles, all manner of tropical fish, more snakes, a few more budgies, and a little lady finch. Perhaps my siblings would like to chime in with some of the ones that I’m missing…? (And yes, my mum was very, very patient.)

I did the drawing from memory instead of using reference photos, which isn’t how I usually work, so I know that there are some inaccuracies. (The hedgehog isn’t actively biting anyone, for one.) But it seemed fitting to me that the Marston family zoo be depicted from the memories of a 12-year old child instead of reconstructing the animals from photographs.

And I had many, many fond memories to draw from.

P.S. The original drawing will go in the shop this afternoon.

Illustration Friday: Hats

Mrs. Bluebird felt a little drab standing next to her husband, so she put on her nice orange hat. But then he found that old straw hat at the bottom of the closet (the one she’d been planning to give away) and popped it on with a twinkle in his eye.

As you might guess, she was faintly annoyed.

Some Friday farm animals.

Many thanks to everyone who has chimed in for the Alphabirdybet print giveaway (don’t forget that you can leave a comment till midnight tonight!). Giving stuff away is so much fun. I wish I could afford to do it all the time.

It seems that I forgot to keep posting old work this week, but I’m tossing one last piece in since it’s one of my favorites. The drawings are based on a book of rare farm animals that I found at the RISD library. I kept the book for weeks because the photos were so great and the animals had the best faces + figures.

I tried making a small run of cards with the sheep, cow, and pig images on the front a few years ago. I thought they were really cute, but it turns that that it takes a special person to give a card with a pig on it (and probably another special person to receive it without offense). It was a nice idea, though, right?

[Speaking of animals, someone found my blog today while searching for "fish poop." ???]

I hoped that my new holiday cards would arrive today so I can post them in the shop on Monday, but I don’t think they’ve even been shipped yet. I love my printer, but I think that every successive order has taken longer and longer to arrive. Must. Have. More. Patience.

I didn’t get a whole lot of sewing done this week so that’s my plan for tomorrow. Lots and lots of sewing. I’ve decided that hand-basting will save me a lot of ripping out in the end, but it adds a lot of time at the beginning. I hope you have a good weekend working on your own projects!

(And don’t forget that I’ll announce the winner of the giveaway tomorrow afternoon..)

B is for Baby.

…Blinking in the sun.

This is from an early alphabet series that didn’t get any farther than B (I do seem like the alphabet, don’t I?). The medium is acrylic + acrylic glaze, which is something I discovered around that time. It makes your plastic paint act a lot more like oil paint without the mess…not a bad thing.

I got some good news at the end of last week that I forgot to share: the Sing & Shout Crafts girls will have a table at the Holiday Gala at the Dahmen Barn! The barn is in Uniontown, WA, and was converted a few years ago into artist studios and a little gallery of sorts. I went to the gala last year and had a really good time, but this year they decided that vendors could only participate on Saturday and Sunday. Argh. But then they changed their minds and let us participate on Saturday only, which will be tons of fun!

I was rather sad when I thought that I wouldn’t get to be in even one token holiday craft fair this year. Holiday craft fairs are so much more fun than those at other times of the year - they smell like candles and peppermint soap, people actually want to buy things, and someone always puts Christmas music on in the background. Mm, I can’t wait.

(If you want to stop by, we’ll be at the Barn on Saturday, November 10, from 9 am till 5 pm. I think that the Idaho-Washington Choir will be singing carols for part of the day and there should be cider, etc. Come say hello!)