Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Gristmill plein air watercolor

The weather here in California is just too nice to paint inside, so I took advantage of a warm February afternoon to head down to the river. My plein air supplies are pretty simple: a pad of watercolor paper, a pencil, a few brushes, my paint palette, and a cup to hold my water. I also grabbed a blanket from the trunk of my car since I forgot my folding chair I usually carry. I found a nice sunny spot on a log near the American River and started to paint. I love the little rapids flowing over the rocks but I am still trying to figure out how to convey that in the painting.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Process painting, acrylic

Sometimes painting is more about the process than the end product. This piece was inspired by my Artist Way group, and started with a meditation to tap into the creative flow. I was feeling artistically blocked because of so much other "stuff" going on in my life. To represent that my "plate is full", I traced a circle using a paper plate onto a piece of paper. I wrote everything on my mind out onto the "plate": stresses, worries, things to do, etc. Occasionally I would write a positive word just to raise my energy. After I had filled the plate, I glued it down onto another piece of paper. Using acrylic paint, I put down a background color. Then I started coloring over all of my negativity with bright yellow, imagining the bright sun washing away all of my worries, while letting my positives peek through.  As I continued to cover up the plate with paint, it transformed from a sun to a sunflower. I still know all the writing is under there, but I need to remember to focus on the positives!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Skull-moth-flower pencil drawing

I came across this art competition on Instagram called skull-moth-flower. The rules were simple...the art has to include a skull, a moth, and a flower. There are three categories: color, black and white, and sketch. I figured I would start with a sketch and then maybe I  would do a watercolor as well.  The concept behind my drawing is that the skull is part of the wings of the moth. I thought that the eye sockets would appear to be "spots". The moth turn out a little cartoony and the "wings" don't really fit the body.

So here is the sketch. It took about 45 minutes to do, maybe a little bit longer with shading the background. I used a mechanical pencil, but it seemed like all of the leads were broken. It was really frustrating because every time I would get on a roll, the lead wouldn't feed right.