Threadbare - a process post

This will be my first process post - providing I can get the blog to cooperate when I post the images, and that's a big IF. Well, I'm sure it has more to do with my abilities than the workings of the blog template LOL.

I have been challenging myself in recent days to just start a piece and let it dictate where it goes until the voice inside finally says 'it's done'. The only idea I have in the beginning is usually the colour palette I start out with. Over the past couple of weeks that has been complimentary colours - predominantly red with accents of green/blue etc. The piece here was to use an analagous scheme of blues, greens and greys. (My apologies for the poor lighting and the neon green painter's tape - it was what I had on hand.)

So I began with some scribbling of several shades of blue and green watercolour crayons and then added a scribble of charcoal to connect these areas. It was at this point that potential names for the piece came to me - you can see it there in the upper right hand on the tape - threadbare I or tapestry I. 

When I added water and pushed the colour around the page it faded much more than I expected it to. Up until now I had been using my Inktense blocks and this was my first run with watercolour crayons, so while it surprised me I was not unhappy with it and I learned something, always a bonus!

The next day, I decided to do something bold and declarative to see where my muse would take me. I drew in the bold black square with my extra wide Sharpie marker. Well, that was certainly an in your face bit of mark making LOL. I left a sliver of open space underneath which comes into play in the next stage. The square was coloured with cobalt green crayon and then wet and brushed into place. At this point some spattering of that same colour happened intentionally.

By this point, the green tape was a distraction and I was pretty sure I was done with my outside edges so I removed it. The piece needed something else to give it life so in comes pyrrole red to play with the teal. It joined the spattering crowd as well as the blob and the sliver under the square. My brain just laughs at all the technical jargon here. 

I was done for the day, but not sure the piece was done so I did what has always worked well for me and walked away. I just love how refreshing and helpful that approach is to really clarify what is missing. When I looked at it first thing the next morning I knew the weight of the black marker lines was waaaaay too heavy, so that needed to be fixed. I painted over most of the square with gesso, thinning the border lines to about half their previous width, then added the cobalt green back in. Much happier!

Threadbare (C) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart
Mixed media on 12 x 16 watercolour paper

By this point I'd decided to name it Threadbare and that led me to the final decision to paint a line of stitching down the right hand edge of the big square. Seeing it here, it really needs the white border around it but my scanner isn't big enough to capture that

******************

If this post were a dvd it would have a blooper reel LOL. Because I had used charcoal to draw the initial, thread like lines, I needed to 'fix' it in place so I decided to cover the entire piece with matte medium. I knew it would give a bit of fuzziness to the charcoal itself and I liked that idea. What I hadn't counted on was it smearing the ink of my signature really badly, so bad. I didn't want to abandon the piece so after letting it dry thoroughly I brought out the gesso again, covered the old signature up and redid that section again with much better results this time around. Another lesson learned on my journey as an artist LOL. 

Bold Colours for Grey Days

To say November weather this year was dull at best and outright gloomy at worst is being much too kind! It has definitely had an effect on my work though. I mean if I can't have colour in real life I can create my own. And I did.

Both started with a random charcoal scribble with only the dominant colour predetermined ahead of time. It was free wheeling from there LOL. My muse has taken to waking me in the middle of the night, much to my chagrin, with ideas for what to do next. It's better than not hearing from her at all though

Red- mixed media 8x8 on watercolour paper
(C) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart

Blue - mixed media 8x8 on watercolour paper
(C) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart

From this to That

Almost a month ago, I started an experiment. 

I wanted to do a painting starting from a given reference but then only use it as a jumping off point with no expectation of where the journey would end. Each day I would sit down with it and just go with whatever struck my fancy. 

To begin, I was inspired by an image that is part of Windows 10 library of images that appear rotationally on my lockscreen. It is of an iconic tree, in a lake near the mountains in New Zealand. I wasn't wedded to my rendering of it and that was tremendously freeing for me.

I started with charcoal and added colour with Inktense blocks on 12 x 16 Arches HP paper. The second day involved throwing a lot of gesso around as a veil, then adding back some random marks with charcoal. Some days I would work on it for only 15 minutes or so, other days there would be a lot more contemplation involved. I worked on it daily for about a week and then life intervened and my creative voice went quiet for a spell. 

When I took it up again, I still had no idea where it would end up but distance told me it needed some life put into it and so I glazed the whole thing with green gold and that really seemed to bring things into focus. It still took a few more days but then suddenly and very quietly I knew it was finished. I've never felt more like an artist than I did in that exact moment. 

I won't bore you with the in between and quite frankly ugly bits but here is the beginning and the end. I will definitely be doing this again.

"Underneath a Tree"  mixed media on 12 x 16 HP paper
(C) Susan Langdon aka Nukiart

Autumn is Upon Us

The calendar may say Fall but the weather certainly hasn't quite gotten the message yet. We've had cold weather to the point that I've turned my fireplace on and the yearly maintenance for the furnace has been done, but the humidity right now outside is reading midsummer! Only one more day to go and then things will cool off to whatever is supposed to pass for normal now.

Okay, on to the art! Experimentation is definitely where my head is at these days. After long resisting the idea of an art journal - a physical one - I have set one up. It's not my go to place by any means but I think I can make it work for me. (I won't bore you here with the details of why I've resisted this for so long because well, it's just flat out boring)

I thought long and hard a couple months back about taking Tara Leaver's Abstractify course but the timing didn't work out as my August was filled with other things. I decided when she offered it again in the new year then I would sign up*. BUT this month I am doing her Expressive Charcoal online course. I can't say enough fantastic things about her approach to all of this - she's definitely a kindred spirit. 

Anyway, here is a sampling of some of the things I've done so far. They're from my phone so the lighting is horrible, apologies.  The bottom two are self explanatory but the top one is part of the magic! It started as an exercise: on a big sheet of cheap paper, close your eyes and draw a favourite place. That was a no brainer for me so I drew the big perennial garden on the far side of the pond and circled around to do the outline of the house. Took a lot of imagination to see it when I opened my eyes LOL.

Next step, cut the paper in two sections and tape it back together in an interesting way.Now, start adding lines, marks, shapes whatever your brain tells you to. Thick lines, thin ones, smudging wherever you feel like. Just play with it. Now cut it again and retape it. And this is what I ended up with. I see an abstract headless nude figure! What I don't see is any evidence of a pond, garden or house LOL and that is the beauty of it. It delights me so much I think I"m going to frame it!

* note to self. Don't forget!

Lean on Me

Lean on Me - 8 x 10 mixed media
on 300lb CP wattercolour paper
(C) Susan Langdon aka NUKIART

My sister Kate sent me this charming photo of her friend's dogs Louis and Wilbur a short time ago and asked me if I thought I could paint it. Given that their personalities seem to pour off the page I was eager to give it a go. Sadly, her friend's mother died unexpectedly within a few days of Kate's request; I was even more motivated to do this picture justice.

I took my time, mentally sorting out how I wanted to approach it and then began it last weekend. I had to verbally remind myself to slow down and let the watercolour bits work their magic. My own impatience is often where things go wrong for me with this medium LOL. 

Bit by bit it came together and I am so pleased with the final results. It is scanned, signed and packaged ready to be delivered to its new owner next week. 

Learning From Others

I do like doing studies of other artists' work. I find an image that appeals to me and then try and dissect how they achieved it. Sometimes it works out and I'm pleased with the results and I file the technique away in my mental toolbox. Even when it doesn't work out, I usually learn something valuable along the way or maybe go off on a completely different tangent. It's similar to mixing colours for me - I see a hue I like and then try to see if I can replicate it using what I have. 

That's what prompted this little study. I had seen the image on p interest and was immediately drawn to the bold colours and clean lines. First thing I learned - drawing precision and perspective is key! It's really not noticeable to my eye here on screen but in my hand I can see the left side of the biggest house is not quite right.

Study of Cathy Horvath's Fall Lodge Folk Art

I decided to start out in my usual comfort zone of working small, my natural inclination, so this was drawn on 5 x 7 watercolour 140 lb paper. I don't have much experience with, nor confidence in, my ability to handle reflections so that was my first worry. I decided to include them in the initial drawing, that way I wouldn't get it all drawn and painted and then screw it up with horrible water lines LOL.

I then decided I much preferred the square format so I taped it off at 5 x 5 inches. The colour was added using water soluble markers - some full strength, some watered down before applying. Yes, if you look really closely you will see some small blooms where impatience got the best of me sigh.

I don't think I will try another one but if I did I might choose to work in acrylics.  

Hibernation is Over

It's not that it's been a horrible winter per se - it just feels that it went on forever! This is partly due to a 2 week period mid February where we had spring like temperatures, total absence of snow and the return of the robins. We couldn't be faulted for feeling like maybe, just maybe Spring was coming early.

Well, HAH! said Mother Nature. Fooled ya! And that she certainly did. We've had an ice storm of late and as recently as 4 days ago awoke to fresh snow on the ground. But I think, finally, that we can put Winter behind us. Fingers crossed! 

So, during my period of hibernation, literally nothing artistic happened. I had set this dark time aside in order to devote myself to researching my family tree. Don't know if you've ever explored your own but I will tell you that it requires a lot of dedicated focus. My left brain just sings doing this kind of work and becomes a bit of a brain hog about it. Now, I know myself well enough to accept this and move forward with it. But once Spring came, it was move over LB because your creative counterpart is all rested up and ready to play. 

I was inspired by Tara Leaver's most recent 7 day mini series challenge. I have long resisted painting the same thing over and over again and I don't really have a good reason for why, just innate stubbornness. So confronting something I usually avoid seemed like a good place to start. 

I would use the same photo reference and create a new piece each day using a different medium. Pencil, water soluble ink, charcoal, chalk pastels, watercolour, mixed media and collage. There was - to my mind anyway - an organic progression to this process. The drawing became easier each day I did it; I developed my values before moving into colour. Each day seemed to build on the previous ones. 

I had never worked with chalk pastels before so that was a first for me. This last one bottom right was intended to be just acrylic but after I gessoed the paper I started playing with whatever I felt like so it ended up being a combo of Inktense blocks, Sharpie pen, water soluble markers and acrylic paint. It was also done with a bright yellow underpainting beneath everything but the blue and purple berries. 

Not surprisingly, there is something about each piece I like but no one favourite. And yes, there are only 6 images here. These were done on 5 x 7 cold pressed paper and when it came time to do the collage I found the small size quite restrictive so that one will have to wait for now. 

Okay, enough for now. I have some pieces from my orphan drawer to play with next. 

Touchstones

Touchstones (C) Susan Langdon 2017

mixed media on 8 x 10 CP watercolour paper

I am taking an online course of artistic self discovery called Touchstone, offered by an English artist who I found through P interest. Her name is Tara Leaver and she is amazingly generous with her ideas and philosophies. She is also a gifted teacher when it comes to communicating those things as well!

This piece was done to commemorate this chapter of exploration for me and I've utilized a photo reference belonging to Karen Broemmelsick. Used with permission accorded to members of the FB group Photos for Artists, to which I belong. 

So pleased with this!!

What I Did on My Summer Holidays

Fall is officially here - one of my favourite seasons. I truly can't decide between spring and fall. My favourite seems to be whichever is happening at the moment! So for now Fall is it!

I have been spending my summer, at least artistically, by trying new things. New techniques, new colours, new media. And that will definitely be continuing on for the rest of the year. Some days I have to really make myself slow down and just focus on what I'm currently doing and not go haring off in six different directions. Here is some of what I've been working on.

The first is a second take at doing a study of one of Carol Nelson's gemstone series. This time I started with a black gesso base and built multiple layers up from there. While I'm reasonably happy with the results, I don't think I will be moving on with it to do any of my own pieces. At least for now. 

Next up is an abstract that I worked on over the entire summer, letting it speak to me when it had something to say. And let me tell you, when it came to putting the realistic chains in, it spoke very determinedly. I don't know specifically what it was saying but rusty chains, along with the ghost image in the bottom right corner were a must! My inner child can be so bossy sometimes LOL!

This last piece is a WIP abstract currently on my easel. It's acrylic with some underlying gesso texture. This version started out as a study of a piece I'd seen on P interest but then the bright blue poppy seedheads showed up so who knows where this will end up. Certainly not me since the plan when I first put paint to canvas  was to do an abstract version of our local river. There's also a bear under there somewhere too.

I won't know when it's done until it tells me it is - I just wanted to capture it here in case it looks nothing like this when that day comes LOL. 

2017

After many long months I have emerged from my hibernatory period LOL!

Spring is truly such a time of new growth bursting forth and my own creative impulses seem to be following suit. I recently had lunch with my forever painting buddy and was so inspired by her adventures into new areas of art. We started in watercolour together over a decade ago but she has put me to shame with her progress in acrylics and just general overall realization of herself as an artist. I am my own worst critic and obstacle so it's time to get out of my own way!

Abstraction and acrylics, well more mixed media, have been whispering to me for quite some time. I have been perusing various online sources for some tutorials in working in this new arena. Colour is still the first characteristic I respond to then followed by lines/shapes. I can break out into much bolder colours with acrylics and I have so much to learn. I've been working on a piece that is a study of a fantastic Colorado mixed media artist Carol Nelson. Her work makes we want to reach out and touch each piece. I'm trying to figure out her journey via trial and error just from observing a 2 dimensional image of her work. Not ideal but it challenges me and I like that. The point is also not to replicate her work but to discover my own path through the study of hers.

Unfortunately, I didn't scan the beginning stages (bad Nuki) so this is midway through what I think will be the process and the point where I'm at today.

Rock study - interim 

This is done on 8 x 10 inch paper but my next attempt will be on canvas and will be a design of my own.