For the young who want to

by Marge Piercy Talent is what they say you have after the novel is published and favorably reviewed.  Beforehand what you have is a tedious delusion, a hobby like knitting.

Work is what you have done after the play is produced and the audience claps. Before that friends keep asking when you are planning to go out and get a job.

Genius is what they know you had after the third volume of remarkable poems.  Earlier they accuse you of withdrawing, and ask why you don't have a baby, call you a bum.

The reason people want M.F.A.'s, take workshops with fancy names when all you can really learn is a few techniques, typing instructions and some- body else's mannerisms

is that every artist lacks a license to hang on the wall like your optician, your vet proving you may be a clumsy sadist whose fillings fall into the stew but you're certified as a dentist.

The real writer is one who really writes.  Talent is an invention like phlogiston after the fact of fire. Work is its own cure.  You have to like it better than being loved.

Found and loved thanks to Late B(l)oomer

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The secret language of art

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I've been thinking (at this beginning of a conversation between me and my husband, at least one of us usually feels a little uneasy :). So, I've been thinking: Why is it that people keep saying that my art is "happy" and "joyful"? Why do I make bright, saturated colors and soft textures? Anybody who knows me will agree that I am not a happy, joyful, and colorful sort of person. Not typically, anyway. Maybe the saying "Tell me (what kind of art you make) and I'll tell you who you are" does not apply to art. Or maybe we don't really know ourselves and our art shows the true nature, or just another side of our nature? Are my colors an expression of a secret desire to be flamboyant? That's what I've been thinking.

And then there's art-we-make versus art-we-like, also. I often feel that the art I like (usually other people's art, of course) is a better expression of who I am than the art I make. Paradox.

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I have been ta...er..awarded

Sandra of Sandra's Mixed Bag surprised me recently with an Over the Top Award:

Thanks! I definitely did not expect anything like that...And I don't exactly know what it means or where it originated from. It just gives one a nice feeling, like a pat on the shoulder and a  "Hey, I like what you're doing. Keep it up!" So, in the same spirit, I would like to present the following people with the Over the Top Award:

  • Evi of E*PHI = LOG, whose sense of humor instills me with hope that not all is lost for this world :)
  • Andrea Joseph of  Andrea Joseph's Sketchblog, who makes fantastic illustrations and probably already has a dozen of Over the Top Awards.
  • Lisa Thayer of L.K.Thayer's Poetry Juice Bar , who probably will not care much about all this blog award business but whose abundance of good food for thought and candy for eyes is worthy of more than a friendly pat on the shoulder.
  • Katie Hoffman of Paint Fumes, whose paintings are...well, you'll have to see ;)
  • Alex of Bare Knuckle Flash, whose synthesis of photography and writing is thought-provoking.

According to the "rules" of this award, you now need to pass it on to five people and answer 35 questions with one word, like I have finally managed to right here:

1.  Where is your cell phone? bed

2.  Your hair? blond

3.  Your mother? strong

4.  Your father? kind

5.  Your favorite food? toast

6.  Your dream last night? scary

7.  Your favorite drink? tea

8.  Your dream/goal? truth

9.  What room are you in? den

10.  Your hobby? photography

11.  Your fear? communication

12.  Where do you want to be in 6 years? away

13.  Where were you last night? home

14.  Something that you aren't? easy

15.  Muffins? apathetic

16.  Wish list item? #14 sable round

17.  Where did you grow up? Ukraine

18.  Last thing you did? babysitting

19.  What are you wearing? glasses

20.  Your TV? absent

21.  Your pets? dog

22.  Friends? missed

23.  Your life? improving

24.  Your mood? sarcastic

25.  Missing someone? yes

26.  Vehicle? Outback

27.  Something you're not wearing? earrings

28.  Your favorite store? art

29.  Your favorite color? ultramarine

30.  When was the last time you laughed? today

31.  Last time you cried? unsure

32.  Your best friend? Lara

33.  One place that you go to over and over? ocean

34.  Facebook? whatever

35.  Favorite place to eat? mom's

Yea...All the important truth you've been dying to learn about me.  Anyway, with every recipient of the award being required to tag award five more people, at some point in the future, every blogger should get one (granted the recipients are diligent and not too many people receive the award multiple times...). And what a friendly world this will be. Cheers.

Monthly Sketch Project and my first ACEO

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Latest Monthly Sketch Project has a beautiful reference picture and I just had to paint it. I have also been contemplating ATC/ACEOs (Artist trading cards/ Art Cards Editions and Originals). So this is my monthly sketch project entry which happens to fit the size of an ATC:

I might do a larger one, too. The drawing here is the result of another experiment. Somebody on WetCanvas suggested using wax paper to write one's signature if it will be in a dark area of the painting. Before you paint, you put a piece of wax paper on top of your watercolor paper, sign the painting, and then when you're done, the signature stays white against the dark background. That gave me an idea to try this method instead of crayons!

Pros:

  • easier to achieve finer lines
  • you have a drawing on the wax paper that you can refer to (since it's hard to see the white lines on white paper!)

Cons:

  • almost impossible to see the lines
  • easier to wash off than crayon. Not a good thing if you want your lines to stay where you put them.

Speaking of trading cards, I couldn't find any well-organized place to exchange with other artists. Anybody interested? Here is another one that I listed on Etsy:

Some pretty interesting effects here I think...

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Tomatoes and watercolor, my love!

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I love tomatoes and tomatoes love me back :)

Tried two things here: drawing with a crayon ( I intentionally left gaps in the lines, so that the paint could flow from one area to another) and printing with the back of a corrugated cardboard cup holder. The latter idea I borrowed from the beautiful "Expressive Portraits" by Jean Pederson.

Painted on Yupo, of course (will I ever go back to traditional cotton rag paper? I think I will). 10x13 inches. I listed it on Etsy - but I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't sell. I kind of...like it. A token of my undying love for the juicy, fleshy fruit-vegetable that a humble tomato is. The golden apple.

On a somewhat different note, I forgot to mention earlier that I went to the Fallbrook Art Center, which was hosting the "World of Watercolor" exhibition. It was pretty good in general - and even it weren't, it was worth driving 120 miles to see this in person:

It took the Fallbrook Art Center 2nd Award - though I think it should have been First. So much mystery and beauty, and such a unique technique. I loved the light blue line that appeared here and there, and the glimpses of gold. Here is the picture of it that I took at the center (ouch! Shame on me! But couldn't not take it - I was in love!):

And this one was my son's favorite:

:)

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Failure is your friend?

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When I was reading Nita Engle's "How to Make a Watercolor Paint Itself" I noticed how lightheartedly she talks about "failed" paintings and unsuccessful attempts. Her "failed" paintings look like my greatest ambitions. Same with a lot of other wonderful painters that I found on the web: they seem to be quite fine with admitting that they, too, fail, and moving on. So what is the secret? The more work you produce the easier it is to discard one of so many? The better you get at what you're doing, the higher your standards get and so you push yourself to do better and dismiss weaker art?

I like getting things right the first time but this painting below is actually a second, and almost third attempt. Almost third - because while working on it the second time, I struggled through a time or two when I wanted to wash the paint off yet again and start over.

I'm pretty happy with the outcome though. Already sold it on Etsy, too!  Everybody likes cherry blossom I guess :)

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New sketches, and more paint chips

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Virtual Paintout - Stavanger, Norway:

I misspelled the name of the town...such a shame. The sketch is on Yupo, around 6.75x7 inches. I really do enjoy virtual paintouts. I feel like some tourist-treasure-hunter when my little yellow Google guy hits the road in search of a nice view. I also read about the place.

This is my ex-neighbor's horse Dezel (pronounced as "diesel"), which happens to fit EDM 44 - an animal. A very beautiful animal. Oh yeah, I misspelled his name, too.

And EDM 109 - a clock!

Another paint chip :)

Four Oranges - Yuppppo-po!

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Ah, Yupo...I love you.

Some areas in this particular painting remind me of fused colored glass. The key to making the paint flow as it wishes on Yupo seems to be a lot of (but not too much - or the color is lost!) - surprise - water.  Even the very process of painting on Yupo is kind of exciting. Should I make a video or something? I would probably have to have two cameras: one for the painting and one for my facial expressions, stuck out tongue, and crazy blissful smile.

By the way, I tried a heavier sheet of Yupo (144lb). It feels solid and serious when handling, but I did not yet notice any difference between a 74 and a 144 lb when painting.

And some less exciting sketches:

(EDM 93, egg carton) - drew this one on a paint chip. After hours spent picking out paint for our walls, I have a ton of them in all kinds of colors. I think they're great for little sketches like this.

This one is another result of experimenting in my Moleskine :)

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New sketches, and thoughts about "The Creative License"

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Hello world! I had no internet for a couple of weeks and it wasn't that bad, actually. Refreshing, I'd say. Suddenly, you have time.

Of course, that doesn't mean that I immediately became productive and accomplishing...But I did some work on my in-progress paintings, sketched some, and played with Yupo. And I finally found the time to read.

Just today, I finished "The Creative License" - another book that I "heard" a lot of positive comments about in the online world. Some people swear by its powers to unlock their creative potential. Well, there are good thoughts in it.

I struggled through the first two or three chapters and considered putting the book away, so uninteresting I found the beginning. I also did not appreciate the occasional bullying tone (or maybe I'm too touchy, and it was supposed to be friendly encouragement?). There is a liiiiitle too much about Danny Gregory in this book. I mean, in some cases, a little personal touch is good (like in "Everyday Matters", it was perfect), but it feels wrong in a book titled "The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be the Artist You Truly Are." What is the purpose of the 3 pages devoted to how Gregory learned guitar with his son, for example?

I also thought it was very fragmented. It seems like a collection of little bits of random thoughts, rather than a coherent work written from start to finish. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's different. Could make a nice calendar. Or a "daily devotional" type book.

95% of what Gregory presents as discoveries, I have already discovered by myself or with the help of somebody else. Like seeing beyond local colors or thinking in the shower. Seriously, I even have a waterproof notebook with a waterproof pen. I still can't decide if it's me knowing more than I thought I did or if Gregory's stuff is too basic.

But like I said, there are good things about this book. I loved the quotes from different "creatives" and little facts about them. I copied down the movie list. Some deeper musings beyond the first couple of chapters I could relate to.

I think Gregory is successful at making a doubting artist (and aren't we always doubting?) feel better about what they do. Would he convince me to start an illustrated journal if I didn't have one already? I'm not sure.

And - too bad, I already was on an "electron fast" - since we don't watch TV and we didn't have internet!

So, that was my critical and skeptical 2 cents. Most people think the book is great, and it's probably a good reason for you to read it :) As a matter of fact, I recommended it to my husband, since he confessed to me that he wants to learn to paint (big secret, by the way, and I'm kind of excited about it!).

And here are some recent sketches:

More latex paint, as you can see! :)

EDM 24 - a piece of fruit.

EDM 124 - something yellow. My son's alternative to a rubber duck. The drawing was quite a fiasco, actually. I drew it with pen, which turned out to be not at all waterproof when I tried putting watercolor on top. Watercolor didn't want to stay on latex, either...It kind of did on the second try, and I even got an interesting effect where the paint sank into the little holes in the latex that I poked with the pen when shading...Overall though, it sucks. That day sucked, too :(

EDM 13 - telephone and 4 - cup:

And there's also EDM 137 - something you can turn on or off (unfortunately, only one of the items in this sketch are on/off-able ;)

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The tale of the three girls and their portrait

It is done. I have silenced my inner critic and declared the painting completed. A few lessons learned:

  • Request high resolution, high quality photographs if you can't take your own. Even if you don't detail your painting too much, the information from a high quality photo is valuable.
  • For two out of three subjects, I used one photo for drawing reference and a different one (or, actually, more than one) for light/shade reference. That is hard, although I am mostly pleased with the results. One good outcome of this method is that the painting doesn't look (I hope!) like a copy of a photograph. A negative side of it is that it definitely takes more time than working from a single photo.
  • Speaking of time...It took me longer than I anticipated. Next time, I'll know. Hopefully :)
  • The Everyday Matters Yahoo group is a bunch of wonderful people. I am so glad I joined. I requested help with completing this painting and I had very useful critique within hours. Plus the encouragement that every single artist needs so much in order to keep creating art. My husband was very helpful, too, especially since he had the real painting to critique, not the photo of it.

Here is the last photo I took of it. Still a little bit of waviness present. At some point, I just had to make myself stop, put the brush away (speaking of brushes - this all was done with a W&N Cotman synthetic round #14, which is a decent brush, but it made me want to expand my brush arsenal), and let it dry in peace. If I kept working, I'd work it to death.

The clients loved it. I received passionate feedback on Etsy and they promised to tell friends and family about me. Overall, this was fun!

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Virtual paintout and EDM 160

Some time during my very important blog-browsing and website-wandering, I have discovered the Virtual Paintout. It seemed like a great idea and I put it in my heart to start doing it someday. Well, this here is my virtual paintout for February. Not as big and serious as I wanted it to be but at least it exists. I still have a couple of interesting shots that I would like to do but I don't think I'll get to them by the end of the month.

The blobs in the background are my attempt at using a stamp that Nita Engle talks about in her book. Basically, you take a piece of illustration board, cut stuff on/out of it (a tree, for example), make a handle out of a piece of masking tape, put paint on the face of the stamp and press it to the paper. And then you find yourself surprised, disappointed (try again!), intrigued, hooked up...

In this case, I made mine out of a piece of floor underlayment. It didn't work quite like I expected, but it also surprised me in a good way: those rounded areas of foliage were not planned at all.

And here's EDM 160: a trophy or award. This one belongs to our friend and says "XR80 Indoor World Champion 2002" - whatever that means :) I only know it has something to do with motorcycle racing

This is another side effect of my recent home remodeling activities. I toned the paper in my watercolor Moleskine with latex flat finish interior wall paint. The rest is pen and conte crayons.

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For Valentine's day, I got a house

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For Valentine's day, I got a house. Well, of course, it wasn't my Valentine's day present, it's just that we finally closed on the house last week. So my husband, not being a very celebration-inclined person in general, skipped the flowers and chocolate and declared that the house was my present. As for me, I obviously lack similar grandeur, not to mention finances, so I went with a good old valentine:

:) He likes medicine.

And then I was painting. The walls in my new house, all 3-day weekend! Pretty exciting and fulfilling, I think, especially since my whole family came over to help. My mom was watching the baby so I could finally do something with a visible result (versus baby-watching, which is hard work but is not immediately gratifying).  And oh, after years of living within walls of all shades of white and taupe and beige, it is wonderful to have heavy orange, and beautiful blue, and saturated green, and tasty yellow around me!

Also, I had some quiet time today to sketch EDM 22 (a piece of clothing):

I used a non-waterproof pen and really enjoyed it this time. I was ready for it to run and smudge, so I used these properties to my advantage. I think I need to get some color ink...

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EDM 241 and some more Yupo paintings

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I really liked the idea of EDM 241 - "draw what you see from your kitchen window." It makes me want to become socially active and do a series based on views from other people's kitchen windows. This one is actually NOT my kitchen window. The only thing that's ours in this sketch is the hammock.

And I am not done with Yupo! I painted a fruit bowl to thank Lisa Thayer for "guest squeezing" me a couple of weeks ago:

Juicy colors, once again.. Here's a detail:

I'm very tempted to crop it and get rid of all the background and most of the fruit in the upper right. What do you think?

Another Yupo, inspired by a glimpse of mountaintops as I was driving through the San Bernardino mountains overpass:

With this one, I tried some Kleenex tissue texture and also blowing on the wet paint through a straw (along the bottom). The blowing did make the paint run upwards in a slightly interesting pattern...But maybe it's not all that effective here. I'm still wondering if I should add some detail in the bottom part of the painting. Some bushes or ferns or something.. On one hand, it could make the painting more interesting, on the other, it could kill the fluidity and fogginess of it.

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What do you want from your art?

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I've heard that it's normal for artists to not feel happy about their art. That it's just a part of their nature to always wish they were better. I often find myself thinking that the art I like is not the art I make and vice versa. I keep wishing for more complexity and sophistication in a world of watercolor where "less is more." I want hidden meanings and multiple readings - because that is what I like about other people's art! I want to be able to imply things instead of spelling them out (Jean Haines is great at it). On the other hand, I've learned a lot since I started painting, and sometimes I even surprise myself ("Did I do that?"). My criticism of my own work has never made me want to quit, but to be better. So I guess it's a good thing?

Meanwhile, here's EDM 258 "Draw the inside of your closet." I had to work around this one...We are currently living in a friend's house, so technically, I don't even have a closet. There's one in the bedroom we are occupying but you can only see one half of it at a time and it's quite boring anyway. So...I saw a clothes rack in the garage, with a bunch of leather motorcycle suits on it and that's when it hit me :)

Our friend has a motorcycle gear and accessories business and a motorcycle school, sort of.

Oh, and here's EDM 23, "Draw your foot." Did this one while watching "Kill Bill" :)

Working my way through " An Illustrated Life" - great book, by the way (I gave it to my little brother for Christmas and ended up liking it a lot myself and checking it out at the local library (my brother lives on the other end of California or I would have borrowed it from him)) - one thing I learned, or rather, been reminded of, is the need to slow down when I am sketching. Somewhere in my last two years of university I developed this speed drawing habit, together with straight lines (great for architecture but not for anything else) and now I need to break it. So I've been trying to draw slower. However, here's a counterexample: I only had several seconds to sketch my husband holding our suddenly hyperactive son when we were at a restaurant:

My husband says that it's a horrible drawing. Well. I think it's ok for 7 seconds :)