InstaPair

1. Found Typewriter 

2. Lost TVs

3. Marks Made 

4. Marks Found

5&6. Two interiors 

7. Limb with Fasion

8. Limb with Treats

9. Drawing from a Coffee Shop

10. Coffee Shop

11&12. Shopping Finds

Working Back In

A sketchbook is a complete piece for me.  Whenever I finish a drawing or part of a drawing the first thing I do is start from the first page of the book and flip through to see everything there.  

For the most part I am working straight through, but keeping myself familiar with each page and how the whole book flows together brings me in circles of seemingly endless starts and finishes.
You can see what I'm talking about in the drawings this text is sandwiched between.  The top photo shows how I originally thought the sketch would end and in the bottom photo you can see how I later decided to switch tools and wrap it up.

Thats usually what is going on in my sketchbooks when you see a shift from markers to pen or pen to pencil or pencil to charcoal and so on.

Can you find the switch in this one?  It is a little more subtle than the others.

Mark Making

I'm in love with these Faber-Castell PITT artist pens (markers).  I first ran into them at Artist &Craftsman Supply in Cambridge, a wonderful little store I'm glad to call my favorite.

The brush tip gives a greater control over the type of line you want and the Indian ink is not completely opaque so you can layer it up where you want darker tones.  

See:

This tonal layering technique works just as well with hue variation.  Leaving gaps between the colors in some places and overlapping in others allows for a satisfying blending of color.  

See:

Here are a couple portraits done with my beloved markers:

Self Portrait, Summer 2012

Cheryl, Summer 2012

Outdoor Sketching

The Materials

While I am less than thrilled about the weather beginning to cool, we have had some nice sunny days.  I made it outside over the past few to enjoy the Vitamin D and get a little artwork done.  However, the first time I suddenly awoke (in the seated position) with drool on my face, oops.  I enjoyed the sun a little too much that time.  I tried again yesterday and kept my mind moving by plopping myself down with some of my favorite drawing materials (in a less comfortable spot) in front of some indoor plants, who are soaking up their last days of outdoor freedom before the frost.

The View

The Result

Little Black Sketchbook

It is the best feeling getting to the end of a sketchbook.  More often than not I'll prematurely start working in another one because I want a new size paper or paper texture, or I just lost the last one I was working in.  This little black sketchbook has actually stuck around for a while (although it was originally abandoned for about a year with only a couple pages filled).  The majority of it has been filled with notes I took while working in the studio as well as interning at Fuller Craft Museum.  The past month or so I've been filling it with sketches.  It feels so much better to have art in there than notes but with the combo of the two this sketchbook is definitely going to be a keeper.

Website

I've spent the past couple of days working on a website and wow, do I have a lot of unedited images!  Every picture is warped and needs to be squared off because I am nothing of a photographer.  I have to admit though that I love the excuse to play around in photoshop for hours at a time.  The only color editing I ever do is to correct a shadow or something like that in order to make the images as close to the actual pieces as possible.
Hopefully the site will be up and running in the next month or so once I get all of the kinks worked out.
Here are a couple images I've excavated from the Spring of 2010 when I was doing all of my sketching digitally.

Heading into Fall

It’s been a while; I’ve moved out of one studio and into another, my position as the art teacher at a summer camp has clearly ended and new work is in progress!

Here is my fabulous new plant that I am very excited about.  I’ve had it for a week or two now and it grows these beautiful little orange flowers that look like goldfish.  I think it may need a transplant soon, what do you think?

Here are two paintings that I am currently working on.  I think they’ll be done soon.  I’m very excited for a couple new colors these two have each added to my palate. 

 Cobalt Teal  mixed with a bit of Cobalt Blue (plus a little Titanium White and Cadmium Yellow Dark mixed in places) is giving me some exciting new blues in the center of the second painting.  I am also happy to put my Dioxazine Violet to use with Yellow Ochre and Burt Sienna to get a new and rich fleshy tone which you can see underneath some glazing in the bottom right area of the first painting.

Recently I have been taking drawing a lot more seriously.  Here are three completed pieces and one work in progress (shown with source material).  All are approx 27x21” but really that is a big estimation, I never trust my mental measurements!

Here is a tiny sample of my sketches and source material used before and throughout a piece.

A few artists I am currently looking at:

Cristi Rinklin

Arthur Dove

Thomas Moran (Big Yellowstone painter)

Nancy Friese (A temporary faculty member at MassArt, I saw her artist talk a couple weeks ago and spoke with her afterwards, amazing work!!!)