New Years Eve .... What will that bring

Ok. So looking at yesterday's art it seems dark, dark, dark. What to do ? Well, I think, just play. Treat the paper like a sketchbook page ( although it clearly isn't ) enjoy a paint and a play in the paint and it just does not matter what comes out.......

Well this came out. Try not to analyse it or critique it ..... Just accept it for the moment and enjoy the experience ...........

 Ermmmmm

More ernmmm

And more ..... Hope to get the muse back tomorrow. Have had lovely new paints for Christmas. Why

 am I not using these ? In a way, I almost know that I am painting these almost to paint them over again. Strange where they come from, isn't it ? I feel like I have slightly list the muse, oh dear, what to do ?

Enjoy it

Work on paper for a while

Prime some boards ready to paint if I feel like it

Do some 52 cm sq drawings

Draw 52 cm in pencil from my Daily paintings

Review the work I have done already

Return to my aims and objectives to check my progress

Enjoy it !!!

Upcycling group back tomorrow , can't wait !

Finally got going again

Well, feeling much better and glad to be in the studio.made some small images still with the graphite and graphite coloured acrylic. Put down pva and sprinkled gold powder over it...... Liked them.

So I moved onto the 52 cm sq boards, I used the kitchen roll I mopped up the excess paint with to make some of the marks .Interesting. ........ On the kitchen roll, I had bits of powdered graphite, water and acrylic paint. Lovely.

Some of the marks made by the wet kitchen roll, spray fabric paint ( brown ) and spray brusho ( orange ) 

Lots of dripping, playing, dabbing, scraping , scratching ( I got some etching tools for Christmas ) Loved it. Learnt again though that things work best on a completely dry primed board. These boards I  primed this morning so they weren't completely dry. Xxx

Hope to be back on track ........

Cannot believe it, I have a virus.All the things I got through last year that didn't stop me doing my Daily paintings and a little old virus has stopped me in my tracks. Not been in studio for what feels like weeks.On antibiotics now so hoping to improve.Way behind with my Daily paintings....cough...cough

Second batch of graphite on boards

Still unsure about the graphite on the 52 cm sq boards. I am not sure how to seal them but tried clear gesso which didn't appear to move the graphite, unless I rubbed it. I had intended to work over the clear gesso with the graphite coloured acrylic I mixed ( love that ) I tried the graphite coloured paint on the donated card , loved it. They were reworked prints.

These were the same size as yesterday's, 14 cm sq.

These next four were on the 52 cm sq boards that I am still unsure about. I worked on top of acrylic primer in a mixture of graphite, liquid graphite put on with a brush and the graphite coloured paint. Wasn't the easiest and I need to leave the graphite now, in order to see if they stand up after Christmas.

These were the second batch of the graphite ones on the charcoal wall.Where to go next ? ..........

Need to leave the graphite on the bigger ones but happy to continue the small drawings. Maybe work with the graphite coloured paint and just a hint of colour. Try it .........

Landscape Drawings .... winter 2014

Had a drawing day yesterday .Loved it. Went out for a walk with the dog down along the canal, took lots of photos and drew for the afternoon.

At the end of the afternoon I felt  that I had rebonded with graphite and massively increased my skills , particularly with regard to blending and tonal gradations. I did this really as preparation for the Art Group in the New Year.we are looking at drawing and I needed to define what we were doing.

Anyway, techniques I used were;

Blending with my fingers
Blending with a torchon/ tissue
Scraping the pencil with a Stanley knife to produce graphite powder which I then rubbed in
Layering to produce darker tones
Pressing on heavier to produce darker tones
Using the heavy b pencils to produce a darker tone

Using a rubber to lift out the pencil
Sharpening my pencil with a knife to get a longer tip, to allow for more variety of marks

Mixing graphite powder with water to produce a graphite wash ( loved it )
Painted the wash on the paper or over parts of the drawing

Scrubbing all over the paper with graphite on kitchen roll, wet or dry

Using the water soluable sketching pencils




Loved it all !




WHAT IS A DRAWING ?
Well there's clearly loads of work that comes under the heading of DRAWING , ie dry media on paper.And there's clearly loads of work that comes under the heading of PAINTING, ie paint on paper/board/canvas. But there are loads of pieces that could be either, for example, drawing and painting in the same piece or painting a graphite wash onto paper. It is up to the artist to name the piece, and really what's in a name........ Drawings usually command less money than paintings ......




So, after my draw yesterday, what ideas did I have ?..........what did I learn?......
Try and turn the drawings into bigger pieces on the a Daily paintings boards

Continue to explore all the pencils I have .... I only used three of them yesterday, an hb, an 8b and the soluable wash pencil.all were different graphite colours
I found it hard to get the darks
I need to mix a good graphite colour ( maybe use watercolour instead of acrylic but then I would have to put gesso on, )
Put gold powder on them
Try embellishing a print........



That' it .... Will see what today brings

Photos of the drawings from yesterday.......

This one below was done on a 52 cm sq. Acrylic primed board. I love it now but does it stand up as a piece in it's own right ? Not sure........ Continue working on them and think about how it would look framed. The process was much harder on the acrylic board, I couldn't get the darks and the pencil was obviously so different on the board.......

Graphites

Reviewing the Reworked prints ( decided on that name for the time being ) and loved them, so that 's good news. Playing with graphite on the 52 cm boards and am unsure yet. I still have the interest to explore the graphite when it's mixed into a liquid but not confident handling it in any way. Suggest I continue the exploration on a smaller scale.

Reworked prints from yesterday nos 1 to 9

Didn't manage to get the graphite colour in paint ......... Try again !

These are the first four on the 52 cm sq. Boards. The first two were on acrylic primer, the second two on gesso.there were differences but no front runner at the moment.

No 1 ...... Ugh !

No 2 peaceful

No. 3 darker in content

No 4 , potential

The four graphite ones on the charcoal wall.Will see what today brings.............

Drawing trees ugh

Well at the start of the New Year , I usually return to drawing, pencil, fundamental stuff that underpins most of the art we make. I was trying to draw one of the trees in my garden. It was ugh. I had tried on a 52 cm Daily painting board with graphite on acrylic primer.

This is one of the trees in my garden. 

 I drew with a mixture of dry pencil and graphite liquid ( made with scrapings of graphite mixed with water and painted on ) The board was too big, I couldn't get the dark tones in the pencil on the primer
 and it took longer than the half hour ! Ughhh !

So I decided to seal the graphite layer with water based varnish, brushed on. That application brought up some of the marks made with the graphite and did give the piece quite a printerly feel which I was ok with. I couldn't resist putting some paint on though , quite muted colours. Over the years, I have often gone into grey paintings, strangely always at this time of the year when everything outside is grey.

What to do ? Try smaller, on paper, maybe a series in the garden in December. Try a series in grey .

This one was a simple made up drawing of a tree in pencil.

I then scanned and printed the image and embellished the prints with inks and gold powder.

I liked the prints , they are 14 cm sq. I like them in the big mounts, it makes you take the work more seriously. I could easily do a series of these, I enjoyed it. I could do a series of, ' marks from the December garden , ' or a series looking at my Daily paintings. Mmmmmm

This one was graphite on the 52 cm sq primed board. Loved it. Do more . Mix a graphite colour in paint.

These were the thigs I used to try some kind of dry point. Two coats of Klear floor polish, drew into it with a dried out gel pen, printed it off. Ughhhh !

Worked back into the plate with graphite and acrylic, liked it then.

Worked back into the print and like that too. What are these ? Embellished prints sound too decorative. Think of another word........

I continued printing intermittently during the day. The Klear floor polish didn't work on the mount card but I liked a lot of the prints that came off.Still unsure of the name of these prints, I researched alternatives but nothing as yet......... Embellished prints - decorative ......worked back into prints - too cumbersome ...... Reworked prints - possible, monotype prints - better ........

The prints are 14 cm sq.