and he’s pretty good at it, was my thought when the video started.
This is what can happen, if you stick with just one subject for a while!
Tag: Art
Got a light?
What do you use for studio/work light, when daylight isn’t enough?
It’s not that it matters greatly, if I put my mind in “flexible” I can knit, spin, read, doodle, play work play on the computer and one day, when perhaps the outside gets more comfortable, work in the garden or ride horses. But still, I find myself some days wishing I could paint when I had planned to do so.
I’m really finicky with lighting temperatures. Not too cold and blue and definitely not your typical cosy yellow everyday lamps. It’s especially bad now with the new energy saving bulbs, which are of course a good thing, just not for colourwork.
Over the window of my office I have a “biolux” fluorescent tube which emulates daylight, I use it in winter to make days longer and brighter, and it’s not directly made for artwork, but it’s not bad. 36W/6500 K (I think it’s this one). The thing is, my office is not big enough for painting, especially since my cats are determined to share the table. Also when it rains, best place to shake your muddy paws, drop by for a bit of love and perhaps a dry lap for transferring moisture before they head back out. And any obstacles are to be climbed on, basically. Right behind me on the floor 1 large dog for tripping over (used to be 2). I have no door…. See where that’s going?
So, obviously a 120 cm tube like that with a standard, open fixture isn’t very pretty in the middle of a living room ceiling, although it might help a bit. So, do I care? Does anyone have better suggestions? Or do you just work in the dark/good weather?
No more excuses
I have:
Put up a whole bunch of nails around the house to keep my umpteen unfinished masterpieces away from cat claws.
Assembled a pile of canvasses all ready to go in various sizes. Having the frames sitting around in the hayloft for years was obviously one of those times when hoarding is quite ok! And enough canvas for about 30 pictures.
Ready, steady, go!
Well, apart from the annoying realization that I can no longer use the staple gun. My hands are too sore and weak to press it all the way in, leaving the tacks to fall out completely or sticking out of the board halfway. I had to call in an assistant after doing just one, and a very poor job of it. 🙁 I don’t know if it’s just because I clipped the hind hoofs of my Arabian the day before, also very hard on the hands when you’re an amateur (and have really small hands to a very large tool). Or if I need to switch to pre-framed $$$ canvas or paper or boards in the future. Didn’t make it any easier that I’d decided to try gallery mounting with the tacks at the back, rather than along the edges like I used to do. Tricky!
I also found some photos of some of my first paintings, acrylic on very large watercolour paper 50×75 cm. Not a complete collection unfortunately, and I suppose I should scan these. You might say I ought to use that until I improve my skills, but I do like canvas. And well, I have the canvas but no paper…. Also you can keep painting over canvasses more times! 😉
Funny thing is: I definitely think my taste has improved as well as my skill in the years not painting – INSIDE MY HEAD. This means I have a lot more pressure now, because obviously my muscle skill hasn’t improved one bit in the meantime, but I know I won’t be happy with what I did then. Some of the subject matter yes – but not the execution. There’s maybe I few that I still like and some I’d just as soon paint right over.
It’s not that I have a lack of projects at the moment, I do have a list of things I want to work on, so I don’t technically need a stream of new ideas coming in right now, that are not related to those projects (but if they come, they will be registered of course, can’t stop the flow).
But I still have trouble with the intuitive, playful aspect, just “closing down logic and see what my hand wants to do with a brush”. And I think that is possibly what it preventing me from aquiring the “skill” I feel I need or the ability to be happy with what I produce here and now. My brain really, really wants to know where we’re going before we even take the first step. (and keeps asking “are we there yet?”)
But I’ll keep leaning into it. Today however I have a visitor. Who is probably going to ask: “Why can’t you paint one picture at a time?”
Ikke flere undskyldninger
SÃ¥ er der banket søm i alle ledige vægge for at beskytte mine halvfærdige skilderier fra kattene. Jeg har samlet en masse lærreder, nogen gange er det en fordel IKKE at have oprydningsmani, for der lÃ¥ jo lige en hel stak rammer pÃ¥ høloftet og bare ventede pÃ¥ jeg gik i gang igen! Der er jo for en formue i materialer… Ellers kunne man jo male pÃ¥ kraftigt papir, men sÃ¥dan noget har jeg faktisk ikke pÃ¥ lager i stor størrelse.
Desværre var mine hænder for ømme og svage til at bruge clipsemaskinen. Håber det kun er fordi jeg klippede hove på den ene hest i går, for jeg var nødt til at bede om hjælp efter bare 1 lærred, som i øvrigt ligner noget der er løgn på bagsiden.
Jeg fandt ogsÃ¥ en stak fotos af mine første malerier (under en oprydningsrunde 😉 ), desværre ikke alle. Jeg har helt klart ændret smag i mellemtiden og forventer nok ogsÃ¥ en noget bedre kvalitet i udførelsen, hvilket jo er tÃ¥beligt, for mine hænder har jo ikke udviklet deres kunnen undervejs.
Jeg har stadig lidt svært ved at give slip og bare lege billeder frem, og det er muligvis derfor jeg ikke er tilfreds med det jeg producerer. Min hjerne vil åh så gerne vide, hvad vi skal frem til på forhånd. Men jeg bliver ved med at skubbe lidt til muren og fjerne en sten hist og pist, på et eller andet tidspunkt braser den vel sammen.
Calling all watercolourists
I bought this structured paper by mistake – must have either clicked the wrong box or left my head under my arm that day – and while it’s a lovely, heavy watercolour paper, it wasn’t what I was looking for to do ink/linedrawing as a base for watercolour painting.
So, having forgotten most of what I even know about watercolour, I’m a bit clueless what to do with this. Any suggestions for technique, media and otherwise from those of you who are watercolour experts (or pastel chalks?!) would be greatly appreciated. From those of you who do not watercolour, do you know anyone who you could send to my page, any gallery links, tutorials, anything?
In another word: HELP! 😉 (please)
And now of course to try and find online the type of smooth, hard paper I was looking for. Hot pressed, yes?
I’d also like to know which watercolours brands and types you prefer working with. My old W&N look a bit tired and almost used up. I don’t want the really, really cheap hobby store type, you get exactly what you pay for is my experience.
Sometimes I just feel like working smaller, as well as wanting to improve my drawing.
Akvarelhjælp søges
Jeg har fået købt noget meget tykt, struktureret papir som slet ikke var det jeg ledte efter til blæktegning og akvarel farvelægning mm.
Og da det er mange, mange år siden jeg sidst har leget med vandfarve, så aner jeg faktisk ikke helt hvad jeg skal bruge det til! Forslag ønskes. Hvis ikke du selv har erfaring med akvarel kender du måske nogen du lige kunne sende herover, sprede budskabet? Gode links til gallerier, tutorials?
Og hvad er dit yndlingsmærke i akvarel, skal det være faste blokke eller på tube?
Beginning of the end
Do I feel a slight hint of spring on the frosty breeze? When the sun is out, I can almost imagine…. So I put the laundry outside on the line! Aaah, yes, I’m definitely ready.
I’ve been working on a few things this week that I thought I was going to blog about, but none of them are quite done yet. I did finish my dry leaves printing experiment and I’m not very impressed, so that project post got archived vertically as we say here. As in, I’m not even going to bother scanning the results for you. Cochineal prints lovely on paper though, but it also pokes a lot of holes, LOL.
Knitting and spinning progress = 0
I’ve been thinking a lot about my painting etc. which normally is a really bad sign, and probably is in this case too, but I seem to be all over the place and that’s not very constructive either. To improve your skills it really works best to pick a theme and make multiple versions. You rarely fix all your mistakes in one go.
One minute I’m into intuitive abstracts, the next I’m trying for the impressionistic turneresque landscapes in my mind which on canvas then looks more like a naive illustration for a childrens’ book. Which I kinda dig too, in fact it could be a very good way to warm up for a picture book which title has been floating in my head for 7-8 years about my horse Charlie. Problem is, I have the format in place, but the actual plot is missing. Would be a great tribute now that he’s gone. I also had wanted to do a series of cartoons around the critters, probably for 10-12 years, but made TWO crummy attempts. Now we have Fergus who is everything I wanted to do exactly, and I’m not jealous, I LOVE Fergus, but I’m not going to copy any of it when he’s obviously so much better than anything I can output at this time. 😉 However, my brain has produced a couple of cartoon sketches this week, nothing original, but I may just work on them anyway – for the practice.
So it’s a lovely day out today, and even though I’d really like to work on my mandalas and one of my wip paintings, I should go be outside. I’m sure I’ll feel all the better for it. Dog to be walked, firewood to be stacked, maybe I should actually go riding on the old silly? And all the frozen horsepoop in the paddock is probably going to unfreeze real soon. It’ll be so good for my back and biceps….
And, well, spring on the way also means photo weather, if my old Canon 20D is still willing (shutter has passed the average number of exposures for this model). Not that it’s impossible in winter, I just don’t like being outside in the cold wind and the batteries die to quick. Anyone want to sponsor me a 7D house?! I promise I’ll do at least one excursion every week to a new location. 😀