Koi Sketch plus Gelli Print

Gelli Plate print using acrylic paint plus stencils 

Gelli Plate print with sketch of Koi in watercolor

You know the lucky accidents I mentioned? I just took a wonderful workshop with Elizabeth

St. Hilarie Nelson called Paper Painting Collage (more about that in a future post) and wanted

to start some sketches for a painted paper collage of Koi. When I leafed through my sketchbook

for a blank page I ran across a Gelli print that I'd pasted in.  The orange and red in the print sort

of reminded me of Koi so I tried a sketch, then added watercolor. Of course watercolor on top

of acrylic meant that the colors of the print shined through and also meant that I could rub the 

paint off where I wanted to and play with texture where the watercolor resisted the acrylic a

bit. I really love this effect and am looking forward to creating backgrounds more intentionally

for future sketches.

Drawing in Alice's Garden

Peony Thank You card for Alice

Peonies in Alice's Garden
Pencil sketch with Koi Watercolor and Sharpie Pen

My friend Alice and her husband have a back yard that is entirely given to a vegetable garden and flowers. I was lucky

enough to be invited to paint in her garden. Her peonies were glorious!! Ended up scanning and printing out this piece

to make a card to send to Alice. 

Drawing Buddha's Hand

Buddha Holding the World
Watercolor, stenciled halo, Sharpie Pen

I drew one of my Buddha statues and found the face
was easy but the hands and feet were a challenge, especially 

the left hand.  My son said he really liked the left hand because the heavy

lines in the figure joints meant that that hand could move, like the

cartoon figures he likes to look at online.  I kept on staring at that hand

and began to think that it was trying to tell me something.  Buddha's hand

can move?  I started to think that there was something IN Buddha's left

hand, although that wasn't what I thought I was drawing.  Hmmmm, looks

like a ball.  I decided to just let that cook and see what came up.

Later I realized that the ball is the World.  The World is in Buddha's hand.  I

decided to work on the drawing (the top drawing is the finished one) and

render what I had realized.  Somehow I feel like crying.  It makes me think

of something I visualize when I am feeling despair.  I imagine myself in Christ's

arms, like Mary holding the crucified Christ in the Pieta.  Of course I am not

dead but only crucified, usually by my own thoughts.  This image came to 

me from that story of the footprints in the sand--the story where Christ shows

a man his life and how he has always been with him.  The man sees the extra

pair of footprints, along his own in the sand, but then notices that there is a

time in his life when there is only one set of footprints.  The man accuses

Christ of abandoning him right when he needed him the most.  Christ smiles

and says "That's when I carried you".  

So now I have another healing image, that of Buddha holding the world.  The

reality that the Buddha represents is large, the world is small.  I also realize that

this is Buddha offering the world to us.  Offering the world to me.  Offering 

a world of compassion and peace.  It can only be offered.  I must receive.

Buddha, Left handed

Left Hand Drawing

In Jane LaFazio's Sketching and Watercolor, Journal Style workshop we were asked to

draw a continuous line drawing with our left hand.  I decide to draw one of my Buddha statues.

The drawing only took a little while, but I kind of liked it.  I was surprised, however, when

people in the class remarked that it was "so full of emotion".  Hmmm I can see it but guess

the directness of my left hand drawing came through.

In week 6 we were asked to draw a man-made object.  I found that I just didn't want to

draw kitchen appliances or the like.  So I did a right hand drawing of my statue.  It was easy

to draw the upper half of this statue but I kept on erasing and redrawing the bottom half.  I

still wonder about some of the details.  The color, which began when I picked up the wrong

colored Sharpie Pen actually turned out to be a happy accident.  I have always loved images

of the "Medicine Buddha", the Buddha depicted as being blue.

So which Buddha do you prefer?  I am always looking for comments about my posts.

Urban Sketching

inked pencil sketch with watercolor

I think I've figured out what I want to do for the rest of my life: illustrate the world through travel, Urban Sketching, Botanical Art Journaling and just observing the beauty and fascinating details of the world in general.  

Really excited about taking an Urban Sketching class from Frederick Pichon later this month through Colorado Free University  and I'm also having great fun teaching a Botanical Art Journaling class that started last Sunday.

You know that great feeling you get when the details of life all seem to sort of magnetically align and point to a fork in the road you hadn't really noticed before?  I love observing the world and recording what I see.  I've been wanting to travel to see all the places I teach my students about in my Art History and Humanities classes.  Universe, am I asking too much?  How about if I draw everything I love and am curious about and teach others to do this too?  Deal?

Three Ways to Save Whites when Watercolor Sketching

Daily Sketch "Apple"

Pencil, Sharpie Pen, Koi Watercolors

Today at my "Impressions of the Gardens" class, which is through

the Colorado Free University and held at the Denver Botanic Gardens,

we talked about "saving whites" and observing light and shadow

related to the object being sketched.  By saving whites I mean making

sure that highlights in the object are preserved or saved when the

object is colored in order to give your painting more sparkle and realism.

I had them draw their pears or apples in pencil, ink their drawings when satisfied,
then erase the pencil.  I also had them sketch in the highlights and shadow(s)
underneath and make penciled in notes of the main areas of dark and light.  

We used techniques to "save whites" in three ways

1. Noting areas of light and making light pencil marks to indicate them
2. Using masking fluid (I really like the fine line Masquepen)
3. Using a stiffer brush to gently "lift" color after the paint is dry or
   while it is still wet.

I think that most readers will understand about taking care to not paint

highlighted areas so I will not discuss number 1.  Number two, the 

use of masking fluid, is probably also familiar, but I think that many

have yet to discover Masquepen.  Unlike usual masking fluid that is hard

to control and can ruin your brushes, the Masquepen is a fine tip bottle

that allows you to accurately place masking fluid where you want to 

protect areas from further layers of paint.  Once the masking fluid is

dry you can add more layers, let the layers dry, then rub off with your

finger or a rubber cement eraser.

The third method is a bit of magic that proves that watercolor is easier to

manage than is believed.  Using a slightly stiff damp brush gently rub

on the area where you want to lift color.  Blot the damped area with a

cloth or paper towel.  Magically, with most colors (except the most 

staining) the color will lift.

Sketching Kitchen Leaves

Bay Leaves
Pencil sketch with Koi Watercolors

It's a cold February day and I don't feel like venturing out. So drawing bay leaves.

Loving daily sketching and feel like I've found a daily practice that makes

 me feel skillful and like I'm developing my drawing skills and also my power

 of observation.  

 This brings together so many of my interests and passions: 

1. The Plein Air art of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionists
2. Landscapes/drawing from nature
3. The sacred quality of Nature and the value of of closely observing Nature
4. The Denver Botanic Gardens and Botanical Illustration
5. Visual Journals

 All this also informs the classes I teach through Colorado Free University.

 I have my Impressions of the Gardens class which I have had the opportunity

 to teach for a couple of years and one I am going to start soon: Botanical Art Journal.

 Like Plein Air art with simple supplies and a sketchbook.  I've also just become

 aware of the  Urban Sketching movement. Feel blessed!  Now, if I could only

 figure out how any of these endeavors could pay the rent.

Stencil Crazy

"Mother Earth Tile"
MaryBeth Shaw "Tile" stencil from the Stencil Club, Balzer Design Stencil.
Watercolor with Gelly Roll pen accents.

"Orange"
Just A Trace stencil "Garbo" stencil.  Watercolor, Derwent Watercolor Pencil,  Sharpie pen.

Detail, 3 Peppers with Stencil

3 Peppers with "Stencil"
I used the cardboard waste from punch out letters as a stencil in this one.
I've used this window-like "stencil" again and again.

Orchid with Stencil
This is a blind contour drawing with stenciled elements  and additional lines added.
Koi watercolors.

I've always loved the rich patterns often found in paintings by Matisse and now I have a not so secret
secret about how to create that effect in my work with fewer tears.  Stencils!!  

This is how it happened.  Element 1: Libby Unwin from Just a Trace was a guest speaker at the first
meeting of my Visual Journaling Group, Colorado (see meetup and facebook)at the Super Good ArtStuff 
art supply store in Denver, Colorado, in the Tennyson Cultural District.  She brought stencils
for us and we used spray ink to create journal pages.  Fun!

Element 2:  I started an online class with one of my favorite artists Jane LaFazio: "Sketching and
Watercolor, Journal Style".  I love Jane's journals and so great to learn some of her techniques.  I'm

working on emulating her way of keeping her whites and sparkle, working quickly and not overworking.

Element 3: I joined Marybeth Shaw's Stencil Club and joined her related facebook page. This means that
I get a packet of three or four stencils each month (large, medium, small, smaller) and have access to

a related video with techniques for using the stencils.  The facebook group is great too--very inspiring to

see how creative others use materials.

So Jane's course assignments ended up with stenciled backgrounds and I'm crazy about the effect.

How I did it:

1. Draw your still life in pencil
2. Ink with a permanent marker
3. Erase pencil lines
4. Draw a square or rectangle around the drawing
5. Lay down stencil and use pencil to draw in a patterned background
6. Watercolor the whole thing

Looking forward to making some paintings in acrylic and getting my Matisse on!

Botanics and the Technosphere

Cone flower and Clouds

Collage, Tombo Markers, Gelli Roll Pens
Koi Watercolors, Copic Markers

It is the height of August beauty at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  Actually, many of the Cone flowers are faded from the intense heat of the summer.  But there still is a glorious riot of color.  When I am at the Gardens with the glory of color that is summer here, with lush green and happy bees having an orgy all around, I feel so blissful in in the moment and let go of my worries.  I become one with this beauty.  Think that is why I love the Gardens so much.

In contrast, on Thursdays, I teach my college class called Technology and Society.  Used to be called Technology,  Ethics and Society but at some point corporate dropped "ethics" although that is still what the book is called.  My students share articles from the web related to science,technology and society.  They mostly bring in articles about the changing screen size for the Smart Phone or Apple's lawsuits against Android.

I've made the list repeatedly for them: current events in science and technology that effect us all.  I know this class is meant to encourage critical thinking and awareness of issues facing the modern world but I am surprised that they are not aware of or do not care about the larger issues: genetically altered food and other food source concerns; regulation of polluting  industries; globalization and the third world; person to person communication issues caused by  over-reliance on electronic communication; global warming; radioactive pollution that is mutating wildlife and insects and many other human caused environmental issues that need to be aired.

So now you will often see indicators of my awareness, in my art, that the technosphere man-made technologies from the wheel to the latest development in weaponry) and nature are no longer separate.  We have taken and added to the natural world with ingenuity and ferocity such that even native crops can be found to have altered genes in their make-up.

I feel sad that I would probably become ill if I drank untreated water from a lake or stream. Rain contains pollutants that acidify soil and oceans.  We have changed the weather.

So you might see torn pages from news articles intertwined with leaves, stems and bloosums. I can still create art about the beauty of nature while acknowledging my pain about the ways we've altered our world in ways from which there is no returning.





ARTbundance Muse

Creativity Muse "Flo"

Pencil, Sharpie Pen, Yasutomo Metallic Watercolors,
Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic Pens, Tombo Markers

Taking a course from Artella called ARTbundance ACT 7.  Our first ARTsignment was to make a drawing of our creativity muse.  My muse is named "Flo" and she is a genie who lives in a teapot rather than an Aladdin's lamp. Tea and tea pots to me represent comfort, friends, conversation, warmth and energy.  The Goddess necklace seems to represent a connection with the ancient, the earth and the creative energy of the Great Mother.  Her third eye represents being awake and aware, intuition and insight.  The palette looks like a seed and represents the growth that comes from my labor as an artist.  The paintbrush tree grows and produces fruits in the form of saleable artworks.  All the rainbows flow from my work as an artist.  The rainbows not only fill my cup but also the cups of others (counseling, teaching).   Art related books also flow from the inspiration and ideas that come from my connection to spirit and its manifestation in my work.  Her blue hair seems related to keeping a cool head, being a "senior" and having "fun" hair.  Her wings represent connection to idea and spirit and also are a reminder to keep things light. 


The assignment to make a picture of my ARTbundance Muse coincided with an assignment in Joanne Sharpe's Color Love 101 class, to create a "Color Love Girl".    I made the drawing below but Flo seems like the best solution to both assignments.  I have been drawing flowers and landscapes for sometime now, it has been a long time since I have drawn faces.  Interesting.  I will keep you informed about my progress in the ACT 7 training.  Feeling more creative already!  The Color Love Girl was created with Koi Watercolors, Sharpie Pen and Sakura Gelly Roll Metallic Pens.