Last Week of July

It is hard to believe that July is over and that on Tuesday I head back to the classroom.  Granted, the first week is time to prepare for students, but it still means that I will be putting in full days.  I am hoping that I can keep up with my artwork a day as I have managed to do over the summer.  If time doesn't allow, at least I have the weekends!

Speaking of an artwork a day, here are two that I completed this week.  Both are 6" x 6" and consist of collage papers on a painted background. I really do enjoy piecing this images together to create a subtle message, or in the case of the bottom one, a not so subtle message.  The first image is titled "Within Reach", the second "Need to Know".

I did go to the life drawing session at Stu's this past Tuesday night.  For sure, I will keep attending throughout the school year, that way I will be creating some art!  On Tuesday, I focused on body proportions and just worked in my sketchbook.  I started with the drawing on the right, and sketched in Jesse's entire body, again focusing on proportions.  Because the pose was only 20 minutes, I didn't get too much of the shading finished, but there is enough to get the general idea.  The drawing on the left I chose to do because I struggle with silhouettes.  This one is a pretty good representation of the model.

My second page shows 2 more views of Jesse.  The pose of Jesse from behind was a great pose.  Notice that I didn't leave enough room on the page for his feet; this is something I need to work on! The upper body drawing was a 30 minute pose so I had just enough added time to create a more completed looking drawing.  I really love my Tuesday night drawing sessions!

Last Week of Summer Break

It is hard to believe that summer break is almost over!  I actually have to be at school 2 days this week in my capacity as Instructional Leader.  Officially, teachers return next Tuesday, the 2nd of August.

Mike and I took a couple of short trips this past week.  Both times I took my watercolors with me.  First we went to Flagstaff (Mund's Park) for a couple of days.  I actually went in to town and bought a 7" x 10" watercolor sketchbook that I could practice in.  I have enjoyed working in the sketchbook as I am really creating somewhat quick studies while practicing different techniques.  It frees me up from worrying too much about doing it "right".  I started with this painting of some wildflowers.  When I finished, I picked one of the flowers, pressed it, then taped it on the page.  You can see where I checked my colors on the upper left.  It was really nice to be able to be outside to paint!

Next I painted this container of petunias that Randy and Carol had growing on the steps to their house.  I was using the technique of mixing my colors directly on the paper rather than on the palette.  I had just read about painting this way in a book by Charles Reid.  One thing for sure, the colors end up very strong and bold.  Again, just being outside was a relaxing way to spend the day.  The only problem was that I had a hard time finding scenes outside that I wanted to paint.

Next I chose to paint Mike while he was sleeping on the sofa during an afternoon nap.  I have to admit that I mixed the skin tones on my palette.  When I mix on my palette, I notice a difference in intensity, they are much lighter!  I probably should have at least darkened his shirt, but then this is just practice.

I decided to paint another picture of Mike, this one while he was up and working at his computer.  It wasn't so easy as he kept moving slightly.  In the end, I am pleased with just how much this actually looks like Mike!  I did more color mixing on the paper and achieved the darker tones that really do make the painting stronger.

After a couple of days in the mountains, we came back home to Phoenix for a couple of days and then headed to Southeastern Arizona.  Mike and I had reservations for 2 nights at Loew's Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson.  This painting shows the view out our window.  It was a difficult point of view for me to capture, bit I think the essence is there.  It was overcast outside with an even display of clouds.  I could barely see some mountains further off in the distance.  We spent most of Saturday on a day trip where we visited The Thing, just outside of Benson.  We also went through the Amerind Museum near the Cochise Stronghold and then toured the Rotunda and Throne rooms at Karchner Caverns.

When we got back, I ventured out to the pool with my watercolors. I found some girls that I thought were settled in for sun bathing and started to sketch and paint.  The one girl on the right, moved in to the pool, so I painted her twice, but like the way the composition improved by her move to the water.  I decided that black bathing suits are popular, and without black paint, I did my best to mix a substitute.  Again, with the skin tones, I tend to mix in the palette so they end up much softer than say the bathing suits did which were mixed on the paper.  I need to find a happy medium.

Next, I painted a woman who was reading at the edge of the pool while her children swam.  She got up and moved while I was in the act of painting, so I did the best I could.  I wish I would have made the colors darker, more lively.  While the proportions of the figure are fairly accurate, it just lacks a certain oomph.  Again, it was great to be outside to paint.  I enjoyed a beer by the pool as I painted!

Sunday morning I ventured out for a walk, with my watercolors in tow.  I walked up to the waterfall.  It is a natural waterfall, but the resort pumps water to it to maintain a year-round flow.  Along the way, I noticed this little, tiny cactus blooming.  It was pushing its way out in the small area of dirt between the rock wall and the rock steps.  I decided that the cactus was certainly worth painting.  I spent about 30 minutes, sitting on the step and painting.  A passerby said she would never have seen the cactus if I hadn't been painting it.  I wandered around a little bit more before returning to our room so that we could pack up and head back to Phoenix.

Now that I am home, I have decided to try an 11" x 15" painting of the cactus.  I will make the cactus larger and add more detail than what is evident in my practice painting.  I still have a couple other paintings to work on as well.  I know that once school starts and I get more involved in the National Boards, I will have less time for my artwork.  This week demands a final strong push.

Mid-Summer

It is really hot outside which makes for some lazy summer days.  Since I have been back from New Hampshire, I have managed to stay busy between working in my studio and working on reading and writing for the National Board.  I did get my scholarship to pursue National Board Teacher Certification so I did some writing for one of the portfolio entries.  I am also re-reading through the standards which has proved enlightening.  The first time I read them, I didn't really know what I was reading.  Now that I have a better understanding of what I have to do for the National Boards, they are making a lot more sense plus they answer a lot of questions that I have had.  Such as, what are the overarching goals of art education?  I won't be able to do any more writing at this point, at least until school starts and I have students, lessons, and artwork to video and write about.

I did go to 2 life drawing sessions at Stu's this week.  On Tuesday night, with the 20 minute poses, I worked in my sketchbook while focusing on proportions.  Craig was our model and I managed to be fairly accurate with depicting his poses.  Towards the end of the evening, I didn't like the poses so on one drawing I focused on just drawing his foot and on the next drawing I drew just his head.  These are both areas that I need to better develop my skills on, so the practice was very worthwhile.

On Thursday night we had Sita as our model.  She did 2 long poses.  For the first pose, she laid on her stomach over a bean bag chair.  I just couldn't get a feel for the pose, even though I tried painting it from 2 different points of view.  I fact, I threw both paintings away when I got home!
Her second pose was more to me liking as she was sitting upright on a couple of pillows.  I was using the painting technique I learned from Patrick McKay at NHIA; the technique that uses acrylic paint and a 2" brayer.  This first painting, titled "Sita", was painted on 22" x 30" watercolor paper.  I decided to leave the background white, but might eventually go back in and saturate the negative space with a dark brown hue, but that remains to be seen.

I still had some time at the end of the night and decided to focus in on Sita's face.  This one is titled "Portrait of Sita" and was painted on 22" x 36" brown kraft paper.  I really do like the earthiness of the brown paper.  I used white paint for the highlights, trying my best to not tint any of the other colors that I was using.  This portrait actually captures how Sita looks so I was quite pleased with it.  I also like the stronger combination of lines and shapes that are evident in this painting.  I believe it was my most successful painting of the night.  It is very expressive.  I will use it as one of my examples for my IB art students when I teach them this technique (I might have to roll back the breast area, it kind of depends on the maturity level of these particular 11th graders).

I am enjoying my lazy Sunday and look forward to what I might create in the coming week.

Life Drawing at The New Hampshire Institute of Art

The last week of June was spent at the Art Educators Summer Institute at the Hew Hampshire Institute of Art.  In my previous post I wrote about the watercolor landscape workshop that I took in the afternoons.  This post is focused on my morning life drawing workshop.  I just can't say enough good things about the workshop!  I never wanted the mornings to end.

The workshop was lead by Patrick McKay, who is also the Dean of Students at the college.  Patrick is from Ireland, talks with a strong accent and has the clearest blue eyes I have ever seen.  He was a very considerate and kind teacher with an understanding of the difference between teaching to high school students and teaching at the college level.  He was always very positive in his instruction and considerate of the fact that we were all teachers and most  of us have not had much tome for figure drawing.  I think I was the only person who had done any figure drawing over the past 10-15 years which I felt put me at an advantage.

We began with gesture drawings and then worked into a longer pose where we used our choice of conte crayon, charcoal, or pencil.  I chose to work in conte crayon.  I moved to a different location in the room so that I could draw from an interesting pose.  This pose was a real challenge; I think I redrew the leg and knee three times until I had it big enough to account for the foreshortening.  In the end, Margaret's face is off a bit proportionately; there is a bit too much space between her eye and her ear, even though I brought the ear in closer than it originally was.  We worked on this pose at the end of the first day and then again at the start of our second day.

The next technique was a new one that Patrick introduced us to, it was drawing with a 2" brayer!  We began by practicing how to use the brayer on brown kraft paper and then Margaret posed for us as we tried an actual figure drawing with the brayer.  We used acrylic paint that we watered down, especially to get the lighter values and to lay out the basic figure.  I found it was best to paint the acrylic paint onto the brayer with a cheap 1" household paint brush as the paint was slick which made it difficult for the brayer to pick up evenly.  This image doesn't show the brown paper very well.

Finally, we had a long pose and I was able to get 2 drawings started during the time available.  These were both done on 22" x 30" watercolor paper.  I simply changed positions to get a different point of view, and then came into the studio in the evening to finish up the background.  I love this new technique and look forward to teaching it to my students this fall!

I can't say enough good things about this life drawing workshop.  Not only was Patrick wonderful, but our model, Margaret, was perfect.  We had Margaret as our model for all four days of the workshop.  She could hold a pose so much better than most models I have worked with.  In addition, she had a very classical look to her which was accented by the classical poses that Patrick put her in.  That was another thing....I had never experienced a time when the teacher posed the model and then adjusted the lighting until it was perfect.  This certainly made for better drawing possibilities.

One evening I came into the studio and used a mirror to draw this self-portrait.  I used the brayer technique with acrylic paint on watercolor paper.  It was a fun project and I managed to actually capture the way I look.

In the end, I hated for this workshop to come to an end.  It was a week ago today that I flew home from New Hampshire and I am wishing that I was still there!

Watercolors Painted in New Hampshire

Attending the Art Educators Institute at the New Hampshire Institute of Art was absolutely one of the best experiences I have had in a really long time.  It was all about me as an artist and as an art educator.  The institute took really good care of the 90 or so art teachers that were there.  Food was good, I slept in the dorm, and managed to party just a bit when I wasn't in the art studio working.

My afternoon workshop was a Landscape Watercolor workshop taught by Eileen Greene.  She is an excellent watercolorists with a strong background in color theory.  We would begin our afternoons in the classroom for short lectures or demonstrations and then the Institute would shuttle us out past Lake Massabesic to the Audubon center.  It was about 10 minutes from downtown Manchester.  On the first day, Eileen toured us around the grounds.  We were encouraged to stay on the mowed pathways in order to avoid the ticks.  There was also a lot of poison ivy that I definitely wanted to avoid as well!  I decided to set up at a small pond to do my initial painting.  This first day we focused on a value study which I worked on in my sketchbook.  Note to self:  drawing paper behaves a lot differently than watercolor paper.  We only had a short time to paint this first day and I was not too sure of myself when it was time to head back to town.  I was taking the watercolor class because I am not very comfortable with watercolors and I need to improve as I am teaching watercolor to my Drawing & Painting 3-4 students this coming school year.  This first session left me more confused than ever.  Luckily, the next day began with some demonstrations that I found very helpful.  Again I set up at the pond, but focused in on a different area where there was a cluster of 3 boulders.  This painting is a result of 2-days work and I was rather pleased with the results.  I probably should have left more white of the paper showing, plus I may have overworked the foliage a bit, but for a first attempt I thought it turned out decent.

With just one day left to paint, I decided to take a more casual approach to my next painting.  This time I set up close to the Audubon Center where there was a rose bush intertwined with a wood rail fence.  My goal was to start and finish a painting in the 3 hours we had to paint, which I managed to do.  This painting has a lot less going on in it, which seems to work just fine.  I even finished up with a bit of splattering over the painting.  If I had more time, the painting might have ended up overworked.  Again, more white of the paper should have been left showing.  Regardless, I am rather pleased with the painting.

Every day of painting was a perfect day.  The weather was warm, but not unbearable, especially when there was a breeze.  There were soft billowy clouds in the sky, it was simply beautiful.  I hated to leave.  I am still wishing I was there, just to be outside painting.  It is much too hot here in Phoenix to even think about going outside to paint.  I guess I could set up a still life to paint, or even try a self-portrait in watercolor.  I will have to think about those options.