Preparation

Because I work a full-time day job, plus have a wife and a life to keep up with, I can't spend nearly as much time, head down in an art project, as I used to. So I have found little ways to make some of the steps of an assemblage easier by doing them in advance.

For instance, the "spilled" bottles I include in nearly ever assemblage can take up to a week to dry; more, if the weather is humid. Because of that, I like to make them up in advance, and like everything else, it's easier to do several at a time - plus that gives me different ones to choose from when it comes time to put a box together. So, today was "Spill Day."

Once I had those finished, I realized I had almost no "filled" bottles, either. So I assembled a variety of different sizes and shapes, and started filling. Basically, nothing in our kitchen is safe - especially the spice cabinet - when I start filling bottles. Peppercorns, black sesame seeds, mustard seeds that I've dyed, along with thin flakes of copper, translucent beads, and anything else I find, get mixed with oil, corn syrup, ink, or any combination of them. Once each was filled, and sealed with a cork, cap, or glass marble, they get dipped and sealed with wax. (I use scented wax because it also tends to give the whole assemblage a nice scent, especially if it has been closed up for awhile.) So, today turned into "Bottle Day."

At some point, I need to stain some of the new boxes I bought last weekend. Because I mix my own stain, those are easier to do in batches, as well. Plus, there are new metal bits to rust up, new shelves/bottle compartments to build, and some new inclusions to sort through. Now, does all this prep work mean I'll be making more boxes in the near future?

It might... but that's for another day. Right now, I'm taking my wife out for Chinese food!

If you would wield a pencil...

Carol Rosinski, artist and author of Drawing Made Easy: Getting Started, has just posted a lesson in basic shading technique and a practice lesson on shading a sphere. Carol's lessons are clear, concise, and include useful photos, and she is an awe-inspiring artist.

Sculpted clouds

Diane Wright on creating clouds in pencil - beautiful!

Art instruction

Daniel Smith Art Supply has updated the online instruction section of their website. Quite a few tutorials, organized by medium.

Free is good

Artgraphica offers, along drawing and wildlife art video guides, beautiful photos of Kostnice Ossuary (the Church of Bones) in Prague, and more, a couple of free art lessons.

Words & Pictures offers a "compendium of free art lessons."

However, FreeArtLessons.com, despite an inspired name, is rather disappointing.

Portrait Tutorials

I don't draw portraits anymore, but I did many years ago. I did them in pencil, in acrylic, in oil. I always preferred to work from photos of people I did not know, people who would never see the final work and say "I don't look anything like that!" Yup, born coward.

While I am still not ready to even go back to working from photos, Portrait Art Tutorials looks to be a fantastic resource. And it's not just "how to draw a face" either; the "Attitudes & Inspiration" section has some really good articles. Personal favourite so far: Accept the fact...

Project revisted

The watercolour mini-palette I made a couple weeks ago works great. Haven't precisely tried it "in the field," as it were, but if it works at my table, it will work anywhere. Downside: it's ugly as sin. Now, like Don said, "it’s for using in the field, not a design competition," which is true, and initially I thought the relative homliness of mine added to it's charm.

But then someone wanted to see it. *wince*

I felt a "redo" coming on. It was just about cinched when I came across a slightly smaller tin (1 1/2 x 2 3/8") on which I had experimented with some textures techniques. I waffled about it for a bit, then finally decided to give it a shot and see if I could make something I was less inclined to hide. I figured that if baking the Sculpey ruined the outer finish, I'd just get to do that again to. (Aside from two small spots, the 15 minutes in a 275F oven didn't hurt it a bit.)

A bit of rethinking had me opting for smaller wells and 2 more colour options , so I added burnt umber and white to my original "primaries + black" scheme. (Before any purist pipes up, I know - I know - I'm not supppsed to use white. I just happen to like to. And I have never been able to mix a brown from scratch that I actually liked. So, sue me.) A half-hour fight with making the wells was resolved by squishing six 1/4" wooden cubes down into the clay at the same time. Each was then stabbed with an X-acto knife, wiggled slightly, then drawn out.

Same as before on the inside of the lid: Krylon Matte Finish, followed by several very thin layers of white acrylic, then several more of a gloss varnish. Because this is a flat-topped tin, the mixing area should behave much better than on the slide-top one.

Coloured pencil tutorial

Creating Shiny Metal with Colored Pencils

Aging paper

When I did this piece a couple of months ago, a friend asked “What exactly is your process (for aging artwork)?” It took some thinking to get it all down, because I’m generally on auto-pilot at that stage. Here’s (a reworking of) my reply:

I start on Bristol board with pencil, then ink it with Sakura Pigma pens (.005, .01, some .03) After that, an intentionally uneven wash of walnut ink. While still damp, I’ll randomly and sparingly sprinkle bits of walnut ink crystals, then mist it with water and blot like a fiend. I’ll then go back with the (liquid) walnut ink to touch up places. I prefer buying the walnut ink crystals so that I can use it both ways when aging, AND I can mix the liquid to the strength like. I use this stuff.

Pure trial and (lots of) error. And every paper responds differently, based on age, cotton content, etc. It’s always a surprise. (If it’s paper instead of Bristol board, I’ll usually scrunch it up first to cause darker creases when it’s stained.) I don’t know what it is about the aging; maybe it’s because my imagination wants to fill in the “story” behind the item, what it was, where it was found, where it had been stored, etc.

(The source for this artwork was a photo in this book. K was reluctant to model; she is equally reluctant to let me keep a skeleton in the house until we have more closet space to hide it in.)