I think I posted an earlier version of this one the day of the collage party. I think it’s done now. It will join my deck of cards that are on the theme of “ways I get stuck, and ways to get un-stuck” This one represents analysing a problem by taking it apart into smaller components.
here’s another one, that I posted the start of yesterday. It will also join the deck, representing something like the fierce power of family ties.
As is my custom, sometime in the month of February I turn my studio over to playing with collage. It starts with sharing the space and resources with a group of friends, and we spend a day playing together. For the past several years, we’ve handed around a group collage over the course of the day. Here’s what we came up with this year. The background is a discarded sketch by my friend Henry Thomas’ father George, who passed away last year. I was fortunate to be gifted a generous supply of his leftover art materials, and a few of his paintings and sketches. I’m not sure what he would have thought of this, but we certainly loved working with it as our ground surface!
As usual, I didn’t actually finish much on the day of the party, but here are the two little pieces that I actually got set up and glued down.
it really is a heart-shaped flower. I really am sticking to the theme.
But also, painting requires more than the 1-2 hours of studio time I’ve been taking lately. I may need to take some time off from the dailies, to finish some things that I’m not happy leaving where they are now.
The theme of February’s Group Show at the gallery is “Hearts and Love”. I don’t know if I’ll be willing and able to stick with the theme for every daily this month, but it will be somewhere in the back of my mind in any case.
Meanwhile, I broke back into my acrylic paints and am enjoying the different kind of marks and effects I can make with them. Also remembering that they tend to take more time, and call for more revisiting than the ink and crayon sketches I did last month!
I mostly just wanted to evoke the sensation of a big space.
There often comes a point in a drawing where I don’t know what to do next, and don’t think it’s good enough to warrant more effort. At that point I have to actively decide that I don’t care. The next step is often a blind leap, trusting that some part of my visualizing self is paying attention, and the skills that I’ve acquired will be able to team up with it to pull something out of the jump.
Sometimes, that even works.
the other night I could hear a raccoon family talking to each other in the trees out behind my studio. I don’t see them around much, but sometimes in the summer some young ones come exploring. It was dark out, so I didn’t see them again, but that doesn’t stop me from drawing them however inaccurately it might be
I also got this silly critter as finished as it’s going to get, so here’s the side-by-side with the originally posted version, 11 June 2023. Not much difference I suppose, but enough for me to put it away.
no new pictures, just updating older ones that have changed since they were originally posted.
This one might be done. At any rate, it’s off its board.
Apologies for the below; I was working on trying to catch the aura of irritation and petty evil, stirring the pot to incite anger and violence. Another kind of carrion beast, but one with no honor. The teeth version is how it looks now, and I’m ready to put it where I don’t have to look at it any more.
Here’s that star-vulture again, now with more colors. Still not finished, I think, but further along.
And also, I’ve been working on this other one, not entirely sure where it will end up, but it’s still all about the colors
Yesterday’s post of this drawing’s earlier stage earned me a warning on Twitter. I can only think it’s what AI imagines that sex looks like.
Anyway, here it is a bit farther along. Colored pencil work is slow, but satisfying.
Here’s another one I’ve been nudging along lately, trying out layers of acrylic glazing.
seeds r sprouting
(Thank you Sarah M. for the new colored pencils in a wide array of hues!)
Well, I’ve gotten myself to a place again where the drawings I want to work on will take more than one day or session to finish. They’ve piled up around my work table, and this one just adds to the pile.
I think for the next however-long, I’ll just post what I’m working on for the day, finished or not.
eyespider 