More experimentation with brushes and texture… This is supposed to look like watercolor.
My part-time job starts next week. It’s been pushed back a week to begin on March 30. Instead of working 8 weeks, I’ll be working 6 1/2. I’m happy to have the work — and the salary — but I’m going to miss working full-time on my book. I’ll be working from 9 to 12 mornings at my square job and from 1 to 5 on my book. I’ll be a busy guy.
I ordered my Zazzle calendar today. It printed up great. In this picture I look insane because my wife insisted on taking a thousand smiling pictures and then a thousand not-smiling pictures.
Al Fresco Art Club Update: On the other hand, I was completely sane when I drew and painted this non-Pomeranian at the Al Fresco Art Club yesterday. I’ve drawn and painted a thousand Pomeranians and no two of them look alike, or like a Pomeranian. That’s the kind of talent I’m talking about — my talent for imperfection.
Today’s challenge was to do an ink drawing then color it one way or another. I inked with my Pentel brush pen and painted with my Cotman watercolors. The image was copied from the example of Swiss Design in the awesome Retro Graphics, by Raimes and Bhaskran. I’ve mentioned this book before — it’s been helpful and inspiring to me as I learn the basics of color and graphic design.
It’s been a dreary day, a SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) day. I’m located on the south side of a mountain. In the winter I get about 4 hours of sunlight a day. Today was a little different: I started having dreams of moving to Southern California.
I did feel a flicker of cheer as the sunlight entered the living room for a few minutes. Then it disappeared behind the mountains and I instantly began to feel blue.
At the Al Fresco Art club meeting I decided to paint another self-portrait with my trusty Pentel brush pen and my St Petersburg White Nights water colors on Canson Mix Media paper.
Today I decided to challenge myself by doing another gouache painting. Gouache is the medium I’m least comfortable with. I used a single acrylic 1/2-inch flat brush to paint a green plastic lawn chair. I decided to change the colors a little because I didn’t have premixed colors that made me happy.
My goal is to learn to paint using the least possible amount of gear, and, if possible, to be skilled at painting pictures using only a single brush. I’m looking for one brush to rule them all.
The Al Fresco Art Club met indoors today. For the last couple of months the weather has been too chilly outdoors for true al fresco painting. I decided to do an ink sketch of my pug and throw on some watercolor. When I do watercolor, anything goes. I try to keep the color palette cohesive, but most of the time I lose my mind and just start guessing about what colors would be harmonious. I feel like a kid doing finger-painting and love smearing the paint around.
When I look at this particular ink and wash painting, I see my true, native style — raw black and white ink, lots of hatching and contour marks, and broad swathes of paint. I like this style a lot. It’s always fun to forget about being an “artist” and just start drawing.
When I was finished, I got to thinking that a spectator seeing my picture for the first time would think ho-hum, what a weird, wacky painting. However, that same stranger looking at a book— or series of books — made in my wacky style might think, “Interesting style! It grabs me by the guts!” There’s something to be said for quantity.
For today’s painting I used a Pentel Brush Pen loaded with Rotring ink, a 12-color Yarka White Knights watercolor set, and a $2 synthetic flat brush. I used mostly yellow ochre and burnt umber, with a carmine glaze in the shadows. Wacky! Weird! Wow!
I paint with gouache one day a week for about one terrifying hour. My pulse quickens and I feel a guttural trembling as I unpack my gear. I’m afraid that what I paint will look dreary and dull. I choose a simple subject — a coffee cup, a simple cylinder — because I think I may be able to paint it easily. But when I start to look at the cup closely to determine the colors I’ll use, I notice a thousand shades of gray. I notice that the shadow inside the cup is slightly brighter than the shadow outside the cup. It’s the reflected light inside the cup that makes it brighter.
At this point I think, it’s all getting too complicated. I surrender and just start painting the dark shapes, then the slightly less dark shapes, then the light shapes, and then the highlights. All of sudden the painting starts to look awesome. I like it. I’m amazed that I could actually paint a cup.
I painted another clock today. This clock is a decades-old Radio Shack alarm clock. I bought this little sweetheart after my Braun alarm clock died. I know that the name “Radio Shack” doesn’t have the panache that Braun has, but panache doesn’t mean everything, or, in some cases, it doesn’t mean anything. With alarm clocks, they just have to work. Score: Radio Shack 1, Braun 0.
As the paint-a-common-object trend continues at our Al Fresco Art Club Sunday Challenge, I drew and painted my headphones. I had to think a bit before I settled on painting them. At first I had wandered around the house looking for something that was common and interesting. After a few minutes, I realized that I don’t have many knickknacks of interest, except maybe my old California license plates. But, painting a flat rectangle didn’t seem interesting or challenging. I finally settled on my headphones because the coiled cord appealed to me. Here’s what I came up with.
Today was a weird day. For the first time in years I worked on my day job at home. I lost my free time. I hate working off the clock. I hate losing my weekends. I hate losing my family time.
But, the saving grace of this particular day was a great walk in the morning, a stop at a local coffee shop with my partner (I had a soy cappuccino and she had a fancy turmeric gold drink), and finally, the weekly Al Fresco Art Club meeting. Today I painted our infrared thermometer, which I use to make sure the hot water is exactly 185 F for my pour-over coffee.
