This is my favorite time of year to be outside appreciating the subtleties of nature. Springtime is the best time to experience the color Green in many different variations. The spring landscape is gorgeous here in New England.
The View from Poet's Seat Tower in Greenfield, MA
Above is a photo I took yesterday from the top of Poet’s Seat Tower. I made a mini sketch of the view from the lower part of the tower on a manila tag. It was an experiment using my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and some colored pencils. The pen works great on this paper (no smudging unlike some other papers I have tried), although there isn’t enough tooth for the colored pencils.
At my recent botanical illustration class, the teacher had us close our eyes for about two minutes and then open them and notice what drew our attention. She wanted us to see if we were drawn to the lighter areas or the darker areas of the room first. I noticed the light filtering in through the window and then the contrast of some white antlers against the wall.
Then she explained her theory that people who are attracted to the dark areas first find it more natural to work in oil, acrylic or pastel. People that prefer the light areas first tend to enjoy watercolor, colored pencil, graphite and pen and ink. I felt like my own instincts were confirmed! I had never before heard someone explain this theory, but in my case I think it definitely applies.
Here is my finished colored pencil piece. I used Derwent Coloursofts and some Prismacolors. I did this for the Virtual Paintout (St Petersburg) so I’m glad I finished it before the end of the month! I ended up cropping some of the bottom off, which makes it an odd size, but I think it improves the overall impression.
I have always thought of Russia as a very beautiful country. When I had tendinitis, I listened to Anna Karenina on cd (unabridged, all 20 discs). There was a lot of wordy language describing the countryside, and I guess it had an impression on me.
I spent another few hours on my landscape, this time concentrating on the sky. The sky is the most dramatic part of this picture, and I want to finish it up before moving onto the rest of it.
I just finished up a two part class on botanical illustration at Mass Audobon. As always, I didn’t create anything particularly amazing while I was in the class, but I got a lot of value in the information that I took home with me.
The instructor was a well spoken woman who was very informed on many aspects of natural history and botanical illustration. She gave us a good understanding of the conventions of botanical illustration, and differentiated it from “botanical art.” (I’m definitely more interested in botanical art as opposed to classical botanical illustration.) She also rambled quite a bit about all kinds of other art topics, which I found pleasant and informative.
We were working in colored pencil, which is part of the reason why I’ve been inspired to get back into it lately. I was able to talk to the instructor about some things I’ve been curious about, like what she thought of sanded papers (I’ve never tried any).
I’m really glad that I went to this class because it was an opportunity to do something art related and get out of the house by myself for a few hours.
I made a color chart for my Derwent Coloursofts. I don’t have very many colors, but I definitely think I will add to these. I have never taken the time to make a color chart for anything before. I’m actually surprised because I am a very meticulous kind of person. I can really see this helping me out when choosing colors for a new painting. I am going to start a new colored pencil piece pretty soon and this is getting me excited.
I arranged the colors according to what pleased me, and it was interesting to compare my choice to the manufacturer’s numbering system.
This morning I took out some colored paper and did a little sketching with my Derwent Coloursofts. It’s kind of fun to work on the colored paper and I think I will try out more of this in the future. (This photo was taken in dim lighting, so the colors aren’t very accurate.)
Colored pencils have been more appealing to me lately because they are non-toxic and very portable. The negative is that I can only do a small amount at a time because it tends to irritate my wrist and arm. These days I have to work slowly anyway though, because I get interrupted with baby duties often. In the next few years, I can see myself doing more colored pencil than watercolor.
Another small painting from Google Street View in Elba, this time experimenting with my new Derwent Coloursoft colored pencils. I like the soft feel of these pencils and they come in a lot of natural looking colors, but I have trouble distinguishing different colors from one another.
I tend to draw with a ton of different colors strewn all over the table, but that won’t work with these pencils. The color swatches at the end of the pencil don’t seem very accurate, and the leads don’t look like the actual color on the paper. Being organized and having a scrap paper on hand for tests is critical for me, because I had a few accidents when I started using the wrong color.
My only other (small) gripe is that the pencils are too large to fit in my electric sharpener. Luckily, I have a manual one that works. Otherwise, I LOVE these pencils.
2011 was a big year for me, although not so much on the art front. I did have goals for this year, but other things took up my energy. Even though things weren’t as productive as I’d like in terms of my artwork, I did have quite the year personally. I had quite a few deaths in the family and a lot of personal upheavals as well, such as moving.
Of all my goals, I think the only one I was successful with was spending more time in my sketchbooks. Sometimes this was the only thing that I could bring myself to do because I felt so rotten. Now that I don’t have a lot of time on my hands, I expect that this trend will continue into 2012.
Interestingly, I feel that I have been more productive with my time since I had Cate. Perhaps this is because “free time” is so precious to me now that I barely have any.
Since I’ve become a mother I’ve begun to spend more time thinking seriously about my artwork and how I want to spend my time on it. I never really thought about it before, but now I am more serious about creating a legacy for my daughter. I want her to see me as someone who is can work toward a goal and isn’t afraid to take a risk.
This is also the first year that I’ve put my minimalist ideals into practice. I’ve been interested in the minimalist lifestyle for some time now, but moving into a much smaller home really forced me to take some action. Besides getting rid of a ton of personal and household items, I disposed of a large number of art supplies that I was no longer using regularly. I’ve learned that I can truly thrive with much fewer things to manage. In fact, I like the feeling of having a lighter load.
Next time, I’ll explain my goal setting philosophy for 2012.
