©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Drinking Glass (1 hour sketching). Graphite in 9 x 12 inch sketchbook.
Today is Blog Action Day 2010, which is an online event where bloggers all write on the same topic on one particular day. This year’s theme is Water. I’m not usually the type to discuss “issues” on my blog. It’s not that I don’t have opinions, but I usually just keep things related to my artwork here. However, I thought this was a good opportunity to tell you one of my most memorable travel memories.
I never really worried about the quality of my drinking water until I went to India in 2008. I was warned beforehand not to drink the water unless it was bottled, or boiled as in coffee or soup. I couldn’t even open my mouth in the shower, for fear of some water seeping in and giving me amoebic dysentery or something pretty scary. After a few days I grew to hate carrying around bottles of water everywhere I went, thinking of it as a huge hassle. That is, until I saw people drinking muddy water pumped out of stagnant, slime-covered ponds. The idea of drinking that stuff makes my stomach turn and it’s hard to think that a lot of people have no other options available. For most people in the US, the most pressing concern is usually that they don’t enjoy the taste of their water or if it is fluoridated or not. We really have a lot to be thankful for.
Day to day, I usually think about water as it relates to my artwork. The above sketch was just a practice exercise but it was a lot of fun. I have done other drawings of drinking glasses before (click here for an example). There is lot of information out there about drawing and painting water. I love the blog Watermarks which is a group blog that features water as a subject and as an art material. Gurney Journey also has done some interesting posts relating to water (Water by Three Masters, Color in Mountain Streams, and Reflections of Masts in Rippled Water). Enjoy.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, 10-13-10 sketchbook page (kitchen). Ink in large handbook sketchbook.
I’ve been eating well these days, having had almost every meal at home for over a month now. Last week I went to an Applebees and ate some fried appetizers. It felt like a mini shock to my system, and I was a little surprised at that!
Last night I had the pleasure of sketching while food was being cooked. I remember this post by Suzanne Cabrera when she commented on the same thing happening to her. I did clean up afterwards though.
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Honey Pot (1 hour sketching). Graphite in 9 x 12 inch sketchbook.
I started reading again, which is a welcome change. Most recently, I finished The Lost Books of the Odyssey: A Novel by Zachary Mason. The book is full of varying interpretations of the Odyssey, complete with footnotes referring to “the standard Odyssey.” It isn’t one cohesive story, but rather a collection of contradictory stories. It is a good book to pick up and put down as the chapters are very brief and read like short stories. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I thought the author wrapped it up nicely at the end, although sometimes it felt a little too “trippy” for my tastes. I also think that I would have picked up on more of the subtlety if I reread the actual Odyssey, as it was a number of years ago.
Overall, it reminded me of listening to liberal theologians try to explain away the miracles of Christ on a History Channel documentary. I thought it was very creative, although I think I prefer the original version.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Sketchbook, 10-4-2010. Graphite in 9 x 12 inch sketchbook.
Instead of keeping a wooden egg in my bowl, I now use it as a soap dish at the bathroom sink. The turquoise dish looks very nice with the green bar of olive oil soap I have in there right now. It is kind of rustic.
I’m thinking of setting up a still life with various ceramic vessels. I will probably include this bowl, although I might remove the soap for it. I’ve never done a really big still life before, although I’ve drawn individual inanimate objects plenty of times in my sketchbook. I’m a little bit excited about it because now that I have my own space, I will be able to set up a nice spread and leave it set up until I finish.
I’m going to be on the lookout for info online about still lifes, as well as examples. If you know of any good blogs, etc. please drop me a line or leave a link in the comments and I would appreciate it. Speaking of reading blogs, as of yesterday I have internet access in my house so I will be able to keep up with things again (yay!), although I will have to fight the urge to spend too much time online. I am thankful for the library, but it was getting kind of old after awhile. In the next few weeks I am also going to be updating some of the pages on this blog as well so stay tuned for that.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Open Tulips Redux. Watercolor, 7 x 5 inches.
I had painted another version of this same painting back in May, as seen here. I painted the first one on a blank watercolor greeting card and gave it away to someone. At the time, I was a little sad because I really liked it and wished I had kept it for myself. I had intended to repaint it at some point, but I never got around to it until now. The other day, while organizing my supplies, I found a piece of Arches watercolor paper that was already prepared for this painting, so I took the opportunity to finish it.
I was more careful when I painted this, and I took my time, unlike the first painting where I was in more of a rush. It was a bit odd to paint the same exact thing again, however. At times, I wasn’t sure if I should look at my original photo or the first painting to use as a reference. I made some changes this time around, and I am generally happy with it. The next time I am really excited about a particular piece though, I am going to try to do my best the first time rather than thinking to myself, “I’ll just redo this later.” For one, I might never get around to repainting it. Also, I don’t think it was as fun to paint a second time and I’m afraid I would lose my excitement if I tried it again.
I’m not sure what my opinion is on making studies and preliminary sketches though. They can be very helpful, but I think that I may also lose my motivation to make a good finished piece if I make too many detailed studies or drawings first. I’ll have to experiment further with this to see how it works out.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Garden sketch. Marker in 5.25 x 8 inch handbook journal.
This sketch was meant as a practice sketch for a painting that I have been meaning to do for some time. I took out my Tombow markers for it, which I don’t use too often. They are fun to work with as they have both a brush and fine line tip and I have about eighty colors in my set. They fade badly in light, however. For this reason they are only really good to me as something to use in my sketchbook. Or perhaps, I might use them if I made a picture with the intent of getting the image printed onto something else. In that case, I would treat my scan as the original.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, 9-26-2010 Sketchbook Page. Ink in 9 x 12 sketchbook.
I’ve had a lot of alone time on my hands these days. A lot of time without Internet or TV or movies. Naturally I’ve been feeling a bit closed off from the world. I should be getting “connected” again soon though, which will be nice.
I’ve been really needing a mental break, so I am thankful, but I do have the challenge of keeping myself busy. I have been doing a lot of artwork, both in my sketchbooks and otherwise. I have also been using this opportunity to work on some projects that I have been saving for a time like this.
I read Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way years ago, but the only thing I really took away from it was the morning pages. About two months ago, I started to regularly write my morning pages again. It has been especially helpful for me now that I have plenty of time on my hands to be creative. I feel that I am wasting less time on mental distractions.
When I started writing again, I considered using 750words.com but I decided against it and started using the free program WriteMonkey instead. I didn’t like the idea of my writing being online for some hacker to potentially discover. Now I’m glad that I decided to keep all my writing offline, because I can access it and my routine hasn’t been disrupted at all. I enjoy WriteMonkey because you can choose different colors, and it has a cool typewriter sound that you can turn on. It also displays interesting anonymous quotes when you open up the program. Today’s quote was especially applicable: “The man who has no inner life is a slave to his surroundings.”
Sunday, September 26, 2010
I’ve been spending a lot of time in this room lately and I’ve gotten it cleaned out enough to show you all a picture. Like I said earlier, the purple walls aren’t my favorite, but I really didn’t feel like painting them right now. And I am so excited to have my own space at all that I’m not very picky.
I’ve never had my own room to do my artwork. I’ve always had to use some other part of the house, usually my bedroom and most recently, a large part of the dining room that I commandeered. I had a large table to work on, but it became cumbersome. For example, when we wanted to have Easter dinner at the table, I had to clear everything out. Also, I didn’t have a good place to store my materials and I was always trekking to other parts of the house to look for something. Now I have everything I need in one place, except for a sink. I also like the idea that I can close the door and be alone when I want.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Entrance to Nature. Colored Pencil, apx 10 x 11 inches.
I’ve only been to New York City a handful of times, and only once in the past ten years, despite living only a few hours away. I guess I’m just more of a country person. I’ve never been to Central Park as far as I remember, but I think I would like to visit if I had the chance. In this piece, I tried not to get too detailed and I wanted it to have a soft feeling. I also worked a little bit larger than I normally do. I meant it as more of a sketch, really. Because it wouldn’t fit on my scanner, I had to take a picture of it. I tried to correct the contrast a bit, but I wasn’t able to get it to match the original fully.
Unfortunately, I do not have reliable internet access at the moment and have to use wifi hotspots to do my blogging. Luckily I saved a screenshot of Google street view so I was able to work on this drawing offline. If you leave me a comment it may take me some time to approve it as I have comment moderation turned on.
Monday, September 20, 2010
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Teapot on Trivet. Graphite and watersoluble colored pencil, apx 6 x 8 inches.
With this drawing I was mainly testing out how graphite and watersoluble colored pencils look together. I think I like the combination because it has some bright color but also has the monotone of the graphite that I enjoy. I will try it out in some other drawings to see if I still want to work in it further. I’ve drawn the teapot a few other times as you can see here and here, but I wanted to draw the trivet the most. I admire it quite a bit, but isn’t mine and I wanted to remember what it looked like. I did this on bristol board and only used a tiny bit of water on the color parts because I didn’t want the paper to warp too much.