©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Felipe / Lion's Mane. Ink in 9 x 12 inch sketchbook.
This was a drawing that I made recently for Julia Kay’s Portrait Party of Felipe. I did it really fast using pitt pens (see below). Lately I have been trying to make faster drawings, which means that it is easier to mess things up in portraits especially when drawing in ink. That said, I do think it’s a good experiment with getting looser and more confident when drawing.
Speaking of ink, I recently ordered some new pens and I had some thoughts to share with you in case you were in the pen shopping mood.
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens
I have been using these pens for ages and I have both the regular pens, as well as the colored markers. I have never tried the big brush pens but I’m not too interested in something that big. What I bought was the XS size of the black pens. The XS size is something new that I haven’t seen before. My only real complaint about these pens is that the S (superfine) size was too big compared to the F (fine) size, and with use the S tip became even less crisp. That’s why I am so excited about the XS size, which is really perfect for the work I like to do. I also see that they adjusted their packages of 4 pens to include the XS size instead of the S and they also came out with a seperate set of four black fineliner pens (XS, S, F and M). What I don’t like is that Dick Blick does not sell the XS size separately for the sepia and sanguine colors, but I haven’t looked around to see if anyone else sells them.
Copic Drawing Pens
I tried these on more of a whim, but I must say that I am not impressed with these pens. There are two colors: black and sepia, and two sizes: 1 and 2 mm. The black is available in both sizes and the sepia is available only in the 1 mm. These are disposable fountain pens, with metal nibs. The main reason why I don’t care for them is because the ink doesn’t flow smoothly and you have to hold it at an awkward angle so the ink doesn’t stop altogether. Also, the sepia color is too light for me and doesn’t have much contrast on white paper. These aren’t waterproof, so you can’t use them with watercolor (which isn’t a huge deal to me though), although I don’t have any of the copic markers, so I don’t know how they work with those. Also, there is a warning on the pen that says, “Do not shake hard and drop. Ink may leak.” This sort of worries me, because I have had some bad experiences with leaking pens. The description said they were new so I don’t know how long these have been on the market. Let me know if you like these pens, as I’d love your opinion. The one thing that I do like about the pens is that I’m sure that the tip won’t become damaged and change over time, as it is metal and the line is crisp when the ink is actually flowing.
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Cabbage Sketch. Ink in 9 x 12 inch sketchbook.
…or at least it’s supposed to be a good time. July has been my worst month to date in terms of productivity. Everything, from my own sketchbooks to my posting frequency, has gone downhill, probably because I am very preoccupied with other matters. Whenever I start drawing something I seem to get distracted. I find this odd because I am not the type to have ADD or problems like that. I am expecting things to clear up again within the next one to two months, as I begin to rearrange my life somewhat. Until I can really spend a lot of time on single pieces, I’m going to just concentrate on making little sketches.
Another project that I’ve had going on lately is my organizational project. I have spent a lot of time organizing my flickr page and I still have more to do with that, but I have also started to organize my actual stuff. Yesterday I spent three hours organizing through boxes of stuff I have stored. I found a lot to get rid of and also a lot of books and such to donate. Looking through my old stuff has generated some ideas, which I will post later on this week.
The pictures which do not represent an intense interest cannot expect to create an intense interest. -Robert Henri in The Art Spirit
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Brush. Ink and watercolor wash, 5 x 7 inches.
I cut it close again with this month’s Virtual Paintout. It was mainly because I was going to lots of summertime parties and cookouts on the weekends which ate into my usual art time. I had some trouble finding a view that I really liked in Hong Kong as well. I’m usually drawn to nature type scenes and I think that I was expecting to find something exotic and unusual. In reality, I thought most of it, except some tropical plants, looked like places in the US. I ended up painting some trees and brush on the side of the road that could have been almost anywhere. I did try to be more “free” with my watercolors in this piece though. I hope it doesn’t come across as sloppy, because that was not what I was going for.
I miscalculated in my last post on how many pages I had left in my watercolor sketchbook. I realized that I had some paintings on the back sides of the pages (I don’t use both sides of the page in my sketchbooks). Now I only have one more page to finish until I start my new watercolor moleskine!
©2010 Carolyn A. Pappas, Blue Greens. Ink and watercolor wash, 7 x 10 inches.
I have a small 7 x 10 inch watercolor sketchbook that is in progress right now. I have only four pages left and after that I have a new moleskine watercolor sketchbook to start. I am a little nervous because I have never used one of their watercolor sketchbooks before. There are always people out there who don’t like something about moleskines, whether it is the paper, or the binding or whatever. Nina Johansson even started a Facebook group petitioning Moleskine to make a portrait format watercolor moleskine.
Speaking of Nina Johansson, she just had a show of some recent watercolor paintings and she has been posting them to her blog. It is a really lovely series of paintings, featuring Swedish homes and landscapes. She also uses a lot of abstract geometric shapes and stenciling. Definitely check it out if you haven’t already.
On an unrelated note, I’ve added Google Friend Connect to my sidebar to make it easier for you if that’s the way you prefer to subscribe to blogs. Also, for anybody in the US who is needing (or wanting) some new art supplies, Dick Blick is running a special offer until July 26, 2010 with free shipping on orders over $69.
In an effort to practice my portrait skills, I have joined
Julia Kay’s Portrait Party group on flickr. Above you can see drawings I made of
Anita Davies and
croquisdenico. It is such a great opportunity to gain lots of practice with all kinds of different faces, as well as meet new artists on flickr. Plus, seeing all the portraits people make of you is really fun. You can see all the portraits of me
here.
I get a lot of questions about my last name and whether or not I am related to the “Chicago Pappases” or some random Dr. Pappas. (If you are ever tempted to ask me that, the answer is always “no relation.”) However, I do tend to pay attention when I come across someone else with my same last name, as is the case with artist Billy Pappas.
He creates extremely detailed graphite drawings. His method includes drawing at a ninety degree angle, using magnification glasses (loupes) and an additional handheld magnifier. He stands in a “body lock” position where he even controls his breathing to avoid unnecessary movement. His most notable drawing is a portrait of Marilyn Monroe that took him nine years to complete. Although it was based on photos, he didn’t copy directly. Instead, he used live models and even applied eye makeup and lipstick to himself to use as a reference. The drawing was the subject of the film Waiting for Hockney, which is about how he tries to get David Hockney to come see his drawing. You can see a clip about the movie here. A thought provoking, though negative, review can be read here.
You have to admire this guy’s dedication and technique even if his style is not your own. Personally, creating something so detailed and painstaking would feel like an exercise in futility. I would get bored spending so long working on a single piece and would want to see a finished product sooner. I also want to eventually have a large body of work which means I wouldn’t be able to spend thousands of hours working on only one 14 x 17 inch drawing.
My own work can be very detailed at times, and I used to do pointillist pen and ink drawings using a magnifying glass. However, I have come to find that too much detail can be a negative thing. Recently I have become more drawn to representational artwork that is not photorealistic, but where the artist portrays the subject in a slightly abstracted manner.
These are some tulips that I painted recently from a photo I took back in March. I haven’t painted flowers in ages and I sort of missed it. Plus it has been so hot these days that I haven’t even been going outside to sketch.
Organizing has been a big theme of mine this year. I felt like my blog was in need of a face lift so I changed things up a bit around here and redid my theme. I like how it turned out and I have a lot more flexibility now, without being too cluttered. I created a couple of different headers that change when you refresh the page. I also reorganized my categories and created subcategories. I put all of my colored pencil drawings under Painting because that is a more accurate description than drawing. I also created a new category for Mixed Media because I do a lot of pen and watercolor and pen and colored pencil pieces and I wanted a place just for them. One thing that I’m proud of is that I finally figured out how to create my own favicon (it’s a pear).
This weekend I’m planning on doing more organizing of my art area. It is really starting to get out of hand again (unfortunately). I saw this post recently at Art Biz Blog entitled Stop Handling Your Art Like It’s Homeless. It really inspired me to organize my artwork and art supplies in a better way. The video is pretty interesting as well.
Sketching has not been high on my priority list this week, but here is a sketch I made while I was recouperating last week after my surgery. Katie was restless waiting by the door, and I like that I was able to capture her different positions as she shifted. She is doing well these days, except she had an unfortunate encounter with a skunk a few weeks back. The stench has mostly worn off by now though, except when she gets wet.
To all my American readers, I hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day weekend. And to everyone else, I hope you have a great weekend as well. For myself, I hope this year is as good of a time for me as last year was. I will try to get some good sketching time in.
I’ve been feeling really discouraged about the state of my country these days. It seems that everything is falling apart, and not just the economy. If you have a family or some good friends, please take care of each other because you can’t depend on anybody else these days.
It has been some time since I have been able to read and enjoy a book sufficiently enough to actually finish it. I have been getting bored and easily distracted when reading books, and have often stopped midway through. I decided to give it another shot though, because I wanted to read a book while being out of work after my surgery.
The book I picked up at the library was The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano. It was translated into English from Italian, but it didn’t feel awkward to read for me at all. In fact, I thought it was very easy to read and the chapters were nice and short as well.Â
The main characters are Alice and Mattia, who are antisocial and both dysfunctional in their own special way. Alice and Mattia have a special friendship because they understand each other, and they each had a traumatic childhood experience that shaped the way they interact with others throughout the rest of their lives. Their personalities are so damaged however, that they can’t function properly, and even though they are attracted to each other, neither one of them knows how to “close the sale.”
To be honest, I found this book to be depressing even though the reviews were really good. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is lonely or depressed. Also, I really couldn’t stand Alice’s character, who struggles with anorexia. She just made no sense to me, and she wasn’t very likeable. I probably should have picked a book that was more upbeat. I made the mistake of reading this book and watching The Mill on the Floss on the same day!
