H is for Half and Half

Half drawing half digital that is.

I have spent the better part of this afternoon using color pencil to design these flowers - and there are still plenty more of them on the full drawing to go. Color pencil is slow ....too slow for me I think - but they are fun in their own way, and I am discovering interesting things as I build the colors and add in lines. I am especially interested in the transparency that allows one layer to show through another.

The other half of this project is digital - trying out different filters on my IPhone is my reward for patiently futzing around with these flowers when markers or Caran D'ache or anything would be faster. Still I persist.

I cropped these flowers from the bouquet and filtered around til I came to this.  I love the way the colors are working.

W is for White

My mother grew gardenias on the fire escape of our Bronx apartment. Every June our home filled with the intense and gorgeous perfume wafting from the crystal bowl where she floated the clipped blossoms.

I have not inherited her green thumb, and all of my attempts to grow the flowers, much less keep the plants alive have failed miserably. Until this summer.

Two Mother's Day ago, my daughter gave me a lovely little gardenia plant (one more chance) and somehow this one not only lived, but thrived, and low and behold, one year later, bloomed. This is one of the beauties that resulted, preserved now in memory and photograph,

On this day before Thanksgiving, this white flower helps me remember all of those I am thankful for.

L is for Look

Pay attention, notice, open your eyes, observe  LOOK. This is one of the key messages in any art class. When I work with young students I encourage them to pay attention to the details they see. In a fashion class it is the lines of a garment they are designing, or the way the pattern is affected by the shape and position of the body beneath.

One of the best tools in my arsenal of teaching strategies is encouraging kids to look closely at flowers. We look at pictures, and handle real blooms, even taking them apart to see how they are made.

What is the shape of the center? What colors do you notice? How do the petals attach? Do they overlap? Then, we practice drawing flowers based on geometric shapes - just for fun. It is my intention in this lesson to encourage my young artists to let their design ideas begin to flow, to feel free to create their own flowers, express their own ideas, create interesting combinations and compositions. This is always a fun project.

Today, this is a floral I painted in Paint Joy following my own example
- simple shapes, repetition and lots of texture and color. I simply like to look at it.

X is for eXpression: Creative that is

CREATIVE 

ADJECTIVE

1. relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work: 

This Art Everyday Month Challenge is fascinating. 

Every year it is an opportunity to see, admire and be inspired by the creative work and ideas of a highly diverse group of people. This year especially, I am noticing artists from around the world.

 How wonderful that people of different ages, styles and skill levels are all brave enough to express their creative selves to the world. 

To keep within my X theme, I would say that the work is eXcellent, eXciting and eXtremely well done. 

I appreciate the eXtraordinary effort involved in being creative every day. So, for today, something 

eXtra lovely to share- flowers - a digital photo from a summer walk-through at the Farmer's Market. 

W is for White

W is for white. Titanium white acrylic paint that is.

I love to paint white flowers. I love to layer coat upon coat of thick white paint to create depth and texture. I especially love to balance the brightness of the white paint with deep or dark colors.

This painting (16x20 on canvas) is inspired by trillium that grow wild in the woods in the spring. While out walking I looked down and saw a cluster of them, surrounded by their glossy dark green leaves. I liked the idea of a painting from that perspective - looking down into the flowers.

Painting flowers is like preserving strawberries into jam. It is a way to keep the pleasure all year round.

F is for Flowers

I love to paint flowers - simple abstract flower forms, botanical reproductions, single flowers, lush pastels, huge painted bouquets, I love them all. My flower paintings line the walls of my home and fill me with joy.

When I am in teacher mode, flowers are a great way to teach about how geometric forms and simple shapes can combine to create dazzling beauty. And then of course, there is the color!

I like to work with a limited palette, and in my classes, this approach nearly eliminates the muddy mixes and disharmony that can happen with too many choices.

This little painting in acrylic is  9"x12" on canvas board. It did not seem to "gel" until I added the white lines and repainted the vase with turquoise (not in the original palette.) I'm the teacher, I can break the rules.

B is for Background

I am experimenting with new ways to apply and work with acrylic paints. Thanks to methods I learn about in books such as Art Effects  by Jane Drysdale Green and in YouTube videos, I have been rubbing, scrubbing, scraping, sponging, salting and dabbing with alcohol. (Kinda like preparing a chicken.) The idea is to create an interesting background on which to develop the "stars" of the show.

Just to add to the challenge, I am doing this with old paintings that do not deserve canvas and closet space. These flowers were built on an abstract pattern that bored me. I began to layer paint and rub it back - a sort of glaze. As I repeated this process new lights and darks began to take shape. Suddenly, magically, a vase and flowers appeared. I am very happy with the results. I am fascinated by the background effects in the vase. Now the challenge is to figure out how to do this again.

This painting is 12"x12". Acrylic on canvas

X is for Xtreme Color Xperiment

Lily

Last year, for Art Everyday Month, I followed a course on Mandala making. Many of the participants raved about Inktense pencils - watersoluble color pencils. I bought a set, and have rarely used them. However, since I am regularly playing with my Caran D'ache watersoluble crayons I thought I would Xperiment today to see the effects of the pencils.

I drew one of my favorite flower photos  on good quality watercolor paper - using the outline pencil in the set. Then I began to color - mixing three reds, and orange and yellow for the blossom, greens and browns for the stem and leaf.  The background is a mixture of blues to emphasize all the colors with a strong contrast. Then I added water. All I can say is WOW! The colors are so vibrant. I will definitely be continuing to experiment with these cool tools.

L is for Lovely Lavender

Lavender Clematis

Last summer I was asked to design an art class for our local clematis test gardens. Lucky me.

To prepare, I spent hours in among the flowers, looking, analyzing and taking photographs.

Clematis grow on vines in lush clusters of blooms set on dark leaves.  They come in a rainbow of colors and sizes, from darkest purple to creamiest white. I took hundreds of photos. Then I spent many more hours learning how to draw them.

Today, a rainy and dreary day, I felt the need for some floral loveliness, and turned to my photos for cheer. Spending time among my floral photos was like returning to the summer garden. With so many choices, it was the beautiful lavender of these flowers, the soft red of their centers and the way they are set against that greens from light to dark that grabbed my attention and said, play with me in Photoshop. So I did. It brightened my day. I hope it does yours as well.

Z is for Zinnias

YAY! I've made it through the alphabet, though not yet through the entire month. After 26 days I really feel like I am in a productive and creative zone, and glad to be meeting my own goal of creating and sharing something everyday for this month.

Today's work is based on a photograph of zinnias - it is done in Photoshop.

Once again, setting out to plan a painting, I have combined digital effects that result in an image that reads as a painting, and provides me with the guide I need to move to the canvas. However, once again, I feel like this stands alone as a work of art worth sharing.

I have always loved making computer art. I have decades of experience in graphic design using all kinds of computer art tools - CorelDraw 1 anybody?  But I used to feel guilty about using my tools to create "fine art."  Lately though, the more I experiment, the more images I create, the more my point of view shifts. I think art happens where and how it happens -

For me, using digital tools allows me to build my visual and my technical skills. They also enable me to accomplish another of my goals for this month - to understand how to abstract an image. As I play with Photoshop and Illustrator, I begin to see how to simplify, how textures and shapes combine to "read" as flowers, or seascapes or sunsets. Most of all, no matter where the working takes place,  I am LEARNING everyday and with every piece.

How do you feel about painting in Photoshop or other digital tools? How do you use them in conjunction with your art?

F is for Fun with Flowers Day 6

Talk about mixed media, today's image started as a digital photo of a lotus like flower. I used it for the basis of a drawing in black and white to get a sense of the shapes. I liked the simple drawing so much I photographed it.

My plan was to paint this flower on canvas - I worked on it for several hours but I was not getting the vibrancy I had in mind. I will continue to work on the painting -   but I liked the shapes and composition of this flower so much, I opened the black and white sketch in Photoshop and began to apply color.

A little wild? Maybe. But its a dark and dreary November day and I am in the mood for something fun. I hope you are too.

Come Draw with Me (Art in the Garden)

I will be teaching another art class for young artists  (age 5 - 15)  this summer - at Luscher Farms Gardens in Lake Oswego. 

This beautiful place in the perfect location to enjoy gorgeous plants and flowers, and learn how to draw them. We will explore the colors, shapes and details of the flowers we find, and notice how shapes and characteristics we see in one flower, repeat in others. We will work together to create sketch, draw and paint in a variety of media. All supplies are included.

Class Days: Tuesday, Thursday

7/19/2011 - 7/21/2011 | 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ages: 05 - 15
LUSCH - Luscher Farm
Non-District Price:$40.00
District Price:$35.00

ToREGISTER:

http://www.lakeoswegoparks.org/products.asp?pfid=2469&dept_id=300&strMode=2&name=Ar

Art Every Day: Z is for Zen

Day 26

Today's image of a lotus is drawn from a favorite photo, and also a reminder to focus on the light at the heart of things. This drawing is in color pencil on vellum.

Art Every Day: U is for Umbrellas

Day 21

Umbrellas have absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I needed something to call it. I had a lot of ideas - like up and I'd paint clouds, or upside down (I like that idea) or ultramarine blue and paint gorgeous Nepalese poppies. But this is what appeared today - I don't know what kind of flowers they are, only they are small and I drew them big, on black paper with pastels.

There we go, U is for Upsizing.

Art Every Day: T is for Tinkering

Day 20

I've been working on card design all day, stuck in digital mode. So, to take a break from working with images on my computer, I clicked back over to the Fluid Painter application to continue experimenting with swirls. (In other words, continue working with images :-< )

Today's result was this bouquet of roses. It's funny how just switching gears can be so pleasurable.

I love to tinker around with new programs. I have learned much of what I know about Photoshop and other digital art programs through experimentation and minimal guidance from online tutorials. As a digital designer, some of my best and most unexpected successes have appeared in this way. The chance to play in all sorts of modalities has been one of the greatest benefits of this challenge.

Onward to Day 21.