May 2, 2013 May 3, 2013

I hope all of my crayon paintings do not look the same to you. For me they are all different because I’m thinking about how to get differnt looks and how to handle different surfaces as I do each piece. I am always learning something new…

I was able to complete two more postcards.  On the first one I worked with greens, which are always hard for me…how do you get strong value differentiation? This one I punched up with red and a little yellow.

Postacrd 4

The second postcard used my favorite blues, violets, greens. I applied much less crayon than usual in order to determine how much was enough. Usually I apply crayon very heavily because it gives a nice, glossy, almost mosaic like, quality when dry.

Postcard 5

I got a nice, soft look on this one. Still haven’t “cleaned up” the edges on any of my postcards. It’s faster to do several at one time.

April 28, 2013 April 30, 2013

I have been playing with my crayons again. This time I tried to scale up from the small sizes I’ve been doing (5″X7″ and 6″X6″) to a quarter sheet of paper. I worked on a block of Arches 140# cold pressed (CP) paper. I wanted to use many colors and a swirling design because I was thinking about a fiesta or festival of some kind. Dancing, fireworks, movement and color – that’s what I saw in my minds eye. This painting has three layers of crayon. You have to be really careful or the colors all just melt together to form mud. I am still learning about using the crayons and I love many of the colors. Some are dramatic, deep and rich while some are packed with pastel punch. Oh yeah! enough to keep me enchanted…

Fiesta

April 21, 2013 April 22, 2013

I had several meetings last week and one of them was a brainstorming session…that one left my head spinning. My monkey brain would not be quiet! Any way, I have been able to spend a small amount of time creating. Below are two new postcards. I like both of these…really fun to paint.

With both of these little pieces, I enjoyed the look of shattered glass and the interesting paterns. The surface of the postcards is smoother than the notecards and gives a different look.

Postcard 3

I haven’t touched up the edges yet. I am using Dr Martin’s Bleed-Proof White to touch up the edges.

April 13, 2013 April 15, 2013

In an earlier post that you can view here, I talked about Indiana Autmun 2 and how challenging it was to create. This painting is done on plate finish illustration board and it was the first time I worked with this surface. I was not happy with the lower corners of the painting and was playing around with cropping. I couldn’t find a cropping format that worked. I was planning on taking a full sheet painting and cutting it down to half sheet or quarter sheet size. While painting Indiana Autumn 3 I had the earlier painting on an easel for the “living with it” phase and I decided my approach to cropping was wrong. I finally decided to take 3″ off the top and bottom. Affter that I did two pours of paint to unify the painting better. Lots of details for you but at this point I’m much happier with the painting.

Indiana Autumn 2 – Cropped

As I’ve mntioned, one of my struggles with this series is that the main color scheme is made up of mid-value colors. The struggle for me has been to add diversity and excitement with darker values.

April 10, 2013 April 11, 2013

I finished my last notecard and realized I had never photographed two of the paintings. I gave most of my cards away yesterday to a group of friends that are helping me with a big project but I still have one and will photograph it later. Here is Notecard 8.

Notecard 8

I did something slightly different with this one. I usually use my Caran d’Ache crayons to color shapes in organic, random patterns and then spray with water and apply shrink wrap. This time I colored square and rectangular shapes – every shape was geometric. Then I used the same process of spraying and sealing with wrap. I was trying to use darker, deeper colors. I think the results are interesting.

April 7, 2013 April 9, 2013

I finally finished my third Indiana Autumn painting. I struggled with this one because the paper was rippling. I was using 300# Arches paper and that paper usually stays very flat and handles large amounts of water well. However, the last shipment I received does not feel as thick as usual. It flexes more than past shipments and when I’ve used 300# in the past it has not rippled. With the techniques I use this can be a major problem. Anyway, the painting took longer than I expected but I did get it completed and am pretty satisfied with the results. Hoosiers out there – what do you think? Does this remind you of an Indiana Autumn? I hope so!

Indiana Autumn 3

 

April 6, 2013 April 7, 2013

I continue to play with my notecards and crayons. I am finding one interesting challenge. I tape down the notecard to keep the paper flat and to define the white border around the painting. When I wet the paper it makes a big flat bubble and the water begins to run off the paper like rain running down a mountain side. This gives nice mixes and mingles of color BUT it also pulls out the wrinkles I have created in the shrinkwrap. I need the wrinkles to give texture and interest but they just slide away. With this notecard I tried to give more texture by applying a second layer…and a third. It didn’t turn out well and I really abused the paper. This notecard will carry a note to my Granddaughter – she’ll appreciate it because its hand-made by Grandma.

Notecard 2

When I made my third notecard I decided to lay heavy books on the painting after the water and shrink wrap were applied. This seems to be reasonable solution. I was very patient and let this one dry completely before removing the shrink wrap.

Notecard 3

I have two more notecards started this morning and I am almost done with a third Indiana Autumn painting.  Proud of my productivity considering that I watched NCAA basketball games and Les Miz yesterday. House cleaning – what’s that!!??

April 4, 2013 April 5, 2013

I ran out of Fluid Watercolor Paper – 0n both size blocks at the same time! Oh NO! So I went seeking small sized paper blocks and found that I can find Fluid paper in Indianapolis art stores but only in the 9″ X 12″ size. Not too bad and I bought some but larger than I wanted. At United Art & Education they had watercolor notecards so I bought a set of these to try out. I thought the crayon paintings might make good notecards – and they did! I am still learning how much water to use and when to remove the shrink wrap but I thought my first card turned out well. The colors used were inspired by my longing for Spring. The pieces that look like sea glass are not as pronounced on the actual notecard.

Spring Notecard

Wishing you warm weather and refreshing breezes!

April 1, 2013 April 3, 2013

Another abstract made with my Caran d’ Ache crayons. This time I focused on blue and its analagous colors. Relaxes my brain and is fun, fun, fun!

Blue Study 2

 

March 25, 2013 March 26, 2013

I am still creating color studies using my new watercolor crayons. I wanted to work with purple and its analogous colors. Both pieces are on Arches CP paper and are 9″ X 12″.

Purple Study

After I completed this, I decided to add purple’s complementary color to see what sort of exciting things would happen.

Purple Study with yellow

We got almost 10 inches of snow yesterday. To me this looked a little like sun shining a snow storm…some areas even had thunder snow. Oh My!!!