Paintings, drawings, and sketches done with traditional art materials.
Birches Block Print
I made this print from a printing plate made out of card stock. I used scissors and an Xacto knife to cut up card stock and I then glued the pieces to another piece of card stock using Elmer’s white glue and then glued the whole thing to a thin sheet of wood. I sealed the plate by painting it with a thin coat of acrylic gloss medium. Here’s what the plate looked like before I inked it up for printing.
Magnolia Blossoms
This is my second attempt at block printing. I carved a soft rubber plate (3.75×5.25 inches, 9.5×13 cm) mostly using the smallest V shaped Speedball cutter and an xacto knife.
Almond Orchard – Print 1
I got some Speedball linocut carving tools and a couple of rubber printing plates for Christmas. I’ve never tried relief printing before. I spent about a week researching relief printing techniques and subjects. The toughest part for me was choosing a subject. I’ve been working with a full range of values and colors in watercolor and acrylics. It was hard to switch my thinking to just black and white. I looked through my collection of sketches and photographs, and picked out a few that were high contrast. One was a picture of my father’s almond orchard.
Canadian Aspens
These aspen trees are on the road between Lake Louise and Jasper, Alberta, Canada. I took the reference photo on our honeymoon trip in 1975. I painted two of these for Christmas gifts – one for my wife and one for our daughter.
Acrylic on Gessobord. 6×6 inches (15.2×15.2 cm).
Paper Collage
I’m comparing two very different methods of working. I did this collage the traditional way by cutting out pieces of paper and glueing them down to a piece of of card stock. I’m seeing how this compares to the digital version in the next image done on the iPad. I did this one first.
A Blue Day in the City
I’ve been meaning to try this for quite a while. I bought a cheap plastic one inch putty knife with the idea of using it to spread some paint around just to see what kinds of marks it can make. I then used a dip pen to add some detail with acrylic ink.
Acrylic on paper, palette knife and dip pen. 5.5 x 7.5 inches (13.5 x 18.5 cm).
Jim
My three paintings in the Paint the Town Exhibit
I finally got to the Elsinore Gallery on the last day of the exhibit and took this photo with my iPod Touch. One of my three paintings was awarded an Honorable Mention. I thought that was pretty cool for my first time out.
Jim
This slideshow is embedded using a shortcode from Slideshare.net.
Jim
I made this slideshow with Google Slides on my iPad.
Jim
Broken Ankle Sketch
This morning I was looking at the sketch I did in the ambulance and began wondering how realistic or accurate a sketch has to be to capture a moment or describe an event.
Ambulance Sketch
The lines are shakey. My foot is barely recognizable. Most people would judge it a “bad” sketch. Yet, for me, it takes me there and I remember everything. The EMT who was riding with me was named Patrick. I remember what we talked about during the ride, how long it took, what the route was, that the siren was not on…everything, and I realized that the amount of realism in the sketch was irrelevant. A sketch is a diagram of an experience. There is a crossover to other senses and memory neurons when you draw and it works much like a certain smell or melody does to trigger feelings or memories.
So, today, instead of doing a carefully layed out drawing of my surroundings, I’m doing a quick pen sketch. The proportions are all wrong, the objects look wonky, and the lines look scratchy, but that’s the place and situation all right. There is my bag of pens and pencils, my medications, my sketchbook, my foot in a cast, my crutches, and all the surrounding mess that is our family room and a bit of the kitchen. When I look at it, I know that the lines look that way partially because my wrist and arms hurt so much from using those crutches and I know that the pain in that foot has kept me awake for two nights. That is the magic of sketching. It’s a process of observing through movement of the hand and arm. The extra time and effort it takes makes it much more potent than a photograph. At least for the artist.
Broken Ankle Photo
Jim
The Orchard
I’m starting to get the hang of this sketching stuff. My proportions are getting better and I’ve developed a process I like. I start by framing an area in my journal with blue tape, and then I lay out the scene using an orange erasable highlighter.
The Orchard – Layout
I divided the frame in half both vertically and horizontally and sketched in the major shapes in each quadrant. Then I drew the blackest blacks with a brush pen.
The Orchard – Brush Pen
Finally I added detail with an extra fine nib pen mainly drawing the darks rather than the contours.
The Orchard – Extra Fine Nib Pen
This is a small sketch – 5.5 x 3.5 inches. Here is what it looks like on the journal page.
The Orchard – Journal Page
I then used a hairdryer to heat up the drawing which erases the orange highlighter.
Jim
The Flowers That Bloom in May PDF (10.5 MB)
During the month of May I challenged myself to draw every day. I chose as my theme the flowers in our backyard. I’ve been spending the last month and a half writing a journal about the project, which contains a gallery of all my sketches and field notes about my methods, materials, thoughts, and discoveries.
“The Flowers That Bloom in May” – PDF (68 pages, 10.5 MB)
Sebright Gardens Sketch
This morning I drove north to the Sebright Gardens for my first visit. Salem’s Artists in Action group was meeting there for one of their Paint the Town outings. So, in addition to checking out the garden I also wanted to meet the group. I talked with Melody and Merren and learned about the group and their activities and meetings. Both were very gracious and welcoming.
Backyard Acrylic Sketch
“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard; because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with“.
I’m continuing my quest to find the perfect materials for painting on location. This isn’t it, but I’m getting closer.
Geranium Gouache Sketch
Today I’m testing my homemade paint box before I take it out on location. I set it up on the back porch on top of my small Sony tripod. I’m painting with Holbein Acryla Gouache on a 6×6 inch canvas panel.