Embroidered Collage

I started gathering supplies for a pair of sewn paper atcs and then decided that the materials would make a great calendar spread for Caren as well, especially since her theme was color.  The colors of the paper are truer in the scan above than in the picture below, although neither is quite right. 

She did a great deal of prep work on her calendar, including sewing in these nice little pockets with personalized instructions.  I kept the pocket, since it was too nice to remove, and put the middle atc into it.  You can't see it very well in the picture as I was holding it upright and out of the way. 

The hand-made paper tears and stitches nicely.  I just played around for the atcs, but I deliberately went for two very similar variations for the two sides of the calendar spread.  The first two background layers are mulberry tissue paper adhered with matte gel medium.  I then applied the stitched together blobs the same way to complete the spread.

Two pairs of atcs to swap this month, one alphabet themed and one number eight themed.

  I took my little sketchbook with me to the Renaissance Faire one weekend in September.  I found that in this setting I focused almost entirely on faces, which surprised me a little, although I kept trying to get the clothing in, too.  Garb is often more complicated to draw than everyday clothing.  The two gentleman I sketched on the stage below to the right never really stood like that or, actually, stood still for very long at all.  I was acquiring and compiling glimpses throughout the course of the entertainment.  It's more doable than I had imagined when I'd heard others describe the technique, but I think my result would have been better if I'd had more figure drawing practice ahead of time so my head and hands knew how the parts conected.

Brown.  Aaargh.

Well, I can safely say I've gotten the basic concepts down for easy to see colors.  Jim thought that the first blocking in of the flag and bottle worked well and was especially pleased that I pushed the white into purple and peach for my first go.  But the brown of the baseball mitt was just such a mess.  I forgot my camera or you'd be able to see the multiple times I basically tried to start over with this somewhat colorful version being the one that my brain shut down on.

I had been trying to mix brown using complementary or near complementary colors.  Jim said that I was making mud.  The idea was to pick the strong colors that you see and start out with them.  And then mute them as necessary.  A helpful comment from this week was that in muting you don't go 180 degrees around the color wheel for the complementary.  You go 90 degrees or often even only 20 or 30 degrees, picking the direction that you see more of that color.  The "purple" in the shadow of the glove popped against the "yellow" of the ball.  Since I didn't see any green in the shadow I would mute it by adding red, but, Jim added, it would have to be the right red.  Even if it doesn't look brown and correct on canvas, if I get the relationships right  and step back, then it should work as a painting.

I still don't see these colors.  I can extrapolate them.  I can say that the white in the shadow is cooler, lets make it more purple and the white in the light is warmer, lets make it yellow or peach.  And I added a new theory last night - if two objects really pop against each other then their color field colors should be complements or close to it..  But when he talks it's as if he actually sees the color there.

I also mentioned that I didn't really feel like I knew what all the colors on my palette did to each other and was tempted to just sit down with them and make mixes.  In his opinion I'd be better off doing many simple color field studies, because while I can test certain two color mixtures, I couldn't really get into the multiple three or four color mixtures that I would use in real life with a drop of this and a bit of that.  I'm afraid that I would only use what I was most familiar with in that case.  I might see if I can combine the two approaches at some point in the future.  In the meantime, onward with the class!

Farm equipment drawn in pencil.  I was fascinated by the layers of circles and the play of light and dark in the original reference photo.  It almost became abstract.  Unfortunately, I lost patience with interior bars and shadows.  It was both the most interesting and most complex portion of the image.  I think I captured the sense of it, though.

I'm happy overall, even though I know all the details aren't quite right.  I'm pleased I was able to see and notice that the circles weren't entirely concentric.  The visible portion of each changed width slightly due to perspective.  The actual blades had a great deal more definition in their texture.  I lost this by using the blending stump, although I tried to put a little back by adding dots to the front blade.

A couple days ago one of the other forum members posted their version of this challenge and I was very struck by how different the approach was from the drawing that I had already begun.  Brian made the blades look very similar to each other and the drama was instead in the dark slashes of trees in the background, the branchy shadows falling on the equipment, and the squiggly vegetation around it.  I think we saw completely different things in the photograph.

The challenge is at http://www.drawspace.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=457.

I added something new to my approach today.  I signed up for a Premium account at www.Artwanted.com .  This gives me the ability to sell prints and products through a portfolio there.   At the moment all I have uploaded is "Dragon Scales" and its detail image, but I intend to put up "Lunch in the Studio Again" and "Universal" in the next couple days for certain.

I want to use this site to expand my offerings somewhat.  I'll probably put up some of my cooler reference photos.  Eventually I'll likely have drawings and exercises up as well.  Things that would not necessarily work at the prices for original art, but that would make fun prints or interesting images to have on a mug or mousepad or coasters, since Artwanted sells products like Cafe Press does.  It's less customizable and there are some products I don't think would go well with some images, but we'll see.

I've been researching reproduction prints and such for a couple months, off and on, because they have such potential, and this seems a good place to start.  I think it will mesh well with my intent to spend time on building my skills.  My portfolio address is http://www.artwanted.com/pumpkin12pm