30 Days of Drawing: Day Fifteen

I have this wonderful Fabriano journal filled with colored paper.  It’s around 8” x 6” and is perfect for quick studies like this one.

I also worked on this large piece from my 14” x 17” Canson XL Mixed Media pad.

I’m really enjoying blending the colors on these pieces.

It’s nice to have such a large space to work in, and since I am doing these to play I am not stressing over how realistic the finished image is.  It’s letting me explore different ways of laying down the color and apply the layers. 

There’s still time if you want to join us!

30 Days of Drawing: Day Fourteen

I just love the handles on these old kitchen utensils.  From the top: potato masher, spatula and sieve.  Or as I call them , Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.  Image size 12” x 15”

Detail.  I used mostly Prismacolor pencils, with a few Derwent Inktense and Graphitint pencils for the details.  The background is Grumbacher Acrylic in Payne’s Gray and Martha Stewart craft paint in Cloud, satin finish.

I promised a peek at the really big drawing. 

This is on Strathmore 400 series drawing paper, and measures approximately 60” x 36”.  I have to stand on a stool to reach the top of the drawing.  I’m using graphite sticks in 3B and 6B.  It started with just random marks but has evolved into this image.  The working title is “Eclipse”.

See you tomorrow!

30 Days of Drawing: Day Thirteen

Today I chose to go a little larger and also on a white background.  It was more difficult to build up a good layer of color as the texture of this paper was very defined.  I also was challenged by recreating the metal of the beads and buttons on this necklace.  I’m pleased with how the turquoise bead turned out as well as the black bead in the lower right corner.  Overall the drawing worked for me.  I do think that I may pre-color the paper before attempting another drawing on it, at least if I go for another color drawing.

30 Days of Drawing: Day Twelve

Yes, I did draw on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (also known as Days Nine, Ten and Eleven)  I just haven’t scanned them yet.  I need to find a more effective way to draw over the weekends.

I picked up some darker red pencils on Friday (I had to take my daughter to the airport, and since we were near the art supply store anyway….), so this morning  I took them out for a test run.

I tried to avoid using the black pencil for the black beads.  I think it turned out well.  I enjoyed drawing the big cinnabar bead on the upper right. 

Another red handle.  Eventually I will draw the entire tool, but for right now I am enjoying the weathered look of these old utensils.

Something else is literally on the drawing board, I will post pictures of it when I post days 9, 10 and 11.  Stay tuned!

30 Days of Drawing, Day Eight: Draw Hard

When I was little, my grandpa worked at the General Motors Tech Center.  He would bring home tons of Prismacolor pencils for me to play with.  I think he’d be pleased to see that I am still drawing all these years later.

Today I finally got back into the studio for a little while, so I went a little hog wild.

You might recognize this necklace from the past two days of pencil and pen and ink drawings.  The bone beads with the incised detail were a pain, but I’m overall pleased with how they turned out.  I really love the lampwork beads and the detail in them.

I wasn’t ready to go back downstairs, so I did another drawing, this time based on a small sieve my friend picked up for me at a yard sale.  I just love old tools.  I wanted to detail the handle of the piece.

Here’s a different version of the same tool, from a large drawing I was working on last month.

I’m not sure what tomorrow is going to bring, but I know it will be fun!  There’s still time to play along, head over to Traci’s journal and add your name to the caravan.

30 Days of Drawing: Day Seven

 

Uni Ball Vision Needle in my Moleskine journal, worked on while waiting for my oldest son to finish class.  This is the same necklace I drew last night, just in different media.  I am hoping to get into the studio tomorrow and do a color drawing (or two or three….)

30 Days of Drawing, Day Six: Drawing Noir

I wasn’t able to get into the studio first thing in the morning yesterday, so I ended up doing this pencil drawing right before bed.  I’d forgotten how pretty the beads I used on this necklace were.  I think today I am going to render them in color.

30 Days of Drawing; Days 3-5

Now with more cowbell.  If I had a cowbell to draw.

Saturday was a lazy drawing day, as my son had two hockey games and we had to run errands in between.  So I did this quick gestural sketch of the game.  Not every drawing has to be finished.

I drew this pendant from one of my necklaces before heading out on Sunday morning.  The background is inspired by the many layers of paint on my drawing table.

I’m still working on how to render the bone beads in my piece.  I’m much happier with how the bone turned out on this drawing than I was with the bone in yesterday’s pendant.  Having the right tools makes all the difference.  This piece mixes Prismacolor, Supracolor, and Neocolor II crayons.

I had so much fun with the light colors on the first drawing that I decided to do another rendering of a different necklace.  The button in the lower left is kind of muddled, and next time I would leave it out of the picture.  I also went with a different color scheme.  The original necklace is dusty pale blue. 

Yesterday I picked up a roll of drawing paper, 36” wide, and a few graphite pencils and sticks.   The next few days of drawing may be process photos of a larger piece.

30 Days of Drawing, Day Two

This is a drive-by posting as I have to go play Mom’s Taxi in a minute.  This is a glass bottle I picked up at a yard sale and one of my Gran’s brass bell collection.  Supracolor II pencils and Prismacolor pencils on chipboard. 

30 Days of Drawing, Day One

Traci Bunkers, of Bonkers Handmade Originals, is hosting a challenge to draw every day for 30 days.  It will be a little tricky with the holiday season and all, but I have been getting back into my drawing and I decided to play along.  You can find out more information about how to join us at Traci’s blog.

Earlier this week I started a series of small drawings on recycled chipboard, so for now I’m going to continue in that vein (smaller drawings also makes it easier to do a whole drawing in a day ;)

Last year I made myself a necklace for my birthday, and this drawing is a detail of one of my favorite beads from the necklace.  I used a Derwent Graphitint pencil to lay down the initial outline (after drawing a guideline square in the center of the chipboard), then filled in the rest with Caran D’Ache Supracolor II and Prismacolor pencils.  I’ve been painting in the backgrounds of most of the drawings with various acrylics.  This piece is painted with Jo Sonja acrylic gouache, Martha Stewart craft paint in aqua glitter, and a thin wash of red iron oxide to provide the shadows.  I like how the smooth surface of the paint contrasts with the rougher surface of the drawing.

You can see the other pieces in this series at my Etsy shop. 

Winner!

Well, I guess everyone was busy preparing for back to school.  I contemplated postponing the draw for the Pulp Fiction book, but as I am busy with my own back to school prep (oldest son starts college in one month) I decided to just draw today.

Melinda, send me a message and I will get the book and goodies out to you ASAP!

Thank you for playing :)

Back to School: Not Just for Kids Any More

If you’re like me, you’re looking at all the flyers and ads for the cool new dorm furniture (I want a red coffee maker!) and maybe buying a package of crayons or a notebook or two (or three, or four….).  Let’s face it, back to school is fun, maybe more fun now that we don’t have to go back to school and can do whatever we want with our crayons, markers and notebooks.  (Do you remember when you were finally allowed to write with pen instead of pencil?  Purple paper? Crayola vs Cray Pas?)
In the spirit of starting something new, I am very happy to have a giveaway.  Mark Montano has very generously offered a signed copy of his amazing “Pulp Fiction: Perfect Paper Projects” for one lucky winner.  With 24 projects to choose from, you won’t be bored, and you will have use for all those back to school sale flyers :)

Here’s the cover.  I am really intrigued by the mask and the Mona Lisa briefcase.

You can see where he signed it, and a sneak peek at some of the projects.

I really like these lightweight earrings.

And of course no book on paper would be complete without a book project.  These mini journals are too cool.
I will throw in some of my painted papers and ephemera from my personal stash as well, just to sweeten the pot. 
To enter :
Become a member of this site (link on right)
and
Become a member of Mark’s site
for extra entries :

Like my Facebook page 

Follow me on Twitter

Tweet this giveaway or share on Facebook

Leave a comment here and let me know what you did to enter

I will draw the winner on August 24th, just in time for back to school.  This time entries are limited to people in the US or Canada.  Good luck and happy crafting!

The Art of Bead Embroidery: A Preview

Over the years, my bead embroidered creations have drawn the most comments and admiration.  I learned the basic techniques from Joyce Scott and Robin Atkins, and took them from there.  I even wrote an article for Quilting Arts about bead embroidery.  You could say I know a lot about the technique.

I am currently in the process of writing an e-book about how I do my bead embroidery, with tips and hints to help you make this simple technique part of your embroidery repertoire.  Here’s a sneak preview of some of the work I’ll be sharing.

The technique can be used for jewelry, as in the two pins shown above.  These are great for using those accent beads that you’ve been collecting but don’t know what to do with.

This piece is designed to be wearable, but it could also serve as an embellishment on a quilt or piece of wearable art.

A detail of “Grandpa’s Garden” a bead embroidered tapestry.

The full panel “Grandpa’s Garden” 2003, bead embroidered tapestry, approximately 10″ H x 30″ wide.

My e-book will explain how to make objects like this using simple embroidery stitches with beads.  It will also include a gallery of work to inspire you and a listing of suppliers so you can get started on your own bead embroidery journey.  I am really excited about sharing this knowledge with you, and love that in the e-book format I can go deeper than I was able to in the article.  I will post when the book is closer to launch, I look forward to sharing it with you!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Every summer since my oldest daughter finished kindergarten, I have tried to have some sort of fun departure from normal creative activities around Chez Stern.  One year we tie dyed t-shirts, another we attempted papier mache.  A few years ago I declared July a month of silence, with no TV during the day, except to watch the occasional DVD from Netflix (I rented the series of films by Ray and Charles Eames that summer, so much fun).  We always enter August refreshed and ready to get back to our regularly scheduled program, albeit with a new twist from what we’ve learned.

This summer I am working with four books.  Mess by Keri Smith, Learning by Heart by Corita Kent and Jan Steward, The Confident Creative by Cat Bennett  and Rip the Page! by Karen Benke

One of the exercises mentioned in Learning by Heart is to make 100 drawings of something, I believe it was a weekend exercise.  With that in mind, and inspired by going through my work for the three shows I am currently exhibiting in, I set myself an assignment.

This is the first still life I set up:

The enamel ladle is from Marty’s Grandma Rita, the towel is an old Martha Stewart towel from KMart, and the bulbs are used Print Gocco bulbs that I loved and couldn’t throw away.

All the drawings are on 11 x 17 white drawing paper from Crafts 2000.  For these four I used a Derwent 2B drawing pencil.

Detail.

Detail.  You can see where I started to shade in the ladle.  I haven’t yet decided how detailed I want these renderings to be.

For the next three drawings I chose to focus more on the lightbulbs.  As I drew, I worked on noticing small details, like how I could see myself reflected in the bulbs.

You can see the different ways I chose to express the shadow in this detail.

Drawing three, emphasis on one bulb.

Drawing four, the minimalist approach. 

Having done these three drawings yesterday afternoon, I can see the appeal of rendering something repeatedly, as I did notice more detail as I went along.  I also am thinking of the various ways I could do the drawings, not all of them need be realistic, of course, and I can use different drawing materials to work with.  I decided to take a break after this piece and start fresh the next day.  This is going to be an interesting challenge.

Week of Art June 18

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 18 features my favorite painted kraft paper which I decorated with a faux finishing texture tool, hand carved stamps and a silkscreen of a school of fish.  There also is recycled cereal box cardboard which was decorated with bubble wrap stamping and sequin waste stencils.  The main image is a detail of my art quilt “Marilyn.”

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Week of Art June 17

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 17 features “That 70’s Fish”, paste paper which I bought at a scrapbook store, and hand painted recycled cereal box cardboard which was decorated with hand carved stamps.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Show Prep

In addition to my show at the Casa Nueva restaurant here in town, and my group show with the Innovative Art Alliance at the Parkersburg Art Center, on Sunday I am hanging a show at Donkey Coffee and Espresso.  Here are a few of the pieces I will be featuring.

 

The background of this piece is painted on Fabriano cold press 300lb watercolor paper, while the monkey is painted on Arches cold press 140lb watercolor paper. It measures 30” x 22”

This piece is painted on 140lb Arches cold press watercolor paper.  I happened onto a really sweet clearance sale at Michael’s last summer and was able to get 22 sheets of this wonderful paper for around ten dollars. 

I am planning on having a few more of these pieces completed before we hang on Sunday, so I’m off to the studio.

Week of Art June 16

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 16 features my most popular cow quilt, painted kraft paper and recycled cereal box cardboard which has been painted with acrylics and decorated with hand carved stamps.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Week of Art June 15

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 15 features a coffee cup image I created as a pillow sham, hand painted kraft paper and recycled cereal box cardboard decorated with hand carved stamps.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Week of Art June 14

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 14 features my art quilt “Jumping for Joy”, a study for a public art proposal, and recycled cereal box cardboard decorated with sequin waste stencil and hand cut stencils.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Week of Art June 13

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 13 features an image of one of my red bird mixed media embroideries, kraft paper painted with acrylic and recycled cereal box cardboard painted with acrylic and decorated with hand carved stamps.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Week of Art June 12

My work is the  “Week as Art” feature over at the Create Mixed Media site through June 18.  I am excited to have my collages featured on this great site.  Here is a larger image of today’s collage.  All the pieces are on 6” x 6” canvas, and blend color copies of my other works with painted papers and solid scrapbook papers.

June 12 features an image of my art quilt Desert Moon III, kraft paper painted with acrylic, and recycled cereal box cardboard painted with acrylics and decorated with hand carved stamps.

The originals, minus the numbers, are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Free Falling

I have gone from working in the studio with no idea of where the work is going to hanging three shows during the month of June into July.  For the first time in years I can see space in my studio because so many pieces are hanging somewhere else.  It’s exciting to revisit the old work when I am picking it for the shows and I am loving the extra room on the art table.

The third show hangs on June 19th, and I am working on some new pieces for it.  Here’s what I have so far:

Painting supplies.  Some of my favorites are the stamping materials to add texture and shape.  I’m also really liking the use of the pure pigments to help in mixing specific colors.

I am painting on 22” x 30” Fabriano 300lb Cold Press watercolor paper.  I am making a series of larger collages based on the idea of a summer carnival.

One of the most exciting discoveries of this series so far is the use of foam pipe insulation as a stamping tool.  It  makes wonderful circles.

The pipe insulation also can be squished to make these great ovals.  That was an accidental discovery, which happened when I was on the phone with my daughter and gripped the tube a little too tightly.  The frog is a linoleum carving I made in undergraduate school.  I have used him for many things now.   This is painted in contractor’s paper which has been treated with gesso first.

Another take on the frog motif, this time on a recycled cereal box.  You can also see the fish silkscreen I made in the background of this one.  I just love the contrast of turquoise with the warm orange and red.

This piece is waiting for some yellow dots made using sequin waste as a stencil. 

I am really excited to see how these pieces come together.