Love, Lydia - Notes from a geeky, plus sized artist.: watercolor
Showing posts with label watercolor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label watercolor. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Beginning to Decorate

Hello everyone,

I've spent some of my weekend working on my studio.  It's finally starting to feel like my own space as I put things in their place and nail up various shelves and planning tools.  At the new house Bryan and I will have a shared workspace in our second story "rec room".  The space is a great size for an extra large office that will accommodate our three desks, all my art storage needs and incorporate a little lounge area.  Our end goal is using the upstairs space more for our down time needs, so we can keep our downstairs spaces cleaner since they're more public.  For now there are still a enough boxes left to be unpacked that it's hard to get a good picture of the room.

So now I'm feeling good about how our space is coming along.  Here are a couple shots of my corner.  I still have more to put on the walls and supplies to sort out, but it's coming along nicely.


This picture is from Friday and over the weekend I completed a couple of small projects, which are going to enhance my work corner even more.

Splatter Painted Paper Honeycomb Balls


First off I got a pack of these tissue paper honeycomb balls◊ and decided to DIY a splatter paint job on one with watercolor.  I think the first try looks ok, and I'm going to do another with acrylic paints to see if it works better or just ends up sticking the paper together too much.


Here are really easy instructions for how to do it.  First off you'll want newspaper to protect all surfaces near your project.  You probably need two sheets, I only used one in the image above because I'm lazy.  It makes for messes later though, and that's never worth it!


Next off pick your color scheme,  I decided to go with mostly cooler tones.  Here are my colors:
Winsor and Newton - Potter's Pink◊ (very delicate old rose color)
Winsor and Newton - Winsor Red◊ (probably the best true red watercolor I own!)
Winsor and Newton - Cobalt Turquoise Light◊ (this is one of my favorite shades!)
Cotman - Phtalo Blue [Green Shade]◊ (high staining color that's brilliant and good for the budget)
Holbein - Lavender◊ (this color is lovely though it contains some white, making it more opaque than true watercolor)
Holbein - Cobalt Violet Light◊ (a fantastic purple that's quite lightfast too)
Lukas - Gold◊ (a good color that looks a little funny in the palette, but dries down nicer)


Here's what they look like with water.


For this project most any brush will do, though it might get ruined if you're too vigorous.  For real brushes I loaded the brush with paint and flicked my wrist to move the paint.  The picture above gives you an idea of how much water was used VS paint.  It really only takes a little!  However I only mixed enough of each color to create the one honeycomb ball, so I wouldn't be wasteful.  Also for opening some of the tougher paint tubes I use a silicone jar opener!  It works wonders, and I've been given several over the years as freebies.


And here my first version is done.  It's more pastel, which I love, but you can use less water to get brighter results too.  I found that because the paper is easily saturated you can only use two colors at a time before letting everything you've done dry (about an hour and a half) before going on the the next colors.  This honeycomb has a string you can hang it from so you could paint it while it's hanging to be more neat, especially if you have a porch where you can set things up.  Sunshine would definitely speed up the drying process, my work was done on a rainy day, so it took longer to dry.  Then you just have to decide how you want to display them!

Refinished Shelf Cubes

A while back we got a set of shelf cubes for our bedroom, but we don't need them at the new house because I now have enough space for a bedside table rather than having the bed too close to a wall as I did at our old rental.  So I decided I could put the cubes up in my studio as extra storage for little inspirational items.  The cubes came in a set of three different sizes and though it looks like they might not carry the plain ones at Target anymore here are some similar ones from Amazon◊.

The ones I had were more matte in finish so I didn't even need to sand them, I just used two coats of custom mixed paint colors.  If you have shelves with a shinier finish rough them up a bit all over with a fine grit sandpaper before painting them so the paint will stick and not peel off.  I used Winsor and Newton Acrylics because I had a lot left over from college (Freshman year kits were required gear!), but you could use most any brand you want.  If you wanted to buy online you might want to give Utrecht Acrylics a try, they're a good deal for good quality paints. Some brands and colors may need more coats than others.  I added a good bit of white paint to all three of my chosen shades, which helps make them more opaque.

Here are my finished shelves!  I set them down to dry on newspaper after each coat, and held them on my hand to paint them.  If you want to paint them easier without having to hold them I recommend using a cork trivet or putting them on top of a cardboard box.  If you have drips it will stick to newspaper and might mean you have to touch up a little later, cardboard is less likely to run into this problem, and cork is free of it unless you have a bad enough drip that it just peels the paint off.


Mint, lavender, and dark blue are some of my favorite colors.  And finally here's a shot of my studio with the shelves and my watercolor reference chart set up.  It's still pretty crazy, but getting better every day.  I almost know where all my supplies are!


That's all for today.  Let me know what are some of your favorite colors to decorate with in the comments!  Thanks.

Love,
Lydia

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Painting Time

Hey everyone,

So the commission I had earlier this month is all done.  I'm happy to share it with you all now.  It all started when I got a message from a man on Etsy, asking if I could paint a Celtic knotwork design on his Irish Bodhran drum.  I've never worked on a project like this before, but was excited by the prospect.  I did some quick research and found I would easily be able to do it, using high quality acrylic paints.  (If it was to be used regularly I'd also need to varnish it with a protective coating, but this drum was for display.)  So, I showed him some possible designs, he chose one, and then sent me his 18 inch, goat skin head, Bodhran drum.  Here's a few shots showing how the piece came together.  The sketchbook is the Fabriano EcoQua one that I got in September's Pigment + Palette box.  I've found I really like working with the dotted paper and that it holds up surprisingly well to acrylics when I tested them in the book to prepare for this painting.

Next on my plate was testing out some items from the October Pigment + Palette box.  I've tried Aquabord before (a hard panel perfect for watercolors that can be framed without glass), and enjoy working with it, but the other products are new to me.  Today I focused on the Qor watercolor samples.  The Qor line is made by Golden, whose fluid acrylics I have come to love as I worked with them more (and bought a few more bottles of) while working on the drum.  I was a little unsure of the Qor line at first, but here's a quick rundown of the colors I was able to test.
The colors are as follows, on the left the Qor line and on the right the most comparable color I had on hand.  Overall I think the Qor colors performed well and from what I can tell the quality is somewhere close to that of Winsor & Newton, but not quite M. Graham or Daniel Smith.

Qor Cobalt Teal VS Winsor & Newton Cobalt Turquoise Light.  These colors are virtually the same and come from the same single pigment PG50.  The both have about the same amount of pigment in the paint as far as I can tell.  In this case just buy whichever is on the best sale.  They're both quite lightfast, though according to Qor's website most of their line doesn't seem to have been tested yet.  Winner: Tie

Qor Dioxazine Purple VS Grumbacher Violet (Thalo Purple).  Dioxazine Purple is known to use a somewhat lightfast pigment PG23, but it isn't perfect.  Personally I wouldn't buy this pigment though it's lovely looking.  The Grumbacher Violet is slightly more lightfast, but only by a little bit using PV19 & PB15, though it can get a similar look when the ratio of paint to water is increased.  In terms of pigment for your dollar Qor is better, but Grumbacher wins for lightfastness despite being a more watered down student quality paint.  Winner: Grumbacher

Qor Quinicridone Magenta VS Grumbacher Carmine Hue.  Quinicridone (PR122) will be joining my palette soon because it reminds me a lot of the Cotman Mauve I used to love, but sadly found out was less lightfast than my standards would allow.  The Magenta is a solid shade that's slightly more cool in tone than the Carmine hue (PV19 & PV19, unsure why it's listed this way on the tube, different sources perhaps?) I compared it to.  The Magenta is also slightly more lightfast, so if mixed with Cotman's Raw Sienna it will likely be used in the future as my go-to combination for lighter skintones. Winner: Qor

Qor Transparent Pyrrole Orange VS Grumbacher Alizarin Orange.  In looks the Pyrrole is stunning, the color pops off the page, and while the Alizarin (PY65, PY150 & PR209) comes close it's not quite as intense.  Both are less lightfast colors, the Qor (PO71) slightly more so, which means I probably won't use either one often if I can help it.  However, for a project that will be used from photographs or a short term use the Pyrrole would be a great choice.  Winner: Tie

Qor Quinacridone Gold VS Cotman Raw Sienna.  Both of these colors are fantastic to work with, really it comes down to which effect you prefer from what I can tell.  Qor seems to be less lightfast (PO48 & PY150, this in the only color that's been tested so far of those I sampled), but when I checked the pigment information it seemed a very stable color.  Raw Sienna (PR101 & PY42) would give the same overall color, but with stronger effects at the edges and paler center sections in each stroke.  Winner: Tie

Qor Green Gold VS Grumbacher Thalo Yellow Green.  These colors are visually the most different pairing I had during my tests, so apologies there.  I found the Green Gold a great new choice, with few easily available colors locally that could compare.  It's lightfast using PY129 whereas the Thalo shade is slightly less lightfast using PG36 & PY3.  The Green Gold is a rich shade, but the Thalo is much more neon, which would be suitable for some temporary projects.  Winner: Qor

Please note I tried not to go too far into the details of how lightfastness is rated because many brands use different scales.  I prefer not to confuse anyone, so I have simply used comparatives to illustrate my meaning in this article.  I find lightfastness to be of considerable importance when selecting materials to work with, and at this point try to stick to only the highest rated colors if at all possible.  A couple of years ago I bought the book "The Artist's Guide to Selecting Colors" by Michael Wilcox, which is how I began to change my colors, and more recently this fantastic website as well.  The website has some more recent additions, though I occasionally come across colors that neither has a record of, in which case I check the manufacturer's site, Google search, or avoid using the color if I can't find out the rating.  It sounds strict and occasionally I do wish there were more shades of purple to use, but I know it will pay off years down the road when my grandchildren are able to see my art with colors as intense as they were when I painted each piece.

Thanks for reading, next time I'll be writing more about some of my travel adventures.

Love,
Lydia

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Day 79

Hi everyone,

Today is the photo post I promised!  So, between all the ice and stormy weather we've had I've been working away.  First up a quick glance at the view of the latest ice storm from my studio window.

The biggest project that I've been working on in the past week is creating an art book.  The idea for it was sparked by a video series call The Art Assignment, which is put together by John Green (yes the author and YouTube guy) and PBS.  Episode 3 is what mine is based on (you can check it out Here on YouTube), and it's called Intimate, Indispensable GIF.  The premise, in short, is to focus on something that is at the core of who you are and indispensable to you.  For myself I decided that was essentially memories.  So I'm looking at my own experiences, connections, and relationships in a handmade book.  I took step by step photos of the process:
The folded piece is a simple cardstock sheet that makes the interior pages of the book.  Because it folds out rather than having turning pages the images expand beyond the space of their containment the more you open it.  From there I measured the folded up page size and cut thicker matte board slightly larger (1/8 in on each side) to create the framework of the cover.  The the outer covering is cut 3/4 in larger on each side with 1/8 in between the spine and front/back cover boards.  I got the instructions for creating this from Bookworks by Sue Doggett.
Next I made some wheat flour paste by mixing 1 cup water and 1 rounded tablespoon wheat flour, and heating it (you can make it in the microwave using 30 second increments, stirring inbetween each).  I then cut darts in the corners of the cover paper and pasted it down.  Then I measured the inside dimensions and cut an inner lining paper 1/8 in smaller than the cover as shown and used the paste to add it to the inside cover.  As I was working on each section of this I was also working on the various pages of the book.
Here are a couple on in progress shots.  Note the empty top corner of the lefthand set of pages, for reference of which page will be pasted to the book.
 Here are the completed components right before I assembled them with the paste.  Once I had them pasted together the entire book was placed closed under some heave books as shown below.  (One of the great uses for textbooks after college!)

Tomorrow I'll be taking photos of the finished book to create the GIF from.  The process of opening and showing each page of the book should make a great little animation.

Now for a couple other pieces I've mentioned being in process, but haven't shown:
This is the piece I've been working on for Healing Ceilings, a group that encourages making art on ceiling tiles so cancer patients here in Raleigh have something other than blank ceilings during treatments.  I have a second tile, but there's no paint on it yet so it doesn't photograph very well.  This piece still has a Celtic knotwork border to be added along with the roots and background sections.
This canvas is a household project I started to cover a particularly ugly fusebox adorning our hallway.  It's essentially an under painting that I'll be applying collage elements and other details to.

Beyond all that there's the Bianca piece, a half dozen tiny collages, the seashell still life, and some other solid colored under paintings I've prepped for collages.  All the ones that are worthwhile have been shown.  I anticipate having a couple finished pieces to share next week.

So, lots of things coming along and tons to look forward to over the next few weeks.  Thanks for reading!

Love, Lydia


Thursday, February 6, 2014

Days 32-36

Hello dear readers,

Over the past few days I've been hard at work promoting my Kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lydiadickson/art-for-all-year-2014  Any help spreading the word and getting pledges in would be fantastic!  Things are close to the end, but haven't progressed too far.  However, as I said in an earlier post I'm not giving up hope on accomplishing my goal of creating at least one piece per week.  It will just be a harder later in the year if I end up getting another job to go with it.

In any case I've got lots of works in progress, the character portrait, which is to be titled "Bianca" is progressing nicely.  And I'm also working on a couple of other projects, but I'm keeping them under wraps at the moment.  Once I get done with the Kickstarter I'll probably be able to mention more.  I feel like I'm being very secretive this past week, and I'm kind of sorry, but most of it is just having a lot to do, and being more of a private person in general.  I do have things to share with you all, they just don't always flow out of me steadily.  Also, sometimes my life is a bit boring.  I keep busy making stuff, and do housewife stuff.  (All the while planning crazy trips to new places and scheming to make things happen which may or may not ever pan out)  At least I dream big!

So, going on to the next topic.   I was thinking earlier today and wondering what music people favor when they're working on creative projects.  I'd love to hear from you all about particular songs or albums that you've found helpful or inspiring.  I'm always looking for more new music and have found that lately I'm listening to a lot of the same thing.  I have a lot of music, but am looking for some new perspective too.  So please hit me with your best shots!  As for me, lately I've found Fleet Foxes album Helplessness Blues to be pretty inspiring and I'm starting to get into the latest Avett Brothers album as well.  They're rather similar in feel, so they don't cover all the moods I need music for while working, but are good for many occasions.

Beyond my creative work I've also been working on health plans and such to keep up with my goals there.  I've been keeping track of my food intake and monitoring it to see how it compares to what my ideals are....and was surprised to find I'm not quite as great at estimating everything I'm doing.  Some days I'm great, but other days I don't realize at all!  So I'll be keeping up with tracking things for a while longer until I see more permanent changes in my habits and choices.  I'm trying to keep things vague here because I don't like talking about numbers, it gets to being very specific to an individual person and I don't want to make anyone's ideas any worse than our society is already making them.  I'm also keeping up with exercises, between dance games on the Wii, yoga, walking, and doing a challenge focused on squats.  The biggest thing I'm looking for is getting more energy and feeling better.  Over the past couple years I've had a very noticeable dip in my energy levels, which is partially due to some thyroid issues, but something I want to overcome if possible.

Sorry I'm all talk and no pictures this time, but I want to hear back from you all.  Let me know what you think, I want to get some conversation going!

Love, Lydia

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Days 28-31

Hey folks,

Well, this has been a crazy week!  We got about 3 inches of snow Tuesday night (that's crisis level for North Carolina) and Bryan stayed home from work Wednesday.  It was nice to have him at home though it definitely shook up my usual weekly schedule.  I've been working in fits and spurts as I can find the time all this week.  Thursday night, when Bryan got home from work, we ended up spending half the evening visiting our urgent care doctor and finding out that Bryan has Shingles.  He's has a rash most of this week that was bugging him and that explains why.  So we got meds and such and will hope it goes away fast; I hate seeing him uncomfortable.

Though Thursday did bring that craziness it also brought one of the loveliest sunsets I've seen in a while.  I managed to get a half decent camera phone shot for you all here:
As for Friday, I worked on a new piece and straightened up my desk.  In starting the new piece I found an unfinished watercolor that I'd forgotten about.  It's the one propped up on my desk here:
It still needs a good bit of work, but so far it's pretty solid.  It's from a still life of tiny shells I had set up back in July when we went to Myrtle Beach.  The other things in from the shell painting are various other works in progress, though it's not all of them.  I will confess that I love starting new pieces, but sometimes it's harder for me to finish them all.  It's definitely compounded by the fact that I enjoy having a variety of pieces to work on at any one time.  However, things are definitely moving along well despite any distractions from my personal life.  And I found some little plastic cups to put my pastels in, solving the organizational problem I mentioned last time.

My new painting will be a mix of watercolor with some inks and pastel.  Here's a shot with only a little color added:
It's a more figurative form of portrait that's based off a character I've created for a game.  She's a lady thief and an albino, who's convinced yellow is her lucky color.  In terms of style I've taken some inspiration from playing card designs as well as Manuscript illustrations.  I've worked a good bit with more Irish styled pieces, though this is drawing from more general medieval examples.  I still have a bit to design in the border as well, though I've got some ideas for it already.  I've been enjoying the style of work and may make several more to I get a good series going.  It's definitely the kind of piece I wouldn't mind doing commissions in!

Beyond all that the deadline for my Kickstarter is nearing.  I could use all the help I can get!  Either way 52 pieces will be made, I just like thinking I have the support so I won't be as stressed while making them.  And the idea of making 365 pieces will be sad to let go of.  If you can spread the word I'd appreciate it!  - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lydiadickson/art-for-all-year-2014

See you all Monday!

Love, Lydia

Friday, January 24, 2014

Days 22 & 23

Hello,

The past two days have been so cold here, but there was barely any snow.  Just enough that I got a few pictures from my iPhone to share.
 The rivulets of ice flowing from the roof of our porch were still frozen late into the afternoon yesterday, but they were brilliant with the sun gleaming through them.
 The leaves and hollows between grass had their own hidden caches of snow.  All the tiny, sheltered areas protected the deposits of sparkling white snow.  Even the bark set deep in the shadow of one of our pines held a bit.
Today's been even colder and I can feel the chill coming up through the floorboards in our house.  Normally I don't wear socks around the house much, but on nights like tonight I need them!

I've been working on a couple pieces, but some of the details can be so fiddly sometimes.  I'm always hesitant to show unfinished pieces if I'm not quite sure what I want to do with them next.  I have this finished collage to share though.  It's going to be titled "Dino Apocalypse Dream".
I actually started this piece quite a while ago while teaching in Maine.  I did an afternoon collage workshop and since only one boy attended (the kind who was extremely well behaved) I was able to get it started as I demoed some of the transfer techniques.  The base in this case is a nice solid piece of pine with a knot in just the right place.  I ended up using a hair dryer tonight to speed the drying of the smoke from the volcano (an experiment with Winsor & Newton watercolor texture medium) and couldn't believe how lovely the pine smell that came off the wood was.  Otherwise there are sections of ink, watercolor, wax pastels, Liquitex pouring medium, and colored pencil as well as the paper and transfered images.

Now, having had a mug of peppermint and chamomile tea I will head off to bed.  There's so much more to work on tomorrow!

Love, Lydia

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Days 16-18 Special Weekend Edition

Hi folks,

The past few days have kept me busy as Bryan and I decided to move some furniture in our living room....which turned into moving nearly all the furniture and reorganizing our book collection, plus moving a larger chair out of storage into our living room, and taking down our Christmas decorations.  Once everything is looking nice I'll put up a few pictures.  However, Thursday night I fell into bed after moving more things than I'd intended and Friday continued the trend.

Today we've been running errands and getting things done.  But this morning I photographed my latest completed painting.
While working small is fun I think on Tuesday (tomorrow and the Monday holiday I'll be busy) I'll be focus on some larger scale pieces.  This smaller scale piece in particular was more challenging for texture of the canvas alone.  It's got the Shiva casein paints as the base colors, Neocolor II wax pastels for many of the more detailed areas, plus some touches of white acrylic.  I think once I get through all the mini canvases I'll be switching to some other small format backing.  I just wish there were more small sized art boards and out there with cradled backs.  The smallest I've found is 4"x4" from Dick Blick Art Supplies, but I'd try just about anything I could find at this point.  Also, I decided to go look on Blick's site and saw these lovely panels which I would love to work on.

I've tried unfinished wood, but with the first hint of watercolor there's warping and bleeding if you aren't very very cautious.  There are just so many interesting supplies I'd love to try!

In other news, I've had my first pledge on Kickstarter!  Only 3 weeks left to the campaign.  So if you readers are interested check it out.  I appreciate any traffic I can get even if it's simply word of mouth.  Check it out http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lydiadickson/art-for-all-year-2014

Well, I'll be back on Tuesday, but until then I hope you all are having a great weekend!

Love, Lydia



Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Days 11-13

Well everyone,

My weekend did not go as planned.  haha  Just show what I get for trying to be an overachiever!  Saturday our power went out around lunchtime...right before we made lunch.  So, we hopped in the car and headed to Bryan's parents home, picking up something to eat on the way.  We played a lot of Magic the Gathering and I got my press releases written and sent out.  Since we'd reported our power outage we got a call around 8pm saying "not to expect a return of power until 6am Monday.  So, we were just a touch panicked and went home to pack up the contents of out refrigerator and pack overnight bags thinking we'd stay with Bryan's parents.  When we got back to our home the power was on and things were fine.  We returned for dinner (and to collect all the things we'd left thinking we'd be staying a while), more Magic, and some episodes of Doctor Who with Bryan's family.  (Yes my geek side will be showing up here sometimes too...it just means if you want some fun fan art or original game/tv/movie themed work I might just be your gal!)

Sunday was spent doing all the little boring things around the house we didn't do Saturday, and I really still have more to get done, though I've been working on it today.  I also completed my first piece of the year today.  It's very unlike my usual pieces, but I had a hankering to work on a self portrait for the first time in years and gave it a go.  I'm pretty pleased with the results.


This piece was created with some found paper, Neocolor II Wax pastels (some of the new ones I got for Christmas!), pencil, ink, and iridescent lavender tone acylic from Golden(on the white stripes and background area as well as the glass portion the the glasses), all on a 5"x7" oval canvas from Fredrix.  It looks like I'm going to have to go back to Askew Taylor (an absolutely fantastic local art supply store!) and pick up several more canvases like this one.

Today was the kind of day where I was having some hints of depression tugging at me, and almost just did nothing except be lazy.  However, when I started thinking about doing the self portrait, I knew it was just the right thing to do to help.  So this piece was done from start to finish in one day.  I have 10 other pieces started, but sometimes I work better if I interrupt my routine with something like this to give my emotional energy levels a jump start.  I've now got much more energy to work on a couple of the other pieces, though they'll have to wait a bit til I'm done here and with a few other projects online.

This piece is going to go up in my Etsy shop ASAP, and hopefully I'll have some more newly completed pieces for tomorrow as well.  Remember, my Kickstarter is up and going HERE and if I'm unable reach at least my minimum goal I may be retiring from art for quite some time, which I really don't want to have happen.  The thought scares me and is half the reason I deal with depression these days to be honest.

So, lots of brutal honesty here today.  Hopefully not too much for you all.  I look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings and am glad I get to share it with you for at least a little while longer.

Love, Lydia