Roz Wound Up

Fun with Ephemera

Above: a journal spread which uses prepainted pages, found text, and ends with pen and ink and gouache. Read more about the process below. Journal page approximately 8 inches square. Click the image for an enlargement.

It’s the weekend, and after a few days of longer posts I’m keeping this weekend’s posts short. Make stuff; fill journal pages. I hope you’ll do that this weekend.

Here are a couple of steps you can play with:

Aqua Brique from Cretacolor

Left: Painting of a pelican made using using Cretacolor Aqua Briques on gesso-coated paper. This image is cropped from an 11 x 14 inch image. As often happens with my paintings I don't like the full image. I'm interested in something closer. The height here is about 11 inches. I prepared watercolor paper with two coats of gesso, allowing my brush strokes to show (this creates interesting texture when paint is applied later) and then sketched (with light graphite) a pelican taxidermy specimen that was hanging from the ceiling of the Mississippi Wildlife Refuge building. (That's not really fun for the neck.) Color was added with strokes of the Aqua Briques which were blended with a large synthetic watercolor brush and water and sometime my thumb (see yellow portion at top left of bird's head). Click the image to view an enlargement.

In the summer of 2006 I picked up a 10-color can of a new product: Cretacolor Aqua Briques. I enjoy experimentation, especially when I can report back to students and friends and maybe help them find a tool they can really enjoy. But I am also always looking for a way to get the texture I want in  my paintings.

For several years I wrote product reviews on a Yahoo list that I had for friends and past students. I stopped keeping this list when I started blogging in 2008. Since that time a number of new students in my classes, as well as readers of my blog, have asked me about Aqua Briques.

This interest and the fact that there many artists who like to draw and paint led me to think readers of this blog would enjoy hearing about my field tests of a tool that functions both ways. What follows is a revised version of my original review.

Some Thoughts on Doctors and Education and Timelines

Above: Staedtler Pigment Liner sketch of Stella, a friend’s dog from fall 2007. Shown here to reinforce yesterday’s topic of “warm-ups,” so you can see two drawings. (Note Stella has a lovely Marilyn Monroe mole on her nose.) But also posted today because dog sketches are like comfort food for me. If I had a dog currently, I would be sketching it right now! Click the image to view an enlargement.

Today I spent over two hours driving around in the quickly falling 4 inches of new snow that hit Minneapolis (maybe more by the time it’s finished?). I’m not complaining (much). As days go mine was simple and direct, if disappointing. Nothing like my friend who had a tooth removed and jaw rebuilt!

Warm Ups

Left: First of three sketches of the same subject shown here to emphasize the benefits of warming up. See below for a second version, a detail from the second version, and a third version. Click on the image for an enlargement.

Today was an interesting adventure without cable access. I forget how dependent I am on it until it dies (if only for about 5 hours). For awhile it looked as if I wouldn’t be able to post. I wasn’t even worried about that until a friend I called during a break mentioned it and suggested I go to a cafe and use internet access. Something to think about for the future. (I don’t drink coffee so I don’t spend much time in such places, but it’s good to remember them. Actually I just thought of an ice cream store that has internet access. That would be a good idea.)

Time is short now, but I did want to post, and what better to post but a bit of cheerleading; a reminder to warm up and keep working. The first effort might look bad when we sit down and begin to work, but it does get better (I really like my third version, it actually is starting to look like the person!)

Define Your Terms

Above: A sketch of book parts and the terms relating to them. See the post for more details. Click on the image for an enlargment. The sketch is on Quatro 8 x 8 grid paper that comes padded from Hand Book Journal Company (I just know someone is going to wonder).

A short while ago one of my blog readers wrote in and asked if I would write about the terms I use when talking about "the book." She had been confused about my use of "Verso" and "Recto" when referring to pages. In context she'd ultimately worked it out, but she wanted more definitions. (These are simply the Latin terms for left and right applied at a time when Latin was the "universal language.")

Initially I put off the task. I thought I could handle it by pulling diagrams and discussion from my class handouts, or just writing a new post. Each time I thought about it however, the sheer magnitude of the task made me elect to write on other topics first. And so it went, until this morning when I decided that with a few quick sketches and some handwritten notes I could cover a lot of what I constantly refer to.

Two Films about Death

Over the weekend I saw two films which both deal with the topic of death. They were totally different in their approaches and both were uplifting. I recommend both of these films which, despite their subject matter are still suitable for date-night fare.

Look Both Ways
Look Both Ways is a 2005 film from director/writer Sarah Watt. "Disaster is everywhere," is the tagline for this movie and friends recommended it to me because the main character is an illustrator whose mind is always wandering off and imagining the "worst," at which point the audience is treated to an interesting animation sequence. (Hey, don't grumble, it isn't obtrusive or cloying and in no way does it slow the action.) The movie focuses on this young woman (called Meryl Lee, "as in merrily down a stream"), a photographer she meets who is dealing with his own bad news and his own style of "flash forwards," and the people surrounding them in their lives—the interconnections. The tragedy that brings them together provides a lovely running motif of grief to tie the various pieces together. The film is set in South Australia and has a great sense of place. It is funny, sad, and uplifting by turns. It is a little gem of a movie. (Watch the director's interview on the DVD.) See a trailer for this movie here.

Ghost Town
Ghost Town is a 2008 film written by David Koepp and John Kamps and directed by David Koepp who gives this simple tale a commercial gloss (which happily doesn't take away from its beauty). It stars Ricky Gervais ("The Office" [the original British series], "Extras"), Greg Kinnear and Téa Leoni, with a strong supporting cast of great character actors. Gervais plays a misanthropic dentist who because of a hospital snafu now sees dead people—and they all want his help resolving their unfinished business. How he deals with this crowd, and one particularly insistent ghost Frank (played by Kinnear) makes for heartbreaking hilarity. This movie is filled with little touches that just ache, little moments of awkwardness and tenderness brushed away with humor, embarrassment, and mumbling misinterpretation and miscommunication. The timing is so wonderful and Gervais is appealing even when pushing people away; he is able to communicate the sadness of his character.

Both of these movies don't try to make large sweeping statements. They are about the interactions of people at the most basic level, going about their lives and business, making choices. Because of the acting and writing both movies have the ability to ease right into to those soft vulnerable places of our minds, make us laugh, and make us think about our own choices. That's entertainment.

Report on the MCBA Visual Journal Collective Portrait Party

Left: Here’s a quick photo of the final book we made at the Portrait Party. Top—the inside information page and the first page of the participants list (math is not my strong point and I wrote in 26 attendees when actually there were 27!); a portrait spread (all pairs were opposite each other on a spread) showing my portrait of Lynn Fisher (left) and Lynn Fisher's portrait of me (right—she took off years and years!); Ken Avidor’s overview sketch of the party participants; a cover with the optional title label. The book is 7 1/8 wide x 8 5/8 inches tall. I used Canson Mi Tientes to make the covers (people attending only had to bring cover paper). It is a 32-page, 5-hole stitch pamphlet. Click on the image to see an enlargement. (All artwork © of the listed artists who gave me permission to post.)

Last week I wrote a brief note about the MCBA Visual Journal Collective Portrait Party held on Monday, February 16. I wanted to give a more complete report, as well as provide a visual of the book which we made.

I arrived at MCBA at about 6:10 p.m. to start setting up for the 7 p.m. meeting. With the help of Emma Allen who is the adult programs coordinator at MCBA and the co-coordinator of the Collective I got extra cover materials set out (she and I both brought extra paper as we thought people would forget), organized our workspace, and I started creating “work stations.” I came with a plan all written out in steps because I knew once we started people were going to have questions and I would need to be several places at once. Having a written plan people could read was invaluable.

Journaling Superstitions #1

Left: This image doesn’t have anything to do with journaling superstitions, it’s just that I’ve been doing a lot of portrait practice lately and this sketch (Pentel Pocket Brush Pen) and gouache, over a base of FW acrylic ink brush strokes (the dark Payne’s Gray you can see coming through—which were prepainted days earlier) is an example of what you might do if you want to finish up a journal: sketch portrait after portrait from 19th century photos, until you fill up the pages. (Pages in this journal are 6 x 8 so the image is 8 inches wide x 12 inches.) Click on the image to view an enlargement. (Notice how the head is too big for the body. I learn all sorts of interesting things about my measuring abilities when I work across the gutter—something I'm sure I'll write about on another day.)

Journaling superstitions, what are they? They are the little “shoulds” and “musts” that our critical, “perfectionist” brain tells us are “rules.” (Or worse, they are the comments made by experts pontificating on the "one true way" to journal.)

These “shoulds,” “musts,” and comments aren’t rules. Regard them with great suspicion. There is only one rule in journaling, as far as I am concerned, and that’s “are you doing what you need to do to speak in your voice.” (Or variations of that, like “Are you getting the job done?”)

Starting today, and on an irregular basis, I want to look at some of these superstitions that keep coming up for people in my classes, and people who write to me. Ideas that seem to be floating around in the air demanding attention. 

Playing Catch Up and Some Reminders

Art Shows You Don't Want to Miss
Richard Crammer: Into the Forest of Flowers is in its closing days. The show actually closes Sunday, February 22. Sundays are zero admission days at the Bell Museum of Natural History, so you have added incentive to go! Richard created some stunning art during his life and this is a perfect opportunity to see an overview of nature work and family portraits; works in pastel, graphite, ink, and silver point. I have been back several times to see the artwork. It is fun to remember the discussions I had with him about some of the pieces. I was fortunate to actually see Richard work on some of the pieces. Seeing them again brings all that back. Recently I visited with my friend Linda, also an artist. At one point she commented on how confident the lines were. That made me smile. There are so many areas in Richard's work where he allows things to recede, or where he leaves things unfinished. Even in their unfinished state these little details loitering around the edges of his art show great observational skill. If you are in or near the Twin Cities and love representational art with nature as its subject you really must go and see this show.

Happy Accidents

Above: A sketch of Gert, my rubber chicken puppet, who serves as my "life model" since Dottie's death. I have more to say about this 13 inch x 8 inch page spread below. Click on the image for an enlargement.

This post has been a pain to get up on my blog. Typepad went whacko today. Auto-save feature doesn't seem to want to let me do anything. It has been very frustrating. If any of this makes it to my blog I wanted to write this up front so people know I wasn't trying to post an incomplete item. Here goes again, the fifth try to get my image and words going.