Roz Wound Up

Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza

Dick [entering the TV room]: You're doing it again? You're watching another one?

Roz [pausing the TV and laughing with joy]: Yes! And I'd do it all day if there were enough episodes.

That's right, I've always loved improv. I was a fan of the British show "Whose Line is it Anyway" and continued watching when Drew Carey brought out an American version (which can still be seen on ABC Family in reruns).

Well for the past week or so I've been checking out all the episodes I can of Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza on the Game Show Network (GSN). If you get this station I suggest you check it out as well, weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. (eastern time). There are repeats at various times.

If you're one of those people who thinks TV is evil you've already stopped reading and that's fantastic, because I have nothing to say to you.

If on the other hand you love seeing creativity spring to life before your very eyes you need to see this show. In one episode I watched amazed as Ryan Styles ripped through 7 or 8 rapid fire "new choices," each one more amazing and appropriate than the last. ("New Choices" is a game where one comic/actor moderates the action of two other players by saying "new choice" whenever he wants them to do or say something different than what they just did or said.)

Each 30-minute episode is made up of several "games" that two or more of the comics/actors play; they take suggestions at various points from the audience. Chip Esten, Brad Sherwood, and Jeff Davis frequently play games where they make up songs on the spot and sing them with the help of an amazing muscian Bob Derkach. I just can't get enough of those musical games. (Bob's link is to a short promo for the show on YouTube where you can subscribe to get more videos about the show. I don't see how they are going to use YouTube at this point so I just suggest you go watch the shows.)

You can read more about Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza at Wiki, but here's the thing with comedy—you really just have to watch it. And if you thought you were quick on your toes, well here are some  people who are really tap dancing on a high wire without a net. It's simply breathtakingly wonderful. You'll feel "lighter" and more inspired all day!

New Batch of Books: Serendipity

Above: the most recent batch of books. Click on the image to view an enlargement. More about the books in the post below.

It seems months ago that I started these books. I tore the paper and made the text blocks and then they sat,ignored on a table, while other things interrupted the process. But on Friday I finished a bunch of projects—and took an 18-mile bike ride in the morning before the rain started again, so I wasn't grumpy! With all the energy I had left over I decided it was time to clean up the studio and clear off the tables. The best way to do that was to finish these books (and a bunch of other personal projects), so that's exactly what I did.

It wasn't smooth going, however. Each book was made with a different type of paper (well the two center books are the same paper) so the sizes for everything from boards to fabric to decorative paper is different. It took me awhile to cut everything down. Typically I make a lot of books of the same size at the same time to streamline the process.

But there was some serendipity and I like to enjoy and embrace that when it happens. The book on the left is actually quite stunning in person with an icy blue, shiny fabric that perfectly coordinates with the decorative paper. That paper is something I painted months and months ago. It never went with anything. I got it out and it went with the blue text paper of this book (the book is 9-7/8 x 10-1/2 inches and made with the new ice blue Stonehenge).

I didn't think I had any fabric that would go with that decorative paper and was just about to settle for a dull green when I remembered I'd purchased a small roll or two of odd fabrics also a couple months ago. I went back to where I keep bookcloth and sure enough it was hiding there, about 20 inches of this lovely icy-ness.  The book is a little larger than I like to use, but it is very thin (only 3 signatures because I got interrupted while tearing the paper and didn't take my own advice about not stopping in the middle of a tearing project—one sheet had a wrong first tear, and that means I'm just drawing on that as loose squares!

The center two books are both made with "impulse buy" paper. I was at Wet Paint after they'd received a paper shipment and Verra was cataloging and storing the paper. The Bockingford watercolor paper was sitting right on top. I hadn't tried this paper for years. I'm not a fan of cold press papers in general, but the colors are lovely, so I decided to get some. I am not recommending this paper. It was there, it was pretty, I was vulnerable. I got a sheet each of 4 colors and made a signature out of each color. The large book with the tan fabric (which has a lovely visible weave not really visible in the photo) is 8 x 9-1/2 inches and has one signature each of a cream, a pinky-peach, a light blue, and a mint green. To get that size out of the sheets I had long strips left over, which when folded with the grain yielded the small landscape book in the front: 8 x 4-9/16 inches. It is only half as thick as the sister book, because there weren't that many strips, but another bit of serendipity. I had a piece of decorative paper I'd put away thinking I'd never find anything to use it with and it matched these papers perfectly, along with a strip of blue fabric! Yippee. (The Tan fabric was also a left over piece!)

The book on the right is made with the Stonehenge Kraft (brown/tan color) paper I alerted you to awhile back. I purchased mine at Wet Paint. This book is 10 x 8 inches and has 6 signatures. I'm concerned about the Kraft paper because it cracked considerably when it was folded WITH the grain. I let a large portion of the paper rest for a couple days, hoping it would acclimatize in my studio, but it still cracked with the grain when I continued. I went ahead and made the textblock. I know I'll enjoy working on the paper, I'm just not sure at this point if I can bind more books with this paper. I'll let you know what I find out.

Now that these items are out of the way I have more cleared space. I can start making cases for another project. (I have six or seven I have to do.)

When that's done I've got a couple stacks (yes stacks!) of books that I need to read. Funny how they pile up. But I'm looking forward to sitting down, and painting in these books. Right now I'm just enjoying the clear space, the checks on my to-do list, and the delight that everything pulled together for these books in such a fun way.

I hope, if you were fortunate to have time off this weekend, that you had your own bookbinding adventure. Today, in the U. S. it would be a good day to go out to the Memorial Services held in your area and sketch the soldiers, and former soldiers: to remember all the people who made our lives possible. It's a good time to be grateful. Start in your journal and see where it goes into your life.

Meet Martin Frobisher

Above: Martin Frobisher, my new polar bear "life drawing" model. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I collect plastic toys for "still life-drawing." You'll remember that Gert, my rubber chicken puppet falls in this category. Recently I acquired another model and I'm totally smitten.

With this type of model, size really does matter. I am always looking for something that is large enough to sit away from and still see lots of detail. Hence my lust for "that doggie in the window" at Old Navy.

Polar bears have long been one of my favorite animals to sketch. When my parents lived in St. Louis, Missouri, I went so often to sketch the polar bears at the zoo that the staff recognized me even after the long gaps when I was off to school.

In France I found Lewis and Clark. (You can see them in the "plastic toys" link in this post.) I've been thrilled to have them. But now I have Martin Frobisher. He is a mammoth (in toy size) 10.5 inches long and about 4.75 inches tall at his tallest point. I think he was a "Safari" toy (I can't locate an imprint on his body), but the tag wasn't saved. (He cost about $15.00, where I found him at Michael's.)

I've only done a couple quick brush sketches of him up to this point. (I'm switching eyeglass prescriptions at present and there is an adjustment phase for me.) I look forward to books full of his handsome face. I'm confident you'll be seeing him on journal pages. I thought he warranted an introduction.

Thinking about Painting Sheep

Left: A journal page of sketches of one of the sheep I saw at the recent Shepherd's Festival. This is from a journal I made using Nideggen. It's approximately 7 x 10 inches. I used Staedtler Pigment Liner and Schmincke gouache. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I am way behind in scanning pages from my journal. This is a good thing because it means that I'm getting a lot of sketching done. It's a bad thing in the sense that I'm also behind in posting "current events." On May 7, 2011 I went to sketch out at the Shepherd's Festival (it has longer title but frankly I have no patience for typing it) in Lake Elmo. I was joined during the day by 7 other sketchers and it was fun to chat and see some work get done!

I thought I would take a short moment to talk about why I make all these pages and pages of sketches, most of which no one else ever sees!

First it's simply too fun not too. I mean, really, look at the lovely ewe on the journal page, those adorable eyes, the elegant ears. She was putting out wool like there was no tomorrow for the weaver who owned her!

So it's fun.

But also I'm always sketching because I never know when someone will ask me to sketch something for them and actually pay me! Practice becomes essential, but also, having your own reference material is essential.

When you draw something from life you see things that you wouldn't normally see, even if the light is poor as it was in the bar on this day.

You see the way the skin folds, you see the way the muscles flex beneath the skin. How the fur grows—the direction, the quality of thickness or brilliancy or curl—you see it all, in a way that you can't see in a photo (unless you are one of 4 superb photographers I know taking the photographs). There is also movement that happens and gets absorbed by you when you observe. And you see nuances in color that are essential for the understanding of the animal.

So second, I draw because I need the information.

If you are going to take your own photos during a sketching trip recommend that you always sketch first and take photos afterward. Your time will probably be limited and it's more important to spend the bulk of your time really looking and absorbing the details from life. If you run out of time it's better to shortchange photo time.

When I am out at events like this I also have a small (small) camera with me. On this day I took a couple photos after sketching the animal. There wasn't enough light (you don't want to use flash to startle the animal) to get much detail, and the photos are a bit blurry because of the movement. They are, however, sufficiently good, when coupled with my on-site sketches, to allow me to create a portrait or painting of this animal.

When I decide that I want to paint an animal I go and sketch it from life as I've done here. Then I come back to the studio and using my sketches and any photos I took while on site, I start to do studies and thumbnail sketches. The second image in this post is one of those studies. You can read about it in the caption.

Left: Photo (because the 9 x 12 inch book is too large for me to scan) of a study of a sheep's head. I sketched this head using my journal sketches and a on-site photo that I put up on my computer screen. I used a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and then painted over the ink lines with gouache. Because I had sketched from life earlier I could include the white eye lashes which were not visible on the photo. Also I had notes about the eye which I could then use to capture it in detail. The photo showed only a solid darkness. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Studies help me decide the scale I want to work in, the detail, the media, the surface, the many things that go into making a final decision about how you want the painting to be.

At the same time I do studies I also do thumbnail sketches. I don't have any of those to show you for this sheep because I haven't decided if I want to paint her or not. How I want to portray her hasn't popped into my mind yet: portrait only, full body in a scene, etc. Until I have a sense of that I won't paint her. This study was actually an enormous thumbnail sketch, to see if I liked the cropping and to judge what I would do with detail. And it also served as a trial run to see whether or not I liked working with a looser approach.

Thumbnail sketches are small sketches that are used to plan out a painting. Typically they are smaller than 2 x 3 inches, but every artist has his own approach. They are useful for working out a value scheme, notan, and composition.

You can see how I turn a thumbnail sketch into a painting here with Day 29 of my bird a day painting project. Use the link on that page to toggle back and forth between the thumbnail I referred to when painting and the painting. Another fun transformation can be seen in Day 20's bird (again use the link on that page to toggle between the life-drawing sketch I made on-site at the Minnesota State Fair, and the painting it became). The two paintings referenced in this paragraph are actually from the same journal card, depicting the same bird. It shows how you can utilize your sketches as reference material  for totally different results. (You can see the 30 Birds in 30 Days Show installed here.)

Left: a detail of the ewe's eye so that you can see I'm playing with dry brush on this textured paper, to create my shading. During this process I'm deciding how I want to handle paint, what type of paint, and what colors I want to use. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do about this ewe. I do know that I want to go large—perhaps because the art supply store as a sale on really, really large canvases right now? Or just because it would be fun.

I don't know when I'll have time to pursue this, however, now that I have sketched from life and done a study, I have a sense of the direction I want to go. If you could observe me in my spare time you would probably see me fiddling with thumbnail sketches. Then it will be time to go get one of those canvases. We'll see. I think I'm going to go do some thumbnail sketches right now.

Roz Receives a Thank-You Button

Left: Front of a thank-you card I received from Eric for the Easter basket I gave him. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Artwork ©2011 Eric E.

Blog readers in April may remember How a Pantheist Packs an Easter Basket.

Well I had heard right away that Eric loved the basket of stuff, but last week I received this wonderful thank you card. The front of the card is the first image in this post.

In the second image, which is the interior of the card, we can see that Eric used one of the buttons in the set I gave him to make a button for ME!

Look closely at how Eric makes his "z." He isn't writing "s" because we can see in the interior of the card (second image) how he writes "s" in his note. I love seeing how children learn letters and spelling. You actually get to see the brain forming. This is a very, very verbal child (he talks beyond a junior high level and some of his questions could be Ph.D thesis topics!).

Left: The interior of the card, including the button. Notice the rounded shape of the letter "s" each time it's used. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Artwork ©2011 Eric E.

Now look closely at the two sketches he made of me. Let's ignore the wonderful way he draws arms and fingers. It makes a person look like a bird (of which of course I would approve). Look closer.

Eric drew my braids! How marvelous is that!

You can bet I'm going to be wearing this button!

A New Fountain Pen from Tachikawa: Linemarker A.T

Above: The tip of the new Tachikawa Linemarker A.T, 03 nib. The metal part of the nib is approximately 3/8 inch long. The full pen is standard length for such things, being a long, non-tapered cylinder, slightly less thick than the barrel of the Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Brush Pen, and also slightly less long. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

UPDATE NOTICE:
Since writing this post I have had time to work more extensively with this pen. My additional comments on the Tachikawa Linemarker A.T. can be found here. I encourage you to read that post when you are finished here.

Last Thursday I stopped over at Wet Paint to meet a friend (and look around). They had just received this pen. It comes in 3 nib widths: 01, 03, and 05, from thinnest to widest respectively. It uses a cartridge.

I had to buy one and bring it home to give it a full test (they have a tester model in the store). It is not as flexible as some fountain pens I've used, but it is more flexible than the Rotring Sketch pen. You can get some variation in the line, which is always pleasant.

Left: An oversharpened image (so you can see the paper texture) from my current journal, when testing this pen. My current 6 x 8 inch journal is made from Arches Text Wove which has a slight pebbly texture to it. In addition it floats ink on the sizing a bit. (You can read about this in my post "It's Not Waterproof until It's Waterproof.") Note the edges were cropped on the scan, but they aren't important. What's important is on the left side I got "bleeding" that was slight and most of what you see is blue paint on the brush! On the right on a thinner line, where two minutes later I actually had to scrub hard to try to get it to bleed and it didn't. (Two minutes is a guestimate as I was writing notes and such and decided to test another area. Again, it's within the realm of when you might go directly to painting if you had finished a sketch and were working your way around a drawing with your brush.) In the painting of the face there were times when I could detect the slightest bit of bleeding—very, very slight. Definitely not enough to deter me from using this pen on this paper. Now I have to test other papers I typically use. I used Daniel Smith Watercolors, transparent pigments, so that any bleeding would be visible. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I haven't had a chance to do much sketching with it since I picked it up because of other duties. But I am enjoying it. It is a little more rough and stiff in feel than some of my other favorite pens, but I am looking forward to using it on a bunch of different papers—so my mind is still not made up.

I can't tell you if the ink is lightfast or not. I can however tell you that when I tested the ink on Arches Text Wove which causes all inks to float a little bit for a little while, I could watercolor over the pen lines, almost immediately, with only a very slight bit of bleeding (that some folks wouldn't notice) or none at all (depending on how thick the lines I had laid down were). So this is definitely a pen that I will be carrying around with me to test in other situations and on other papers.

Wet Paint was going to offer their stock for sale at last weekend's comics event. I would call before you stop by to pick one up.

While I don't know how each of you draws or bears down on a pen I will offer this suggestion: If you are only going to get one I would go with the 05. I tested the 03 and found that you can press lightly to get a thinner line, and then regular strength to get a full line, and harder to get a bit of flex for an even darker line. The difference between each of those lines isn't obviously great—I'm betting that if I have the thicker nib I can easily get a thicker line of that nib's "natural inclination" and then finesse thinner lines out of it, because that's how I spend my life, trying to finesse things (or so it seems, and I'm not complaining, I'm just saying). I'm picking up an 05 that I put on hold after my first test. I wouldn't get the 01 unless you work on really smooth, plate paper.

I'll keep you posted on future tests, but I wanted you to know about this so you could look into it for yourselves.

Additional Details: A $20 price tag per size pen; cartridge packs are about $9 for 6 cartridges. The pen comes with two cartridges that can both ride in the barrel of the pen.

The Best Laid Plans…

Left: The Breakfast Nook in June 2010. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I was going through my files and setting up posts for this week. I came upon this photo—the Breakfast Nook last summer. The wall had been torn up for 5 years and we pushed to finally get it done before we had house guests in April or May (I don't recall the exact dates) of 2010.

I also remember that last year when we had a little dachshund bitch come and stay for 38 hours (I would have liked her to stay for longer, but that was the extent of the "loan," though I did train her to potty on command! And I do this in the kindest of ways, with observation, repetition of the magic word, and some well-timed treats) we had to put a piece of foamcore in the heat register (by the bicycle's front tire) so she wouldn't slip down into the duct work. (The original register cover had been lost during the 5 years we were working on this project!)

It looks nothing like this now. (And I think this looks pretty good!) We ended up finishing just before our spring 2010 houseguests arrived, but only 30 hours before their arrival. I didn't think we should paint the walls and make them put up with the paint smell during their visit.

Then there never seemed to be time to paint. And of course in the summer one always wants to be riding one's bike.

I could choose to be upset that we are going on 6 years of no kitchen table space, no access to the perforator (that's what's under the sheet), and no place to make paste paper (I make it on the table in the Nook, and set the paper wetting tray in the center of the kitchen floor).

Instead I'm happy to report I have an exceedingly low blood pressure and no stress about this at all (though I am running low on paste paper!). During the winter we had an ice dam and the roof sprung a leak. At first Dick didn't believe me, but the Nose is ALWAYS right. The leak is clearly visible above the top left window if you were to look at the Breakfast Nook today.

Now I'm glad that I didn't take the time to paint, and spent the summer on my bike. We have to have the roof fixed and now we don't have to "re-paint."

There's no point to today's post, no art point. I just find it incredibly humorous. And fortuitous. Wait, here's the point, both art and life—choosing to not let the mess bother you can give you time to make a lot more art. It isn't for everyone, but it works for me. My blood pressure is, as I said, very low, and not all of that is due to the miles logged on the bike last summer. I choose painting—not walls, but paper!

Project Journal Infiltration Update

Left: Project Journal Infiltration page from artist Mark Odegard. Click on the image to view an enlargement. Artwork ©2010 Mark Odegard.

I need to catch up in posting for Project Journal Infiltration! I'm excited that sketches continue to come in. (PJI last through Labor Day and you can read all about it under "Pages" in the left column.)

Today I have two new entries. The first, from artist Mark Odegard is from our Minnesota Journal Project 2000 Ten-year Reunion in November 2010. It's me. (I was so busy talking I didn't even realize he was sketching—stealth sketching, the best kind of sketching out.) (Note: the link I have to Mark's website is not working so I will look into that and update this post ASAP. Please check back, because you really do want to see Mark's journals!)

Also I have infiltrated Miss T's journal. (She unfortunately doesn't have a website to which I can link.)

Right: Miss T captures me sketching, artwork ©2011 Miss T. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

Miss T attended the May 7, 2011 sketch out at the Shepherd's Festival (OK, it has a way longer title than that, but I can't remember it), in Lake Elmo. She was working on pre-painted journal cards that I think were about 7 x 7 inches. I was standing in the barn sketching sheep when she caught me, also exactly. (That's a polar fleece earband—I wear these until it's over 60 degrees Fahrenheit.)

All I can say is this is shaping up to be a really, really good project!

Thank you to both Mark and Miss T, and to the other artists who have been participating. If I haven't infiltrated your journal yet (and you live in the Twin Cities and can catch me live), watch out for me at the MCBA Visual Journal Collective Meetings and of course the Minnesota State Fair.

Artist Highlights for Art-A-Whirl 2011

Three of my favorite Minneapolis-based artists are involved in Art-A-Whirl this weekend. Check out the times and locations and go and check out their work!

Saturday ONLY, May 21, 2011

Linda Koutsky will be selling some of her found-object jewelry incorporating Minnesota rocks and leaves.

Dean Koutsky will be selling paintings from his Coffee Shop series.

This father-daughter dynamic-art-duo will be in the Atrium of the Grain Belt Bottling Plant, 79 Thirteenth Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413. Their schedule wasn't fixed at this writing. Look for them when you visit other artists at this location between noon and 8 p.m.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 20 through May 22, 2011

Marcia McEachron is having an open studio this weekend during Art-A-Whirl.

Her studio is located in #108 of the California Building (2526 California St. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418)

Her hours during this event will be:

Friday 5 to 9 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday noon to 5 p.m.

Marcia  will be selling new sculptures, wire sculptures, garden art, doorknockers, drawings, and watercolors.

 

International Fake Journal Month Ends for Me Today

If you are interested in what I did for art in April 2011 please stop by The Official International Fake Journal Blog today to see a video flip-through of my 2011 fake journal

Due to a unforeseen time crunch, I was unable to post my written wrap up at the same time as promised. Please check back there on Saturday for my summary of my experience of this year's celebration of International Fake Journal Month.

If you participated this year I want to thank you again for doing so, whether or not you shared your journal publically. I hope that you will join me again in March 2011 at that blog, to prepare for April 2012!

And if you haven't participated in IFJM before, think about all the fun you're missing and consider joining in next year.

Life's so short, why live only one?