What are you working on?

[Triduana]

I'm working on an artist's statement to go with a submission for an exhibition next year. These things always take me ages. Thankfully, this one doesn't need to be written in third person.

I'm also getting re-acquainted with my paints. It's so long since I used them, I'd forgotten what some of them are.

 

[Jane]

Ha! I went WAAAYYY back into the archives for this thread.

So. I decided I didn’t want to stretch large canvases anymore. It’s too hard. I (simply!) bought some 18x24 flimsy, little pre-made canvases and then....I painted them with beige latex house paint and then....scanned old family photos and enlarged them and added a sketch filter and then...used white acrylic and a mechanical pencil to sharpen the image after I printed it out and then...put a whole jar of crackle medium onto the canvas surface leaving a 1” border and then...took a picture of the drawing and projected it onto the canvas.

View attachment 404

That’s where I am now. It’s “interesting” painting with oils on top of crackle and yes, I know it’s for acrylics. I think. Doesn’t matter. It makes for a very dry and matte and quick-drying finish. I’m not sure what a fresco painting involves, but maybe this comes close? Maybe not.
View attachment 405

It’s funny that during all these years of doing figures, I’ve only done two realistic paintings of people in my life and both were failures. (And so, she tries again.) I’m actually not trying to capture a likeness; I just liked the composition and colors. This is the first of three. I don’t know the year or place but I do know the people...Paul, Bernice, Vinnie, Rita, and Gene. Connie took the picture. She did a good job, I think. B is wearing a magenta shirt, R has on orange pants and a yellow and pink striped top, V’s dots are red, P is wearing blue jeans and unfortunately, G’s bland outfit blends into the pale yellow wall. Might have to jazz him up...

Only P is still alive.
Dead Relations.

These would make great gifts.

 

[Jane]

This is fantastic Olive. I love it!

I have a painting where I purposely put some acrylic over the oil to get a crackle effect and it worked well, but I had to "fix"(varnish) it after in case any of the crackle bits might fall off. I don't know if that "fixes" anything, but so far so good.

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From now on, I would go this route (what you did in the first place) where I'd make the underneath the crackle and put the oil over the acrylic. That would be a more efficient way of doing it to be safe. Oil on acrylic=okay. The other way around=not okay.

So bold. Like this.

 

[Artyczar]

I haven't seen Olive in a while. I wish she'd make a new appearance.

 

[Artyczar]

I'm working on an artist's statement to go with a submission for an exhibition next year. These things always take me ages. Thankfully, this one doesn't need to be written in third person.

I'm also getting re-acquainted with my paints. It's so long since I used them, I'd forgotten what some of them are.

These things also take me forever. Even when they are short! In fact, sometimes that is much more challenging because you have to be strategic in finding the perfect words to describe what your intent is for creating the art that you're doing so others can comprehend it all. How is it coming along for you?

I tend to revamp my statement even so often, and of course need different ones for different purposes. Statements are usually written in the first person, while bios are written in the third. I prefer statements as they seem more authentic. I usually get help on my bios from others.

 

[Jane]

I haven't been feeling great, so instead of making much art, I've been doing a good deal of writing about art. I'm working on a few things: a project proposal for an artist's residency in upstate New York, some text on the concept/theme for my next solo show in 2022, and pieces of a printed book I'm working on about my sketchbook technique called the "Eye-book." I had been considering making a class for this, but then decided on publishing a book about it instead. I'm too camera shy to do a video class. A lot of people have been asking me over the years about how to do it, so I figured a book about it would possibly be interesting. I'm trying to get the original inventor of it to write the introduction for it.

Other than that, I've hardly even touched a pencil to a piece of paper. I feel burned out.

Sorry to hear your feeling burned out. would love to see the eye-book sounds interesting and happy to hear your working on a solo show. It seems that would be a lot of work. doing one of those would stress me out. Lately I find it difficult just to get a few pieces together for a group show,

 

[Jane]

Well that pic of the ship (Cutty Sark) I posted early in the "next sketch" thread was from the Holiday Book. I think you put a like on it I'll try to remember to scan a couple of the recent ones sometime today. I guess they'd most appropriately go in Mixed Media and/or Journaling & Sketchbooks

Like your idea of a holiday book. how many heads are you up to now?

 

[Artyczar]

Jane, I've had a hard time finding the time to work. I've been so busy with other things lately. I've only been able to do the one larger watercolor so far. I have plans for another and some oil paintings. I just have to get to them. I also prefer not to do group shows much anymore because I have to focus on solo shows every couple of years and since I don't work very often, and slowly, I have to get a good sized body of work together.

Eventually I'll get the Eye Book thing together. Luckily those art pieces are already "done."

Thanks for your response about this!

 

[drizzlewither]

Like your idea of a holiday book. how many heads are you up to now?

35/100. Had hoped to be further along by this point but at least one head is getting drawn each day as long as I'm at home with access to my stuff. Also doing a little bit of extracurricular figure/anatomy study every ten heads. I've got several DeviantART stock accounts bookmarked for source photos.

Sharpening pencils is THE WORST.

 

[Triduana]

Thanks @Artyczar . I haven't really got that far with it yet, but as long as I get it done in the next week I'll be happy. I need my statement and then another paragraph about my design and how I came up with it (I find this a bit easier). I haven't done many statements before, but I alway have trouble writing/talking about myself so these things always take me longer than they should, even if it's just a few lines. What I really need to do is just write one that I can save and alter when I need to.

 

[drizzlewither]

Getting itchy about sequential art right now. I used to do fan-comics for videogames (Sonic the Hedgehog!!!), this is going back a long way, kid stuff. Drawn digitally or inked with pen (poorly) and scanned in to color with definitely-not-stolen Photoshop. Suddenly I miss it. The fun of laying out a page and panels and figuring out what to draw in each one to make the story come alive.

I wonder...

 

[Artyczar]

drizzle, that sounds ambitious, yet really cool. Intriguing. I want to see!

 

[Marksmomagain]

I just had to have four of my beautiful trees removed... They aged out and all have had bad breaks and were dangerous to mow and live around, but still... I've been here since I was a teenager (my Dad originally bought the place). I had the stumps ground and now I've filled and covered the sites. By end of next summer, it will look like they were never even there... it makes me sad, time goes by so fast, those trees were family. They were a significant part of our family events and history.

I have lots of pics taken over many years of my trees. I'm working on a series of drawings and paintings of them.

 

[Hostajunkie]

I’m in one peak of my willow harvest season! I got 1/4 of my plot harvested the other day and I’ve been making some fresh willow wreaths.

 

[Hostajunkie]

Artyczar, I just stumbled onto this thread going backwards and see you’re applying for an artist residency in upstate NY. Can I ask where? It may be my neck of the woods.

eta: I’m wondering if it’s at RACC, the Horned Dorset, or some other place I know. If you get the residency, we can meet up!

 

[Artyczar]

Artyczar, I just stumbled onto this thread going backwards and see you’re applying for an artist residency in upstate NY. Can I ask where? It may be my neck of the woods.

eta: I’m wondering if it’s at RACC, the Horned Dorset, or some other place I know. If you get the residency, we can meet up!

Hi Hosta. I would love to meet up in Saratoga Springs IF I get the residency and IF you live somewhere nearby there??? The place is called Yaddo, and it's really really hard to get in. I've applied multiple times and have only ever gotten on their waiting list one time. Obviously didn't get called for that, but I haven't applied since I got that "Congratulations!" letter that didn't lead anywhere.

It's a pretty prestigious place. This is honestly one of the reasons I've been applying. A lot of artists that get in go on to do great things in their careers. Mine is in a slump at the moment.

 

[Artyczar]

@Marksmomagain, I'm so sorry to hear about your trees. I know this feeling well. Not as bad, but once I told my gardeners to trim our big Brazilian Pepper tree in the last place we lived for 10-11 years. I came back from lunch and it was practically a stump and I cried my eyes out.

 

[Hostajunkie]

Artyczar, that sounds cool -- good luck with it! Saratoga Springs is about a 2.5 hr drive from me, so we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Triduana]

I'm working on an artist's statement to go with a submission for an exhibition next year.

I finally got it sent off today. The writing didn't really take that long in the end; resizing my files to send off took over an hour

I'm working on the composition now for a new idea I had last night. It's totally random so I need to do it straight away or I'll go off the idea

 

[Artyczar]

Congrats on getting that finished Kay. I hope they include you in the exhibition! Keep us posted.