life drawing.... {ghost image}

went to life drawing last night..... i used pencil and pastels for one of my longer positioned first image.

this ghost image is the happy accident that resulted when i drew on the back side and the pastels transferring to the next page. this is probably my best work of the night. lol....

this is how i always feel when i go to life drawing; although last night was a smaller group so not quite as intimidating. what i have to remind myself is not to judge myself while i am there.

especially after looking at everyone's else work.....they like to do that- you know, leave their best drawing out for others to enjoy. 

just so you all know- i normally really like my work the next day.

happy friday.

xo. kristin

when the table drawing is good. love restaurants with crayons.

• thankful for the time with family
• happy for the return of college kids with good stories
• totally enjoyed the conversations
• good food and drink

happy monday. 

xo. kristin

she {drawn}

wednesday....last wednesday of july.

summer almost over. school will resume.

change.

except this is a larger shift. on many fronts.

empty nesters.

new possibilities.

happy wednesday.

xo. kristin

nude {drawing}

ventured into the big city to meet my mom and go to drawing last night at augustana university. there is something about being in a classroom setting and using the wooden seat and drawing your model. 

the pic above is one that my mom and i shared. we each had drawn ours and then, part way through we traded to paint on each others. a joint effort if you will....

and this last one, is all mine. i have gone to drawing in the past and quickly learned to not judge {myself} while at drawing. the artist to my right worked in pastels and of course, managed to capture all of the soft loveliness of our model in beautiful shades of neutral. of course.

i know my limitations and chose to work to the top of my abilities. and those are line, simplicity and color. i don't want to be a photo realist. 

i am a mixed media, abstract artist. 

amen.

tgif. happy friday- happy st paddy's day. 

xxxooo. kristin

ps- i have a poll up about prints or no- prints in the upper right hand corner....please take an extra moment and let me know what you think. thank you!!

charcoal love with a latte

my mom was able to come over for some studio time on saturday afternoon and told me she was bringing along some charcoal and lattes. i was thinking, "sweet! i love lattes!" little did i know that we were not going to drink the lattes.....we were going to paint with the lattes. and if you know us at all- we have done weirder things...

we decided to head outside for the painting portion of our play; and thank goodness, because we painted, splattered, and threw latte at our drawings (and it does get a bit sticky).

we started by drawing with charcoal on watercolor paper. my mom had various hardness of charcoal available to draw with. i had a couple of other options for us which included stabilo pencils.

my mom had a wonderful size watercolor pad that we shared for our first attempt. below was our first attempts.

we did discover that the harder the charcoal, the more it really "sat" on the paper and almost refused to move; so if you wanted some movement, you needed to incorporate some softer charcoal.

*our disclaimer...some of these drawings were better others :)....but, we did have a great time

happy labor day!

29 faces challenge 2014: day 15 & 16

 i am still playing along- and i have to admit....i am proud that i have stuck with this. this challenge is difficult for me because, i would say that i do not "draw" well and that faces are hard for me. but, as long as i am playing my way- which is a little off the beaten course....life is good.

on saturday i played with my gelli plate- cutting out shapes and printing, rolling off my brayer, cutting some more shapes, and more printing.....seriously love my gelli plate. i used this art journal to print in to prepare pages for the next few days.

my drawing below, i used a water blendable charcoal, white ink and a sharpie over my gelli printed back ground.

a woman with a plan....

i was a woman with a plan- and it actually turned out relatively close to how i envisioned it! do you understand how rare that is?....let me tell you- usually somewhere in the midst of my painting what i think is my plan- it usually takes a hard left turn and finishes nothing quite like what i had envisioned...... i will still like it, but, it will not be what i had originally envisioned.....

this was my plan.... and i had drawn a woman's figure off to the side. the only piece i veered off on was that originally- i was going to paint 3- 30x30 canvases, but, i had only gesso'd 2 for some reason when i went to start- so 2 it was..... and 2 was good.

 i did the black/ grey wash first and allowed that to dry. i knew what i wanted for words- as i was taking those from a previous collage of mine- almost as much as words imagining all sorts of beautiful.....

 i used quinacrodone magenta and yellow and used those for a wash as well.....i had already added the words.

 i drew my shape onto the canvas with pencil....i like that you can still see the sketch.

 i love the shoulder- the mix of the colors, the light and dark, and the drips and runs....

 i love how the words are there but, that overall the painting is distressed and textured

here is a little bit closer view of the colors and washes at work....i know i am close to being done with this one, but, need to let it cook for a bit, just to be sure.....

week of class review

i spent this past week at art class with Myrna Wacknov- such a talented lady....we spent the week working from a photograph of one lady- all of us; and looking at everyone's drawings and paintings, i am not sure anyone would know!

 the first day we work with a grid so we could distort and understand how to use the grid to do this. my first drawing above- she seemed so angry. i tried to soften the left eye on the second drawing- and she seemed slightly happier....

 the second day i worked with shape and color- we had to roll a dice to decide our elements for our paintings which made life interesting, but, if you are not outside of your comfort zone at class what is the purpose?.....i do like my lady below- she is probably the best embodiment of the lesson for my work this week.

 i loved the hair on this one- but, i think i got lost in it.....i needed to go and work on the face and kept avoiding it- so, it is what it is.....

 and this was one of my last paintings for the week- and i need to go back into the face to put the light/ shadows in....i did add tissue paper to begin reclaiming some of the whites- but, have not gone back in with paint yet- we shall see.... i loved her hair as well....

i worked hard this week, and by friday when we talked about color- i thought i had the info, and then, it was gone....so much info to get in a week- but, so good. loved the week and had a great time stretching and working outside of my comfort zone! but, so glad to be home!!

illustrations

 with pencil in hand, i gave drawing class another whirl. we had already had this model one other time. this first posted drawing was one of the last poses our model had done. you can see the shadow of a shoulder in the right hand corner....i had attempted this pose a couple of times; not satisfied with my first attempt.

 i liked the strangeness of this one with the one nipple looking at you. i should have used my white gelato to cover and blend and push the words back a bit. maybe i still will, but, i am liking that bizarre nipple.... 

 i thought my feet were interesting- this is such a push for me to draw any sort of realism....one of my classmates told me that i need to work on my form and perspective more... but, i find it way more interesting if whatever i am drawing is NOT quite true to perspective. i do not mind a little off perspective. similarly- in the first pic, his left shoulder is a wider than the right one? did you catch that? go back up and take a peak.....the other thing is, is when i go to this class, the people that go to draw are amazing. very skilled. and they may not be happy with their drawing, but, theirs looks 10x better than mine usually. that is why i have learned to not judge my own drawings until the next day. i imagine my drawings "cooking" overnight, and somehow magically being better the next morning. i do usually like my drawings so much better the next day (i think it's probably the lack of comparison) ......and then i think, yep, drawing class was good!

model drawing

thursday night i went over to the city and joined my mom at the university to go to the model drawing class. the model for the evening was a very agile young man who did almost impossible poses. i am not evening willing to show a glimpse of the quick 3 minute warm up sketches- you would think your five year old had done them....

this was his last pose and he held this for 40 minutes. i wasn't as happy with my paper- i was wishing i had some colored paper for the pastels to show up better on, but, what do you do....the other thing i learned that night, is that india ink does not like to be on top of pastel- at all.....friday morning, i was liking my drawing much better. i decided it was probably in direct correlation to the amount of competition at home versus the university.... :), but, i do like it now- it is what i would term "my speed."

stretching and growing

let me introduce you to mr gerald brommer. he is who i spent the last week with, along with about 20 other people taking his class.

our first day was all about line and shape. i am normally not much of one for sketching or drawing, but, i needed to give it a whirl....so here is one of my first.

this was also from the first day now with my color shape. i was feeling the abstract.

this was from day 2....the color is actually collage papers that were tinted with watercolor.

this was from day 3 and one of my favorites!! i actually had someone who wanted to buy it from me at class, but, i was selfish and kept it for myself.....

spreading the news

one of the other blogs I follow is having a drawing of sorts for her new book! she is a very talented being and always posts the best techniques! if you are into stamping, scrapbooking, or just generally like the creatively play....just out her blog- this will take you right to her book information. spend a moment checking out ink stains-you will not be disappointed.