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Designing Images with Meaning – I

Several years ago I was asked to do a series of paintings for a History Walk around part of the new Orange Public Library and History Center. It turned out to be much more of a design problem than a painting project. Certain images were requested and I had the history notes from Phil Brigandi which were to accompany the paintings. I made the paintings much more graphic than I normally paint since the images and history notes were to be transferred to a stone-like material and the idea was that library visitors could walk along and quickly grasp the image and pause to read the notes.

Overview and Welcome
With such a general theme, I was having difficulty coming up with an image. Head Librarian Nora Jacob came to my rescue with the idea for the book and background of the earth and space behind. I wanted to put in some of the interesting tidbits of history within this larger idea and the book gave me the inspiration – bookmarks, of course. Each “ribbon” holds some early history – the only difficulty here was choosing what to include. 
Center Street for the Library
 
If the first painting was a challenge to imagine, the second was just as ephemeral. This was the last painting done in the series. Once the idea that the Chapman Avenue and Center Street as division lines were “seen” as ribbons then the rest followed nicely. The three versions of the library are depicted in the lower right corner of the painting – stacked upon one another so as to show the relative sizes of each building. The rose is the city flower so a bouquet makes up the largest part of the painting and ribbons with historical notes are again used to convey information. The most interesting to me was learning that Center Street was extended to Chapman Avenue in 1908, having originally been closed off. The newest rendition of our library returns the street to its original configuration. The ribbons again provided a space for bits of history.
In all there are 14 paintings. I will add them in subsequent posts.

Watercolor Musings: Designing Images with Meaning – I

Watercolor Musings: Designing Images with Meaning – I: Several years ago I was asked to do a series of paintings for a History Walk around part of the new Orange Public Library an…

Diagnosing with Drawing???

Drawing and re-drawing in the Czech Republic

In 2008, while on a cruise from Prague to Berlin, I chanced upon this intriguing vista in one of the many stops along the route. I liked the way the buildings stacked up and the varied rooftoops, etc. I found a nice niche and settled down to enjoy drawing. But something was wrong…try as I may, I was not accurate in perspective. If you look closely, you can see the initial line in a lighter value beneath the darker lines. And it still isn’t right. I can draw and usually drawing is solace, relaxing and pure joy for me…my confidence was a bit shaken. I slunk off to do another drawing with an easier subject but was disappointed with the day. The next morning I could feel myself begin to succumb to the malaise onboard. My throat was getting sore and I could tell I had a nasty cold on the way. It explained why I’d struggled the day before.

Pillow, Teapot and Zicam

I really only had two choices in Berlin. I could push through my cold and get to visit this fascinating city and get some drawings or I could tuck myself in bed and have a chance to send it packing. Since I was to meet my husband in London just after this workshop, I chose to be good and stay warm and quiet. This drawing is in my small Moleskin accordian sketchbook where I did one drawing each day. When you open up the pages it gives a nice overview of where I was and what I was doing. This is the saddest page in the whole sketchbook!

Crooked Tower

Above is my attempt to get a drawing the day after I stayed in bed. The comment is: “After a day in bed, I venture out and do a crooked drawing.” It’s a better attempt that that poor one at the beginning of this post though.

The experience taught me something. Perhaps drawing is an early warning system for me when I’m about to be pounced upon by a germ. I’m going to pay attention to my skill level. This is a good impetus to draw everyday!

May you stay well and draw straight!

Watercolor Musings: Reflections for Dessert

Watercolor Musings: Reflections for Dessert: Reflections on two types of glass – transparent and opaque Dessert! What an assignment! The two glass objects gave me a good opport…

Reflections for Dessert

Reflections on two types of glass – transparent and opaque

Dessert!

What an assignment! The two glass objects gave me a good opportunity to paint shiny surfaces in both clear and opaque glass. We had gotten several small desserts at the Farmer’s Market for a tasting treat. While my husband and daughter went off to fetch dinner, those desserts became subject matter.

When looking for shapes in reflective surfaces, plan on painting around the lights in an opaque object and paint the shadowy shapes on the clear one. Squinting your eyes helps the lights pop and they are easier to see. I drew with a small water soluble pen first, added watercolor to the to the cake within the dome. The shapes and reflections were painted after that.

Choosing appealing subject matter is easy if you open up your eyes to your everyday life. Sometimes the most common of subjects make the most emotionally powerful work…we are connected to those things.

So…consider this your assignment…go get some yummy desserts and paint them…and then test them!

Watercolor Musings: Workshop Etiquette

Watercolor Musings: Workshop Etiquette: The following is a list I am now sending to those attending a workshop in our studio. If it is helpful, feel free to take from it and pl…

Workshop Etiquette

 The following is a list I am now sending to those attending a workshop in our studio. If it is helpful, feel free to take from it and please post any changes/additions you think would be useful. Our goal is to have each participant have a good learning experience and a great time.
 

Schroeder Studio Gallery Workshop Etiquette
We are so pleased that you have joined us for this workshop. We want you to have a wonderful time and that the learning will be helpful in your growth as an artist. The suggestions below are intended to make the workshop a positive and pleasurable experience for all. They are gleaned from many workshops since 1998.  

• Please turn the sound OFF or set to “vibrate” on cell phones when class and teaching begin. Ringing interrupts the instructor’s train of thought and is annoying to your fellow painters. If you need to take a call, please step outside to do so.

• Be on time. If tardiness is unavoidable, please quietly try to catch up – the instructor is not expected to start the lesson over.

• When packing materials for the class, do include the necessary but please leave your “studio” at home. We have limited space for each student.

• Please arrive at class fragrance free for the comfort of participants and instructors who may have allergies.

• Please don’t be demanding of the teacher’s time. There is a room full of people who paid for the workshop, too.

• It is a courtesy to ask permission from the teacher before taking pictures of samples and demonstrations. This goes for photographing other students and their work as well.

• All handouts and instructions are copyrighted and owned by the instructor. Individual teachers have varying policies as to how their designs, handouts and instructions may be used after a workshop. Please check with your teacher before sharing the workshop materials in any form with others.

• Be courteous to your tablemate. Conversation might be enjoyable to you but others may require total concentration and listening to constant chatter is disruptive.

• Be honest of your level of experience. Don’t expect the teacher to know.

• Please, under no circumstance, touch or take any of the demonstration pieces or artwork unless you have permission from the teacher.

• Please don’t eat or drink in the gallery. Also do not eat food or drink over anyone’s artwork.

• Then, first and foremost, ENJOY & HAVE FUN!

Watercolor Musings: Travel Materials for Painting – Brushes

Watercolor Musings: Travel Materials for Painting – Brushes: It’s been too long since I started this set of blogs on travel materials. Time to finish it up! This post is just a small bit of information…

Travel Materials for Painting – Brushes

It’s been too long since I started this set of blogs on travel materials. Time to finish it up! This post is just a small bit of information about the myriad of brushes available for travel, or paintabout, as I like to call it.

These are brushes made for travel- each has a cap that protects the bristles. The second brush from the right comes out by putting the cap on the end of the brush handle. That insures that the bristle is always protected. The other brushes require some care as you put them away. I usually wet the bristles, pull them together and then insert into the cap. If you do get some bristles going awry, you can straighten them right out by running under hot water. Not for long though but it does work quickly.

This set of brushes is protected by the masonite board behind them. A small piece of the material used to keep rugs from slipping does the same thing for the brushes. The wide rubberband keeps all the brushes secure. I can’t claim credit for this idea. Brenda Swenson is the brains behind it and it is very effective.

These are sort of speciality brushes I use while traveling. The blue is a Niji waterbrush. You don’t even need a container of water to paint. You just rinse the brush by squeezing fresh water out. The middle brush is a new one, a waterbrush that can be collapsed into 2 pieces. This one fits in my very small palette. To the right is one of the brush pens I prefer with water soluble ink. This one is a Pentel color brush and I also like the Kaimei and Kuretake. I prefer inks in sepia and black but many come in a range of colors. By the way, the waterbrushes can also be filled with ink or watercolor if you like.

Here’s to many happy hours painting while traveling!

Watercolor Musings: Travel Materials for Painting – Palettes

Watercolor Musings: Travel Materials for Painting – Palettes: Finding the right palette for your travel painting is an enjoyable quest. I’m not sure I’ll ever settle on just one since I confess to…

Travel Materials for Painting – Palettes

Finding the right palette for your travel painting is an enjoyable quest. I’m not sure I’ll ever settle on just one since I confess to having an ongoing love affair with containers that hold paint. I’ve arranged the palettes I use in order from the smallest to larger ones. There is also a wide range of cost from nearly nothing to just about as much as you’d ever like to spend. Mine are on the more economical side.

Two Altoid boxes, a plastic palette and my newest in the foreground from W & B Painters Products

The palettes above are so small that they can fit in a pocket, a purse, a glove compartment etc. The smallest Altoid box has 2 water bottle caps for paint and I use a warm brown and ultramarine blue. Those 2 colors make it easy to get a range of values and are much more interesting than gray or black. The more usual Altoid box holds 6 water bottle caps and I usually put in the primay and secondary colors although any combination of colors can be used. The top right is a tiny plastic palette I’ve had for years and the last is my newest find. It came from an art supply store in Portland Maine, my most recent trip. As you can see, I haven’t even filled the palette cups yet. Using this size palette means also painting in a smaller size or using the color to augment line drawings. But the advantages are clear and you are never without tools! I’ve been too many places without my gear and wasted time trying to find something to use. I don’t let that happen anymore. 
These are boxes I found in a drawer. One was from a pen and the other used for some other packaging. I tried to see how many caps I could put in for a larger palette and you can see how adaptable they are. The advantage is the cost. By using a found box and water bottle caps you minimize the cost of the palette. Then you fill with your favorite paints. The caps can be affixed with tape or in the case of a metal box the magnetic strips with one sticky side work very well. 
On the left is a palette from Winsor Newton and the right from Rembrandt. 

These are palettes that had the paint included when I purchased them. The Winsor Newton travel box includes a waterbottle and water cup. It folds all together into a nice compact package. The Rembrandt palette is lovely to use. The paints seem to moisten up easily and it’s still a smaller size.

Empty palettes from Schminke and Holbein. I filled them with paint. 
The next larger palettes hold much more paint and have large mixing areas. These I use when I’m carrying larger papers and when I’m on a painting excursion. I can get quite a large wash done with these and they still are neither too large nor too heavy to be comfortable to carry. 
These are just a few examples of palettes suitable for travel. You will be able to “see” possibilities for all sorts of solutions once you really begin to look. 

Watercolor Musings: Travel Materials for Painting on the Go – Part I

Watercolor Musings: Travel Materials for Painting on the Go – Part I: Yes Books Portland, Maine I recently returned from a short visit to New England with several college friends. One of my c…

Travel Materials for Painting on the Go – Part I

Yes Books  Portland, Maine    

 

I recently returned from a short visit to New England with several college friends. One of my classmates is beginning to paint watercolors and asked me for a list of my preferred materials. That question was the prompt for this blog.

In recent years there has been an explosion in travel palettes and sketching materials. More and more people are including a sketchbook in their vacation packing and the variety is enormous. It is helpful to define what you want to accomplish…or attempt to accomplish. I always think I can do more than I ever get done.

These questions will hopefully help you in the planning stage.

  1. Are your travel-mates artists? If so, then leisurely stops to gather images are not only possible but desired by the entire group. If not, then you will have to be creative to grab sketches as you travel. Stopping for a coffee, for a meal, sketching while others have a tour, etcetera. All the foregoing are opportunities for drawings.
  2. Do you want to have a travel journal including sketches, tickets, descriptions, ephemera, etc? Or is this a sketchbook that is mostly, if not only, about gathering studies for future paintings? It can be something in between or entirely different. By deciding what you want to do with the sketchbook, it will help you choose the size and style.
  3. Do you want a portrait or landscape format? I love to do wide landscape sketches when the opportunity comes along. With a portrait orientation I choose a different approach. So, how do you like to work?
  4. What kind of paper do you prefer? It is possible to have any paper you normally work with and in any size and shape if you are willing to put together your own book. It is relatively inexpensive and especially so if you compare its cost with a bound sketchbook with good watercolor paper.
  5. How much gear are you willing to carry? Practice working with a very minimal set up and add whatever you cannot live without but be strict with yourself. You don’t want to be tired since you need energy to be creative!
  6. Size and weight of palette is also a consideration. For large washes you will need bigger brushes and a larger palette.
  7. Brushes. Will you use travel brushes that protect the bristles and if not how will you carry them so that the brush tip stays in good shape?
  8. Water containers for both water and for painting can be bulky. Keep your eye out for unusual solutions.

 These are considerations to ponder. I will follow up this post with others that are specific examples of the various components: sketchbooks, brushes, palettes, water containers, etc.

Watercolor Musings: Going a bit crazy…

Watercolor Musings: Going a bit crazy…: Keeping a sketchbook can be an exercise in drill, practice, and serious endeavor but I’d rather find odd bits of information, record unusual…

Going a bit crazy…

Keeping a sketchbook can be an exercise in drill, practice, and serious endeavor but I’d rather find odd bits of information, record unusual conversations and do sketches that would never find their way into paintings. Doing a watercolor sketch for the sheer fun of it is very entertaining.

Prague Market

The street market in Prague was full of so much subject matter that it was hard to light on one spot. While I drew this we were visited by a small child who chattered happily at our feet and checked up on our work from time to time. This is a pretty close approximation to the scene.

Prague is full of wonderful towers, church steeples and other structures that push their way into the sky. We had seen a local artist’s work which exaggerated these tall elements with a good deal of whimsy. One day we declared “Wonky Day.” No vertical lines…every one had to be organic and lean and sway.

Wonky Prague in Bright Colors

Now this was fun! The architecture was stretched and bowed and the colors pushed into all sorts of brights. We did get some quizzical stares from the local folks.

I have found since that the multitude of towers is necessary for the most success. I tried it on one of the California Missions and I didn’t like the results nearly as much. So…if you find yourself with pinnacles aplenty, go wonky!