Self-portrait with textured background

 I have been working out the kinks in a new project I am having my students work on using watercolor paint, transfers, portraiture and working over a prepainted/textured background.  In the process of doing a new project, I will typically create the work myself to gain knowledge of problems they will encounter as well as to have an example of what I am expecting them to do.

For this project, students started by gathering song lyrics, poetry, and images that they could transfer (using a chartpak marker)  onto the page for some texture and hidden imagery later when the portrait was complete. I did not think ahead to photograph my work at this early stage; you can see the transfers through the paint in the image below, they are the black markings, which are actually stanzas of song lyrics and the owl face.

 After the transfers, they were told to pre-paint their paper using watercolors, using the texture technique of their choice (plastic wrap, paper towel, sponge, splatter, salt) and a cruciform page layout, using two colors either complementary or analogous.  I used a dark blue and a burnt umber for a complementary color pairing, with the intention of painting my portrait using a monochromatic color scheme using the burnt umber.
In the image below you can see my painted portrait about mid-stage on the above background.  Again, I wish I had thought to take more photos as I was working rather than when I was done for the afternoon, so my process was more completely documented now.  I began my portrait by painting in shadows using the same blue as in the background and a tiny bit of payne's gray.  Then, I began using the burnt umber and some payne's gray to continue to build a likeness.  At this stage I also used the blue again to define the edges of my shoulders so I did not just have a floating face on the page.

I had intended to have a monochromatic version of my portrait that was unified with my background color and was super surprised as I worked, that by using the burnt umber, I was in fact creating a realistically colored portrait of myself.  

(As a note: this has been a weird hang up for my students.  I am telling them to choose a color from or close to one of their background colors and paint their portrait using a monochromatic scale to follow the values in their photo/face, and then they see mine and say "but yours is real and I can't mix skin color".  To remedy this problem, I began a new portrait (using green) and I have also shown them that the colors I used (deep blue and burnt umber) mix to make a brownish color on an additional sheet of paper.  This seems to have helped and this week in class their projects are coming along beautifully.)

After I completed the portrait by adding in the eye details and adjusting some color in the eye brows, I went back and added more transfers to the background.  I found some gears and cogs, along with a few owl drawings from my sketchbook that I copied on a photocopier so the marker transfer process would work.  At this point I felt like the portrait was finished but I left it at my desk so I could look at it a couple times a day and I felt as I looked at the completed image that I needed to go back into the background one more time with a bit more of the burnt umber and expand the umber color around my head and in the top of the page.  I am hoping to make these additional changes soon, but unfortunately they have yet to happen.  

If I change the background I will add a new image but for now, know it  looks as done as the image below, and that my students are enjoying the project and that it has spread (a bit like a fun and fascinating virus) to include some advanced independent study students in another class of mine who are seeing it done and exploring the process themselves "because it looks cool".

Owls on my mind

So lately I keep drawing owls; they just keep coming up in my work. Maybe it is because we have a pair of owls in our yard and I frequently see and hear them or maybe it is because they are really beautiful and interesting birds. Who knows.

I have decided that I am going to use them to create an Artist book to enter into the "Foot in the Door 4" show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

This owl is a charcoal drawing I did in my classroom while my students worked the other day and I think will become part of the book. As I work I will try to post bits and parts.

~ A tiny note . . .  
This post is from two years ago in November and has moved itself to here after I edited through some old draft posts.  Strange, but not worth deleting the post - just know it is old and has reposted itself fresh.

Monochromatic Owl

 8x10 inches, acrylic paint on gessoed canvas

In the painting class I am teaching we switched gears and began working in acrylic last week.  I always love when teaching a topic takes me into territory that I do not regularly travel through, as is true with acrylic painting.
I very rarely work in acrylics and I am enjoying the change of pace and sense of experimentation that changing mediums and instructing new painters has brought me this week.
This little green owl came about as we are beginning our first actual painting using a monochromatic color scheme.  This began as a demonstration for transferring an image and beginning to assign colored values to a painting from a black and white reference image and I just had to complete the entire thing this afternoon because it was just too much fun to paint.  I may just have to do another acrylic painting, something I rarely do, just to have more fun with painting in a "new" medium.

Stressful Spring

It has been a busy and stressful spring for me. I have been laid off as a teacher (again) and looking for a job is time consuming and emotionally draining.

Unfortunately, I am letting it get the better of me and I have spent little time making time for art in my life right now. I am however always making examples in my classroom and this particular example is becoming my most recent project.
The image is of the print block itself and of the first two artist proofs off the block. Currently debating whether or not it needs any adjustments that it's not too late to make, of course I see plenty of spots that I wish were still not carved out!

I have a couple of mail art projects I am involved in right now as well. I am needing to finish up one (a postcard bookswap) and begin the other (moly_x81), both tasks are on the schedule for this weekend. So, stay tuned, more art to follow shortly.

Transfering Images using Gel Medium

The next method I have used to transfer images is by using acrylic gel medium. This method takes awhile to complete because it has to dry for several hours (overnight) before you can fully complete the transfer process.

You will need to gather:
Images - toner based copies or laser jet prints - black and white or color (ink jet prints WILL NOT work)
Acrylic gel medium, a paintbrush, and a piece of paper or sketchbook to transfer onto that can take wet media

Carefully cut out the image, trimming off all the extra paper.





Decide where on the paper you will want the new image transferred.

Brush a solid layer of gel medium onto the paper where you want the transfer to go.
Work quickly, the gel needs to be still wet when you place your image into it.





Place your image face down into the wet gel.

If you are using text it is important to remember that the image will be reversed when the process if finished, so manipulate (reverse) your image before transferring.

If you are transferring a large image, it is best to brush gel and stick picture down in sections or the gel will dry before the image can be stuck down completely.





Smooth over the back of the image with your hand, pressing the picture into the gel, removing lumps, creases, and bubbles. Remove any extra gel that squeezes out from under the edge of the image.

Your image needs to sit in the gel until it has dried. Usually three hours works, but I often let them sit overnight.





The next day, you will need some paper towels, a sponge, or rag and clean water.
Wet the towel, making sure it is fairly wet.

Place the towel over the image, squishing the towel so water soaks into the paper backing. Allow wet towel to sit on the image for fifteen or twenty minutes.



The paper backing will become sheer when the image has soaked under the towel long enough to begin removing the paper from the transferred image.







Keeping your finger damp, gently roll the paper backing off of the image. Be sure not to use an alternate tool or your fingernail as a scraper, use only your finger or you will remove the image with the paper.

You may find that the paper does not come off after the first time of soaking under the wet towel. Sometimes you cannot tell there is still paper on the image until after it has dried. Simply return the wet toweling to the image and repeat the paper peeling process until
all of the paper has been removed.

You will be able to paint over and on top of the completed transfer with either watercolor or acrylic paint or you can use pencils or other media to alter the image as desired.
If you have a painted background, the background color will show through the image too. This process also works with colored acrylic paint applied as the gel, leaving a transfer on a colored background of paint.

As you can see in the piece of artwork I made last summer using this method to transfer a drawing I created onto multiple square pieces of paper that I had painted first with liquid acrylics.


Imagine all the possibilities when you can create more than one copy of a drawing.
Happy transferring.

Owls on a Snowy Night

From time to time I see something and think, "wow that's amazing, I should draw that quick", and all too often that thought is followed by the thought that I am busy and do not have time to grab my stuff and draw.
Well, the other night I did stop and draw when I saw the great horned owl in a tree at the edge of our yard at dusk, in the snow (even though I was cooking dinner). The scene was just too cool to pass up. A snowy night keeping all the light collected and under the clouds, the whole backyard had gone purple - really - and the perfectly silhouetted owl on a tree branch. I grabbed my stuff (really picked it up, it was on the coffee table where I have been leaving it) and did a couple of quick sketches that I filled in with some washes of color.
It only took me fifteen minutes and it felt really great to not pass up the amazing sight out my window for another more convenient time.
I think that making time, even if it's just a few minutes, can make all the difference.

Owl Collage Page

Here is the second collage I did in my sketchbook for the online Strathmore Visual Journal workshop series that began on January first. Our task for the first week has been to reuse and recycle imagery from previous sketchbooks and artwork as well as ephemera or scraps. For this page I began on a prepainted page spread in my altered journal. For collage elements, I used photocopies of journal pages, and a painting, as well as paste paper and a stamp image I found online. I am very sure that next weeks task will be to continue to work with the collage pages we create this week, so this is step number one in a process.
I wasn't sure how I would like reusing art and collage in my journal as I usually just draw, with only the occasional glue in element. I have kept an open mind and I have to say it has been fun to try something different. Creating a collage is also a great thing to do while doing something else, like watching a movie or TV. I gather my supplies, sit with a try table and quietly clip out elements, arrange, rearrange, and then glue. I have finshed a page by the time he film is done. Family time and art time all in one.

Sketch Night at the Bell

Tonight was sea creature night at the Bell Museum sketch night. I honor of the sea theme I drew a shell. They had a wide variety of shells, coral, couple of things in jars, and turtle shells available for drawing subjects. But, what I really wanted to draw was the owl I had seen on my way in last month in one of the dioramas. So after greeting the ten or so people there last night, I went back to draw the owl that I had been thinking about since last month.

After working on the owl for about 45 minutes or an hour, I lost track of the time, the best part about drawing. I returned to the touch and see room at the Bell and drew the shell.
We really do have a great time drawing together on the sketch nights. Conversation last night ranged from spies to unorthodox funeral services. It is also always great fun to explore everyone's drawings and see the many different approaches and mediums used.
Next month's theme is birds and feathers on January 6, 2011 from 6:30-8:30. If you live in the Twin Cities and like to draw it is well worth the admission to the museum. Bring a sketchbook and I'll see you there.

MCBA Visual Journal Collective and an owl

On Monday night I attended the MCBA Visual Journal Collective meeting, with Roz Stendahl and 18 other members. We met at the Textile Center for a hands-on demonstration of fabric screen printing using an image from our sketchbook or journal. Karen Wallach, a collective member, gave the demonstration as she belongs/works for the Textile Center. The process itself used a ThermoFax to produce the screens. It was quite interesting and loads of fun.

We were asked to bring in a sketch or drawing to use, along with any fabric, paper, or clothing we wanted to print onto. Quite a few people, myself included, needed to redraw our image using black pen and white paper, as we were supposed to have a simple black and white image like you would carve a block print from. I brought a photocopy of a watercolor and ink owl from a graffiti project example I did during the school year. The original image:

So, before the start of the printing process I had to redraw the owl as a simple line drawing in my journal, which would then be made into a toner based copy to be used in the machine. Karen was the checker of images to be used (she wanted us to have success) and she was unsure of whether or not mine would show all the tiny line detail as a print, but I forged ahead anyway willing to take the risk.

The process itself involved taking our copy, matching it to a screen frame size, and cutting the correct amount of silk screen to fit the frame. Our image was then placed into a plastic carrier sleeve and sent through the ThermoFax machine. The heat from the machine "burns out" the toner ink from a gel on the back of the screen, creating tiny holes for the ink to be pushed through. We then took our screen and mounted it to the plastic frame and encased the entire frame and the edge of the screen in duct tape (have to love that stuff).

After our screen was made, we took it into the next room and printed from it. I have to say there is something very magical about using your image to create prints, it just makes me smile to see multiples that are all original. My image turned out great despite the potential for some of the fine line detail to be lost. My only problem came from not quite pulling the ink all the way down into the tail in every print.

Karen had muslin available for us to practice on and a range of fabric inks and acrylic paints to try. I stuck with black acrylic printing ink made for fabric. I printed a couple of practices on the muslin and two prints on some batik fabric I brought from home.

At that point I switched to paper and printed on two bags, the type that come from a wine bottle, all tall and skinny. I also had a pre-painted sheet of heavy watercolor paper, and a sheet of red print making paper that I tried as well.

By the end of the night I had printed on a variety of surfaces both fabric and paper and was quite pleased with the results, and especially pleased to be able to take home my screen to continue to print from.

I highly recommend giving the screen printing process a try. There are several resources for having your own images made into screens available online, just search ThermoFax printing, and I am sure you can find a spot near you that will make screens for a reasonable price. The Textile Center here in Minneapolis will make them in three sizes: 8x10, 5x7, 3x4 (roughly), for $12, $8.50, and $5.50 respectively.

Well, I am off to print my owl onto my apron.

Owl parade continues

Here is another addition to the owl collection from this school year.

This example comes from my Craft/Print lab class; the assignment was to use your name as book content and create your own lettering and theme. Students then used an accordion structure and paste paper element to create a complete work. This is the example that I finished as a part of doing daily demonstrations to instruct the students and as always to create a high quality example to motivate the group.

Owl on parade

Cleaning photos off my camera and editing photos for self portraits in my drawing I class tomorrow, I found this tile I had made earlier this winter. It is stoneware with glass and glaze. It is one of three clay owls I made this year.

The first in a line of owls.

This year in my classes as I have been doing demonstrations and examples, I have been repetitively using an owl as my subject matter whenever possible. This started by accident and since noticing my tendency towards owls, I have just embraced it and have been very intentional about my choice to use an owl.

This has created a body of owl work through the school year. I think the most interesting part has been using an owl as a subject or theme across a wide variety of mediums.

In a simple effort to try and post more, here is the newest in an upcoming parade of owls as I bring home my examples and projects to pack up for the summer.

This owl was created this week as I began a unit on block printing with an introductory project. The print block is small, 2 x 3 inches, and carved out of and easy cut rubber sort of product. So it is more of a stamp, but it is printed with water-based speedball ink on regular white paper.