WATERCOLOR GALORE

Although it hasn't seemed to have helped me with my watercolor issues...I found this fantastic website with tons of great information for anyone interested in watercolor painting. It is the perfect resource with sections on painting technique (I may need to go over that part a few more times), color theory, types of paper, brushes and paint. Also a section with histories on many great watercolor artists. Much time and effort had to have gone into the building of this site!

http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/water.html

TRY, TRY AGAIN

I keep using my pastels lately, I think because of the quicker gratification. My patience seems to be limited and, even though I have a number of projects in the works, the pastels are so much quicker. This is a practice study I did of my grandson (always a fun subject for me).

MORE PRACTICE

Working with pastels (thanks Anne) is letting me practice balancing colors without taking days on a painting. I can go over the top of something and see how a different hue or color looks. These scans are from pictures I took in Catalina.

PRINTMAKING SITE

Here is a link to another good printmaking site. At first glance it seemed a little sterile to me, but then I started following the artist sites linked to each technique and it became a bit more interesting. The posted picture here is a soft varnish etching done by Maureen Booth.

http://www.worldprintmakers.com/english/pmtechni.htm

QUICK FIX

Art time has been a little hard to set aside lately. Summer in Big Bear does that to me every year. Experimenting with pastels is a nice way to create something fairly quickly.

NEW PASTEL

After seeing some great paintings from my friend Anne, I have been working with pastels lately. I like the quick pace it allows. This one is from a photo I took on one of my trips back east. It is on the Mud City Loop in Vermont.

MORE FROM THE PAST

I received an invitation to enter an art contest which prompted a journey through scans of my art, both new and old. I'm still undecided as to what I am going to enter, but I did find some older things that I had forgotten all about. One is a two block lino of a blackbird. The bird turned out for me but the background never worked for me.

The second scan is an etching I did on a piece of plastic.

50 INSPIRING PRINTMAKING BLOGS

If you are really into printing, or just have a casual interest, you will probably find something with information you can use on the link below. The Photographer's Guild has put together a list called '50 Incredibly Inspiring Printmaking Blogs'. I haven't had the time to visit all of the blogs on the list, but the ones that I did visit were great!

http://www.photography-colleges.org/50-incredibly-inspiring-printmaking-blogs/

OLD STUFF

It's always a bit of an adventure going through my stacks of paintings and prints that I didn't like when they were done. I found this old watercolor attempt that I had done from a lesson in a book. Based on attempts I've made with watercolor since I did this one, it's looking a lot better to me!!

GREAT LOOSE WATERCOLORS

I have mentioned in a few earlier posts how much I love and enjoy artists who paint with watercolors in a very loose and non-constricted style. Herry Aifin has a wonderful website that shows this type of style at its' best. On the site he explains why he paints and shows a few demos of his painting technique. Great use of color and values.

http://www.herryarifin.com/

NEW PASTEL DRAWING

I'm excited that I keep being pushed (maybe not the right word) to try different things in my art journey. I remember that I used both hard and soft pastels in my high school and college classes, but that was a long time ago. Anne, my good friend who lives on Lopez island in the Pacific Northwest, has been working with pastels lately. Seeing the beautiful art she's been creating got me to dust off my old pastels and try something myself. I have since done two drawings. The picture posted here was actually done from a picture she took while visiting Egypt!

RESINGRAVE ENGRAVING

I purchased a block of Resingrave from McClains to give engraving a try. Resingrave was invented as a replacement for end grain wood blocks. It is very different from the Shina wood I use for Moku Hanga printing. Much harder (requires engraving tools) which allows for much finer detail.

It has a white surface which I coated with black ink. I then drew the subject with a white pencil. The drawing is carved out and the block is then printed with a relief technique. I found this first attempt a little frustrating and I've not pulled a print from the block yet. We will see!