Daring Hue
Art, craft and color stories from Portland, OR
It’s quiet around here, so I’m sharing someone else’s words tonight. I love Maira Kalman.
“When I’m working at home, my bed becomes my desk and is laid out with all of my projects. Bed is a beautiful place. What is better than contemplating the world from a bed with crisp white linens and a stack of books nearby? It is a very hopeful thing.” – Maira Kalman
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens in Moleskine Sketchbook. I have been feeling very uninspired the last few days, so I decided to start with the most simple thing I could think of. Circles in pencil. It came alive with the addition of the pens. I think I’m ready to forge on again.
I have been looking forward to seeing Anika’s daily watercolor patterns on Instagram. She posted details for joining the daily pattern challenge to her blog. I’m thinking of joining the challenge in November to keep me working on patterns daily.
It has been a cold and quiet Sunday. I wish I could share that I had been super productive in my sketchbook this weekend, or that I had done something exciting with my Sunday, but that would be a lie.
One of my closest friends is spending this weekend in Sydney, Australia. I had fun poking around in my photo archives from my visit there in 2007, and found these two images of the Sydney Opera House. One of the things I was most surprised about was the pattern of the tile on the outside of the structure. If you are not looking closely, many pictures of it from far away make it look like flat panels of white. I loved looking at all of the geometric tile patterns up close.
This is a view of the gorgeous interior. The color of the wood was so rich. I felt so lucky to not only take a tour of it during the day, but also to go back and see an opera at night.
Welcome home Hil. Hope you had a great time.
Onward to Monday…
Yesterday I had a guest tutorial posted at Makewells! I had so much fun making these. Click here to read how to make easy hand-painted postcards using craft paint, tape and an old credit card. No painting experience needed!
While you’re there, check out the rest of the Makewells blog. Megan blogs about her artwork, inspirations and life as an artist in Virginia. Here are three of her posts that I recently enjoyed reading:
My 6 Years of Teaching Art to Teenagers
Confessions of a Novice Freelancer
I have ten of these postcards ready to send out. E-mail me your mailing address if you’d like to receive one! Send me photos if you try out this tutorial!
Testing my new Micron pen, by writing to my new Micron pen in a Moleskine Squared Notebook. A little smearing when I colored over the black ink with the pink Pitt pen. It may not have been fully dry, so I’ll be a little more careful next time. I’m liking the idea of handwritten blog entries. Anyone with me? Could be fun.
I’m joining in List it Tuesday over at Artsyville today. Only I’m responding to last week’s prompt because I talked about how much I love Portland in my Oregon anniversary post a couple of weeks ago.
I had so much fun mixing all of these colors and painting little paint chip cards. I could see this quickly becoming an addiction.
I am a sucker for…
01. Strawberry shortcake. The biscuits have to be at least made from a mix, and actually baked. No pre-packaged pound cake type substance. Nothing smells better than fresh strawberries + a hot biscuit.
02. Raspberries in July. I can recall eating a single raspberry last summer straight out of the little green carton at the farmers market and thinking that it was the best berry I’d ever had. They are so good here in Oregon!
03. Hawaiian plumeria. I love them for both the smell and appearance. And I’ll stop there because I don’t want to get weepy about how much I want to go back to Maui.
04. Cat’s nose. Soft pink kitty nose. Need I say more?
05. Moonstruck chocolate. This is my favorite place to buy chocolate for the cuteness alone. What a fun job it would be to create these chocolates! They have a super cute Halloween and pumpkin collection right now.
06. Kraft paper. Or brown paper bags. Love this stuff.
07. Meerkats. Hands down my favorite animal when I go to a zoo. Meerkat Manor? Love it.
08. Garlic hummus. I tried a couple of years ago to make my own, and it was a giant disaster. I think I put too much olive oil in it. I think I should try a different recipe soon.
09. Dark wash jeans. I love a good dark wash jean. I bought a couple new pairs this weekend to replace my favorite pair that was sadly cut off of me at the hospital when I broke my ankle in June. I hope these turn into new favorites in time.
10. Blue BIC pens. I’ve been using blue BICs at work for about a year and have become slightly territorial. No fancy pen can replace my blue BIC.
11. Oregon blueberries. I didn’t realize when I started painting that I had included three berries. I guess it was too hard to play favorites. I have never tasted blueberries as good as I’ve bought here.
12. Bill’s eyes. I didn’t quite do the color justice. Bill has the prettiest blue-green eyes. I’ll need to give this one another go sometime.
Make your own list and visit Artsyville to add your own link!
I started a new sketchbook using a Hand Book Artist Journal. The pages are thinner than the Moleskine Sketchbook, but a little toothier, so they are absorbing watercolor much easier. I’ve been using a little mint tin that I put half pans of watercolor into. The pages aren’t buckling too badly, but I painted really lightly and without a lot of water.
I’ve made a pact with myself to fill in one of those panels (about 1 x 3 inches) every day, no matter how crazy a day I’ve had. I’m still struggling with working consistently, so I’m hoping by setting a micro-goal that creating every day will feel manageable until it has become a daily habit. I like to work really small, so these tiny panels will let me work in itty bitty detail without taking days to complete.
Reading a Project Life post on Elise Blaha’s blog, I was reminded of this quote: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt. I have goals of selling my artwork someday, but I think it’s really important for me to remember to just be a student right now. I’m supposed to be learning, testing, trying, failing and learning some more right now. It is okay to be a beginner, because that is where I am right now.
I’m looking forward to seeing how well this journal will take ink, markers and acrylic paint. I’ll post new scans as I complete full pages.
It feels like we finally turned the corner into autumn this week. We had one last bright and warm day on Thursday, and the next morning I drove to work in a downpour. This weekend the skies were grey and overcast. I do love a good sunshine day, but it’s against the solid gray backdrop that Portland color really starts to pop.
We have two more weekends at my neighborhood farmers market. I’ve loved watching the seasons change at this little market, and we’ve now arrived at my favorite color season (summer season is my favorite for taste). I love the boxes and boxes of different varieties of apples and pears in reds, yellows and greens. The golden color of the butternut squash is almost as good as the flavor. The deep dark purple of the eggplant is stunning, though I have to admit I am an admirer of the color only. The purple, pink, orange and yellow rainbow carrots are another favorite (tasty looking recipe!). There are still a few summery holdouts, bright pops of tomato red and yellow corn.
The market was quiet today. I sat on a bench with Bill and ate a crepe, admiring the yellow leaves on the trees. I think this every year here, but I couldn’t help but be grateful to live in a place where the changing of seasons is more delineated than my native California. This weekend I could feel myself slowing down, accepting the shift in weather and pace.
The challenge for this week is to mix up some colors to match these autumn hues! I can’t wait to see how these pop up in the sketchbook.
My artist ego has been taking a self-inflicted beating this week. As I’ve been working more steadily in my sketchbook, the resistance has been setting in. Procrastination, avoidance, excuses, hesitation, doubting and excessive Facebook checking have all been in heavy rotation this last week. In an effort to get me out of my slump and back to work again, I decided to revisit some posts and videos from artists and bloggers that have inspired me. I hope you enjoy these too.
01. A Manifesto for Showing Up by Christina Rosalie: Christina is a writer, mixed media artist and blogger. I love this manifesto. It’s a good reminder that showing up doesn’t take an epic leap of faith. It’s sitting down and making an effort for ten minutes a day. There is no reason I can’t commit to making work for ten minutes a day. Ten minutes will likely lead to more.
02. Creative Mornings (Video) by Kate Bingaman Burt: Kate is an illustrator and educator in Portland, OR. I love the drawings and hand lettering projects that she posts on her blog. The video I’ve linked to is a long one, but it’s so worth watching it all. She talks about using the structure of rule systems and automated directives to stay motivated to create more work. So smart.
03. Design as a Lifelong Process by Amy of Pikaland: I love the illustration blog, Pikaland! This post is a recap of a speech Amy gave to students at an art and design school. I love everything about this post, and should probably re-read it at the beginning of every quarter.
04. 10 Ways to Infuse Your Work With Your Personality by Keri Smith: Keri is an author and illustrator that I’ve been following for years and years. This is a good post on documenting, collecting and sourcing ideas. See also, 100 Ideas.
05. Chuck Close’s advice to his younger self (Video): What a great kick in the pants. There is also an adorable photo of him with a tiny monkey on his shoulder in this video. “Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. Every great idea I’ve ever had grew out of work itself.” – Chuck Close
Bonus! Happy Little Clouds / Bob Ross Remixed: I dare you not to smile while watching this.
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And lastly, here are a few tips from me on getting over yourself and getting back to work.
01. Get your supplies organized. Set up for art making can be really daunting with an unorganized workspace. Even thinking about getting all of the supplies out is enough to dissuade me. I have put the basics I need to paint, draw, cut, paste, etc. into one plastic bin so that even if my workspace is a disaster (which it currently is), then I can still take my bin somewhere else and have everything I need to make something.
02. Cheer someone else on. This is so big for me. Telling someone I know how awesome I think their work is, or leaving a nice comment on someone’s blog is a great way to get out of the thoughts I have running around in my head about my own work.
03. Do something you are good at. If you’ve been experimenting with new media or ideas, go back to something you are comfortable with for a while. This will remind you of what has been possible in the past with consistent work, and will give you the confidence to continue experimenting.
And now… time for me to get back to work. If you have any good tips or links, please share in the comments!
Acrylic paint in Moleskine sketchbook. The pattern was inspired by the fabric on a couch at Panera. I feel like I’ve been working on this page for ages. I’ve been painting with tiny paint brushes late in bed with the kitty, which has unfortunately resulted in a little smudge of blue paint on the sheets (oops). Instagram photo of Charlotte helping me last night. I’m not sure I’m crazy about this pattern. The lines are a little more organic than the geometric shapes I’m usually drawn to, and the lines look wonky to me. I’m struggling with letting go of thinking too much about the outcome while I’m painting. I don’t want this to keep me from trying new techniques and practicing.
Despite the wonky lines, what I love about art journaling is that it solidifies memories for me in a way that photographs do not, even if the page visually has little to do with the memory. Photographs are snapped so quickly, but making an art journal page allows for more time to think about what is being created. I’m guessing years from now I’ll remember my sister picking me up from work on one of the first days that felt like fall. Tomato soup for her, onion soup for me. The light blue and dark blue of the pattern are colors that remind me of her. The red dots are for me, a bit of vibrancy popping off of the blue. Turning the page and moving on…