Pisces indecision

Pisces Indecision
12 x 16 gyotaku print and watercolour

This is the last fish print for a little while. I have taken lots of base prints with my trout but its past its 'best by' date and will now be crow breakfast in the morning.

I am a Pisces, so fish and water always seem to play a role somehow in life. I either live near the water or have fish swimming next to me in a tank or I'm drawing or painting them. This version of Pisces has them both swimming in the same direction instead of opposite which contradicts the true nature of this zodiac creature(s).

Its more an experiment in shape and colour at this point, rather than composition and being true to the subject. I'm still seeing what colours work well with the prints and how much layering I can get away with and be transparent, letting the print beneath show through.

Its not complete but I don't want to tinker too much more, as its easily on the verge of mud. Paint will take a backseat for a couple of days while I complete the portrait of my niece and start another one.

Camouflaged Rainbow

Camouflaged Rainbow

watercolour 8 x 12

I promise my fish frenzy will be over soon and I'll get back to regular stuff. I just need to do these last few prints on the paper that I was experimenting with last night.

I used diluted acrylic inks on sheets of aquarello portofina. The print was already on the paper or will be printed there after the inks dry. With this print, I had already put the fish on the paper then used the acrylic inks over it randomly, almost making the fish look as if it were swimming through it. I added more watercolour to the print. I wanted a bold, bright look that but transparent so the print of the scales and lines of the body showed through.

I think I got there, even if the image doesn't show the brightness of the colours at their best.

I had put some of the fish cards and a print on Etsy and wondered why there were so many viewings. Then someone sent me a message saying the fish print was on the Etsy Gift Guide under Original Art and Printmaking. It was on the first page for the last couple of days and has now moved to page two.

You can find this print and others in my Etsy shop.

I also tried some pastel on one of the fish prints, but am not as keen on it as it covers too much of the print itself. The colours are fine, but the essence of the print is lost in parts. I'll have to work on that and decide how much should be print and how much colour so there can be an easy marriage of the two.

Fish and cats and ice

This is what I looked out on this morning. Freezing rain had coated everything during the night turning the world into a giant skating rink. And guess where the car was. In the barn. Yep, what fun walking across that to get to it.

I really don't like freezing rain, at least not having to go out into it. It does a lot of damage to trees if it coats them heavily and bends them. However we got off easy today and the day warmed up significantly and it turned to rain and melted.

The ice makes for interesting photos however if you can risk life and limb trying to get to things. This is the side fence looking out from the dining room. The hops and little solar lights are well coated with little curtains of ice.

Finally, one of the garden chairs looking like some kind of torture device with icicles everywhere!
I'm giving this poor old trout a run for its money and getting as many base prints as I can out of it before it deteriorates. While I think the skeleton print looks quite interesting, it really does seem to come to life more when its enhanced with colour, so I'm in the process of experimenting with different papers and tonight preparing an abstract background in acrylic inks to lay another print on. Its a messy business...

I've lifted off some of the muddied colour as it pooled into the middle of the paper and may add some crumpled plastic film for texture before it dried.

I've added more prints to larger sheets of watercolour paper and will add colour to them later, as well as some additional cards.

While waiting for prints to dry and ideas to gel, I painted a tiny watercolour of Tripod. This is ACEO size and I rarely try this size. I find it difficult to adapt to the small size and it continues to amaze me how those who work in miniature on a daily basis do so and do so well.

Tripod was vaguely interested in the print process but more for the paper, not the fish. He's a strange animal who doesn't like any fresh food except tuna. He won't eat fresh fish, chicken, turkey, any kind of meat. He will only eat a particular type of cat food and dry cat food. When he first arrived, he didn't know how to eat dry cat food and would just swallow it whole without chewing it. While I figured out how to do the Heimlich on a cat, he figured out that he needed to chew.

Fish cards

I finally found a rainbow trout today after much searching. I was getting ready to go ice fishing myself to get one! I played around with some prints, trying to get a clear image which was being tricky. I'd get the body and the head would be blurred or it would be wet on the gills.

The gyotaku technique really is fish rubbing and I felt like I was giving the trout a massage in the end, but it seems to be the best way to get the imprint of the fish onto the paper.

I tried partial prints onto some card stock to see if they'd translate into greeting cards and it worked fairly well. I then enhanced the original prints with watercolour and a touch of ink. I'll put a couple of these in my Etsy shop. The design wraps around the outside of the card and the inside is blank.

Starts and progressions

Perhaps I'm the odd one out, but in pretty much everything in life I have several things going on at once. I ready several books at once, altering titles each night. I make several pieces of jewelry of various kinds. When I knit, I have a complex piece and a simple piece to do. And when I draw or paint I have several pieces that I work on alternately.

Maddy WIP
9 x 12, coloured pencil

Tonight, its three pieces I'm working on. The portrait of my niece, and a rough start of a piece in which I've laid down basic colours and shapes in oils and will now work on building it. This is a friend's daughter who loves dancing, twirling around in her 'princess' dress - a pale green confection of organza with roses and all the pretty things little girls love.

The third piece is a seascape a shoreline including rocks and water, but its not fit for human consumption yet. I need to make the rocks look more like rocks than balls of putty. It too, is in oils.

Maddy

I've started another portrait. This time of my niece Maddy, currently studying at Oxford in England.

I did a portrait of Maddy many years ago when she was a toddler and visited me in England. As a few years have passed since then, its time for another portrait.

This is coloured pencils - Prismacolor - on Colourfix paper. Again, not sure of my choice of background colour for this one. The paper is a grey rose and is almost too similar in some skin tones. But I'm into it now so let's see what happens.

Don't worry Maddy, the skin tone will not be all blotchy and weird like it is now. This and the next few are the ugly duckling stages of the portrait, where I usually want to toss the whole thing. But it will come together. Crossing fingers...

Lake Louise

Lake Louise
5 x 7 oils on panel

Lake Louise is the reference image kindly provided by Debbie Later for the Virtual Sketch Date for February.

Its funny because I have a photo of me at this same lake, at virtually the same viewpoint - as do likely thousands of others who visit Banff to experience the mountains. The lake in summer is an amazing turquoise colour, fed by glacier springs from the mountains. The skiiing there is beyond compare and I'd highly recommend a visit if you're anywhere nearby.

Landscapes are not my strong suit, but I like to keep trying in the hopes that they'll do what I want them to one day. This little piece was fun to do and I find if I paint them quickly, concentrating on values and shapes without fiddling with details, they seem to come out better. This one may have some adjustments to it but for now it stands.

Capelin print - enhanced

Capelin
Gyotaku print with watercolour & ink
5.5 x 7

I've been experimenting with gyotaku or fish printing and the initial results are on Watermarks.

The original prints are quite lovely just as they are in their simplicity, but the addition of detail and other colour enhances them more and adds a new dimension. Each print is very unique in its own way and quite limited in edition. For this fish, I took 7 or 8 prints and that's it. Its odd, because of the experimental nature of the fish that I used, the prints even smell slightly fish like. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, but definitely adds to the realism of it.

I will continue to add to the prints with different mediums to see where I go with it. And I will tackle some other fish which should give me much more promising results in terms of detail and realism. However, I rather like the movement and lines in this little guy. If you click on the image, you can see a more detailed version of the print/painting.

Kevin - complete

Kevin
11 x 14 watercolour & pastel

This is the final update for the portrait that I've been working on for the study group.

I started it in watercolour and it lacked some oomph. I'm always a little timid about watercolours and don't want to muddy them. But then I end up too weak. So I added some pastel to this as well as more layers of watercolour and am pleased with the final result.

The portrait was a fun one to do and challenging as well. There is always great appeal for me in trying to create skin tones and expression and I learn something new with each portrait that I complete.

Something fishy

Capelin study I

watercolour 5.5 x 8

Today I went to the supermarket to find a fish and came away empty handed. It seems winter and snow make people hoard and the fish counter held a vast quantity of crushed ice and nothing more - literally.

So then I figured I'd go for a frozen fish. I wanted a whole one. A simple request you'd think, living on an island wouldn't you? Noooooo, nothing again. Lots of filleted, sliced, diced and pieces but not a whole fish.

So I ended up with my own store of smoked capelin. Capelin 'roll' in late June or early July in Newfoundland. These small silvery fish launch themselves in the thousands on the beaches to spawn and people gather them to eat. Its virtually a tradition in Newfoundland and I have an opinion on overfishing, but I won't go there right now. Personally, I don't care for them. They've got a strong taste to me, but others adore them. Smoked they're not too bad, but I don't go out of my way to get them. In Newfoundland people like to share and there always seems to be a bag full of them landing on the doorstep.

However, I digress.

All of this is Robyn's fault. She put a bug in my ear about a printing process and now I have to do this. Over the next couple of days, if the experiment works, I'll show you what I'm talking about.

For now, here is a little smoked capelin waiting to join his friends in a bath and become hydrated. Keep your fingers crossed. And tomorrow, I'm off to find a real fish! Living on an island...hmph.

A touch of sun

La Jolla Cove, San Diego
5 x 7 oils

We don't seem to have seen sunshine here for a week or more and I was craving it when everytime I looked out the window it was snowing again.

This reference was in the All Media Art Event on WetCanvas and it spelled summer to me. So I pulled out my oils and a small canvas and this was the result after about an hour. After investing a some new flat brushes, it almost became an 'aha' moment using them to place values in this painting. Things just seemed to flow for the rest of the day art-wise. I'd better take advantage of that flow before it disappears again!

Bruce

Bruce

coloured pencil 9 x 12

I usually don't like drawing really hairy dogs. It is time consuming and ends up being confusing. However, letting the paper work for me helps a lot, as it did with this loose portrait of Bruce, a Scottish terrier. These terriers are sweet dogs, if not a little stubborn and somewhat protective.

Another snow storm greeted me this morning, worse than the other day and this was the view out of my studio window at 7am. Are we seeing a pattern here?? I waited til 11 or so to head to work and by that time the snow had changed to rain and the roads were rapidly clearing. How many weeks of winter are left? Anyone want to do a house swap??

Kevin - update

Kevin WIP
11 x 14 watercolour

I've been adding a few layers in watercolour to my portrait study group reference. I am too timid with watercolours and need to do something large and loose to break my habit of small and tight. I'm slowly building the colour and shading in the face and am wary that I don't do too much and make it muddy, yet not enough to make it look insipid.

Frost

Frost study

oils 5 x 7

Its been a snow day here with a raging storm throwing down snow and blowing it around in 100k/hr winds since the wee hours. Most of the city has been shut down but its due to stop by the morning and things should get back to normal again after close to 30cm of snow is down.

Frost on windows is a rarity these days with insulated houses and efficient heating. I remember as a child frost was very common on the inside of windows on cold winter mornings. I loved the patterns that it made, like feathers or ocean waves.

There is a long back porch on my house that houses feed and wood and potatoes and the window of the screen door occasionally has the right conditions of moisture and cold air for frost. The other morning, the planets were in alignment and frost patterns were there.

I took a photo of the patterns, as they are short lived once the sun comes up, and this morning with the storm outside, I did a study of frost patterns. I think the patterns would translate well into graphite, painstakingly slow, but lovely when done.

Gathering

I'm in the throes of a larger oil painting but when I find a few minutes to spare I still draw. Its almost reflex action at this point. This was a little sketchbook drawing that will be the basis of a larger piece. Its a friend's daughter who sucks her thumb and twirls her curls at the same time. Its adorable.

I don't know about others, but I have pieces of unfinished art or jewelry in various stages in various rooms of the house. This past weekend I gathered them up and brought them to the studio as I'd bought a new storage unit to house the waifs and strays.

This is one of the jewelry pieces that is now on Etsy. I used a lovely stone that I found on the beach locally. The lines going through it couldn't have been better designed and remind me of art nouveau designs, so simple and clean.

Fish eye

Fish eye study
coloured pencil 8 x 5

The glassy eye of this fish attracted me as did the textured skin. Greys, blues and greens with that firey eye. I couldn't resist a small study of it. I'm not even sure what the type of fish is, some sort of perch I think.

I enjoy the process of drawing and seeing if I can produce textures and patterns. The challenge is endless.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, mice start to breed... I wonder when the cat will notice?

Elizabethan dog

Biscuit
9 x 12 coloured pencil

I started this piece back in November as a work in progress, then got waylaid by other projects. This portrait is of my dog, Biscuit, who died about 3 years ago at the age of 16.

He had amazingly thick fur and a ruff of fur around his neck like a lion's mane that always made him look like he was wearing an Elizabethan collar. You could sink your hand into the fur and it would cover your hand completely. That probably explains why so much of it was on my sofa!

This piece was done from a photo taken while he sat in a snowbank the winter before he died. On close inspection while drawing his eyes, you could see the reflection of the living room window in his eyes. He'd watch carefully for signs of movement then rush to the front door to be let in.

Still missed, my friend...

Three down, one to go

Self portrait
9 x 12 coloured pencil

I've completed the self portrait for the forum challenge and that finishes the trio of portraits that I was working on more or less simultaneously. I just have one more on my easel now and hope to do some work on that watercolour tonight.

I have a couple of small table and travel box easels that are perfect to put pieces on while I consider them for a few days after I think I've finished.

I'm still doing a little work on the studio pet mouse and think he may well have a friend soon...

Studio pet

I had ever intent to do some serious drawing and painting tonight, then the phone rang and I got sidetracked into conversations. Sitting next to me on the wall by the laptop in the studio is a telephone jack that is unused. For reasons unknown to me I thought it needed some embellishment. So this little mouse was born. The studio pet, as yet nameless.

I used some coloured pencil on top of a pencil sketch, but the latex paint on the wall surface isn't accepting it well. I should have used paint for it, but too late now. Its in progress and I'll figure out how to complete it with a mix of mediums.

Many years ago I had a conservatory with a long blank wall which I filled with paintings of various objects, all realistic. It became a talking point for neighbours and people who visited as to what I'd put on it since the last visit.

Yes, I know I do need to get a life....

Meanwhile, I have completed the portrait below and will leave it for a few days to see if it needs adjusting. Already I can see that I need to soften the shadow line in the neck area. It should be in the hands of its owner early next week.

The third and a treat

Kevin

watercolour 11 x 14

This is a fun piece for the portrait study group that I'm in. I originally started it in graphite then a few glasses of wine last night made me try it in watercolour. This is first layer or two of colour and I'm taking my time so I don't muddy it too much. Now I'm officially working on three portraits at once. Yes. 'nuff said.

Then there is this little gem that I bought on Etsy to treat myself with. Its a beautiful journal with exquisite pages of Arches paper coloured in black ink, water, as well as green, red, blue, and yellow liquid acrylic paint. The combinations of colour and ink turn each sheet into its own work of art almost. I think I'm scared to put a mark on it, but it does inspire me and its rather like looking at the flames in a fireplace in terms of seeing images and shapes.

A new me

I'm taking part in a self portrait challenge at WetCanvas in coloured pencil. I've done lots of self portraits in a variety of mediums over time, but realized I'd never done one in coloured pencil or not a complete one.

I wanted a pose that was slightly different and looked through some photos and found one taken of me in the car with my glasses on looking sideways. The photo quality wasn't great, but I liked the composition and knew myself well enough to make up the lost detail with a degree of accuracy.

And this is the result so far in stages. The lighter images were taken in early morning light, the golden ones in artificial light. The gold photos more accurately depict the real colours of the piece. The drawing is being done on dark sand coloured colourfix paper with prismacolor pencils and is 9 x 12.

Portrait update

Keith
9 x 12 coloured pencil

Here's an update on the portrait I'm working on. Not a huge update as I haven't had a lot of time to work on it tonight. I'm hoping to have it finished before the end of the week. I still need to work on the mouth downwards. I just hate this artificial light for taking photos! Nothing ever looks as it should.

Steve Chipman showed me the daylight lamp that he uses to photograph his work and I think I'll have to invest in one of them to get some decent photos of work at this time of year.

I've neglected my waterscapes this week, as I've been concentrating on portraits, but I hope to start a new painting tomorrow. I'm going big! Its difficult for me to break away from the smaller scale pieces that I've been doing. I have a 24 x 30 canvas that I just may tackle - or I may wimp out and go for the 18 x 24. Either way, I want to start a series of waterscapes that are a similar size and that are more substantial than the usual 'daily painter' size. Of course there will still be the smaller ones to fit both budget and wall size, but I think impact and presence will come from larger pieces.

I was also looking through Legion Paper's site for some good watercolour paper and found they provide sample kits at very reasonable prices, of a variety of types which is just what I was looking for. I ordered a set which have arrived and I'm thrilled to get them and hope to put them to good use very soon. There are about thirty 8 x 10 sheets which are quite big enough for me to do a reasonable painting on and also see how I like the type of paper. Living on the island, I'm limited at times to what I can purchase or sample, so I may be back to Legion's site to look for more once I find one that I love.

More portraits

Update 2

Keith - 1
9 x 12 coloured pencil

I've made a start on my next portrait - actually I'm doing two at once. The other is a self portrait for a challenge in WetCanvas. Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment.

I'm liking the Colourfix support more and more now that I'm understanding how it grips the pigment and how much I can manipulate it. I've tracked down a Canadian source for it now, as I'm still using the package of paper that I bought in California and don't want to order cross border with the current market not quite so dollar friendly.

Just in case others are looking for colorfix paper in Canada, here are a short list of some reputable suppliers I've found so far. If anyone knows of other suppliers in Canada, let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Aboveground Art Supplies
Opus Framing & Art Supplies
Wallack's