March 22, 2015
Spent a little more time working on this one. I want some of the book paper to show through in the background, so I am working with chromatic black and zinc white for drapery as they are more transparent than the ivory black and titanium white I usually work with – and used for the crane. I combined them with a generous amount of linseed oil to work with them as glazes. It needs a lot of work yet and I have to decide how much I want to show through. Still a work in progress…
March 15, 2015
So I’ve started working on a commission based on A Crane Called Frank. And I thought I would play with some of the oil mediums to see if they might be something I want to use in this new painting (which I’m calling Francine at the moment). I tried out Galkyd, Neo Megilp and Galkyd Gel. And in the process this small storm ensued.
And here is the beginning of Francine. I’m just building the background now. Chances are very little of this will be visible in the final painting, but we’ll see. I just need to put on a few coats of clear gesso to seal it really well and I will be ready to go.
Lastly, here are a couple of drawings from this week. One from a figure drawing class that I’m doing – no, she did not have an inordinately large head, I just messed up the scale – and a small drawing I did during the week while thinking about folded paper in preparation to begin Francine.
March 8, 2015
March 1, 2015
February 23
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” G. K. Chesterton
February 16, 2015
Quote courtesy of Robert Genn’s website Art Quotes. Painting courtesy of my long weekend, drawings courtesy of my determination to draw every day – even if it’s nothing to be proud of…
February 8, 2015
“Do something instead of killing time. Because time is killing you.” Paulo Coelho
February 1, 2015
One small painting and three drawings from this week.
January 25, 2015
“Your audacious life goals are fabulous. We’re proud of you for having them. But it’s possible that those goals are designed to distract you from the thing that’s really frightening you—the shift in daily habits that would mean a re–invention of how you see yourself.”
– Seth Godin
It’s almost the end of January and I am already behind. I have more items on my list than I have time to do them. That’s ok though. Good things are still happening regardless of my lists.
In an effort to improve my drawing skills, I am building the habit of drawing every day. I’m also trying to paint every week, although that just isn’t going to work out all the time. As much as I may have liked to, taking my easel and paints to Canmore last weekend to fit in a few strokes here and there between ski runs just didn’t seem all that practical. I did paint this weekend with the evidence below (still not finished…). And I have been drawing. Evidence of that below as well.
susanne semchuk 