I have quite a bit of traveling planned this Summer...from NYC to Copenhagen to Venice to Berlin and a few more spots. Very much looking forward to all the different colors, cities, and cultures in the coming weeks.
Some months ago, I uploaded a drawing of the front of our house. This time, I drew the back of the house---in the same style. Last time, I used a Pigma Micron 005 pen, this time, I used a Uniball Signo Gel pen---which made the drawing a bit looser. This is a large house in the Pacific NW Modern style (a late 70's incarnation) with characteristic big windows, skylights, and jutting angles.
I've been using this dot-grid notebook (which I originally I got with the intention of using as a planner - Thanks, 'Rona) to make random watercolor pages with my doodles. I can do this in a few minutes here and there to break up some monotony and build up a book full of just them.
We've all had times when the Coronavirus Quarantine Lockdown Insanity drove us to pour our emotions into our artwork. I mean, that's what we do, as artists! "Pensive Mother" was the first piece, created when I was feeling super low, lonely (despite my husband and daughter being home and well) - and scared for my daughter's (and the world's) future. After posting the image in a few Facebook groups, and people falling in love with her, the next day I created "Joyful Day". It was the emotion created with these pieces that guided their development. And I couldn't have asked for a better result!
As far as things that I can’t seem to shake off are concerned, it’s this fact that a place like Edinburgh where I live is akin to a village where everyone (artist folk in particular) seems to know everyone, and the patterns or quirks that emerge from this said thought process. In most collectives I’m a part of and/or are associated with, there’s what seems like an endless sense of crossover and overlap with fellow artists etc for lack of better words, which is lovely as it is insane... you know? All in all though, even if it drives me mad it does so in a strangely positive way and I’ve learned to live with that. So yeah, make of that what you will. :-)
Apparently, Blixa Bargeld of Einsturzende Neubaten and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fame actually did this to his school back when he was a lad! I needed an idea for a convoluted weird-as-they-come title, and after reading that story I knew I had something, heheheh :)
Sandman going to bed after a long nights work of putting others to sleep. As an adult I love sleeping the whole night uninterrupted, thus sandman is my hero. White pencil and gel pen on black paper.
"When the teachers asked me to play something, I would pretend that I was reading it and play from memory. I didn't fool them, but I didn't care."
- Vangelis (1943 - 2022).
This is the full spread in my moleskine of Return of the Polar Bear. It is after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, an artist from the 16th century, with my own changes.
The challenging thing with just using pen is that I can't paint over a mistake. I usually redo a face more than once. I didn't mean to make their face so stoic, it makes them look like a statue.
I've been seeing lots of new bird species around my neighbourhood, like robins and magpies!
I like to think this bird is watching me from the sea of uncertainty, and looking at all the things I will create in the future and secretly telling me to go on, without me knowing how they will turn out. And strangely, that is some kind of motivation for me. : .
This is the other half of Return of the Polar Bear, a drawing in my moleskine. It is after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, an artist from the 16th century. I began it as a way to try out his intricate use of line and hatching. The subject matter altered some along the way - his etching didn't have any animals, and of course mine had to be all about the animals. I also simplified. It turned out to be a wonderful lesson.