GREAT VIDEO!

My good friend, Ken Goldman, just sent me this video.  I wanted to share his process with everyone.  I love it.  Hope you do, too!

MOVING SLOWLY AHEAD!

This is my favorite of the sketches.  I have done all six but I am having a problem with scale.  The masks are too small for the size of my head.  Do I enlarge the masks or scale down my head?  This project is becoming more challenging than I had anticipated but should be worth the struggle.  I guess I have to redraw all the sections until I am satisfied.  I am getting anxious to put paint to paper but preparation makes all the difference for success.  Funny, Robert Genn's letter tonight stated just the opposite opinion.   Since watercolors aren't quite so flexible as acrylics, I think the planning is more important.  To each his own.

MASK SKETCHES COMPLETED!

I am satisfied with the mask images.  Can you identify these artistic women icons?  I was able to use my iPad at the Gallery even though there is no WiFi connection.  The 3G feature worked like a charm.  I googled the artists I wanted to honor, find images and enlarge them well enough to work from them.  I hadn't envisioned this benefit when I got the iPad.  For someone as myopic as I am, this is a fabulous feature.  

Perhaps today I will find the time to work on the rest of the compositions so I can start the painting next week.  I am enjoying  revisiting the life stories of these special women.

2nd DRAWING FOR NEW PAINTING!

It is difficult to photograph these drawings as they are graphite on tracing paper and I am not pressing all that hard on much of the drawing.  

I am pleased with this one as I was able to recreate the spirit of the contour drawings that Elizabeth "Grandma" Layton is known for.  They are full of spirit, imagination, intelligence and emotion.  She is a special discovery of an amazing woman with an incredible story. For some people, there are not enough superlatives to describe them.   I had the rare privilege to see a large exhibition of her work in a gallery in Lawrence, Kansas a few years ago.  I was in the right place at the right time!!!   I try to introduce her to many of may classes.  Check her out if she is not known to you.  Take the time to read about her background.  There is an out of print book published on her.  I was able to find it in my local library system.  There is a therapist in the Kansas City Area who worked with Elizabeth's daughter to create a "coloring book" of many of  her drawings as a therapeutic tool.  I have this book.  If you click on the title to this blog post it links to a website where you can purchase this book.  The t-shirts and bag images are of such poor quality that I passed them up but did purchase a poster.

This idea of mine is shaping up.  I can see there is going to be a challenge in scaling all the drawings.  Perhaps the computer can help with that.  

I will be sitting at the Gallery Concord tomorrow.  If you find yourself in the area, I hope you stop by.

INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN PAINTERS - FIRST STEP!

This is the first of six drawings I plan to do in preparation for my next painting.  I need to paint something without any collage material to enter AWS.  All of the work I have been doing this year involves collage, as that was part of what I was exploring.  I have had this idea of combining famous women artists of the past who inspire me for one reason or another with a self portrait.  I think this approach skirts copyright problems.  I am sketching on tracing paper and will transfer the image when I am satisfied.  I will have to reposition the image so as not to cut off the hand at an awkward place, namely the wrist!  I worked on my self portrait from a photo I had downloaded into the ipad.  This was so terrific to work from!!!  I could enlarge and bring it back at a touch and the screen didn't keep going dark like my computer screen does when there is no activity.  I could also play around with cropping.  I sat in a comfy chair in the living room with the drawing pad in my lap and holding the ipad in my left hand.  The mask is an image of Kathe Kollwitz.  Her work is perhaps the most moving of any artist I can think of.  If you are not familiar with her, do a little research.  You will become a fan.

SECOND CHILDHOOD!

This was done on my new i-pad by pulling up a photo of my drawing and then coloring it.  It is a combination of coloring book and finger painting!  I think I am in my second childhood with much more sophisticated toys.  The face is done with the "spray can" (airbrush effect) and the dots and cross hatching were a different tool and I don't know what that is called.  I am discovering more and more as I poke around try things out.  

Send me any images you have created digitally with a drawing program.  If I get enough, I can make a slide show .

MORE ABOUT THE I PAD!

This is a little image I created on the I Pad using the app "Art Studio"  It is only $.99!  There are quite a few choices of programs and since I was pretty much a novice, I thought I would start with a cheap one and learn how to manipulate things and then, if I wanted to, I could go with a more extensive program.  This little program has quite a few variables to play with.  It is hard to explain how this program works except it is very much like Photoshop and your finger moves over the screen instead of a mouse curser or a stylus, pen, pencil or brush, etc.  Like so many things visual, you actually have to do it to learn it.  This drawing/painting took me about 40 minutes.  

There were some interesting questions sent to me from the last post, so I thought I would attempt to answer them in this post.

The I Pad that I got is 32 G of memory and has the optional 3g capability to have internet connection anywhere with the phone service.  It turns out that you don't have to have the phone service all the time and pay every month.  You can be selective and activate it when you need it!  I will only need it when I travel so it doesn't add that much more to the cost of the device since I don't travel that much.  

Besides being  a fun toy, my main thinking about the value of this device for me is in traveling.   This I Pad can act like a sketchbook where I can do drawing and painting once I get the hang of it.  The images can be sent by e-mail back to your home computer (or anyone else, for that matter).

It is much more portable than my laptop.  If I am traveling for pleasure, not business, I mostly like to have e-mail capability plus certain data files.  If I am teaching, I am going to learn how to use a slide show like presentation rather than dragging lots of clip files of examples.  This will lighten the amount of material that I take significantly.  I downloaded the Keynote program to the I Pad and now I have to learn how to use it.  In addition, I will need a small portable digital projector and I will be in business!  

The add ons for the I Pad that I wanted are: A notebook protector cover.  It not only protects the I Pad but can act like an easel and allows for the device to stand on a surface in either landscape or portrait mode.  The second item is a connection that allows me to download photos directly into the I Pad from my camera.  The Apple Stores are always sold out of this item as it sells out instantly when they get a shipment!  I will probably order it on line.  The last add on is a cable that connects the I Pad to the digital projector (or, I think, a television monitor).  Since I haven't created any presentations yet, this can wait.  I find it easy to type on the keyboard screen so didn't want the blue tooth separate keyboard. 

So far, the e-book feature is not up to par for me, as I wanted art books with color photos to download.  So far, these are not available.  I tend to prefer books on tape to reading novels.  I get them free from the library.  I think the book feature will improve with time and I am looking forward to that.

NEW TOY!!!!!!!!

When the I Pad was first announced, my husband declared it a dud and predicted  there would be no takers.  He is a pc dude and I am an apple lover.  Guess who just STOOD IN LINE for several hours (you have no idea how remarkable this act is) on Friday when the 3g models became available and bought "his and hers" I Pads!!!!!  A slightly early birthday gift to me, a "Happy Un-Birthday to me" gift for him.  Shopping in the App store is like being a kid in a candy store!!!  I downloaded a $.99 painting program and this is my first finger painting since kindergarten!    This is going to be sooooo much fun.  It takes a little practice but I am up for the challenge.  Saturday we are driving down to Southern California for Mother's Day.  I will have lots of time in the car to play.  I am actually looking forward to being in the car most of the day.  Truly a miracle device.