graphic design nerds are the best kind of nerds

a while back i bought a package of markers with seriously annoying names. but i made a little discovery hidding amongst the cutesy colors: Fandango Pink is just a fancy name for magenta, Hot Aqua is really cyan, Blazed Yellow is just plain old yellow, and Tuxedo Black is, well, black. add some mylar to the mix and what do you have? why, a completely masochistic art project! super fun times!





i drew all those freaking dots by hand (masochism, remember?) with each color on a separate sheet of mylar and then stacked them up with a little spacer between each layer. the layers only line up if you look at it dead center, from an angle the registration doesn't quite line up. makes it kinda hard to take a photo of, but in person it give it a cool 3D effect.

i've been wanting to incorporate a playing card into a drawing for a while now. in a normal card the images on each end of the card are identical, but i love the idea of them being the same but different. originally i imagined this as being the same person on both ends of the card, a sort of exploration into the duality of human nature. but the structure lends itself well to identical twins too. permanently linked and yet obviously distinct.

the whole drawing is only about 5x7 inches. i don't like the texture of this new cardstock (the surface doesn't hold up well after many waxy burnished layers) and it's terribly hard to draw a face at this size, but i still think you get the idea. if not, go educate yourself.

i really wanted to post something but the drawing i'm working on right now is not done yet. maybe tomorrow... i hope so! it's been fun/awkward/challenging and i'm ready to enjoy the final piece. i generally don't title things, but this one makes me think, "antici........pation!"

but i did do something "productive" this week. I have this old wooden trunk that was given to me for a birthday or xmas when i was about 10. i wish i had pictures of what it looked like when i got it. let me just say that it was purchased at a truck stop (not kidding) and that "country" and "whimsical" would not be inappropriate adjectives. it was absolutely hideous. i got rid of little patchwork bears and bunnies painted on the outside a loooong time ago but never got around to doing something with the inside, besides ripping out the quilted blue fabric & white lace that it was lined with. So i finally decided to finish it off with a lining. I cut myself a little lino-stamp and went to town on a big sheet of brown craft paper. Here's how it turned out:







not too shabby!

the deadline to enter Gamblin's torrit gray competition is fast approaching... will i manage to scrape something together in time?!?

actually, i shouldn't say 'scrape something together.' I listen to my headphones all day at work and this week i've been listening to a book on tape about procrastination. the author points out that one of the reasons that people procrastinate is to set themselves up with a safety net against potential failure or criticism. this way if your final product is less than perfect, you can blame the lack of time and not yourself. and if it's a success you give yourself an extra little ego boost because you can say to yourself, "if people think this thing i threw together at the last minute is good, they'd be blown away by what i can really do." this is also the reason that projects go unfinished, can't be a failure if it's not even done.

i absolutely do this. with everything, every time.

i'm not done listening to this book yet. i haven't gotten to the chapter where they tell you how to solve this problem... otherwise, this tube of torrit gray may go to waste.

i posted something a while back about checking out painting books from the library and have since gotten a request to be more specific. so. my library's art section is not very big but something is better than nothing, right? i try and avoid the generic 'how to oil paint' books that are ridiculously basic (i only need to learn what a filbert brush is once and i already know what happens when you mix red and yellow). there are also a bunch of catalog-type books that have lots of good images, but lack any sort of explanations regarding process or technique. i tend to grab books on portraiture or figures and since i'm after tips on technique i try to make sure the demos are in oil. below are the books that i have bothered to check out. i think these were all published in the 80s and early 90s and it definitely shows, but once you get past the dated hair and clothes, the techniques are still perfectly relevant. all 4 of these books have good step-by-step photos and explanations.
"Portraits in Oil the Van Wyk Way" by Helen Van Wyk
"Ramon Kelley Paints Portraits and Figures" by Ramon Kelley & Mary Carroll Nelson
"Portraits from Life in 29 Steps" by John Howard Sanden
"Painting Expressive Portraits in Oil" by Paul Leveille
(i also scan or take photos of the books before i return them so that i can refer back to them whenever i need to without having to re-check them out.)

hope this helps. :)

i found a loophole (don't you love loopholes?) to my art-selling problem. I have the option of donating the piece for the silent auction they're having at the show. if the piece sells, i get half. if it doesn't sell i get it back. my problem is solved and i've donated to a worthy cause at the same time! how come life doesn't always work out like this? it would be so much more convenient.

wish i could say i had some new art to post. let me see if i can scrounge something up... nope, i got nothing.