Motivation - hahaha

I do not feel like doing anything. Much less the work this self-employed person has on the Damn it Do it list. Idon't really have a  list called this, but I should have one.

But the Daily Bun is freshly done.

Here's Step One:

Another widdle wabbit on a 7" x 5" piece of used Strathmore watercolor paper. I used a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen to semi-boldly sketch the outline of this petite beastie. With ink - well, (oops - haha) one must simply go and do the deed. One line I hope to somewhat hide with dark layer of gouache, and a longer-than-I-liked part of lip is already partially "erased" with a single-edged razor blade. Odd to think that through both twenty years making model horse tack and twenty years (over-lapped) making art the one constant has been boxes of single-edged razor blades. So it goes.

After using the above image as today's #InkTober  entry, I got out the tiny (SQUIRREL!! [Excuse me, it's breakfast time for the fuzzy tailed crew, and blue jays, chickadees, and crows]) metal box of gouache and watercolor paints and a water brush (brush with water in its barrel). A few broad swipes of a few colors - bun and background, and then settling to apply many strokes of "dirty white" mix  - mostly on the nose and rest of head. A few other muted colors were added as well. I guess a lot.

Another fine tool - literally - is the Signo Uni-ball ink pen in White. This was used to add more whiskers and also highlight a few areas. I tend to go back and forth with the various pens and brushes till an image yells, ""Yes! I'm finished! Please STOP!!!" (There have been times when I have not stopped...

Here is the final image. (SQUIRREL!) I remain thankful to the person who painted the original areas of color in this paper, and to my hubby who decided not to toss the watercolor block away. Minor miracles are better than none.

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Oct. 7 and 8 are Stillwater (MN) Art Festival dates. Our Booth number is 113. Due to flooding this year's fair is in a different part of downtown. No booths in actual park. But we will make this rainy start of weekend work. 'Cause that's what art fair artists do. I am thankful that we are not the artists awaiting yet another hurricane. A number of artists are doing that...

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Now, on to trying to make brain and hands and rest of body do the Real Work. Good luck with YOUR doings of the day!

Fare-thee-well,
Sue



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Jazz Rabbit #1

Re-use. Recycle. Doing it.

Hubby found a used tablet of paper and rescued it from another person's trash. So...

I cut one of the large pieces of used Strathmore watercolor paper into nine 5" x 7" pieces. Nice paper. The word "Wow" and other large strokes of paint are now abstract background for whatever might happen.

Here is the first painting:

Jazz Rabbit #1

This was FUN. Freeing. I was not completely in charge. Not that I am EVER completely in charge. It was TRASHED paper. Nothing to lose.

Used were the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen to create basic outline, and then some gouache to finish this wascally wabbit. Yes, Sharpie and regular ball point pen were used for whiskers and detailing eyes.

And that's about it.

The Spirit of the St. Croix Art Festival is in Hudson, Wisconsin this weekend. I might put some of these new pieces in clear plastic, and see what The Public thinks.

Ever onward - there are seven panels left (for another day) - the power of putting marks on paper seldom stops being exciting.

Fare-thee-well,

Sue

Days Off - Update

Not easy, but I'm working on it.
Some of this morning's doings:
Reading a copy of "Outside" magazine, and copying down a couple of quotes about those sorts of folks who free-climb steep shear mountains or run ultra-marathons, 'cause what's the challenge in just running a bit over 26 miles?

I also painted another bunny - a hare, to be exact. There is something more "mystical" about hares.
Here's the little gouache creature for the day:

There might still be things to be done with this little creature. Some more subtle bits of ink, perhaps. This bunneh does seem to have a life story, but I have no idea about what it is. That's part of the fun - to see who shows up out of the brush.

Not thrilled with section around mouth and muzzle. But overall it's not bad for a practice bun. And it's ALL Practice.

On to many tasks. And maybe sneaking off to a movie that I'd never PLAN to see. Maybe a personal challenge. "It" is playing at local theater. I've never seen a Stephen King movie - on purpose. But this one sounds slightly less horror-y? I can always not look.
We shall see.

Off to the days adventures.

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

Better - 16

Visits to coffee shops almost always leave me "better." Today's hour or two, well... maybe a bit more than two... again did the deed.

My tinnitus head had been unceasingly "LOUD" the past three days. Yes, I take the little helpful pill, but it wasn't helping much. Yes, it was much my own fault. Eating far more salty and sugary treats than usual, plus a bit of bourbon... and perhaps a sip or two of real coffee. One forgets that a bit of one or another from time to time usually doesn't spike the "sound," but a weekend of too much feasting on the stuff seldom sampled... Well, lesson re-re-re-re-re-learned. Again. Sigh.

This morning the brain was pretty much my friend again - and just in time. There is always too much to do, but without energy and urge, well, heck, let's just dink around all day and accomplish the barest minimum. Sure, I'm good with that. For way to many hours this year.

Morning and noon-time passed well. Bills paid, emails mailed, even a load of laundry finished. Garden photographed - yay, garden! But no art created. And artists probably should spend a bit of time now and then actually creating something that might be called art.

Luckily, that magic red bag from IKEA that daughter Tara gave me for Christmas is big enough to carry a small but wide variety of art supplies. 

After three o'clock I knew it was time to to escape. Now or never. NOW! A small table at Stillwater's Daily Grind was open. I caught up on various newspaper sports pages, rigged the laptop up to play good soft jazz (headphones on), and dug out that stuff that some of us use to make our stuff.

Here are two of three little doings with Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and various washes with gouache.

Paper is "whiter" than shown on monitor. And I truly was goofing off. Daring to trust the brush pen. Had I done more, the lines would have become more sure. But time was speeding by. 

There was also time for two chats with two guys about a wide variety of topics. The men knew eachother, and one of them I'd met before. Or so he said. Each chat was interesting, and I learned things about young people and I learned things about Main Street Stillwater. Time well spent.

But now it's time to mat the drawings and keep preparing for our weekend in Green Bay, Wisconsin. My home state is always pulling at me, though hubby points out that I've lived in Minnesota far longer than I did in Cheeseland. Doesn't matter. Packer Backer forever and always. And always fun to drive past Lambeau Field a time or two during ArtStreet.

Sigh and darkness is falling. 
It's only 8 P.M. 
It's 8 P.M. already!

On to the adventure of the evening.

Fare-thee-well,
and ArtStreet - here we come!
- Sue

A rooster named "Doppler"

No, I do not know why "Doppler"  is named "Doppler," but it seems to suit him even though I know him only through an on-line photograph.

He is a Frilled Serama, the world's smallest breed of chicken. The photo sent is probably larger than life-sized and then I cropped THAT and blew him up to about TURKEY size! (This was before I knew he was a tiny chicken.) Some day we shall speak of Actual Scale versus Perceived Scale.

This guy was painted on a 12" x 9 1/2" sheet of 140 # water-color paper. I wanted to see what gouache would do. I have used this paint only once or twice before. Time to see what happens.

Not trusting my free-hand drawing skills I worked out a large grid system for initial pencil drawing.
The brain fights between wanting to practice seeing and having the hand put the pencil exactly where the pencil should go AND accomplishing more than spending all day SLOWLY drawing a chicken. If the Old Masters could use tools to make marks more quickly then so can we. NO GUILT. Although if you have TIME then certainly taking  TIME to really observe spacial relations on a flat plane is well with the effort. Any exercise in seeing is a good exercise. Except stuff like staring directly at the sun or the lovely light of a welding torch being used...

Once the initial form was drawn it was time to get out the gouache. This opaque water soluble paint is simply FUN to use! Unlike traditional watercolor you can PAINT OVER MISTAKES. At least enough to not be afraid of making mistakes! Doppler was created with about six colors of gouache and three cheap brushes. No, not Cheep Brushes.

These are not the best grade of paints - but that's O.K. One feels more free to goof off and not worry.                                                          NOT WORRY!!! 
Brushes were simply the first ones touched. Yes, I knew I'd need a Liner for eye detail. But I used finger tip to plop in paint on comb and a few places on body, too. Why? Because we never got to finger paint as young youngsters. I still like using fingers for painting and pastels. Use whatever works for you!

If I had him to do over again, which I could..., I would probably start at the top and work my way down. Naw - grab the largest brush, dip it in the black paint and see what happens! I was curious to see how easily the feathers could be addressed. A modified dry-brush method worked from the very beginning. Whew. Knowing this helped me relax a wee tad, not that the always-alert rooster noticed. Tap tap tap. Dob dob dob.

As the minutes ticked by, and I had given myself a particular time in which to finish, I had to make decisions quickly. Some areas needed re-working. Bleah! But that's where opaque White is of great aid. Me being me had contaminated the pureness of color, and was too stubborn to squeeze more out of the tube. thus the shadowy areas created. We will call these areas Art.

It was great fun to know that this wasn't going to be an entry in a National Poultry Art Contest, yet I worked hard to get eye, beak, wattles, ear as correctly rendered as possible. I grew up around poultry but never thought to LOOK at them as a portrait painter would. Maybe this is as good a reason as any to Draw early, Draw Often.

Here is the final "Doppler."

The actual paper is much lighter, but Doppler's color is close to that in actual painting. Dob and peck. Check and recheck. My favorite part is, of course, his eye. Got that glint down quite well - luck or skill? Hard to say. If time permitted I'd still study and re-work beak. Beaks are hard in more ways than one!

No beaks today! Today will probably hold another cat. So. Many. Cats...

You will notice that this Challenge Blogging will not go in order. Such is life.

Time for actual studio work, ordering supplies, applying for shows, and lunch.
Goodbye, "Doppler" - May the real you be happily pecking away in Sunny Southern California even as we type.

Fare-thee-well,
Sue

www.suerowe.com
Facebook Page: Sue-Rowe-Studios