The Holiday Hangover....

Let's talk holiday hangovers

a week has passed since we came home from the beach

and I think I may still have a touch of holiday -itis

I am wafting through the days in some sort of daze

partly because every now and again I get a whiff of salt in the air

this whiff may or may not be due to the fact that Sinus insists on dousing all food in salt 

in what I can only think is an all out attempt to harden his arteries

and excite his blood pressure

but whether it is Sinus or that the winter beach is just too hard to let go of

I have to say motivation has been on the scant side

I finished off this page of shells

which is not a shell from the beach but is one that Phantom had handy

and I finally finished off this sketch from  a photo that Mary took on the Fourth of July

it was a task and a half as it has been many many years since I have drawn anything similar

plus I was battling not just a holiday hangover

but also, perhaps, maybe, a little bit of a Fireball induced one

I am such a lightweight when it comes to alcohol it is embarrassing

but hangovers aside, I loved every challenging minute and the many cups of tea it required

I am thinking there may be some more streetscapes in my future

I am not alone in my holiday post holiday malaise though

 Mushu the wonder mutt also appears to be suffering

I keep finding him standing in the middle of the yard/ bed/ garden/ new sofa

nose in the air, sniffing and looking wistful

of course this could be due to the fact that he is girding himself

for the teasing and taunts of the neighbourhood dogs

which are surely accompanying him on his afternoon walks

because before we went up the coast we gave him a reverse poodle

and shaved his legs but left some hair on his body in a nod to the chilly winter winds

he does have a bit of a white hairy potato on toothpicks look about him

which is endlessly hilarious

plus he didn't bring half the beach home every day

So as I contemplate how long it will be before we can head back to the beach

I am painting up some little accordion artwork book things

they are going to come together I am sure

but they are at that scruffy stage

and I hate to leave them in that state for me to face in the morning

so I am going to get back to it

happy painting all...xx

Fireballing ....

A couple of weeks before we headed off to the beach for winter break

my recently turned legal age baby... otherwise known as Phantom Steve

came to me and asked to be driven to the bottle shop

and yes I do think if you are old enough to be able to buy and consume alcohol you should also be old enough to drive yourself

or at the very least have your learner's permit... kids these days right

anyway I must admit to being a little taken aback that lightweight Phantom made such a request

and enquired as to what she might be wanting to purchase from said liquor store

and with a twinkle in her eye she informed me she wanted to try

Fireball

 which is cinnamon flavoured whisky

seriously... Cinnamon flavoured whisky

now this is concerning to me on a number of levels

I love cinnamon in baking

in fact Swedish cinnamon buns would make it onto my last meal menu

but outside of baking I truly believe cinnamon is evil stuff

this was not helped by a rather unfortunate incident

which involved a bet to consume a mouth full of cinnamon altoids

totally not worth doing to get Phantom to clean her room I must say

and then there was the surprise Big Red Gum incident

not to be confused with the surprise yolk incident which is a story for another day

but in short while Phants loves cinnamon flavoured anything

I however, am no lover of the stuff and held grave fears for just how awful this may be

but hey being young and stupid and trying disgusting things is part of being an 18 year old

and she did seem to be exhibiting quite the enthusiasm for trying it

Of course such enthusiasm led to the concern that my little baby

may be heading down the booze hound path

and yes I know it is perfectly normal for university students

to consume copious amounts of alcohol

but part of me immediately worried that she was going to do a full Miley Cyrus on us

and start wearing butt skimming shorts, chop off her hair, sticking her tongue out all the time and contemplate getting some meaningful ink tramp stamp

but I put my fears aside and reminded her of the whipped cream vodka she wanted to try and how that turned out... or the god awful Rambler incident of recent weeks

but she swore that it got a huge recommendation

on youtube... yep she is is getting booze reviews on youtube

In the end the tipping point for getting in the car and heading off with her

was the fact that she offered to buy it herself

which due to the fact that Phants was born with frightenly short arms and crazy deep pockets

is reason enough to put aside my worries

and witness the miracle of seeing those moths fly from her wallet when it is opened

After all that stress, worry, teasing and miracle wallet opening

I would like to be able to tell you that I was right

and it is awful on a level that can only be dreamed of

but no... it is freakin delicious

plus it was fabulous to paint and I loved having it sitting on my desk for a day

 felt very bohemian

but the only way she is letting me share Her bottle of the stuff

is if I publically acknowledge the fact

so Phants...you were right 

now can Mummy have a Fireball tonight please

happy painting and Paint Party Friday all...xx

A morning walk ...

I am at my favourite spot in the world at the moment

So I thought you might like to join me on my morning walk

Not paintings I know but it was just so lovely

The cold makes for an amazing sun rise

And they are worth still not being able to feel fingers or toes

Enjoy and happy painting all...xx

Did you miss Tuesday's post... 

Here is the link in case you want to see some more perfume bottles http://traceyfletcherking.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/coming-back-for-more.html

Coming back for more...

The blithe statement at the end of the last post that I was off to paint up the deer heads

may have been a touch premature

as they appear to be a little more challenging than I expected

so you are getting new sketches of a perfume bottle or two

After a few rather disastrous attempts at the deer

Which kept looking oddly like cows that had been run over by steamrollers

I turned to finishing off some perfume bottles to get my confidence back

Not that it was that shaken... more stirred perhaps

And a perfume bottle or two put it to rights

especially as they were both able to be painted in my favourite blues

One of the things I love about drawing and painting is the whole risk of it

every now and again you get something that turns around and bites you on the hand

 nothing you do can save it... and it bites you again and again

it may be a seemingly innocuous looking mug

or something as different as a miniature cardboard deer head

you never know which things are going to have a piece of your drawing sanity

it is one of the great challenges and always keeps it interesting

never knowing if this is the painting that is going to explode in your hands is half the fun

the whole high creative stakes thing is kind of what I love if I am honest

I know sometimes people get freaked out by the whole ruining it phenomenon

and I am not entirely immune to that

but I like that slight quickening of the heartbeat before you put paint onto a drawing

I like the leap, the whole risk factor, the who knows how it will turn out feeling

It is fabulous how it makes me concentrate and focus and not draw on automatic pilot

I like that the solution has to be puzzled out and the process is not immediately obvious

if I am feeling that then I know I will be creatively engaged and interested

It makes me happy just thinking about it

After all it isn't exactly going to have huge consequences is it 
if a painting is mucked up

the world isn't going to suddenly tilt on its axis leading to total annihilation

the way it would if I was to ever see the end of the washing pile

there is no physical risk to life and limb

Though perhaps Sinus may feel there is a risk to his life and limb

if I am having a bad drawing day

It doesn't mean life is bad, or I am bad, or that I can never laugh again

or that I will never create anything of worth ever again

I am not going to suddenly lose heart and quit drawing because I made a dud

It's just not that big a deal in the scheme of things... It is just pen and paper and a bit of paint

I have destroyed my share of paintings... every week

And there isn't a sketchbook on the shelf that doesn't have pages that are appalling

but I can say there isn't one piece of work that has made my life worse

I haven't learnt from all of them

I have repeated the same mistakes... Many times

I have mucked up and destroyed perfectly promising starts

But then I have also had success clutched from the jaws of defeat

Pieces that make me happy and bring back great memories

Finished work I am proud of, or moderately tolerant of as well as some that I think are utter crap

But they are all mine... My time, my effort, my results

imperfect, a disaster or fabulous... it just doesn't matter

it means that I have had time to paint and draw

The bad ones make me more creatively resilient

And the good ones keep me coming back for more

So bring on more squished cow deer heads people... I am ready for them

happy painting all...xx

The last post link is here...

Blame Sinus...

Every now and again I am forced to wonder how on earth Sinus and I have lasted for 25 years

now I know I am no picnic to live with sometimes

and all three of us are pretty strong in the pester power stakes

especially Phantom... she is truly gifted in wearing us down

but this week Sinus has driven me nuts harassing me into writing this post

personally I didn't think it was post worthy

but in the interests of humouring him so that he changes the subject

and also so that I am not forced to stab him in the eye with a pitchfork while he sleeps

I am writing this lame arse post
I wanted to write about the deer heads, or the model hand that I bought

and yes it has been arranged to make rude gestures

I have never pretended that we are into highbrow humour around here

so in defiance of Sinus's badgering I did sneak it into the drawing

but if you find the post boring then blame Sinus....

Costco has finally come to Brisbane

yep that's about the extent of it

well not quite because nothing is ever that simple with Sinus

Sinus and I braved the drive north to find it

which given the fact that Sinus can be directionally challenged was no sure thing

then he got distracted by the Bunnings next door to Costco

Bunnings is a big box hardware store for the non Australians

which was the cleanest Bunnings Sinus had ever seen apparently

I know this because he told everyone... employees, strangers, everyone

but once we got out of the cleanest Bunnings in the world we finally headed across the road

we then braved the line to join because Sinus may have overstated his having signed up online

turns out he was too cold to get out of bed and get his card

so huge line it was

but finally we had our cards and entered that cavernous wonderfulness

 that houses epic amounts of toilet paper and paper towels

it was rather weird as there was a strong sense of deja vu from our time in Florida

but not quite, as it of course has a huge number of Australian products

which made it familiar ... but not 

There were all our old favourites

giant jars of olives and peppers

breakfast cereal in containers so large that they could see you through the apocalypse

and those giant packets of crisps that could act as pillows for small animals

but then there were also some new wonders

huge packets of leeks that were actually affordable

compared to the normal cost that practically requires you sell a kidney

and giant packets of bed socks

which are necessities as we suffer through an unusually cold winter

not to mention my favourite pens for next to nothing

I was mightily excited by those pens

and perhaps I was a bit punchdrunk and went on about the pens a bit

but that pales in comparison to Sinus harassing me to draw the pens

and write about our Costco trip

it is no exaggeration to say he has "suggested" this post 21 345 times in the last four days

So there you have it

we went to Costco

we got cheap pens

we got lost coming home

and we have toilet paper for the next several months

I am now going to go and draw the miniature cardboard deer heads

that are new to the studio wall and are begging to be posted about

there are soooooo many deer puns I could be using right now

but in the interests of preserving marital harmony you have Costco

and hopefully I now have peace....

happy painting and Paint Party Friday all...xx

the midweek ramblings post is here if you missed it

Mid Week Ramblings...

Sketchbook Skool semester 2, "Seeing",  started last Friday

and in an attempt to make myself accountable and do the homework

 I am blogging this week's homework

We started by having to draw toast

yep toast... weird right

kind of gloriously weird though

and due to Phantom's celiac-ness, and my intolerance I had to draw some gluten free fruit toast

as that was all we had in the house

It is quite palatable when hot

but when it is cold it should be known as Spongebob Squarepants on a plate

I swear this stuff could absorb an ocean when it is cold

the second part of the homework was to lay down background colour quickly

then add detail slowly in pen, concentrating on observation

kind of fun even if I didn't get into the detail so much

I enjoyed it enough to give it another shot

and painted and drew the bloody kitchenaide mixer

again

it was quite meditative and gave me time to consider some mid week oddities

like the fact that my Dad came in for a visit yesterday

and it turns out we have matching hair at the moment

like seriously matching

I like to call it my electric badger look as it is very dark at the roots

but takes on quite a silver tip

and I now know who to blame for the fact that my hair permanently looks like my finger is stuck in an electrical socket as it grows out after chemo

Nice one Daddy dearest... thanks for those genes

Sinus man is also becoming quite the handyman and studio renovator

check out the rack he added to the wall to complete the studio makeover

beyond perfect for larger sketchbooks

I have no clue what happened to my old husband

who, quite frankly was about as handy as a one armed, drunken blind man

but I am keeping the new version

he is showing some serious skills

skills which included passing wind and laughing like a maniac while installing this beauty

but hey the stench dissipated and I was left with this wonder

It does feel as though my ramblings are starting to ramble

so I am going to leave it there

and get back to attempting to revitalise some urban sketching skills

thanks to a fabulous photo that my friend Mary took on the 4th of July

if Sinus can show new skills then surely an electric badger can

minus the farting I hope

happy painting all ...

I Know It's Cheesy...

I know it is cheesy

but I feel grate...

and not just because I finally got to use that pun

which, quite frankly, I have been storing for months

but because this week I had all of my one year scans and CT's

and poor lefty was podded, poked and squished

by the last twenty remaining people in the city who hadn't previously done so

and after a very long few days waiting for results

I was given the all clear for my first milestone

No evidence of disease and no evidence that it has spread

so if that isn't reason to feel grate then I don't know what is

In celebration of one year down and just four to go to be called cured

I went all out and drew

my grater

which goes to show how seriously I wanted to use that pun

but of course it was a touch boring and weird looking sitting on the page alone

and I didn't feel like drawing cheese

that would be too cheesy and punny even for me

so the food processor got a run

I tried to process some puns that were appropriate 

but that is embarrassingly lame

and after I had drawn it I realised that I have this other grater thing that I could have drawn

which is actually really cool and brightly coloured and interesting shape

it would have been a much better piece of work

but it didn't occur to me until too late

and I am not so into the pun that I would start again

so it is a mildly boring take on such fabulous news

But it is fabulous news no matter how bland the celebratory drawing

and I satisfied my constant need for bright colour

 by redrawing my pencil box from the tutorial thing from Tuesday's post

well it almost satisfies it... but not quite

I am feeling the need for brighter, stronger colour so I am off to work on more perfume bottles

happy painting all...xx

linking to Paint Party Friday

How I Do It...

So here is a bit of a how I do it post....

I often get asked what steps I go through

and what I use to get to a finished drawing so I took some photos and scans as I went

well I sort of did... I kept forgetting

but that is probably a good thing or this would have been 50 photos long

but this is a bit of a basic run through

I started with my pencil box

it has the dreaded, disgusting marmite jar on the front

which was a smart arse gift from Sandra 

who has been engaging in vegemite vs marmite wars with me for some time now...

and while I would like to not have such an abomination on my desk

it holds my commonly used pens and pencils perfectly

which perhaps means she is perhaps winning the war... for now

I worked in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook for this one

though I often work on loose paper as well

and used my usual Uniball eye fine pen

which is called other eye related names , like Uniball Vision in other places

no clue why companies do that... seems unneccesarily complicated doesn't it

I use sizes 2 and 5 watercolour brushes

which I pretty much use for every piece of work that I do

I'm not fussy about brands as I tend to be a brush abuser

though one here is an Art Spectrum and the other is Winsor and Newton series 7

I  don't go for the really cheap ones... they never work as well

or stand up to the abuse so mid range brushes suit me

For paints I love the Koh-i-noor brilliant watercolour wheels

these are my everyday paints and I just blu-tak them onto an old plate to form my palette

this is a serious love too... up there with chocolate and tea type love

I have so many different types of watercolours

but these are my go to for pure pigment and ease

I add a splodge of payne's grey from a tube to the centre on one wheel

and a blob of permanent rose to the other

payne's grey has to be the most versatile colour ever

perfect for shadows, or deepening colours

and permanent rose is the ultimate pink and works wonderfully with colours like orange

so with those additions I am covered for almost anything I would want to paint

the Koh-i-noor's aren't lightfast in the long term

but for work in my sketchbook or work I am going to be scanning they work perfectly

you can't go past the clear brilliant colour

I start with a bit of an outline in pen

if I work in pencil I am a bit precious and tend to not concentrate and observe

so pen makes sure I don't drift off with the pixies mid drawing

I am looking for the correct angles like along the edges of the box

and once that is right then I have a reference point to line the pens up against

again I am looking at angles and work from the far left first getting in the first pen

then over the the far right and get the ones near that edge in

then back to the left if you know what I mean

If I work from just one side then I am likely to get the scale wrong

and run out of room with four pens left over

so I go back and forth and work towards the middle

in retrospect it might have been good to scan those steps to make it a bit clearer

but I am not great at the whole planning thing at times

Once I am happy with the general positions I strengthen the lines up a bit

adding a a few details as I go

at this stage I always start to see all the places I have done a dodgy job

but I have learned to like the dodgy bits

It took time to trust that it will turn out

and no it doesn't always work

but it is a bit of paper and some scratchy lines

hardly worth stressing over

my sketchbooks and drawers are filled with almost drawings, some of which are truly awful

but there are also drawings that I thought were rubbish

but with a bit of paint turned out just fine

I have learned not to judge them as I go

nothing could stand up to the sort of scrutiny we often apply to our art

First layer of paint is usually quite strong in application

I am looking for the strongest areas of colour and also putting in the main shadows

I am not too precious at this stage either

a lot of people get caught up in shadows

but I like to look at it in terms of colour

the colours are deeper in places, and lighter in others

and I try to get those basics down

I am constantly looking up from the page to the box

lots of quick looks

not lengthy gazing and contemplating

more subject , pallette, page... subject, palette,  page... 

and I am constantly cleaning my brush as I go... it is like a nervous tick...

swirl the brush and look at the subject

check the colour and get it on the page

the quicker the better at this point so I am not overthinking it

I then strengthen up all the colours a bit more and correct any glaring errors

basically by painting over them

and if it is really bad then I use some gouache

which is the magic eraser of the watercolour world

but there wasn't a lot of paint to add to this one so it was just bits and pieces

like on the left hand pen and the marker towards the back

but basically the paint is pretty much like the previous scan

once I am happy with the paint it is all about adding pen

I am looking at adding detail and shape with the lines

it isn't just an outline but more about finding the edges

and also reinforcing the shapes of things

the lines on the top of the clips have directional lines so our brain reads them as receding

and the slight curve in lots of lines on the pens gives them a bit of shape

I also make sure that the pens that are sitting behind others are a bit darker

so it is clearer that they are shadowed and it is at that point that the front ones always emerge

Finishing off is always about grounding it on the page

so I added the shadows to the right of the tin

and strengthened the shadows along the front, top edge of the tin

 which helped it pop forward a bit more

I then added some light washes of blue and purple into the shadow

which lifts it and adds a bit of interest to what would be a fairly bland drawing colour wise

which meant I added some to the background as well

but it was looking a bit flat

so I picked up touches of green in the background

which tied into the green on the tin

and it looked pretty finished so I called it done

I worked on all three of these at the one time

adding paint to one as another dried

and pen to another while the other two were drying

I love working on a few things at once

which may say something about my attention span

 and speaking of attention span

mine is being sorely tested by such a long post

so I am off to do some drawing

happy painting all...xx