…..today’s prompt was Blind Fruited
Carla Sonheim always comes up with interesting assignments. Instead of drawing a piece of fruit without looking at the paper (blind contour drawing), Carla wanted the fruit to be blindfolded. Here’s my blind apple. Enjoy!
Oops, I dated this incorrectly. He should be Jan 6, 2018. I changed it on the original.
….this comes from the first prompt of the new year long course that I am taking with Carla Sonheim
Threading lightly is a technique where you run cotton thread through wet watercolour and randomly lay it onto paper and press it with a brayer. We could leave it as an abstract piece or look for a shape within. I decided to find a shape and discovered this quirky duck. Tomorrow or later in the week I’m going to try this technique with ink and perhaps try a landscape.
…..that’s right, toilet paper
As part of Carla Sonheim’s on-line class, 365: 2017 Year Long On-Line Class we were shown how create drawings using liquid ink and toilet paper. First you fill a dropper with ink and then use it to draw an object. The lines will be thick and thin and sometime bubbly. Once the drawing is complete (the simpler the better) you take one ply toilet paper and place it carefully over the drawing. Let the ink absorb through the paper and then remove it. You should notice that the line quality of the drawing changes. Once it has dried completely the fun really starts. Using a fine tip black marker you can now add details to your drawing. If you have a white gel pen you can also play with it by adding detail on the black lines. Here are some of my creations. I warn you that this can be very addictive.
……what are liquid drawings you ask?
This was a technique introduced to me by Carla Sonheim that I loved doing. First you tear up some paper into an irregular shape, then you find a subject to draw and finally you draw that object (bicycle, glass bottles, butterfly) within the edges of the torn paper. You literally make the object take on the shape of the paper. Try it. It was fun to do.
…..thanks to Carla Sonheim for getting me back to drawing
After weeks of inactivity in making art I’ve finally opened my art journal and made two new entries. I’m participating in Carla’s 365: A Year Long On-line Class. Every day there’s a new video with interviews, quotes from artists or art assignments.
…..Carla Sonheim gave us as assignment to go out and shoot 100 photos in the neighbourhood
I love this type of assignment. It gets me out walking and it makes me really look at a my surroundings. Once we took the photos we were to share our favourites. Here are 68 of mine.
…..when a scribble is art
If you had told me a few years ago that scribbling is a viable art form I would have scoffed at you. Today, however, I have a new profound respect for the scribble. It started a few years ago when a well renowned artist introduced me to the art of scribbling. He thought that my students might like the activity. After trying it myself first and finding that it wasn’t as easy as it looked I put it aside and forgot about it.
Flash forward to the on-line year long art class that I’m taking right now. It started in January and every day Carla Sonheim posts a video with a quote, interview, photo assignment or drawing assignment. Some of the videos are very short, only 30 seconds or less and others are a little more detailed with actual instructions.
On day 56 we were given as assignment to take a pen and start scribbling. It was very addictive. I loved it and want to do more. I tried it with pencil but it works much better with a pen or fine tip marker. Give it a try. Start with just a random scribble and see what you come up with and then darken areas with more scribble to bring out what you see. After that choose an object and try to copy it by scribbling.
One of my assignments for my on-line art class with Carla Sonheim was to go for a walk and take 16 photos, one every minute. The first walk I took was at night and the next day I went out again in the late afternoon when the sun was still up. The shots were to be spontaneous and random and not planned out.
For the layout I used an app called PhotoGrid.
….in this part of the world spring is not close at hand
Looking at blogs that originate in Ireland, the United Kingdom, parts of Europe and the west coast of North America I’m amazed to see so many gardens that are already in bloom with beautiful spring flowers. With some luck we may see our first daffodil in late April but most of our flowers won’t appear until May.
To get us in the spring mood I painted some simple made up flowers using watercolours and circle shapes. For the background I used a scraping technique that I learned from Carla Sonheim. Once the paint was dry I added more detail, sometimes with more paint but mostly with black ink from a Sharpie. I liked the final product so much I adapted it for my students and when I return to school this week I will plaster the walls with their beautiful gardens of flowers. I will share their work with you later this week.
….thanks Cee for hosting Odd Ball Photo Challenge
In Carla Sonheim’s, Year Long Video a Day: 365, on-line class we were assigned a photo challenge. We had to stand in the middle of a room and with our eyes closed start shooting the space while turning around. Here are a few shots of my living room that were taken with my eyes closed.
Mama Cormier 