A Hot Mess

Posted on January 10, 2021 by Mama Cormier

….and back to drawing flowers

I’ve just started another year long course with Carla Sonheim. Lesson one started on Friday.

The first lesson is to draw a series of made up characters that represent a fictional family. We were to use a variety of media and techniques but the most important part was to have fun. I don’t know why but I wasn’t having fun and at one point I really wasn’t happy and I added water to my painting. I made quite the mess but I decided to let it dry and make something out of it with more marks and layers. Like I said it’s a bit of a hot mess but I don’t want to give up so I created a smaller piece with fewer characters. I’ll try a larger family later.

I’ve also gone back to my floral drawings. Today I drew a peony.

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Two Final Flower Crazy 2 Paintings

Posted on October 14, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Carla Sonheim for this wonderful class

I’m in the habit of purchasing on line art classes and then not completing every assignment. Luckily I have access to the class forever so I can always go back and see if I am more inspired later on.

The last class I purchased, Flower Crazy 2, kept me motivated throughout all eight assignments. The final assignment involved creating two paintings, using watercolour, gel medium, collage, ink and pencil or charcoal. There were numerous steps involved and with each step the painting evolved into these interesting abstract creations.

365 Days of Art – Collage Character

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Mama Cormier

…..day 48

In Carla Sonheim’s class today we were instructed to take some of our art papers and with our eyes closed cut out random shapes. Then we were to create a character of our choice. We weren’t suppose to have a character in mind when doing the cutting. Instead the character would appear as we tried to arrange some to the shapes.

Gluing the pieces down was the last step in the process. As we created a character Carla recommended taking a photograph of each version and move the pieces around until you came up with a character you liked.

I found one piece of paper that looked like bird legs running so I build my character around that. Here is the process that I went through before gluing my final character in place.

On my final piece I grounded my little roadrunner with a strip of ground and put a cloud over her head. To me she looked like she was running off to a party.

Share Your World – 2015 – Week 1

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..wow a new year of Share Your World with Cee

How do you get rid of pesky phone calls from telemarketers?

If I hear dead air for a second or two after I say Hello I know it’s a telemarketer and I hang up. Simple!

What are you a “natural” at doing?

I don’t know if anyone is a natural at anything. I know that people might think I’m a natural when it comes to art or public speaking but it wasn’t always that way. I had to work at it to gain confidence and even now I still have doubts about my abilities but I am always willing to try new things and take some risks.

How often do you get a haircut?

When my hair is short I try to get it cut every 6 to 8 weeks. When it’s longer it might be every two to three months.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “fun”?

Fun for me is creating art and being around friends.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I was grateful for having my entire family home for Christmas and having everyone together to celebrate B and G’s birthday. I also loved visiting and spending time with friends.

This week I’m looking forward to some quiet time with my husband before he has to go back for more surgery on his thyroid next Monday. I’m also looking forward to starting a new on-line year long art class with Carla Sonheim and Lynn Whipple called Year of the Spark.

I can’t upload my Year of the Spark poster that I made. How frustrating!

Table Top Drawing and Painting

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….some of the art that I’ve created in the last week

I’m taking an on-line class again with Carla Sonheim and Diane Culhane. This one is called Table Top Drawing and Painting and the focus is on contour drawing and using line to create depth. The materials we’re using include micron pens, pencil, vellum paper, watercolour paper, Prismacolour pencils, acrylic paint and wood and canvas.

So far I’ve completed lessons 1, 2 and 3 and have prepped for lessons 4, 5 and 6. Here are some of the completed pieces that I’ve done. The first two are contour drawings of still life.

In the second assignment we had to use black paper and create another contour drawing but use Prismacolour pencils and a variety of hatching lines to create depth and texture. This was a lot of fun.

In the last picture I used vellum paper and drew a contour still life using pen and a variety of lines (continuous, broken, dashes, dots, etc.). Then I filled in the negative space using Prismacolour pencils. This was also a great exercise.

The next three assignments use acrylic paint, glazes, moulding clay, paper, canvas and wood panels. Hopefully I can complete them this weekend.

Cheers!

Abstraction in Charcoal

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….learning a new technique

This week I started a new on-line art course with Karine Swensen. She is an abstract artist and a friend of Carla Sonheim. Our first assignment involved taking 8 to 10 pieces of paper and compressed charcoal and laying down some lines. The idea is to do this quickly without too much thought. It shouldn’t look like anything and if it did you were suppose to change it. After laying down one or two lines on each piece of paper you are suppose to go back and add more details. You can smudge the charcoal, use fingerprints, erase areas and use different types of charcoal.

My first four drawing were started with charcoal pencils, mainly because that’s what I had on hand. Today I found some compressed charcoal and started four more pieces. I went over some of the first pieces with the compressed charcoal and I used the kneadable eraser to take away some of the dark areas. I really enjoyed the process and can’t wait to find out what the next assignment will be. Sometime tomorrow I’ll receive the second video with an explanation and demonstration of the next task. Here are a couple of pictures of my first assignment.