Mama Bear

18 Minutes

Stare at Pinterest or  get in 18 minutes of painting before my lunch is over?

Oh, hi, there, Julie London!

40 minutes on my lunch break today.  Just wanted to stretch my fingers.

Filler

At work making sample applications and I got sick of using google and stock photos.

I read a post on Muddy Colors blog post reminding me of the three tone principal for laying out an image today and made a quick effort to reinforce the lesson.

10 minutes

30 minutes

I hate them.

I feel as if my alarm takes pleasure in my disdain for its necessary existence.
Playing about in Illustrator.  Vectors!

June - Highlights in Painting

Kamal - 2.4 hour painting session
Oil paint with Walnut oil medium

Feather Mask Study - 1 hour study.  Oil paint with walnut oil medium

Kamal
I found painting my friend Kamal a treat.  It was wonderful to be able to use dark tones and so much purple and blue in painting the shadows of his skin.  Kamal is a friend of mine who is a skilled woodworker and University Professor in Montreal.  He came to the session with a blazer, such is his sense of humour, to make the portrait a bit more interesting and stylized for the both of us.

Feather Mask
Light and dark, warm, cool, hot and burning.  Often as artists and people we end up getting too wrapped up with the meaning and imposed significance of things.  "Gold is known for its shine! How could I possibly portray that without using gold itself?"  Oh, wait.   Right.  We see light and colours and just like the dashes and dobs that make up an impressionist painting or the tiny ink dots that make the colours on a print out, blocks and patches of many colours build up the identity of an object.  Just an object, got it.  I didn't know if I'd be able to portray a golden look to this mask when I set out so I just jumped at it.  By keeping in mind that to portray the glint of gold I had to make certain of an intense highlight and certain aesthetic of shadow so contrast was key.   By building up the different colours it all came together.  It's just an object so paint the colours you see where you see them and stop thinking. A good lesson for any artist.

May Showers - Paintings

School is out of session and my hands are getting unhealthily covered with oil paint again (accidentally, I just can't help it.  I'm trying).  I had the chance to dabble for a session or two of still life painting in December but my friends have been amazing in the past two months.

I've been happily painting studies and testing out new painting mediums (in 3 hour sessions or less).  Solvents are deadly but more on that later.

 

These three paintings are of my friend Shannon, all done in 3 hours or less, done with oil paint, the last with walnut oil in stead of artist medium/odourless solvent.  

Shannon graciously read a book on my couch so that I could paint.  For these studies I was re-familiarizing myself with painting and trying to work out my process rather than focus on the figure/composition of the image.  I find there to be a short learning curve when I haven't painted for months on my colour mixing and identifying abilities.

The last painting in this sequence was painted atop an older study of a green teapot that I did not prime and I believe lent itself to the anemic look in her skin (She's pale but not this pale) that I don't feel I compensated for enough while mixing and thinning my colours.  Overall I still believe this image to be a progression.  Working with WALNUT OIL instead of artist medium and solvent was a new experience and the painting went so poorly that I almost gave up on walnut oil immediately but recognized the learning curve.  The more I paint with the oil as a medium alone the more I'm enjoying the blending and layering properties of my oil paints.  Try a new medium on the fly to see what comes of it.  

I'm making a switch for my health and longevity and trying to eliminate solvent as a medium in my painting process.  In my last year of my Bachelor of Illustration program I spent three solid days painting a good 18 hours a day.  My workspace was in my bedroom (never do this).  These three blurry days I used the orange scented 'non-toxic' solvent having been warned the dangers of solvents.  My bedroom door was open, I had a fan blowing fumes away from me and my window was open (even though it was bloody cold).  I disposed of rags regularly and took breaks from my room.  At the end of the three days, work completed, I was so dizzy from the chemicals that if I sat up I would be reeled back to a horizontal position.  I'd overdone the painting and it took me a solid two days to recover from what I'd done to myself.  I couldn't do anything but lay in my bed barred from any vertical movement.  To this day if I smell the orange solvent I feel sick.   Since then I have switched to odourless solvent (Yes, it is toxic) and it bothers me after a time and is poisonous but I take some precautions and, as previously mentioned, have begun to weed out the use of it.

Healthy and Safety

Precautions:

Work in a well ventilated room

Turn on a fan to blow the fumes away from you and your model

Open a window

Take breaks away from the work area

When using solvents use a small mouthed container

The smaller the surface area of the solvent that is exposed the less it evaporates into the air

Clean not only the bristles of your paintbrushes but the handles as well since at least trace amount of paints and solvents transfer inevitably and seep into your skin

The number one spot on the body that toxins seep in through is under the fingernails

Scrub your hands and fingernails with a nail brush afterwards

Wear a barrier cream on your hands and forearms (gloves would be better) if you have a tendency to get paint on yourself

Do NOT leave open solvents containers around

Keep your paintings away from your sleeping area as they continue to fume

Do not wipe your hands on your clothing, the toxins seep through to your skin and poison you

Wear a frock/apron

SOMEONE HAS PROBABLY WISHED YOU DEAD, MAKE THEM WAIT.

Nose Close - Flaming June (Frederic Leighton)

I found an article in The Independent lightly discussing the merits/lack there of of one of my favourite paintings.  I like it for some of the articles mild reasons.  It appeals to me in the hazy state of what the girl would be in were she to wake from her nap.

Flaming June

I'd love to see this image in person someday and stand close enough to it that the security guard gets irritated with me.  I've the desire to do that with many paintings.

Growers Re-design

So I'm getting myself back in touch with graphic design/packaging design and the like.  As a quick project for myself I did a bottle redesign of the labels for a few of the ciders from GROWERS.  I like cider.  It's a recently found food interest of mine as I can not drink beer nor do I have the intense urge to.  In my quest to try new flavours, and in this case ciders, I very shallowly always neglect Growers.  I hate the packaging.  I'm not drawn to it and I've had it in my hand several times an put it back each and every time.  So... that's why I picked Growers.  

I went with something cleaner, grown up but still loudly announcing its delicious apple heritage favouring a minimalist and crisp appearance.

Design Time - Craft and Design Catalogue 2012

TAKE A PEEK!

Hello!  This is an electronic preview of the Sheridan Craft and Design Graduation Catalogue (as the link states) that I helped on.  My designs were selected for the cover and the spreads for each studio helping to make the design language the book followed.  It was an interesting and beneficial experience to be a part of the design team to put out the book.

Open publication - Free publishing - More ceramics

Sheridan Craft and Design Graduation Catalogue 2012

Useful Instructions

www.muddycolors.blogspot.ca

Follow them.

Design Hope

www.designhopetoronto.ca

The cup is up!  The collaborative project shared between myself and Kamal Fox is now shown on the design hope website for this years auctions with all proceeds going to charity.  Take a peak.

Three Sided Tea Bowls

Slab built, porcelain, three-sided tea bowls with walnut stands(stands by Kamal Fox)

These tea bowls with stands were a collaboration between myself and furniture maker Kamal Fox.  A tea bowl, sugar and creamer set was donated to the Design Hope Auction to help raise funds and awareness for/about homeless.

My names not Ariel. It's Helvetica!

These are some posters I knocked out for Sheridan Ceramics so as to make our program more professional, and thus, respectable.

Doing the posters with rather short deadlines has been an enjoyable experience for me of late. I forgot that I enjoy a nicely kerned word on occasion.

What Shall I Be Posting In The Coming Weeks?