Pattern

I was working on this just on a whim but ended up liking it very much.

Studio update: My new studio is now basically filled floor to mid way with boxes. I have no table yet b/c it couldn't fit through the door. I could just put a plank across the boxes or stack all the books I don't know where to put and then put the plank on that.

It will come together. I know I just need to give myself the time to get everything moved and put away.

Paper Mache Flowers

So it begins

I've been waiting for about a week now for all the parts to arrive. Yesterday the final pieces came, and I know am the proud owner of a digital camera and a macro lens. Let the eye ball photographs begin. No leaf, cat, or Creative Catalyst employee is safe.

Nicky Vector

I came across this lovely profile on flickr and the owner was nice enough to let me use her image. It's been months but here is a draft. I've been holding onto it for awhile because I wanted to use my own patterns. I'm starting to have enough now that I have design options.

I can tell I have some things to fix with the vectors and layers but mostly I like how the colors are coming together.

(Thank you Nicky!)

Thank You Card

Z and I crashed a potluck on Friday, and I'm using it as an excuse to make a thank you card. All patterns here are mine. Some of them are dangerously close to damask. (!!!) Have I mentioned I'm excited about pattern making? Yeah....

In other news, I'm moving. Chaos. BUT tonight I'm getting some expert advice on how to set up my new studio.

Patterns Day 5

Patterns Day 4

So apparently this is pattern week. That wasn't my intention at the onset but it's been a fun way to let my brain decompress between editing chapters.

Here's some more.

Patterns Day 3

Found an image of a friend and thought it could be a great shape. I'm surprised at how well it works. I'm going to pursue this one.

Patterns Day 2

More patterns I'm working on. Some come easier than others. I think the red columns has potential to morph into more intricate designs. Part of pattern making is understanding the simple designs that the more complex designs rest upon. I've been carrying a great book on pattern making around with me wherever I go but haven't really read more than 15 pages. I'm going to a water park this weekend. Maybe I'll be able to find a quiet corner and breeze through some chapters. RIGHT!

Dotted Circle Pattern

I've been making up work hours all weekend on my home computer. Because it has no internet, I'm probably getting a lot more done (or why I'm working today at home again) but I need to find something other than email checking as a bribe to get through a difficult editing chunk. My solution: pattern practice. My goal is to come up with X number of patterns for Christmas so that I can use mostly my own papers in this year's cards.

The first image shows the evolution of one pattern attempt. I still need to add one more circle probably. That need becomes pretty clear when you look at the second set of images. But for the most part I like it. It's not super original, there is paper all over like this, but it's a good starting place. Most of the papers I enjoy using most in my work are pretty straight forward. The day I master damask is the day I'll really feel like I've accomplished a massive goal. Until then, I'm pretty happy with my dotted circles.

PS- You can see the inspiration for this paper in my header. It's the green circle one second in from the right.

Digital Scrapbook Attempt #1 (like ever)

I am not a scrapbooker. My sense of design doesn't extend beyond about 4x6 inches. But when I look around at some of the art people are doing, I can't help but be intrigued. There are some amazing graphic designers who have never probably considered themselves as such in the scrapbook world. What intrigues me most is digital scrapbooking. It links up a lot with what I'm already doing but adds the photo element. I'm getting a camera soon and I think this is something I will slowly edge into. Here is attempt one. Images always come out darker when I move from Illustrator to PSD to jpg. I have a lot of negative things I could say about it but I won't. I'll be negative when I've tried a few and am not completely overwhelmed by the square format.

Rosenow Flowers in Vectors

I honestly can't remember if I've posted this before, but I found it randomly combing through my files, and I wanted to share. The original photograph is from the lovely and amazing site of Rosenow Floral Design. Erin is based out of San Fransisco and does truly incredible work. When I saw this picture on Erin's site it just was so fun. This vector art is in Photoshop, which means I did this before I knew Illustrator. Oh...the possibilities of these flowers in Illustrator!

Love (draft 1)

Just something I was playing around with today. I might put a bird's nest on the upper left corner of the 'O.' Originally I was going to give the person more color but I like the graphic element of having him (eventually it will be a her) in black and white. Maybe the bird/bird nest will be black and white as well. I should also put in a little moss and maybe unify the colors. I'm not sure how I feel about the 'O' being a different color although I think it would be less interesting w/o the color change. Also, maybe this will be my Valentine's Day card this year. Hmmmm....

Mixed Media (as in a computer and paint)

I like Illustrator. I like Photoshop. I like paint and collage. I have no idea what to do to combine them. Here's attempt one. My response? A grand old, "eh." But like so many things one must start some place. I think I need a goal, like, "Do a poster on X, and use both real and computer art." Ha! If it were just that simple.

Card for Peter and Danielle

Spray Bottle Boxes

This concludes the Week of Gifts for Theater Productions. I leave you with the poster board squirt bottle. We had a crew of some 22 people and each of them we wanted to thank. Squirt bottles became a symbol for us due to the shirt design so I thought this was apt. The body is cut out of a single sheet of poster board, painted, folded up, filled with candy and then topped with the cap. We made sure to give everyone a feather duster as well. I think our crew was pleasantly surprised overall. I'm excited about this design b/c it involved a wee bit of engineering. Also, folded poster board opens up many a possibilities for future holiday-themed gifts.

Bottle Clothes

This isn't the best image but these are tiny tequila bottles with Wal Mart vests on them. (Side note: How I love my hot glue gun.) The play follows a woman as she works minimum wage jobs. One of the places she works is "MallMart." I made these for my castmates as part of the closing night gifts. So a great group of people!

Taking a break from crew gifts, this is a piece I made some time ago. I'm still figuring out if I even like it. I have such mixed feelings about polymer clay. I marvel at what people do with it (I'm looking at you Dayle Doroshow) but everything I do I feel looks odd. I wore it this week and liked it but the jury is still out.

Etched Glass

We were having trouble coming up with ideas for our running crew (the crew that is with you during the actual performances. They include the people running lights, sound, costumes, and the stage manager.) Someone suggested a shot glass for our stage manager, and I suddenly remembered that people etch glass. It's a terrible idea to try and learn a new skill on a strict time deadline but glass etching is really straight forward. The most important thing is to make sure your stencil is good and securely fastened to the glass surface. I used reusable letters and found that if I allowed them to fully dry between etchings, everything turned out well. I made 8 candle holders for our crew. Glass etching is an excellent idea for gifts that surround a very specific theme like a theater production. There will be more of this in my future.

Spray Bottle Magnets

There's a theme here.

These are magnets I made for my castmates of Nickel and Dimed.

I made over 20 of them, which isn't bad in that they are pretty straight forward. What takes the most time is cutting out the little pieces.

Meet Daily

I am going to be out of the office tomorrow. More posting on Monday. This weekend is the close of my play, and I am still trying to get through all the crew/cast gifts finished. Tomorrow I think I might try etching glass. Fingers crossed.

Reunion

This is just a random graphic I wanted to try this morning. I envision it as the invite to my 10 year. I want the theme to be "Come as you are."

Magnets

Tonight I am crafting until my fingers fall off. (But only in the non literal sense.) I'm bad at delegating and I've taken off more than I can chew, but I think if I work hard and stay focused I *might* (might?) be able to get through a huge set of crew gifts before Wednesday.

The image to the left is the design I did for our cast/crew t-shirts. Now I'm taking the design and making magnets. I printed a sheet of them and then color copied a bunch. Tonight I will be sticking them to magnet sheets with the help of matte medium. Hopefully the bubbles stay to a minimum and everything is easy. This is never how it works but one can hope, right?

Add to all of this that I'm house sitting. I keep realizing I've forgotten some necessary supply. Thankfully they have a good work table and two awesome dogs to keep me company.

Paper Engineering

This is the prototype for a gift for the crew of the show I'm working on. We had our opening weekend this past weekend. We have one more weekend and then life resumes to normal. (Whatever normal means.)

These will be made out of poster board and will be filled with candy. Also, hopefully they will have cuter designs although I'm not yet sure what that will be. We have to make 20 plus of them.

Andrew Pate

We have a program here on our local public broadcasting called Oregon Art Beat. My mom just passed along a segment on painter Andrew Pate. It's about a 7 minute clip and worth the watch. It's not about technique it's about hearing what's going on inside the mind of a painter. I like how he talks about it being difficult to interact with people about his work and how openings exhaust him.

Also it makes me itch to get out my watercolors and do some wet into wet. Beautiful.

Watch here.

John Salminen's Palette

John and Kathy Salminen left today, and we (including the cat Katie) were all sad to see them go. I'm running off to opening night of our play so I'll include the link to John's work tomorrow. You can find it off of our website ccpvideos.com or Google him. Pretty amazing stuff.

Here are some close ups of his palette after his workshop. I love abstract palettes.

(Update: This is the paint John used for his DVD workshop, "Urban Landscape in Watercolor.")

More Pattern Stamping

More pattern stamping. I want to try this next with paint so that the colors are stronger.

Nickel and Dimed Flier

Here's a flier I did for the play I'm in. Note the date. That's 2 days away (AAAAAAHHHH!) I had all these grand designs for crafty gifts for my castmates and, well, you know how it goes.

It's been fun to learn about the craft of acting through these last few months. Like painting or pottery it all takes work. I feel like you have to be half way in to realize how much work it'll take you to travel the distance and be at all good. Again, true with all the art forms.

Stencils and Stamps

I've always liked buying rubber stamps more than I like using rubber stamps. I see the designs in the store ("oh what a cute goldfish!") but when I get them home to my inks, I don't like the outcome ("How the heck am I going to use a goldfish?!") So I have all these stamps. And yes I kind of keep buying them. If you're like me, this technique is for you. Take all those stamps and use them not for the individual image but for the texture the image can make.

Decorative Ribbon Candies Tutorial

Shirt Design #2

T-Shirt Design

I'm designing our cast t-shirt (I'm in a play at our local theater.) I'm hoping to design 5 and let the cast vote on which they like best. Here's option #1.

Great Quote

I browse a fair amount. I like to see what CCP artists are up to and how people are really benefiting from their amazing workshops. In doing so today I came across Matchatank Deb, and on her blog she had a quote from Albert Einstein. She's using it in a piece she started in Lisa Engelbrecht's workshops. I love love (love) the quote:

"You cannot solve a problem on the same level you created it."

Something to live by. Thanks Matchatank Deb!

Virginia Cobb's, "Acrylic Abstract Image" on Sale

Abstract Acrylic Painting: The Evolving Image with Virginia Cobb from Creative Catalyst on Vimeo.


This week's sale is Virginia Cobb's art instructional workshop, "Acrylic Abstract Image: The Evolving Image."

Virginia Cobb's DVD is a bit different from most of Creative Catalyst's workshops. Instead of focusing on technique, it explores the discovery process that goes on inside our heads. Virginia creates three paintings from the same inspiration but emphasizes a different element of design in each painting: shape, line and texture. The results are amazingly different. She layers, covers, and re-discovers shapes and colors. Her process creates a sense of history and permanence. Watch as she adds layers but, more importantly, listen to how she thinks about what she is doing.

Virginia's artistic process relies on problem solving. She challenges herself by constantly creating problems, which forces her to discover solutions. It keeps her art fresh and original.

I had never really thought about this approach. Normally I look at problems in my work and think, "$%&! Oh look. Another failure." But Virginia actually propels off of problems to keep her paintings fresh and original. That is SUCH a better way to look at it. (Also more kid friendly.)

Carla O'Connor Visit

Zach and I pulled our bikes into work this morning and had the pleasant surprise of finding Washington plates on an unfamiliar car. Carla O'Connor and her husband, Mike, were visiting. We love when artists film with us and even while we have a lot of fun we still have to concentrate. Filming leaves the artists tired and the week burns people out. When artists just arrive at our door and can hang out, it's a whole new ball game. It was great to just sit and talk with both Carla and Mike. We swapped pet stories and painting stories and had a really nice time. This job has a lot of perks (like there is a cat sleeping next to me in my office at this very moment) but meeting the people we get to meet is really one of the best.

(Artwork by Carla O'Connor.) See more at Carla's gallery.

Purple Background Collage

Napkin Paper

I'm currently experimenting with napkin collage. Napkins come in so many cool colors and designs I'm trying to see if I can use the patterns to make background textures. Here's my first. It needs more paint (and then of course something on top.)

I used a ton of Mod Podge and napkins. Most napkins have a few layers and only the top one actually has a pattern. Peel the other ones off before you go to glue anything down. They will only get in the way. I used a tiny bit of water to get my strips of napkin to stick to the paper. Then I covered everything with a ton of Mod Podge. Finally I began with my layers of paint.

Happy Father's Day (yesterday)

simple card

Polly Hammett says find three things you like because it pushes you to think about your work in a different way than just saying all the things you don't like.

1. The vertical division of purple space (with the lighter purple at the top)
2. The swirl thing in the right corner.
3. The texture on the love.

Dislike
1. Placement of love
2. Values are too similar between the wording and the background.

I like the second one better from a balance standpoint.

Flyer for Nickel and Dimed

Question

What does a steamroller, skateboard and break dancing all have in common? Monoprinting, obviously!

Read article:
That's a big print you have there! (That's not the official name.)

Composition Article Download

Artist Janie Gildow wrote an article on composition for the Creative Catalyst newsletter. It breaks everything down and is really quite helpful. You can download it here (copy paste the link):

www.ccpvideos.com/docs/Gildow_Comp_Article.pdf

Janie is hoping to start teaching online classes specifically on composition within the next year so check in occasionally with her website (http://janiegildow.com) for more information. There isn't anything up quite yet, but it's still worth looking around at her amazing work.

To see a preview of Janie's Creative Catalyst DVD workshop go here.

Thanks Janie!

CCP Web Promo 2008

I'm getting a little conscious that this is becoming a blog more of video than words and images. This is in large part because my visual creative outlet right now *is* work. I divide my free time into mostly one big pile called, "Nickel and Dimed." Whatever is left (and there isn't much) goes into the "Forage for Food" pile or the "Make a Path Through The Debris in My Apartment" pile. At some point in August I will come back full force with actual non-moving 2D work.

Conversations with Nicholas Simmons Part 3

Here's another clip from Conversations with Nicholas Simmons. In this segment he talks about why it's good for beginning artists to use their imagination as their source material.

Love

You can get some cool effects when you use cheap paper and cheap paint. You can also get your arms covered in purple and have to do a quick but thorough interrogation of your kitchen and make sure you're not leaving droplets of purple water behind with your never-to-be-seen-again deposit.

Weekend Play

This project was going really well until the very end. It was suppose to be a congratulations card for some friends in a local play, but now we'll see. I got lazy with Claudine Hellmuth's Petroleum Jelly technique and didn't get it wiped up enough. I kept thinking if I just covered it with enough gel medium it would be OK. Nope. Bad instinct there.

I am excited about a few new techniques I'm trying. More on that later. In the mean time, if you don't have Claudine's books or DVDs they are certainly all INCREDIBLY helpful. (If you follow the instructions...ahem.) If I could find the rubbing alcohol I bought 2 days ago my night will be set.