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5/20/2020 Stencils are Polchoirs Polchoir is French for "stencil." I just learned this while researching public domain Art Deco and Art Nouveau stencil designs!
Why public domain? The good about buying stencils (or stamps): When you purchase a stencil, you are supporting the artists and manufacturers that designed that stencil. Everyone wins. The bad about using bought stencils (or stamps): You are placing limitations on how many times you may use that stencil in designs for sale. I read the fine print on most things... I don't recall if it was a rubber stamp or a stencil but the item said "up to 10." If you're into scrapbooking and giving away your handmade cards, etc., you have no limits on how you use your purchased stencil (or stamp). As much as possible, I seek to make my own. It's therapeutic making the cuts as well as freeing, lol. Cutting vinyl is sometimes better than drawing or sketching. The photo shows one of my latest stencils, hand cut 10ml vinyl using an exacto knife and scissors. I used a slightly crumpled paper sheet to test it, with some "leftover" paint and a make up sponge. When I find a design I like, I manipulate it on my iPad, print, and then cut. 5/13/2020 Resources for Kids of All Ages to DRAWFor me, it's day 58 of jobbing and staying home. Like most of you, I can get bored. Sometimes, I actually enjoy feeling bored as it's been so rare the last few years. The bored feeling is like when I was 9 years old: forced to stay home and no resources to leave, nothing on TV and no Internet. These days, TV and Internet can be boring. Am I the only one that finds most of these Zoom concerts and events boring? Like I'm watching TV and watching other people live? Anyway. Back to drawing, and how you can continue or start, lol. Most of us have pencils and paper. Our local Instacart uses a lot of paper bags. How about cutting some of the paper bags down and checking out the following links? If you want to doodle with some kind of design, these are for you. The links are to tangelpatterns.com which is a fabulous site that started doing some tutorials last month. Here are only two links, but gets you there: https://tanglepatterns.com/2020/04/kitchen-table-tangles-zentangle-for-children-featuring-molly-hollibaugh-tangling-with-her-daughters-indy-and-mazzy.html https://tanglepatterns.com/2020/04/kitchen-table-tangles-zentangle-apprentice-lesson-2-with-molly-indy-and-mazzy.html If you are trying to journal, or someone you know is trying to journal, Julie Balzar has kept up an art journal for YEARS. She might go page to page, but she does some back tracking and redesigning and adding of paint or papers. You can find her at https://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2020/04/art-journal-every-day-abstract-page.html where she also shows an abstract page. Explore her site for more ideas. Me? I'm not really journaling these days. I do more like Julie Balzar: add, subtract, glue, write, repeat.  My watercolor kit, two favorite pens (Pilot Decimos from 411pens.com), two waterbrushes, all sitting on my sketchbook.
4/16/2020 Weirdness and Sketching by Cathy Johnson"Everyone has the same look. We're all 'get this over with' and tired and 'done' and burned out with all this virus stuff," was what Andy yelled at me when I asked him the 1000th time if I was normal with how I feel. Good to know, Andy. I needed that. So...maybe YOU are one of those "taking advantage" of being home? Maybe YOU are someone who needs help to entertain some kiddos? I've been collecting stuff for you, posted by others. Cathy Johnson is a superstar sketching artist. She has a seriously FUN website. She's an inspiration to me. I often thumb through her book that I bought years ago about Pocket Sketching. She has videos, gives workshops, and blogs. Her style is light, textured, and bright. She posts a few things you can try, FREE, during this time. The following are links to Cathy's blog posts. She really has some great links in each, so please click over there! These are listed "in order" of how she posted the lessons. She's a seriously hard working lady artist and I know you'll enjoy all of these, with or without your children. https://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/2020/03/reviving-strathmore-class-free.html https://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/2020/03/reviving-strathmore-class-free_22.html https://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-importance-of-sketching-in.html https://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/2020/03/reviving-strathmore-class-free-lesson-3.html https://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/2020/03/reviving-strathmore-class-free-lesson-4.html https://cathyjohnsonart.blogspot.com/2020/03/keeping-artists-journal-class-free.html  Collage of some of the sun designs made using my iPad, March, 2020, digital art, ©Angeline Marie Martinez
4/8/2020 Do posters exist in the 2020s?I have many reasons why I'm grateful to be part of Generation X, one of them being posters. I had access to posters for my bedroom, pre-printed, ready to roll up and stick on my doors or walls. Between the department stores and the mall kitzy stores, posters were everywhere. There were posters from magazines, from records (oh those 33s!), really big posters from the stores. Current generations of kids have to print or make their posters. Hmm...it would be cool if you bought original paintings for the next generations to put up in their rooms. LOL Almost joke - but there seems to be more access to original artwork than pin ups now. Want more info on how posters may be making a small return? Here ya go: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/4/22/18485878/poster-industry-analog-renaissance-teen-bedroom-decor  Circles, Mountains, and Clouds (Alaska y Yukon Inspired), 8 by 6inches, collage and acrylics on paper, ©2018
Unmounted and unframed, $150; mounted onto canvas, $200 plus S&H 3/25/2020 See art, live longer?There's been a few articles I've read during the last few years about researchers connecting a longer, healthier life to seeing, experiencing, and enjoying art. I can attest to it! I LOVE seeing art by other people. I try to do this often, whether online or in person. I also have noticed a direct connection between my happiness and my making paintings and studio messes. Andy, my husband, has noticed the same. He pushes me into my sketchbooks and studio almost as soon as he notices I'm super sad, frustrated, or just overall down. One article can be found here: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/art-longevity-wellness/index.html  Sprinkle Only Joy Siennas and Yellows Girl Against Muted Blue Flowers, 13 by 11 inches, collage, acrylics, vintage paper, ©2019. This one is part of a private collection.
3/11/2020 Figure painting thru the millennia!"Figure painting" is another way of saying "paintings or drawings of humans." This find is really important, because most cave paintings show animals or hand prints, but not actual fully drawn humans or as more formally called, "figures." Even if you consider that you can barely draw a stick figure, it's so cool that someone 44,000 years ago drew stick figures. You can see some photos here: http://hilltopmonitor.com/2019/12/oldest-cave-painting-in-world-suggests-religion-began-in/ Below is a page from one of my sketchbooks. I take paper and pen with me to every Marlins game that Andy and I attend. I make sure to get the Marlins Park date stamp, as you can tell. These are stick figures that help me get the gesture of each player. I love trying to get the movements of starting pitchers and batters, but I stick to just Marlins. Late in the 2019 season, I decided to add gestures of the in and out fielders once I'm "done" with the Marlins starting pitcher.  2/26/2020 Color Tools and Easel Photo 2020 is about IMPROVING my art tools as well as using what I already have.
The top tool is a color wheel from Bob Burridge that I purchased in early 2016. I really love it. It helps me figure out focus points and color combinations. The big color chart is totally new for me. I wonder how I figured things out before I bought it! It's helping me figure out how to QUICKLY mix a color, add it to my painting, and MOVE ON! Oh YEAH! I've so many paintings in Stuck Mode that are coming to life with this new tool! See the top two flowery paintings? I'm using both color tools to figure those out. Both paintings have been hanging out on my truly messy studio table, tossed from one side to the other, until now. So far, so fun! I'm keeping both color tools on my easel itself, using velcro tape. Before the velcro tape, I kept losing the wheel, lol! What's your favorite tool? 2/12/2020 Smart animal spiesI enjoy many science fiction and fantasy books, ever since I could read chapter books. The idea of animals as spies isn’t new as many magical and non magical animals are part of many plots as spies in these books. I thought it was mostly fiction until I saw this article! What did you think? To read article: Cats, dolphins and one smart raven: the CIA's secret animal spies  This cat learned to fetch by watching her doggy housemate!
Topaz, Fetching Cat, 6 by 6 inches, acrylics on wood panel, commissioned pet painting ack at the iPad 2, I thought I was going to try digital art: draw, manipulate photos, all kinds of things. My fantasy lasted about a year. The apps I could find where clumsy, boring, and limited. No one around me wanted to do the same things...so I had only myself to teach me. My iPad became a more portable laptop...with great video and books. Fast forward a few years later...when I meet artist and quilter Susie Monday in Lisa Call's Master Class. This artist has some seriously cool, colorful, wacky, quirky, serious artworks in digital formats...AND SHE TEACHES HOW! I'm so excited and scared but I'm going to give this a go. It's time. I WILL continue to use paper sketchbooks, but I'm excited about the new tools and apps that will push me into different designs and colors. Artist Danny Gregory is a serious sketcher with published drawing books. He explains and shows why he's using his iPad so much here: https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-inspiration/me-myself-and-ipad-art/ If you're interested in learning more about art on the iPad, go here: http://susiemonday.com/online-courses In the meantime, I'm trying to using only Susie's "tease list" of apps before class starts. That means I'm actually painting more, lol!!!!   A sketchbook and a couple of pens I use. More traditional and way less expensive supplies that I love!
Oh, I'd love to get my hands on this Italian issue of Vogue, January, 2020! NO PHOTOGRAPHS!!! The entire issue, probably not counting the advertisements, are of ILLUSTRATIONS!!! AKA drawings, sketches, paintings...by people. According to the Italian Vogue Editor, the issue is to protest the environmental costs of taking fashion photographs. It's quite a staggering list in the brief article. The magazine knows that they have to use photographs...this is a "statement" magazine, much like the Art Basel Miami banana. The money saved is marked for charity. We can argue that photography IS an art form...but since when have magazines used primarily drawings to show fashion? Since 1960s? 1950s? I wonder if the USA issue would consider doing something like this? Learn more about it by clicking on this sentence.  Sketches of deer heads in my last almost finished sketchbook. I do plan on adding photographs to my sketchbooks...but until then...drawings are fun! ©2019
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AuthorWith every intention to write about whatever might interest about art, making art, and paintings. Archives
June 2019
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