Homemade ink!

I received this jar of homemade ink from a great friend,
Chris "Patch".

He made it from the walnuts that fell off the walnut trees in his neighborhood, Chestnut Hill, PA.
Check out his blog posting on how he made the ink at:
http://artbypatch.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/dont-drink-the-ink/


You know it's good stuff, if it has mold growing in it!
(Footnote: I really don't know if mold makes for superior ink.)

My first attempt drawing with the ink. I attempted a loose drawing with bold washes. I achieved some unique effects, but I got too aggressive with the amount of ink I laid down and it got to be a little too unpredictable how dark the wash would dry. So I abandoned the drawing.

I had better luck with my second drawing. Worked much slower. Used a more controlled application and embraced the attempt to achieve realism. I pulled out my quill pen to achieve the fine lines in the fur.

Lots and Lots of Obama Portraits

I created this portrait of Barack Obama to help me teach

a lesson on Creating Vector Portraits.

(Vector- a computer generated graphic art that can be enlarged or reduced to any size

without losing clarity.)

As with any good illustration, especially when creating vector illustrations, a sketch is required to plan out the shapes of the dark and medium tone. I scan in the sketches and begin to trace the shapes in Illustrator. After a few refinements to the shapes, I can begin to experiment with color and textures. The greatest advantage to computer generated art is how easy it is to make color changes as well as the easy ability to save multiple variations of the same drawing. It gets to be addictive trying to come up with better and better color designs!

While I didn't intend to mimic Shepard Fairey's famous portrait of Barack Obama, it's hard not to see his influential style within my rendition of Obama. His designs, used with silkscreen and stencils with spray paint, works very well with using the vector illustration technique. I always advise students to look at as much good art as possible and try to replicate the look in order to build one's creative skills -- watching out of course for blatant plagiarism!

Clipped!

In Progress...

While the new canvases continue to receive their multiple coats of primer. I have been spending my free time drawing this sculpture of a angel recently given to me as a possible inspiration for a drawing.

Stretching Canvas - Old School Style

In preparation for an upcoming show in August at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, I decided to stretch some new canvases the old school, traditional way. It's really linen but everyone has no clue what I am talking about when I say stretching linens. Maybe they think I was talking bed sheets? I used to prepare all of my "canvases" this way, and stopped for a couple of years. But, I wished to paint these on a really great surface and, so, I dusted off the stapler, pulled out the cooking pot and purchased some fresh rabbit skin glue and oil-based primer for painting on linen.

Here are the steps for the month-long process of stretching one's own canvases or linen.

1.First, I prep the stretchers. I make sure they are square and that the corners are flush. If one corner is not flat I will get out the chisel and sandpaper and flatten the corner. If I do not do this then the canvas will wrinkle in the corner.

2. Before I begin stapling, I precut the linen approximately 3-4 inches larger than the stretchers. This allows me to staple the linen to the stretchers in this somewhat unconventional way. I make sure that there is some slag in the linen. This is very important because the glueing process will stretch the linen so tight that it can warp the stretchers, making the linen worthless to paint on.

Because this process, from start to finish, takes at least a month to complete,

I prepare as many linens as I can fit (or afford) laying flat, in my workspace

3. After all of the linens are stapled, I begin to cook the rabbit skin glue (I don't know if the stuff is really from rabbits and I'm leaving it that way) which comes in the form of crystals. When properly cooked the hot glue is liquid and easy to brush on. Almost immediately the linen will begin to tighten like a drum as the glue cools. Cover the pot of excess glue and place in the fridge for the second coat. As the excess glue cools it becomes jelly (Do not ingest, it not that kind of jelly.) After the first coat is dry, I slowly reheat and liquify the glue for the second coat, this time I coat the sides as well.

Once the second coat of glue dries (2 coats=approx. 1 day) I can begin the priming.

4. I prepare the oil primer (thick paste) into a liquid (like syrup) mixing in Mineral Spirits. Using a brush made for priming linens and canvases, I coat each linen with enough primer to cover well but not so much as to leave brush strokes. After 3-5 days the first coat will be dry and ready for a light sanding and a second coat. The more coats one puts on the linens, the smoother the surface. Personally, I put on 5-8 coats to achieve a very smooth finish.

I line the top of the excess oil primer paint with wax paper to avoid a skin from developing then cover the bowl, as well as the brush, with plastic wrap. Then, into the refrigerator. The cold will slow down the drying of the oil primer (oil paint as well) to prevent the excess oil primer and brush from drying. Warn your roommates that it is not Brush-On Food!

A few pages full of 5 minute figure sketches. (30" x 20", conte chaulk)

A couple of warm-up sketches are done before any live model drawing session. Similar to athletes stretching before the big game or the singer practicing their scales before their performance. I have to confess, I'm not a fan of doing these, but I do respect the exercise enough to do the act every time I am about to draw from the figure. Most of these pages get thrown away, but occasionally, I find them unique enough to save.

Figure Drawing

This drawing is the result of a rare opportunity to be able to work with a male model.