Rainbow Art Journal – Weird Owl

In my previous post, I explained that I find it difficult to concentrate on my art while also socializing. While one of my solutions is to draw a familiar subject, another is to just doodle around and see what happens without really thinking about it. This monstrosity testifies to the peril of taking that approach. Yikes. This was actually created on the same day as the Bride of Frankenstein from yesterday’s post. The opposite page was covered in gesso leftover from other projects that I had scraped on with an old gift card. The one positive quality to this page is that it has a really interesting texture. As with the Bride, all I had with me were my portable supplies so I grabbed some Inktense pencils and set to scribbling something out. I imagine I must have started out drawing an owl and honestly goodness knows what happens because the result is truly terrible. I spattered some white paint on it after I got home as if that was going to rescue it. What was I thinking? Even if I was thinking anything back then – which I doubt – I certainly cannot remember now that years have passed. At least I am proving my integrity by continuing with my commitment to share the good, bad, and ugly of my art experiments. Judder.

Rainbow Art Journal – Time for Tea

I work on art projects in small parcels of time throughout the day rather than in one big chunk. This is the practice and habit I have been getting back into over this Summer break. My sketching time, where I develop an idea and map it out on the page, is during my morning mug of tea. That, therefore, is what provided me with the subject for this page. The colour palette was suggested by this page being the transition between the pink section and the neutral section in my Rainbow Art Journal. I do incidentally appreciate that this journal is not strictly limited to the colours in the spectrum of the rainbow and I definitely understand that neutral is not even the name of a specific colour group. However, this is just an art journal for my experiments and doodles so rules don’t matter.

Rainbow Art Journal – Twit-Twoo

I was not really in the mood for art when I sat down at my art table but I am trying to get myself back into the habit of making regular time for creativity so I pushed myself. I decided to do something quick, simple, and whimsical. Since the windows adjacent to my art table provide me with a good view of the birds in my garden, that inspired me to draw a very simplified bird. Because I was in the purple section of my Rainbow Art Journal, I had thought I was going to draw a chubby hummingbird. However, what I ended up drawing was an owl. I kept this page very simple – just three colours of acrylic and two paint pens. The illustration itself is blah but I do like the colour palette. Most importantly, however, I pushed myself to spend time on art as an effort to build back those art habits and my ability to get something accomplished in small portion of time. And, with that, I am done with the purple section of this art journal. Maybe I can actually get this journal project completed this year.

Rainbow Art Journal – Rain Cloud

I guess I was still thinking about the personification of stormy weather when I sat down at my art table because what emerged on the page was this figure who I turned into a rain cloud. The idea came from the way I drew her hair all poofy like a cloud so I decided to make the hair even bigger and rounder. I really didn’t think through how to illustrate the rain drops and probably should have made them a bit less dense but I suppose all those dashes and drips add some visual interest to the page. Returning to mixed media after such an extended break, I realise with this piece that I have lost some skill with layering water-based media over acrylic. Hopefully I will see some improvement next time I attempt it.

Rainbow Art Journal – Among the Trees

This is another illustration in the blue section of my Rainbow Art journal. It was created so long ago now that I cannot recall what my intention was, though I suspect it was an experiment in combining the blues with a neutral, ochre in this case. Normally when I revisit past art, I only see the flaws. However, while my handling of the acrylic is very scrappy, I still quite like this as an illustration.

Rainbow Art Journal – Tea Cozy

This is the final page in the yellow section of my Rainbow Art Journal.  I reflected on what things I associate with yellow, the things my mind conjures up when I think of that colour, and one of the things I kept coming back to was warmth and of feeling cozy.  This illustration seems appropriate for the transition from Autumn into Winter when my thoughts turn to hibernation and my habits become more hermit-like.  For me, the apex of feeling cozy is about being indoors, all tucked up in a sweater or a blanket, and drinking a steaming hot mug of tea.  That gave me both the idea for the illustration and the colour palette – yellow for warmth and light brown for milky tea.  I often use neutrals with a brighter colour but the neutrals I use tend to be black, white, or grey, so this was a useful experiment in using brown in that capacity.  I think that, in this particular instance, the yellow might be too bold and the brown too pale for the palette to cohere but I will continue to experiment with using brown as a neutral.

Rainbow Art Journal – Lemon and Lime

This page is another example of me plagiarizing myself because I sketched this up from an ink and watercolour illustration I did just over three years ago.  It is always interesting to see how I translate the same (or similar) drawing between mediums.  This mixed media version was also an experiment in using a lemon yellow and lime green palette.  I think the combination is as fresh as you would expect from citrus inspiration.  I suspect it would have more zing to it if not dulled down with the flesh tones.  I am finding that I really like to use text papers in my mixed media pieces.  Maybe it is my love of books and reading but I also just like the sort of mark-making quality it contributes, all those shapes and forms.

Rainbow Art Journal – Icarus

One of my sons is obsessed with Greek Mythology – all of my kids were at one point – and that means that, thanks to osmosis, I have become a bit of a Greeky Mythology nerd myself.  The mythological figures, especially the monsters, therefore often appear in my sketchbooks.  A few years ago now, that theme was even the basis for a challenge I did to draw 40 drawings in 40 days.  I have contemplated returning to that theme for a whole series of drawings – but without the time challenge – but that shall be for some future juncture.  For now, I decided to draw Icarus in my Rainbow Art Journal.

I am currently working through the yellow section of my art journal and bold yellow suggested sunshine and sunshine suggested Icarus’ wings melting … This was my thought process.  This was another page that had some little underlying texture as I had previously scraped leftover white acrylic over the page.  You can spot the lumps and bumps.  I kept the illustration simple and, therefore, kept the colour palette limited.  I generally suck at drawing wings but I actually really like the way these turned out given that they are supposed to be a) manmade and b) broken.  I tried using spray inks to create some visual texture between the sun disc and the falling figure but it seems that the inks don’t perform well on top of acrylic – hello, learning opportunity – but it adds a sort of glow around the sun so at least it did not ruin the illustration.

Rainbow Art Journal – Yellow Bubbles

This was a page that I had gradually filled with scraps of yellow hued collage – including scraps of origami paper, images from cookery magazines, photographs from National Geographic.  I sketched in a figure over the top of the collage and then painted the negative spaces in a lemon acrylic so that the background became covered in bubble shapes that revealed the collage layer beneath.  When it comes to the figure, I was plagiarizing myself again since I copied her from an ink and watercolour drawing from over two years ago.  I prefer that original version but it is fun to translate an illustration into a different medium and see what differences emerge.

Rainbow Art Journal – Fire and Ash

This art journal page was really an exploration of ways to create visual texture.  My inspiration was a painting I did for Life Book last year because I like the visual imagery of flame and ash.  I actually thought to take progress shots of this art journal page so I can show the different stages of its creation.  I started with a really simple line drawing.

To create the background texture, I scraped some orange paint onto the page with an old hotel room card.  I then used that same card to lift up some of the paint from the page so that it created some texture, sort of feathering and ripples.  To create the texture on the torso, I painted it black and then layered some red paint over the top.  Before the red paint had fully dried, I pressed down some damp paper onto the surface so that it lifted up some of the paint and created a visual texture that I hoped would be reminiscent of charring.

The final element of visual texture was my old friend spatter.  I spattered some black and red paint to create the idea of ash and embers floating upwards from the flames.

I liked the effect of all of the techniques I used in this page.  It might be a bit much that I used them all at once but maybe it works for my thematic purposes.  I am definitely pleased that the finished page still resembles my initial sketch as  that has not always been the case.