Watercolor: Red Table in Winter Light

Red Table in Winter Light 11 x 14 on Illustration Board
Early morning sunlight throwing long-legged shadows across the room, and a halo of back light on a vase of roses and a bird candle holder. The geometry of this scene is very appealing to me, or maybe it's just a familiar view. Either way, it was fun to paint, and I'm looking forward to starting the next one today.
In process on the easel.

Watercolor: Mid-Century Red Head

Mid-Century Red Head 9x12 Watercolor on paper
Available here.
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This pose was selected from a stack of wonderful vintage snapshots (thanks VMC) filed for figure study references. I'm practicing painting standing, at more of a distance from the paper, with a mahl stick (thanks JMC), to get my nose off the art. It's not easy - my art making muscle memory wants so bad to be on top of the action - but it's also exciting, because it forces me to see differently, move and hold the brush differently, and that feels like forward momentum. Yahoo for progress in 2009!

Monotype: American Crow

American Crow 4.5 x 6.5 Monotype Ghost, Watercolor & Colored Pencil on BFK Rives paper
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This monotype ghost was made with the same printmaking method as yesterday's post (Auburn Hair), and the ghost image was just as faint and soft before I took a brush and some pigment to it.

Monotype: Auburn Hair

Auburn Hair 4.5 x 6.5 Monotype Ghost with watercolor & colored pencil
The process shots begin at the bottom of this post.


Arches Cover paper was soaked in water for about 10 minutes, and then blotted before being laid on the still wet, ink-coated plate, and rolled under the press. Since I had pulled two prints from this plate already, there was very little ink left. You can see in this image and the one above it how faint the ghost print is. I think of ghost prints as suggestions of any given image, with lots of room to wander with other media.

The smooth, un-etched plate is coated with ink using a brayer. In this image, I'm removing pigment in a subtractive process; wet ink is cleared from the plate with fingers, paper towels and q-tips in various degrees for texture, tone and value. A dark field monotype begins with a complete coating of pigment, and the image is "carved" out of the ink to reveal light areas and half tones.

"Auburn Hair" is a dark field monotype ghost; the third print pulled - in sequence - from a zinc plate coated with Daniel Smith oil-based black etching ink. The plate is simply a re-usable substrate to hold pigment that's wiped, blotted and moved around - in this case, to make a portrait - and then pressed against a sheet of paper to make a print.

Watercolor: Horizon Line

Horizon Line 5 x 8 Watercolor on hot press paper
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I don't remember if I ever posted this - it's an older piece, but I keep thinking about painting it larger, if I have an appropriate exhibit for something of this flavor sometime in 2009.

Graphite Drawing: New Mother (Study #2)

New Mother (Study #2) 5 x 6.3 Graphite on Arches paper
The first post of the new year, and the beginning of my fourth year of blogging art. It seems hard to believe I've been blogging for that long, but the practice of posting art in a consistent and steady manner adds elements of accountability, peer review and community to this work, just like any other job. Blogging art is like mounting a store front window to the outside of my studio; it's a passageway between the window-browsing public & other artists, and the quiet focus of creating alone at my work table. Good balance.

The drawing above is my second attempt to work out the values and light on this scene, in preparation for a larger, loose watercolor later in the season. Hopefully, familiarity and practice will add muscle memory to my brushwork.

Happy New Year!