All the colors of the rainbow

So, where was I?

I spent some time over the last few weeks thinking about my art supplies. I enjoy reading other artists' comments about materials, and particularly, the colors they use in their palettes. Since I recently taught a course that included color theory, I thought I'd try simplifying my backpack and carry a paint kit outfitted with just the three primaries. So I did test swatches of my reds, blues and yellows and came up with a combination that I carried with me for a few weeks. I kept a muted set in a smaller Altoids tin (on the left side of the painting below):

20100528_SketchStuff Click to see this photo's flickr page

This is what I learned:
–  I'm too impatient to mix up my greens and purples from these primaries. For the painting above, I didn't mix the greens. Oh, heck, no.
–  I like my colors; I really love the cool and warm and neutral versions of my primaries, and I like the different versions of secondary and tertiary colors too. Why did I ever think I could be happy with just three, muted primary colors?
–  I don't paint with orange. Like, ever.

Another thing I realized is that I don't squeeze enough paint out of the tubes, trying to not waste any of it. I end up having to squeegee out pigment from my barely-loaded brushes onto my pages, or end up with washed out colors after the paint has dried on my notebook pages. Lots of water, but just a little bit of pigment. Ugh.

So after not-too-much thinking, I decided to give those tubes all a good squeeze and go on a 'Use it up' campaign. Paint isn't going to do much good being conserved, languishing and drying out unused in tubes sitting in a bin next to the dryer. Squeeze as much life and color out of what you have!

Sounds good, huh?

I ran into a hiccup in this plan, when I finally realized that my honey-based paints were too goopy for me. I'm messy to begin with, yes?, and although I love how soft and buttery the M Graham watercolor paints are, I started to realize that many of them stayed moist enough to be a bit of a challenge for me just to store. I’d try to squeeze out a sample size from a tube and end up with stringy threads of paint (think: honey) leading from my palette, across my table and smeared on my fingers. The kicker, though, was when I realized that some colors actually absorb moisture from the air in humid environments and then they get even MORE runny. I discovered this over Christmas in Hawaii, a big puddle of cobalt green dripping from my paint kit. Egh.

I read through a few blogs of artists and read carefully the part that would have alerted me to this problem and tried a few more brands.

You're thinking, “Hey! Buying new paints?! How is that 'Using it Up'?!”

[I'm ignoring you]

So, I looked at color charts on my computer for a few more weeks, peered at other artists’ suggestions and loitered in front of the paint rack in the student store as if it were the frozen entrée aisle at the market, and slowly filled in my collection with Daniel Smith and Schmincke tubes that dry nicely in my travel paint kits so I can toss them into my backpack, and they re-wet nicely.

Yeesh, what an ordeal.

The good thing is that I'm set to go and have plenty of paint to go there with.

20100616_palette Click to see this photo's flickr page

I’m going to use up the honey-based paints, and the not-so lightfast paints as well. I was a little concerned about this – paints that will fade unusually quickly. The only nonpermanent expression of art that I could think of that seemed worthwhile was, well, food, but in this case, I figure: What the heck: Use it up.

I have papers and paints and want to go ahead and use them. If you’ve gotten this far, here’s the deal. I was going to post the ‘Use It Up’ (UIU) series and have people let me know if/which ones they wanted and send them (the little paintings, not the people) off to new, good homes. But, lying up late at night, I thought, what if people have stopped reading my blog to the point where no one will be watching for my UIU art? The horror!

[Do I over-think things much? Give me a sec to mull over that.]

So, whatever. This is what I’m going to do: I’m going to make art and send it off to people whose mailing addresses I have, that I owe some art to. And ask for people to let me know if they're interested. If I have a list, I figure I’ll feel more obligated to stick with this whole ‘Use It Up’ campaign, which, in my head, was more like ‘Use It Up, then Give it Away’, anyway. If you (you, in Canada and Scotland and Germany. Yes, you) want to help encourage this, email me your mailing address. wendeedesign [at] yahoo [dot] com.

I’m planning to give life and those tubes a nice healthy squeeze. Anyone game?

Happy medium

A little bit of playing with the new FC Albrecht Durer w/c pencils

A great train of thought from the design conference from Sir Ken Robinson:

"People who are most creative love the medium that they work in.
Everyone is creative.
You simply need to find your medium. "

I have been working with my Pilot Hi-Tec pens and markers quite intensively the last few days. I’m looking forward to spending the weekend working a little more with chocolate, fresh produce and the Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils that arrived yesterday.

TGIF!

Did someone say cookies? Join in on the fun!

Virtual Cookie Exchange!

After several years of wanting to do a holiday open house and getting sick each year (lying dejectly with the flu on the sofa when I ought to have been baking instead), I've decided to try it the smart and all-inclusive way. This way I can still plan a party, without having to clean; can still bake, but not have to save all the cookies for one big party.

I mean, let’s be real:
Saving several batches of cookies in the freezer around here would be impossible.
[shaking my head]

So, you are invited to the 2007 (Progressive) Virtual Holiday Cookie Exchange!
Where else but TheFridgeDoor, eh?

Create a tasty little treat* to share:
You can bake, draw, paint, sew, draft it.
Whatever. I won’t be picky.
You could even discover it and share a photo of what you’ve found.

Then, send a digital image of what you’ve created to me.

Or, better yet, why don’t you share a few warm holiday memories and plan a Blog Entry to bring to the Cookie Exchange?

In December (let’s say starting around December 10th), we’ll share all the yummy goodies, nice little coffee breaks for the busy, bustling holidays.

I’d be happy to post images, but it’d be even better to share a list of blogs and postings. It’d be a great excuse for everyone to visit each other and share a memory or two.

Go ahead and forward this post to your crafty and artistic friends and have them whip up a batch of creative (digital) yumminess, too!

My guy, reading the artwork, said "Virtual Cookie swap? Sounds disappointingly low-cal..."

Best wishes to you all.

*Tasty little treats like these, and not like these.

Tape measure

The other day, I was reading about another sketchblogger, bonking her head against her desk. We all seem to set weekly goals for ourselves and then just get stuck. We want to draw, but if we’re going to spend that precious hour drawing, it’d better be a good work. GOOD work. Paralysis sets in. I hate that feeling.

I’m getting back into the swing of things with teaching. My main goal is to have my students feel really comfortable committing their ideas – lots of them - to paper. If they can convey a personal style, it’s great. If they come in with the equivalent of stick-figures, that’s great. As long as they’re getting thoughts down on paper, and starting to feel more and more comfortable just sketching. So, to Karen, I commented that … The process of going from heart and head and hand to paper is more important than the need to create something 'worthwhile' or 'real'. The practice itself is worthwhile…
Certainly at some point you want to create really great work, but it seems to come almost effortlessly when you’re really in a good flow.

So, I had a fitful night sleeping after my first class, thinking of what exercises to do for the second class, to get everyone used to seeing the details of design and manufacturing, and documenting them. I stay awake thinking of front-top-and-side views? Guess so. I’m going to do a demo on geometric forms, then drawing things based off of them. I told them to bring in things that were “mostly rectangular”, or “mostly like a cube”. I rummaged around for something simple, but with interesting features, to prepare a handout for class. I find a mostly boxy tape measure and draw this. In my Moleskine. I sigh; This is all I’ve drawn in a few days, my tape measure. Bleh. I flip through and look and more fun, graceful drawings of gnarly trees. The tape measure shoulda been done on copy paper, it would’ve been easier to photocopy. It’s like this oddity in my sketchbook. I find myself thinking, You know what I really have to do? Get back to freelance work and draw great, graceful products. The Tape measure? Bleh. You know what I really want to do? Paint. Tape measure? Bleh. It’s kinda boring and utilitarian. Bleh.

I’ve also discovered that through LinkedIn, more designers are ambling over to see what’s up on the Fridge Door. OMG! I feel like a hack. And the thought of posting my Tape measure? ‘You call yourself a designer?’ Bleh!

We are all just way too hard on ourselves sometimes.

Okay, so I go back and read Karen’s blog, where she’s commented back (I can't figure out how to get the specific post URL. See August 28). I settle back in and think, yeah, we have to sit still, quiet the voices that tell us, “Better make it a good one!” and just draw, no matter what form it takes. I have to remember, it’s all part of nurturing and strengthening the process; even more critical when it’s part of your profession.

At some point, I latched onto the idea that I wanted to be able to draw for my job. And I do. When you stop and think about it, it’s really great. I get to create reality from dreams and desires, solve discontent. My job is to problem-solve in a creative way, and basically, draw (shrug). How great is that? Duh. So I smacked my forehead (there’s a lot of that going around) and decided to just do away with all this “bleh” business. Here’s the tape measure. Designers are creative, but I want to give my students a good dose of understanding reality, how things are made. Tonight we’re going to look at a bunch of mostly-cube items that the class brings in and start talking from there. We’ll all settle in to draw cubes and spheres, cylinders and cones. The drawing part, no matter what it’s of, should always be a joy; just that feeling of running your hands across smooth clean sheets of paper and running your pencil across it. Tell me, how does it feel to just draw? ‘Bleh’? Hardly.

Okay. Enough time away from it. Get out there, or in there, get a cuppa coffee (or tea) and just do it.