Fox & Hound Random Color

This drawing was created using the same objects and drawing a grid over them. I then used random color to fill in the shapes created by the grid.


color pencil on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Fox & Hound Shaded

Recently when I dined at Fox and Hound I traced objects on the table into my sketchbook. I then gridded off the page and rendered this drawing.


graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Keys Random Color

Here's the follow up drawing using random colors of color pencil.


color pencil on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Keys Shaded

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

"Purple Blend" Wins Honorable Mention!

Today at the St. Bernard Art Guild Members Fall Show, my collage, “Purple Blend” received an Honorable Mention in the Under Glass Category. The judge was Kathy Miller Stone, an artist from Baton Rouge. The show was held inside the council chambers at the St. Bernard Government Complex.

Change Random Color

color pencil on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Change Shaded

Previously I painted a watercolor with a similar idea. I wanted to try it with graphite.


graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Foot Random Color

color pencil on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Foot Shaded

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Hand Random Color

color pencil on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Hand Shaded

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Dance Man

graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Room Key

The holes in my hotel room key provoked me to play with it as if it were a stencil . See the photo image underneath my sketch. I photographed it in front of some bagonias.



graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Shapes inside Shapes II

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Rectangles of Color

color pencil on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Gesture Rocks Color

Naturally after working in black and white, I proceeded to try color. That is always more tricky. It is best for me to play a bit before trying to a final work. Here you can see how I played with the colors available to me.


color pencil on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Gertural Rocks Lines

Another step I tried in this process was working with gestural ink lines. I then used parallel line hatching to work on shading. Again, I played a cubist game of overlapping object planes. Working with only line can be tedious. This kind of marries the gestural with the anal in terms of line.


ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Gesture Rocks Shaded

In the next sketch I thought I should add shapes that people would more easily recognize. So I went for oval ones. On previous occasions I’ve made them into rocks. On time, someone did ask me if they were potatoes. Whatever they really are, I liked what happened in this sketch. I also had fun playing a cubist visual game of overlapping planes in the same piece.


graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Gestural Lines

When I was younger, I used to love drawing random gestural lines and then going back to find shapes created by them. I also used to color inside the shapes I created. In college, an art professor told me that my gestural lines were stronger than the lines I normally drew. One recent evening, while passing time at an art gallery reception, I started a doodle that went back to that way of working. My recent images have been so tight that I thought I should now try to loosen up again.


graphite on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Shapes inside Shapes

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Tiles

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Curved Paths

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Checkered Patchwork

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Ribbing

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Blossom

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Creative Cartography

Twenty years ago I took a Geography course. The second the half of the course included mapmaking. Because of that experience I started playing around with fictional maps and how dots represented by cities might connect to one another. Which dot city would have the most connections? Where would bridge paths fall? I’m not sure I will go beyond just drawing a doodle. However, I keep returning to this type of drawing every now and then.


ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Patchwork Random

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Maze

Here's a drawing I made using a new set of pencils I picked up at the recent national art educators convention. My drawing turned a bit messy as I worked on it.


graphite on paper, 5.5" x 8.5"

Doodle Top

A few years ago I drew this with Crayola Construction Paper Crayons. I had seen them demonstrated at an art educator convention and I wanted to show my high school talent art students how to use them.


construction paper crayons on black construction paper, 9" x 12"

Patchwork

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Twirl Curls

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Curvy Grid

crayon on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Circle Grid

color pencil on paper, 5.5" x 8.5"

Color Segments

Whenever I attend a National Art Education Convention, I like to try out product samples afterwards. Here is the first of several drawings made using products I picked up in the Showroom at this year's convention. Usually I work on them in my sketchbook. If I like a sketch enough, I might even turn the idea into a formal piece.


color pencil on paper, 5.5" x 8.5"

Corners

graphite on paper, 17.625" x 25.125

Tools

color pencil on paper, 17.625" x 25.125

Keys

watercolor pencil on paper, 14.5" x 19.5"

Change

watercolor on paper, 11.75" x 14.625"

Drops

Here’s the first of five pieces I completed for an art show that goes up on June 1st at the Louisiana State Archives in Baton Rouge, LA. It is gouache painting. I haven’t done that many with this cousin-medium to watercolor. Since there was such a short deadline for this show, I stuck with ideas that could be generated very quickly. I only received notice on the morning of May 18th. The pieces are currently at the framers. Look for the other four shortly.


gouache on paper, 11.75" x 14.625"

Making Some New Art!

Sunday I received a call from a friend who likes to set up small group art shows. She wanted to know if I wanted to participate in an art show that goes up June 1st at the Louisiana State Archives. It will be called “Products of Higher Education.” All the artists in the show have some kind of art degree/training.

A number of the works I first posted on this blog were ones that I completed for a show at the Louisiana State Archives in August 2005. Naturally I will use this an excuse to make some new works. However with such a short fuse on this project, I need to stick to art I can produce fast. So, get ready to see some new art from me.

Fern Glass Pan Bowl

This is another work I completed during the 2004 Abstract Painting Workshop at The Colony.


acrylic on paper, 15" x 22"

Mosaic with Vine

This piece was completed in a mosaic workshop two Thursdays before Katrina.

Run

mixed media, 17.5" x 22.75"

Bleed

mixed media, 17.5" x 22.75"

Strata

Here's another mixed media piece completed in the same workshop. Contact paper was used to preserve white areas when watercolor was first applied. Colored tissue paper was added afterwards. This was a new technique for me.


Strata, mixed media, 17.5" x 22.75"

Layered Borders

In early August of 2005 I took a workshop at Metairie Park Country Day School's "The Colony." Chris Guarisco showed us how to work in mixed media. This is one of several pieces I completed.


cold wax, colored tissue paper, oil and watercolor pencil on canvas board, 11" x 14"

Artroom

In college when I took the course Freehand II, there was a project we did that involved charcoal rubbings on tracing paper collaged with colored inks. Later on when I was teaching, I thought I’d experiment with the same method. I already had those supplies and I wanted to convince my students to work with mixed media. So I created this piece as a sample. Usually if the students saw me enjoy making a piece first it was an easier sales job to convince them.


mixed media, 11" x 15"

This time I used rice paper to make charcoal rubbings from objects and surfaces around the artroom. I then painted matte acrylic polymer to adhere the rubbings to watercolor paper. After the rubbings were dry, I spray fixed them. I then painted layers of color inks on top of them.

While digging through some boxes I found this piece. I think I will try to do some more works using these materials. It’s a direction that I really had not pursued.

Texture Fun

This was the second piece I created in a workshop during The Colony in 2004. We played with splattering paint and adding texture on top of watercolor paper. Some of the techniques we used were new to me.


mixed media on paper, 15" x 22"

Gold Rock

The rock series of mixed media pieces began with this workshop piece I created in August of 2004. Having made this piece I wanted to try the technique on my own.


mixed media, 16" x 20"

Copper Rock

acrylic on canvas, 10" x 10"