Practicing Blobs Makes them Perfectly Imperfect

I don’t know about all of you but the news has me both distracted and discouraged. Combine that with my recent sinus infections and norovirus and well, I’ve been feeling a whole lot of, “Why bother?”

​Despite this I’m making art.

In times of crisis, I stay calm and get through it, then retreat into my art journal and art making processes. It soothes and heals me, to a point.

So I’ve been giving myself goals and challenges.

I’ve been practicing what I’m calling “blob people.” It’s a watercolor technique where you make, well, blobs and then use that blob shape to create people and crowds and individuals. I’ve watched a few videos on the technique and it’s deceptively easy. By which I mean, it’s not easy, at all.

It relies heavily on feeling confident in your brush strokes and marks. The media you use doesn’t matter as much as a confident brush stroke.

I’ve watched videos where people use collage and acrylics. Mostly I’ve focused on watching videos of the technique in watercolors.

It’s so simple, kind of a rectangular blob, dot, and a carroty shaped line at the bottom, add in a bit of grounding shadow and BOOM! Figure!

Except I’m hesitant.

Or was?
I’m less hesitant now than I was. As of this writing I’m about 20 images into my (self) challenge of making 100 figures/images with the blob people as a focal point. (I’m also 85 vehicles into my 100 vehicles challenge. I’m also at 38 out of 205 videos into #gesdrawparty.) There are things I’ve learned a long the way- where to place shadows and highlights, how to shape cast shadows, ways of making crowds that work, and many other things.

I’m attempting to bring y’all with me in this journey. I’m recording a lot of me making the images, which I’ve been unable to do with the vehicle challenge. Over the next month or so you’ll see how my approach to the images and figure changes. I’m also challenging myself to work from imagination or limited photographs and not from life. My practicing gesture drawing via Gesture Drawing Party has helped, though I have to say that most of the time, the way people pose for gesture drawing, is not based on anything you’ll see in real life. That doesn’t stop it from being fun.

Anyway, much like the other challenges I’ve taken part in or set for myself, I hope to do a wrap up video at the end where I discuss what I’ve learned.

The first video in the series is here:

Don’t Meet Your Heroes

CW: Discussion of Celebrity Bad Behaviors including SA and Coercion

My various social media apps and sites and things have been blowing up because of N3il G4iman and Am4nda P4lmer. (NG and AP following). I was a fan* of them both, not a huge fan but enough that I’ve read a bunch of his books and graphic novels. I’ve downloaded her music and read her book.

I found AP through NG who I discovered through Tori and a friend who loved his graphic novels.** I had a few of his first big series but never collected them. As a fan I was very much, if it’s there I’ll read it/listen but never went out of my way. For AP, I discovered her post her first band and before her first book. Continue reading

New Videos On a Mini Watercolor Palette Live on Youtube

I’ve recently posted a few new videos about the mini watercolor palettes that you can find on Amazon and Aliexpress for not too much money.

My first video was a rather harsh critique-

At this point I’d kind of fallen for the little palette and found another that came bundled with a sketchbook and a few brushes. So I discuss some tips tricks and hacks for making the palette better.

After a few weeks I answered the pressing question: What colors would I fill the palette with?

Then I dove deep into DIY mode and raided my recycle bin to see how I could make a water cup that slides onto the palette!

Mini travel palette affiliate links here:

Amazon:
Same as mine: https://amzn.to/4jO52wT
Better price: https://amzn.to/4aFIie3
AliExpress: These are similar products but will work the same: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_opzyma9

Love a Gesture Drawing

I love gesture drawing. I also love thumbnails.

As an artist these are areas where the rules of art are all about the vibes. The whole point of gesture drawing is to capture the feeling, weight, movement, value, and idea of a a person.

Now granted a gesture drawing is meant to be a means to an end- capture a moving human body in motion. The rules are that they aren’t meant to be finished works. Continue reading

Messy Materials

When I was young I loved chalk and oil pastels. There was something about the dusty blend of chalk that I loved working with. Oil pastels left chunky lumps on the pages but smoothed out with a finger into lovely layers.

I didn’t use them often in college but when I was teaching I used them a lot. I also stained a rug in a rental with chalk pastels. It cost me some money.

I started to avoid really messy materials like chalk and oil pastels. Chalk also started to dry out my skin.

When I picked up the kid’s tempera sticks I was reminded of oil pastels. More than once I felt like the tempera sticks felt like chapstick or lipstick smoothing onto a page. Good oil pastels are often referred to in the same way.

I went out and bought a 12-pack of Faber Castell oil pastels. Pretty chunky, smooth but chunky.

I’ve been thinking of doing the tempera sticks with the kids for their big project but they are not lightfast and we only use artist grade materials with the kids for these projects. So I went back to oil pastels.

I made my way out to my local (truly local a small local chain Artist and Craftsman Supply) art supply store and picked up 2 brands of student grade oil pastels and a handful of artist grade pastels.

The first brand of student grade oil pastels I picked up was Panda by Talens. They were smoother than the Faber Castell but not by much. The 24 pack of colors is a good choice.

The next step up was Van Gogh brand by Royal Talens. Smoother still but not that chapstick like consistency was looking for. Continue reading

Technical Skills and Style and Mixed Media

I consider myself a mixed media artist. I went to school to be an art teacher and an art therapist. The skilled learned were broad spectrum and about all media. I didn’t have to be super skilled in all of them, but I needed to understand them well enough. I missed out on pottery.

In all honesty I think learning all the media I did in high school, college and grad school suited the way my brain works. ADHD and all that.

I consider myself proficient in print making, specifically relief and dry point as well as drawing with a variety of materials and finally watercolors. Though I suspect some people who watch my watercolor videos would debate me on that.*

That said I enjoy learning about materials. I think changing up what I draw and paint with on occasion keeps my brain active and pushes me to try harder.

But what really get my artistic groove going is mixing media. Watercolors with pencils and pens and collage and gouache and acrylic and slapping all that into a sketchbook/journal.

I like it when I take the rules of a media and break them. Continue reading

Comparison is the Thief of Joy

Comparison is the thief of joy. Apparently this quote can’t be fully attributed to anyone I previously was told it should be, though many have said the same with more or less words. Even if Teddy Roosevelt didn’t say it, the sentiment stands important.

When I apply this to art it has several meanings:

  • Comparing my art to the art of others is not helpful to my artistic journey.
  • Comparing where I am on my artistic journey does not help me grow.
  • Comparing my life situation to the situation of others is not helpful for my growth and journey.

I bring this up because there have been a series of vlog like videos and essays popping up in my YouTube and social media feeds that are about comparison- of the artistic self to other artists. (I will not link to them so as to not boost their popularity.)

Painting and drawing classes in college and grad school often have a section at the end of a project called: THE CRITIQUE. I always hated the critique. It always featured the professor, often a blow hard tool, giving you constructive and not so constructive feedback on your art. Which was then followed by your peers also giving you constructive and not so constructive feedback on your art. There was always at least one guy in the group who wanted to kiss the professor’s ass by shredding everyone’s work, especially if his work was critiqued harshly by the professor. THE CRITIQUE was only helpful to those who the professor adored and only the most capable of draughts-people.

For the rest of us it was a study in annoyances and judgement.

For many of us it set us up to compare ourselves to other artists for life.

It’s a habit I still struggle to break.

When I’m feeling down on my art I find myself leaning back into old critique habits. 

I wish I could say that 17-21 year old Less was a big enough person to stand strong and participate in THE CRITIQUE in a way that felt good to her. But no, I leaned into what others did and I learned the art language of destruction and I participated in the tear down rather than the build up.

I find myself using that old language:

  • derivative
  • not original
  • needs work on….. (fill in the blank on something you feel doesn’t work in your art)
  • composition would be better if….
  • colors are garish, colors are muted
  • needs more contrast
  • we’re responding to this not because it’s a competent drawing but because of your use of color, which is quite good*
  • You’re using what materials for this class? Hmmm, okay.**

In grad school we did a similar but less… intrusive practice. In this you personally interrogated your own art work. The intent wasn’t to critique if it was a good or bad painting but to explore what it meant/means to you personally. You asked it questions, interview style, to determine it’s meaning. This is something that you might think would call to me as someone who has personally stated again and again that every art journal page is a meditation, every art journal page has the surface meaning and the deeper meaning from the making, and that only the maker of the art has the full meaning, everything else is an interpretation.

Part of my response to this interrogation of the art was due to the professor- a blow hard old dude of a certain age who name dropped big name artists in the area and that he owned a condo near the college, that he earned passive income on this that or something else. He also admitted and bragged about getting ideas for his essays and books from conversations he’d had with students. In a conversation with me, he said, “Oh are you going to develop (an oof hand comment I’d made) into an essay or an article? Because if you don’t I will.” He seemed surprised when I said, “I’ve already published something about that.”

Anyway, this dude walked around playing a drum or kalimba as we painted and then asked us to sit in front of our art and ask it questions. Our art pieces were 4x6ft in size and made of an assortment of materials. Mine were made of cheap acrylics.

He gaped like a goldfish when I folded mine into a compact little package so I could take it on the train.

In that moment, I knew what I had to do.

The following class I set up a couple of tables and procured a large ruler and proceeded to tear my large painting down to manageable chunks. He was not in the room when I began. He walked in and the playing of his kalimba missed a beat. He gasped as I looked up, made eye contact, and tore my large painting into 10×18 inch chunks. “What are you doing?” The classroom went silent. The kalimba has stopped. Eyes were on me.

“I’m making a book.” I replied.

“Why?” He asked, his kalimba started again but still off beat. “It’s how I work. I make books.” “I don’t like it.” He replied. I grinned, “That’s okay. I do.”

My peers were agape. Several of my friends smiled, also disliking this guy.

I then gathered the book chunks into stacks and folded them into signatures. I used a thick chunky hemp cord I found in the studio. I waxed it with a chunk of sticky bees wax.

My final project for the class was a book 9×10 inches and an inch thick of pages hand torn from paintings I made in that class. The paper thick with paint and ink. In the end he begrudgingly admitted that the book was beautiful but he mourned the loss of my larger paintings. He wasn’t amused when I stated that I didn’t miss them and that the only way I’d have kept them was in book format.

The final project was healing because I was able to cathartically release THE CRITIQUE and engage in healing around the destructive practices I’d learned when young. I released some of that pent up frustration I’d gained. I was able to speak up as an artist and state, “This works for me.” While also respectfully exploring how a person can represent a whole group of others.

I still have that book.

I’ve learned a whole lot more about that professor over the years and I’m not the only person who had a negative reaction to him. My internal instincts were spot on.

*actual quote from a professor

**another actual quote from a professor

Getting Better at Art

I mentioned in a previous post that I’d explore the topic of what it means to “get better at art.”

Each of us has a different definition of what better means.

I believe it helps to define what better means. If I look at the art I’m making and I’m thinking, “I can do that better. ” Or, “I don’t like that.” I need to figure out why I don’t like the piece or why I think it needs to be better.

For instance, I have felt like my landscapes were off, and it was easy for me to look at them and label them as stiff and boring. Around 15 years ago I looked at my portraits and thought, “I’d like to do those better.” Initially with portraits that meant doing them realistically. Then I realized I wanted them to be more about the personalities than fully realistic. Vibes not realism. So I set about getting looser with my portraits.

As for my landscapes I’m making a lot of landscapes. I’m forcing myself to look at values and contrast and I’m making myself work loose.

I’m using chunky materials on toned papers and attempting to be loose. I’m looking at the values. I’m making values studies. I’m trying to work fast. I’m trying to get the idea down and then go back and add in more contrast and value. I’m worrying less about details and more about the vibe of the landscapes.

In just a week of concentrated study my landscapes have gotten better. (IMO)

It’s back to basics but it is also defining what I mean by getting better. I could have just made a few dozen landscapes without a goal in mind, but without that goal I flounder. Without a goal I make image after image and get frustrated about why my art isn’t getting to where I want it to be. I go in circles.

With a goal I can try different things with different materials.

Currently I’m feeling better about my landscapes in the kid’s tempera sticks but I attempted a landscape in watercolors and it was stiff and lacked the fun of the landscapes in the kid’s tempera sticks. So my new goal is to work on landscapes in watercolors but to explore making them feel loose and spontaneous and fun.

Values Studies and Ink Wash

I recently took part in Ohn Mar Win’s Patreon hangout. She puts up photos and everyone draws and paints. Really kind of fun and something I want to challenge myself to do more of in the new year. But I need to find balance*.

Anyway, it made me realize that my landscapes are stiff and don’t feel as good as those i made years ago. I don’t know that I’ve shared here that in the early 2000s when I lived in VERY rural Maine I used to drive around Washington County and draw and paint local landmarks and scenic images. I’d then load them up to eBay starting at 1 cent or 10 cents. eBay had some sort of promo if you started your listing for 1 cent it was cheaper. I did a LOT OF that. I have very few images left over from that time period because I sold most of them for a few bucks. You might think that’s a shame but I literally paid my rent that summer** by selling landscape drawing and paintings of West Quoddy Head and Roques Bluff State Park to people all over the world.

Honestly, as an artist paying rent by selling art is a good feeling. Also, if I’m totally honest I lived in a tiny apartment and I needed to get it gone. Continue reading