I"ve posted stuff by woman on fire before but I just found this video and I hadn't seen it. So here it is.
book 21.2 (july 1994 – winter 1994) from womanonfire on Vimeo.
Woman on FIre on vimeo
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Author Archives: leslie
Journaling to Improve My Mood
Last night as I lay in my bed wishing I could fall asleep I realized these little automatic drawings not only reflect my mood but improve it. I can come home after a long day, sit down with my pen, journal, and watercolors and feel much better by journaling it out via automatic drawing. Looking back I've turned to the automatic drawings at difficult times in my life. These drawings pepper my journals and sometimes fill sketchbooks with their flowing lines.
At one point I had a lot of rules for the automatic drawings. At one point they were only done in Sharpie and in one long continuous line like colors could not touch sides; those were just a few. Eventually I felt that the rules restricted my ability to explore the subconscious and conscious themes that came up in these drawings, so I dumped the rules.
Trying Something New with Something Old
For this automatic drawing I created a mottled field of color with my watercolors. I dried it out and then drew on top of the washy colors. I then added more color on top of the drawing to draw out some of the fun colors that were already present, it also helped to add emphasis to the drawing.
This is somethign I'll be trying out again and again. The watercolors added a really nice feel to the paper, a tactile sensation I really enjoyed. Also drawing on the color was fun too. Adding the darker colors of watercolor to various areas really allowed me to focus in on some of those neat bleeding effects.
Also take note that the sycophantic followers have thumbed down the video. Awesomesauce.
Show it (and me) some love.
Time to Relax
After a long cold day at the DayJob sucking down hot tea and coffee trying to stay warm, and awake, I came home and was unable to sleep. My buddy let me take a goofy picture o him and I decided I had to paint him from the photo. It's not the greatest image of him ever but it was relaxing to paint that night.
Sketchbook Notebook whatever
This is how it starts, one day you forget your notebook for class and all you've got is your sketchbook so you take notes in it, you decide you like the look and suddenly an art journal is born.
sketchbook cambiose from raquel pinheiro on Vimeo.
sketchbook dragão da maldade from raquel pinheiro on Vimeo.
sketchbook from raquel pinheiro on Vimeo.
Technique Tuesday: Ink Wash
Ink Wash is an incredibly old skool technique that I learned in High School. It was taught to us in Art 1 as a way to learn about value and tone, as well as their relationship. We used film canisters (retro) and India ink, which is waterproof once dried. The idea behind it is that you start with 3 to 5 levels of light to dark watered down ink. You apply it with a brush to capture the value of the image you are trying to capture. You add additional layers of watered down ink to achieve your dark darks. At the end you'd use a crow quill pen to add in details, or if you were "that good" you'd get a liner brush and use a light hand to add those final details.
In college I had a friend who did the most amazing ink washes in blue higgens waterproof ink. Amazing stuff. Since then I've sketched in black, red, blue, blue-black and a variety of other colors. Traditional is with black so that's what I've shown in my video.
I use Noodler's Black ink for this, but you can use any ink brand you want. The vials I use are from GouletPens.com. I used my syringe that I referenced in my last post about fountain pens to measure the ink.
Anyway, watch the video, try ink wash, it's an easy and fun technique.
My Automatic Drawings
I've been making what I call "automatic drawings" since the late '90s. The idea is that I put a pen to paper and move it around in ways that come to me, subconciously without deep thought. Think of it as a drawing style similar to stream of conciousness writing. I've noticed that during different parts of my life different images and symbols arise from the depths of my mind. When I was younger the images were raw, emotional and largely symbolic of my life at that time. The symbols and the images have changed but the process is roughly the same.
Luiza Holub on Vimeo
Wildly differnt than what I usually post but still, I love the rough style here.
sketchbook flip IV from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.
sketchbook flip III Summer 2008 from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.
sketchbook flip #2 from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.
sketchbook flip from Luiza Holub on Vimeo.
The price of good customer service
Over the last couple of days I’ve been dealing with very good customer service, the kind of customer service people talk about how good it was. I made an order from one of my favorite companies and it got screwed up. It arrived in the mail, I’d been waiting for it, eagerly. I contacted the company and they took care of the issue in a way that will have me forever telling people about their exceptional customer service and I’ll keep coming back.
I’ve asked myself in the past what is cheaper, not replacing/repairing a book or piece of art and having the customer talk about that forever or is it cheaper to replace/repair the book/ art and have them talk about me in glowing terms forever?
Let’s put it this way, I will forever talk about the company that gave me great customer service and I have customers from over 10 years ago that still come back to me. Why? Great customer service. If anyone who bought a book from me, even 13 years ago tracked me down and asked me to repair it? Guess what, I’d do it,happily.
Oh yeah, the company that gave me exceptional customer service? Gouletpens.com
Different Styles
I find a lot of inspiration in looking at images of art in a totally differnt style than my own. Take Jeff Claassen's art, it's got a graffitti style that is completely different from how I draw and paint. He uses lines in a way I wouldn't think to and that is where inspiration comes in. Check 'em out.
Sketchbook #9 from jeff claassen on Vimeo.
Random Drawings Done While Working At A Dead End Job from jeff claassen on Vimeo.
Sketchbook #7, Drawings, Art from jeff claassen on Vimeo.