Still Here
Been a little overwhelmed with life the past couple weeks, but that’s okay. I have been painting, and doing other artsy stuff, but just haven’t taken the time to share it.
The world kinda sucks right now, but. That’s okay. I’m still here.
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Some paintings
Been getting more comfortable with acrylics. I really like the sort of “intuitive abstract” thing – I’m not stellar at representational painting. I don’t enjoy it. It can be fun, sometimes, to incorporate it, but I’m unlikely to decide to become a capturer of real life.
I would, however, like to get better at photographing my paintings, because I’m not terrific at that. :)
Little Gifts
As my fingertips recover from accidental encounters with the blades of the new tools, I returned to some painting I’d been wanting to do.
Remember those little boxes I made a while ago? Made some more of those, too. And am combining the two things to make art drops.
Another Lino Doodle
New tools got here today. I now have 5 Flexcut Palm tools, and my goodness, it’s amazing. I feel like I’m set on the carving tools department.
So, another doodle, in a somewhat different tone from my last.
Lino Doodles
For my birthday, I sprung for a slipstrop and a few flexcut carving tools. While the tools haven’t arrived yet, I spent an inordinate amount of time stropping the tools I do have yesterday, and friends, let me tell you: sharp tools make battleship gray lino feel like the soft cut stuff.
I was just amazed at the difference. I started with a speedball-knock-off tool with changeable blades, and picked up a package of Temu woodblock carving tools (with real wooden handles!). I currently own on flexcarve palm tool – a very small V-cut that I use for outlining and fine details – and thought that the flexcarve was the biggest upgrade I could make.
After stropping, even the temu tools are feeling good.
Eye Robot
An eyedea, which I don’t have the skill to bring to fruition yet, but putting it here for the future when maybe I will have more ability.
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Printing!
I spent Saturday doing a short print run (all my runs are short; hand-printing gets me tired quickly). One was of my first lino block, which I am now retiring – I hope to rework the idea, and get something I’m more satisfied with; and the second is the second stage of a reduction print valentine I’m working on.
The valentine/reduction print is not turning out quite as I had hoped. Part of it is skill – I’m not experienced in reduction printing (this is my first), so I have things to work on regarding the best order to color-application, ink on the block, and print registration (to start with). I think, too, part of the problem is that I’m using speedball oil ink, and I’m just not particularly impressed with it. I’ve got Gamblin black, and the consistency, spread, and results are like night and day. So, it seems, it’s worth spending more money on the color. I wish I was surprised, but I am not. Another issue is the cardstock I’m printing on – probably not the best paper for it.
It is annoying to me that introductory, or entry-level, tools and resources for any hobby are of such low-to-mediocre quality. Many people quit because they can’t afford the good stuff and think they’re shitty artists, when the results they’re getting would be improved immensely by better tools. If I lived closer to anything, I’d be finding a print center or art co-op to join, so I wouldn’t be footing the bill for all the stuff myself.
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An idea that isn't working
I like to paint small things. Small things feel approachable. I also like to paint “garbage” – make art out of things that are just going to be thrown away.
There’s a practicality to painting small garbage: if you mess up or don’t like the results, you can just bin it, minimal resources expended. And if you DO like the results, it’s easy to find a place to put it. (Sort of; I’ve got tiny canvases, scraps of paper, and random painted things floating around my desk like a halo. But never mind that.)
So here’s an example of a fridge magnet gone wrong. It started life as a magnet that held a calendar from the real estate agent who sold us our house; it’s current incarnation is a mess. But I’m learning from it, I think – need to get better with matte medium, and textures, and the control for very fine lines.
Candle
I’m kinda broken about fascism. The tiny town I live in is indifferent, most folks thinking the big cities deserve what’s happening to them; most folks here are just ignorant. So, there’s not a lot of community within walking distance to be in community with over issues like this.
Ironically, if the supply chains all come crashing down tomorrow, I feel more secure with these people than half the leftists I’ve known.
But I couldn’t be at a vigil last night, I didn’t have a place to put that sadness and heartbreak and anger and fear, so I painted instead.
Getting somewhat better at gel plates – I think I need to reevaluate the paper I’m using. My mixed media sketchbook might not be the best option here.
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Gel Plate Learning
After speed-running all the mistakes you can possibly make with gel plates over the course of a day, I melted the gelatin down and started over. Ended up with two smaller plates, and am starting to get a better feel for how it works.
There’s definitely a learning curve, which is not unexpected. Talented artists got that way because they did a lot of bad art before they got good, and that included learning how different tools and mediums work.
I tried a layered thing, where I was trying to make mountains. However, I didn’t let the paper stay on the plate long enough, and it didn’t come up as the image I expected. It came up as a couple of toned blobs.
So I made something out of it.
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