Art, Musings, and Creative Endeavors of a Happy Duck
Although the chaos of everything has been, well, a lot, to say the least, I have been painting. Some of the completed pieces are below.
I guess these are easter eggs, or from a very strange bird. It’s amazing the direction a painting will go. 
A couple more, if you’re interested, below the cut.
My dad passed away in February. So, I’ve been away from home, down in Florida, getting things squared away there. They’re not squared away – in fact, I’d say they feel pretty misshapen and all over the place. They’re… fractalized?
In any case, although I brought pencils with me, and acrylic pens, it was hard to do anything creative while I was gone. It was a lot of get up, go to my dad’s house, clean/pack/sort, go back to the airbnb, sleep, do it all over again. We did get away for half a day to the beach, at least.
So, here’s a work in progress – I’m not sure where I’m going with it, so how it turns out will be a mystery for all of us.
And, one of these days, I’m going to get better at taking photos of my work.
[insert some pithy quote or important call to action 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.
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. :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
[insert some pithy quote or important call to action here.]
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.
[insert some pithy quote or important call to action here.]
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.