365 days of art making Archives

April 26, 2015September 14, 2016

Sketches 16-33/365

I’ve let the last two weeks worth of sketches accumulate without documenting them here on my new blog…but I have been working hard to translate some of the imagery to my pots. I blame my deadline for my fast approaching group sale for the lax posting. The pots in the photo above are currently cooling in the soda kiln at the Colorado Potters Guild as I write this. My compadres and I will be unloading them on Monday, April 27th at 2pm – just in time to inventory them for our Spring Sale happening April 30 – May 2!

Sketch 11/365 4-3-15 definitely influenced my pots

An interesting thing happened when I was working my sketchbook imagery to my clay work – the mark making has to be simplified when adding it to a pot. Conversely, I started getting a ton of ideas that I wanted to explore in 2D once I started adding surface interest to the pots. My sketches have become increasingly more colorful, playful and detailed.

I’m having so much fun with these and am considering recreating some of these as prints. The one thing I keep asking myself is why haven’t I keep a sketchbook before? I’m past the 30 days of sketching and often have ideas lined up for future drawings. It does take some discipline to make time to draw everyday, but it feels like such a great investment.

Since I haven’t kept up with my posting, here’s a quick 15 second Flipogram to highlight the first 30 days. I am going to make a concerted effort to post at least 3 times a week going forward.

April 8, 2015September 13, 2016

Sketches 10/365 – 15/365

From 2006 to 2009, I was a regular blogger – I kept a schedule. As a returning blogger, I find that I have to relearn the rhythm of keeping a regular practice of sharing images of what I am working on and to write a little context. Today, I am sharing 6 fairly quick sketches (most took about 20 minutes or less, with the exception of 13/365 which took about an hour) of last week’s efforts.

Some of these sketches come more easily to me than others, but I am super excited how each of these is going to make quite a library that I will be able to draw on for years. 365 days of sketching is a big commitment, yet so far, it is easy to squeeze in 15 to 20 minutes here and there. Sometimes, when I am making a drawing, ideas pop into my head for the next couple of day’s sketches. Some days, I stare at the blank page and am not sure how to start.

Not knowing how to start and relying on past work has always stunted my clay decorating efforts. It’s much easier to go back to what I know than to expand on what I’ve done in the past or to invent something new. I hope that through this year long exercise that I will be able to make some serious creative break throughs.

This past week, I’ve really enjoyed working with sumi ink and pen – so I’ve decided to continue in the same vein this week with the addition of a single color.

Below are last week’s sketches along with the “ingredients” list. I was careless a few days and didn’t photograph all of the ingredients.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”1″ gal_title=”April 8″]

April 2, 2015

Sketch 9/365 and Sketch to Pot

I don’t have a ton to say about this sketch, except that I was experimenting with the ink and it didn’t quite go as I envisioned. I attempted to save it with the line work. Someone mentioned on Instagram that it looked cosmic – funny because after I drew this one, I started researching constellations. 😀

Sketch 7/365 was the inspiration for the deco on this bottle

Later in the day, I headed to the Colorado Potters Guild to work on some pots that I’m planning on firing in the soda kiln with a group later in April. I’m pretty psyched about using this daily drawing practice as fodder for surface decoration for my clay work because I have always left the decorating/glazing up to the last minute and it shows. I have always enjoyed the making part and want to make the decorating more thought out and just as enjoyable as the making.

sketch book
sumi ink
paint brush
water
white gel pen
pencil
circle template
sliding parallel ruler

March 27, 2015

Sketch 3/365 + Lowering Clay Temperature

I had every intention of taking a part of what I liked about sketch 2/365 and exploring it more in depth yesterday. Instead, it turned into its own thing – the colors and stamp choices being used on the fly. I am keeping track of what I’m using to create these quick mixed media collages, but not the order of operations.

To get the most out of my sketchbook, each page is being used on both sides. I had a moment yesterday where I asked myself whether I should do one page per sketch just in case I ever wanted to display one or more. What if I like both the front and the back? I had to remind myself that these are quick studies and are not precious.

I have already begun the process of testing out some of these stamped/painted designs on clay with mixed results when fired to cone 10 in reduction. The mishima decorated ones turned out great, but the stamped ones are muddy. While I normally fire to ^6, I had the opportunity to fire some work at the Colorado Potters Guild at ^10 reduction. Why not? It’s a good way to test out how the designs hold up at different temperatures.

A few weeks ago, I listened to Tales of the Red Clay Rambler, episode 94 and Charlie Cummings briefly described the benefits of working at cone 1 to Ben Carter. I perked up. At cone 1 the clay is more vitrified and less fragile than traditional earthenware, yet the colors are brighter and the clay warps less than at higher temps. Later when I returned home from my studio, I googled cone 1 glazes and there’s just not a ton of info out there. I did find a post dated from 2006 on potters.org where Charlie shared some of his base clay and glaze recipes. I think it’s a good starting point to do some testing.

Ingredients:

Sketchbook with heavy stock paper for water media
Printed newspaper torn (I selected an article that talked about the redevelopment of an area close to my house)
Liquitex satin varnish
Paint brush
Water
Black pen – Pilot 0.5 V-Ball (one of my favorites)
Ink pads (not waterproof) (turquoise, black, sepia and white)
Hand carved rubber stamps
Toilet paper roll

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30