daily art practice Archives

March 28, 2015September 13, 2016

Sketch 4/365 Sometimes Less is More

My last two sketches were rather dark, so I decided to lighten it up a bit after I found some green tissue paper (left over from gift wrapping) in my daughter’s room. Instead of recycling it, I decided to repurpose it in this sketch. I’ll be honest, it’s not my favorite…but then again, these daily sketches aren’t suppose to be works of art per se. They are meant to be informative – what happens when I layer this texture over this color, and then I add this stamped design on top of these two layers? You get the picture.

4/365 started to look like colorful fabric, and I decided to add a final layer of sketched flowers that I had previously turned into laser toner decals (see below). Adding a layer of line art on top of my collage corresponds nicely with the use of ceramic decals. Sometimes less is more – learning when to edit is important which is why I think I am really going to find this daily “sketch” practice really valuable in the long run. I should be able to reference this sketch book for years when I need a bit of inspiration.

Ingredients:

Sketchbook with heavy stock paper for water media
Torn green tissue paper
Liquitex satin varnish
Paint brush
Water
Laser copy of flowers I had drawn for decals
Ink pads (not waterproof) (turquoise, black, sepia and white)
Hand carved rubber stamps
Eco House Orange Terpene for image transfer of laser copy
Pencil
Golden Raw Umber Acrylic Satin Glaze
Scissors

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

March 26, 2015

Sketch 2/365

In keeping with my intention of working intuitively and fast, sketch 2/365 turned into an abstracted landscape. I like what’s happening in parts of the piece, but not all.

I spent about 20 min. total on this not including the time for drying after I collaged a tea bag and some newspaper onto the page – I started making dinner while the page was drying. After I was done, I was reminded of graduate school studying landscape architecture. We called these quick drawings “ideograms” which are basically quick sketches meant to convey a concept or idea graphically. We used them in the early design phases to flesh out how something might be organized and to visualize a project. This was one of my favorite exercises. We also employed model making when building concepts.

When I called it done, I wondered if a more narrative piece like this would work on clay? Maybe tiles, but I don’t know if something in the round would work.

Ingredients:

Sketchbook with heavy stock paper for water media
Dried tea bag emptied of its contents
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
Scissors
Brush pen
Black pen – Pilot 0.5 V-Ball (one of my favorites)
Ink pads (not waterproof) (turquoise, black, sepia and white)
Hand carved rubber stamp
Sketch and wash pencil

P.S. I mis-dated this piece. It should read 3-25-15 not 3-26-15.