Watercolor Class

So I remembered to bring the camera to the botanical watercolor class I have been taking for over a month now. Its a nice small group only about 10 people. Above is the finished colored version of the artichoke that we worked on for a couple of weeks. Our new assignment is a pansy. This week we learned how to mix colors for the floer and next week we are learning how to mix greens. I have done a little bit of an underpainting on the leaves, but didn't want to get ahead of myself. The artichoke looks good, but the color is all wrong. I couldn't mix the right shade of green. Its a lot harder than it seems. I guess I could blame my limited color palette. ;)
Here is Louise Smith, our teacher with one of the students in the class, talking about pansies.

Another student working hard on a pansy, my workspace is the mess on the table behind her.

The co-op art gallery where I'm a member at is also having a spring face lift. We spackled and painted all the walls and are in the process of painting the floor with a new coat of color. Our opening reception for the next show is on April 25th, so it should all look great at that time! I am so excited about having the gallery look clean. I'll put a photo when were done. It just feels like another busy week!

New Patterns

I visited a friend a couple of weeks ago and she borrowed a whole bunch of cute Japanese craft books to me. I loved flipping through everything and drooling over all the cute little critters.

I drew some of the patterns out, and in my enthusiasm was able to put them into practice. I started out with two owls and a hedge hog. I had seen the owls in so many places before, and it was nice to make some myself. I got so excited that I cut a whole bunch of fabric out and started 12 more. I had to go to a conference so I could not finish them all right away, but here is where I got so far.
Harry the hedgehog was fun to make. He is very small though, so it took a lot of effort to sew and turn the arms inside out. On such a small scale the corduroy was pretty stiff to maneuver. When finished he ended up turning out just as cute as the hedgehogs. I cut another hedgehog out, but haven’t had time to sew it together yet. It is fun to work on this miniature scale for a change. IT takes just as long to make as bigger stuffed animals, but smaller is always cuter.

The watercolor class I talked about earlier is also a lot of fun. I am learning some new tips, but mostly I enjoy just getting back into making drawings again. After the first week, the assignment was to work on basic watercolor techniques. I am not a very good student, since you can tell I never finished my exercises… I guess I should work on this again.

The next week we were working on shading, and had to bring in a round object. I had chosen a garlic, but had to use 5 cloves of it the night before for cooking, so it ended up being a half a garlic. We were just painting with a gray color to practice lights and darks.

Last week we had to bring an artichoke in and draw that with graphite. Tomorrow we are going to bring the completed drawings in and paint over them with watercolors. I am excited to do that, since I have done a lot of drawing and my prints are predominantly black and white, but don’t really know the intricacies of color in plant life. Listening to the teacher there seems to be a lot of things I never noticed. Apparently on a green leaf the highlights always have yellow undertones and highlights have blues. I would have thought opposite. So after my great attempt at painting this artichoke tomorrow I’ll post it here.

On a completely different note, if you have seen those pretty letter pressed cards in gift shops and wonder how they are made, I will soon post a video from a printmaking conference I just came home from.

Move rapidly approaching...

Our movers will be here on wednesday! I wont be able to write in a little bit, since it will be a long drive from GA to WA. Hopefully we'll get internet set up at our house within a week or so when we arrive.
I packed my sewing machines yesterday, so I concentrated on some art for a change today. I did a demo on some lithography plates last week, and got inspired to make a set of three little "hut" prints. (You can see the video on my art blog http://www.mirka-h.blogspot.com/)
While I was drawing the prints, I would think back to my childhood. Building little huts was one of my favorite activities growing up. Even when the other kids would come and break our hut down, we would always build a new one trying to make innovations as we scavenged for supplies.
I think after our move, I will put a couple of prints on Etsy to see if there is any interest.

Comissions

I have been working on two comissions in the past weeks and am finally on the home stretch. It has been a nice change of pace. Working with pen and ink is very similar to creating my etchings, so it always makes me feel good about what I am doing.

The first commission was a portrait of a dog for a friend of mine. His old spaniel had just passed away and he wanted to remember her. The portrait has two views of Mattie and the milky way in the distance. I also framed the print with a black frame and double mat. When working on portraits, I normally work from photos. For multiple animals, I normally play around with photoshop to get a nice composition before I start drawing. The second step is to get the basic values down with pencil, and third I just fill it in with the pen. I use a simple old school pen (like a quill) with liquid ink in a well.

The other commission is on a totally different note. It is an illustration for a young writer for his fantasy novels. I have so excited to work with him. The finished illustrations will be sold as prints with the short story at the Shiny Squirrel Boutique. I'll post more on this as soon as I finish the illustration. Garr, it has been such a busy semester! There are so many things to do and every week when I think I have cleared enough time, a bunch more things pop up! Is this the way every one else's life is too? I have so many patterns that I am dying to try out, but simply have no time.

I blogged about our move previously (husband-military-all that jazz). That also changed, so that instead of moving next summer to Germany, we are already leaving in Jan-Feb next year to Ft Lewis, Washinton. As soon as the semester and teaching are over, I get to start packing boxes. I think I might have to have a sale to get rid of some of the fabrics I have accumulated...

Todays inspiration...

I wanted to introduce two awesome artists in my entry today. Both of them are artists from Europe, Sanna Annukka, Finnish/English and Angie Lewin from the UK. If you haven't been able to discern yet, I like things that have a retro 70's or so look to them. I fell in love with the prints of both of these artists immediately.

Sanna Annukka is an illustrator and printmaker. She finds her inpiration from nature and folklore. She uses bright colors and geometric simplified designs in her work. Her screenprints and lithographs are available from her online store. In addition to graphic design, Sanna Annukka is collaborating with design companies, like Marimekko, for graphics for fabrics.

Angie Levin is also a printmaker working with linocuts, wood engraving and collage. Her colors a more muted compard to Sanna Annukka, but just as delicious. Many of her prints feature simplified and designy flowers and meadows in greens and blues.

I wish I had a collection of both of these artists prints. You can buy her prints straight from her website or from art galleries listed on the site as well. Fabrics designed by Angie can be found at St.Judes.