Well?

Crinkly illustrations get ironed
in my house

Well? What do you use yours for?

In this household I'll use whatever I can to make the art work. In this case, this poor illustration crinkled and crinkled badly. I have no idea why, but I thought maybe a little ironing would help. It did! The crinkles did move outward but the main image area is now crinkle free.

Badly crinkled illustration

Ironed and nice and crisp

Remaining crinkles can
be hidden with a matt

More Xylene...

Lazer transfers of butterfly images
using the Xylene transfer method.

Transferring images to various surfaces remains foremost on my mind. The toxicity of the can of Xylene I purchased also lingers in my thoughts so I have been holding my ideas at bay till I can get them all out in one felt swoop, preferably outside where the fumes from the Xylene can go up and…well, somewhere. I've mentioned it before and will reiterate that this stuff is toxic.

IT'S TOXIC!

If you plan on following my lead and playing with Xylene transfers do not do it without rubber gloves AND a proper vapor respirator. I'm fairly tolerant to all sorts of smells and "dangerous" art supplies and I must admit that many times I've lived on the wild side and thrown caution to the wind with my art supplies, but I've never come face to face with a supply so potent and dangerous as Xylene. It works amazingly, but it hits the senses and produces a headache almost instantaneously. It's dangerous. Thankfully I do have a vapor respirator which I use for dangerous work, but Xylene is way too strange to be dealt with in an enclosed area since the headache seems to happen the MOMENT I've taken the respirator off and leave the room. So any work can not be done in the house.

Colored xeroxes waiting
to be transferred to a surface

Xylene transfer of colored xeroxes: fail

My transfer projects will have to wait for a nice (non windy) day to be let out. Of course, when things go wrong, like they did with the xerox transfer the creative process (the part where I have to ponder what happened and what I could do to remedy it) is put on hold and sometimes creative fires dwindle and die as they did on trying to transfer my little mice images to surfaces.

Right now any reproductive ideas about my mice have dwindled and for that I am sad since I really had great expectations, but I'm sure such ideas will be revisited later on down the road. For now I've gone back to haring the little Maureen Love foal in bay roan and poking about with my new desk Zen Garden. And wouldn't you know it? Even in my new sand garden….a heart!

Maureen Love foal in bay roan
(will be a sales item this week.)

My little desk zen garden

Stone in the garden was yes, a heart

Happy Easter

Eggs dyed with
plain old onion skins.
I have no idea why one came out striped

On holidays I try to close the studio down, or at least avoid it. It's hard to avoid what I love doing so much and today was handled like every other holiday. Avoid the room. Avoid the room. Dye some eggs using organic dye (aka onion skins). Avoid the room and then dive into the paper in the kitchen and draw. A vision of the little mice sitting on a big Easter egg just wouldn't go away so out it had to come this afternoon!

From my family to yours I wish you a very Happy Easter.


"Easter"
Graphite, Watercolor, and Acrylics on archival bristol

Stranded

Stranded.

Well, not quite, but it sure felt that way today while I was waiting for tires to be put on my car. As I sat there there urge to sketch hit me hard and so I decided to grab my sketchbook and start fleshing out the many people walking about the store. I quickly realized that I not only forgot to put my sketchbook in my purse, but that I had *NOTHING* to sketch on. Not a pad, or xerox paper or even some crumpled up receipts. I always have receipts I don't need shoved into the one pocket, but not today. Nope. The only thing I had to draw on was business cards and so, I drew. I drew on cards with the only other thing I could find in the bottom of my purse....a ball point pen. It was challenging but sorta fun to "doodle" with a regular Bic pen.







This one was a complete fail!
It was suppose to be a baby...lol



Testing the watercolor paper
Graphite, Watercolor and Acrylics on watercolor paper

This Or That?

Illustrate this side?

Or illustrate THIS side?


Having many things to draw and explore creatively is sometimes worse than not having any ideas at all. With many items there are so many choices and way too many ideas flowing into the brain all at once. Sometimes an ambush of ideas come from the simplest thing, like a fortune cookie, and they don't let up no matter how many images you draw or how many orders of food you purchase.

I must admit that I do have a slight weakness for Chinese food, but recently I have found it almost difficult to resist ordering as I know my regular place will happily throw in one or two extra fortune cookies for me if I ask. They have no idea what I'm creating all they know is I really like those cookies. I could find a supplier online and buy in bulk, but there is something special, almost superstitious, about finishing the meal and picking out YOUR cookie. The drawing takes it a step further.

As a kid and young adult I used to save them if they were good. Till this day I don't know what happened to all of them or where they eventually wound up. Perhaps they are somewhere with my Schadler rule and all those ball point pens that are never handy when you need to write something. Hmm….I think I'm onto something here.

"Chicken"
Decoupage, Graphite, Watercolor
and Acrylics on archival bristol board

"The Big Cheese"
Decoupage, Graphite, Watercolor and Acrylics
on archival bristol board

Eberl draft foal
in bay roan

Rose "Little Lonestar" in
Palomino tobiano

Another shot of "Little Lonestar."

Around The Studio

Xylene transfer (and coffee staining)
on plaster tiles

I have a lot going on in the studio right now. I thought it best to just take some snapshots of a few of the projects I'm juggling. They are varied in nature. Hoping from media to media seems to keep me fresh. Right now I am hooked on the Xylene transfers onto tiles. I've been experimenting on unglazed tiles and recently switched to home made plaster tiles.


Xylene transfer on plaster tiles

Transfers on tiles

Tile work

Eberl resin being painted a bay roan

In progress

Dusting off Leela for more
sculpting work.

Another view...oof, the dust

Illustrations currently in
various stages

Live Sketching (Tommyboys Bar & Grill)

More practice at the local bar. It was a bit of an "off" night for me (IMO) but I drew through it and did come up with a few that I found favor with. They are rough and lack the finese of earlier attempts at the same bar. The very last session at this bar was best, but I'm not hating these. Of course, by the time I got to the bar people were fairly "happy" and moving about quite a bit. Moving people are always difficult to draw, but drunk moving people...even more difficult.














My favorite sketch of the night.
Something about her just drew me in.