art | Subalpine Design

April 23, 2020April 23, 2020

Pardon Me, I Arted

I’m sure you’ve noticed. The boundaries of the world have changed.

Yesterday, the watercolor workshop I signed up for before the pandemic that was supposed to start in May, officially cancelled. So I’ve decided I’ll still set aside the time I would have spent in class, practicing and learning more about the medium on my own because I haven’t picked up my brush since that last post. My work in progress is exactly as I left it.

It’s not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Fortunately our lives and routines haven’t changed that much in the wake of a pandemic and this economic downturn; yet I can list the postponements, cancellations and the things that don’t meet what we used to call normal expectations. I’m not trying to gloss over the loss of life or pain. I’m looking for ways to express those feelings. I’m learning how to see obstacles as opportunity.

Choosing not to dwell on negativity or fear, I don’t want to talk about how uncertain everything is because nothing is really ever certain. I believe the control we think we have over our lives is mostly an illusion. We should always expect the unexpected and be willing to learn. Always be prepared. And even when you think you have it all figured out, then something will surprise you.

I want to know what I can do for the highest good right in this moment. Looking forward, I want to start taking the baby steps towards whatever our new normal might be with caution and wisdom. Observe. Orientate. Decide. Act. I’d like to share some of what Lights up my days.

If we want to talk hoarding, I reacted by adding to my yarn stash and ordered official Zentangle® supplies:

I finished up these socks I started for my mom back in December.

And made this infant set in anticipation of welcoming my niece.

I’ve made progress on the poncho and started a whole new sweater!

I’ve started cataloging my projects on Ravelry…

The garden is starting out great with a bunch of volunteers of lettuce and the reliable return of old friends like rhubarb and strawberries. The daffodils have just started blooming since Easter.

Lou’s been making stew.

There’s even been some time for mandolin practice. With the new year, I started occasionally recording my practices. Pretending to have an audience helps me play through hiccups and critique my technique. I’d like to share some of the better ones on youtube but I don’t know enough about music licensing issues when practicing popular songs. So I’ll spare you the audio for now…

When I shared a difficult time with one of my teachers a few years ago, she suggested:

“…it is good to find a book such as Pema Chodron’s, When Things Fall Apart to read during times like this.

When the mind obsesses about what we ultimately can do nothing about, but care so much for a good outcome, it helps to replace the overwhelming thoughts with thoughts of what is, and what we must do to remain balanced in times like this. It also helps to set the mind in a place to meditate and refuel our energy to carry on.”—Kat Katsos

I’ve picked it up to read again.

March 15, 2020February 13, 2023

Playing with Water

I can’t say I’m a complete novice when it comes to watercolor.

I used a simple Crayola set to create this logo for a client…

…and layered washes of color under the colored pencils in this poster for Habitat for Humanity’s Recycled Arts Show.

When my grandfather passed, I created this scene as part of a card for my mom.

Using photoshop to ‘photocopy’ this photo my husband took, I turned it into outlines, printed and re-applied the color using watercolor.

Like knitting and crochet, watercolor may be one of those talents that has somehow been transmitted to me from my ancestors even though I never saw how they executed the skill or viewed much of their handicraft. Grandpa practiced watercolor. Or it could just be something that can be learned with careful observation and practice.

I’ve been working in colored pencil and feel like it has taught me some valuable skills about shading and the use of white space, but I wanted to move into paint.

Paint is naturally more fluid. I feel like the pigments could be more vibrant than pencil, and it just flows, laying down the color much faster. I used to own some acrylics, and have played with enamels, but watercolor has been calling.

Some of my old acrylic paintings from 20+ years ago.

A flower pot decorated in enamel paints, inspired by the seashells we picked up on a visit to Florida in 2017.

The first thing I did was sit down and research recommendations on supplies. There is so much out there! I didn’t know where to start. As I found artists whose artwork I admired, Winsor & Newton was frequently mentioned. Anticipating that I would want a small kit that I could easily take with me, I wanted to keep it all small and compact. For less than $50 on Amazon, I purchased the following:

Winsor & Newton (W&N) Cotman Water Color Paint Sketchers’ Pocket Box
W&N Cotman short handle brush 7pack of assorted styles
W&N Professional Watercolor paper journal, cold pressed 140lb. 5×7

I also bought some masking fluid, but I haven’t used it yet.

Added since my initial order:

some fun washi masking tape for holding down the paper while I paint on a clipboard
Staedtler Pigment Liners, set of 6 in assorted sizes – I thought I wanted a pen that was waterproof, but I have yet to use these with my paints. So far I’ve been sketching very lightly in pencil and using the paint to outline. I’ve been using the pens with my tangling practice.

Since then, I’ve signed up for a watercolor class at my local studio that starts in May. There’s a material list for the class and per the instructor’s recommendation, I bought them all through Cheap Joe’s Art Supplies. So now I have tubes of paint, a palette, and a big block of watercolor paper. My favorite brushes so far are the no. 6 round Princeton Neptune I bought for the class and the no 1 round from the W&N pack for detail.

I’d been reading many artist recommendations and saw that a repetitive theme is to buy larger paper and cut it down to the size you want. I don’t plan on doing that with this block. I would like to try something large before the class but haven’t decided what yet. I like the small sketchbook size because it doesn’t take too long to complete something. Surprisingly, I’ve still been able to achieve a high level of detail, yet I know when I scale up it will open up a whole new world and style. I will probably order another sketchpad for the portability.

Camping on the Chama, featured at the beginning of this post, was my first piece with just my initial W&N supplies. For these succulents—the latest completed artwork, I used some of my new tubes of paint with the palette and new brush and the W&N pans. Here’s a little peek into the process:

I started sketching from an image I found on the internet (left). Concerned with scale and transferring it to the watercolor paper, I decided to use tracing paper to copy more precisely and transfer the outlines.

A printout of a photograph from the internet (left). My final watercolor (right).

March 2, 2020February 27, 2020

Tangled Up In Blue

Back in January I shared some of my artistic goals for the new year. If you’ve read this blog for long, you’ll know I’ve talked about a daily sketch practice for a while. One technique I tried initially was drawing the first object that came to mind and adding it to a single page. I didn’t sustain that practice for very long.

Then I tried to focus on creating single pieces of artwork, but found difficulty getting motivated and making the time and space.

Fast forward a few years to the end of 2019. I was researching what supplies I should get to start into watercolor and trying to learn more about techniques when I stumbled across fiona-clarke.com She has a post about the best pens to use with watercolour. She also has a post about Zentangle® Patterns. I’d seen ads in our local paper this Fall about Zentangle classes, so I was intrigued. Fiona’s artwork also reminded me of one of my favorite Colorado artists, Phil Lewis. All the signs pointed to learning more about Zentangle.

The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. “Zentangle” is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

And that’s exactly what I did. I googled out Zentangle and started clicking through the links laid out in orderly steps on the Zentangle website. The first deviation I made to the method was creating my own tiles to draw on. I’m one of those people these days who almost never follows a recipe as its written, even if it’s the first time I’m trying it out. I always feel compelled to tweak something. I knew I had a pack of scrapbooking paper that I’ve been sitting on for years. I also knew how much I like trimming and cutting paper. For me, I get a zen moment when I’m concentrating on how scissors move along a cut-line. In no time, I had a good collection of square and circular ’tiles’ ready for tangling.

At first I didn’t pay much attention to the patterns. I focused on The Eight Steps of the Zentangle Method, and I seemed to see the lines that wanted to be drawn ‘appearing’ on the page before me. So I followed them. Only recently, have I been looking at a published list of patterns and sometimes purposefully exploring them.

I’ve picked a few of my favorites to share. Some of the things I have loved with this practice is how amazed I am at what appears. It has challenged my ideas of positive and negative space. It’s very freeing to create abstractly where you’re not trying to make it look like anything in particular. I also like how it can be accomplished quickly—usually in one sitting; and there’s no excuse if it’s dark out. I often talk myself out of doing anything with realism and color after the sun goes down as I know I don’t have adequate light sources and perceive the colors differently ‘in the dark.’

Unfortunately, my old iphone doesn’t do the artwork justice. These photos lose a little bit of the subtle shading when photographed. I haven’t gotten out the digital SLR to see if that makes a difference.

Since the new year there have been a few daily lapses. Most of the time if I haven’t sat down to tangle that day, it was because I filled it with something else creative: watercolor, colored pencils, jewelry-making, knitting or picking the mandolin. Now that I’m about 2 months and 38 tiles in, it’s almost time to make more tiles, and I’m considering buying an official kit. Maybe I’ll even take a class, if the timing’s right. In the meantime, I have signed up for a watercolor class. More on that in my next post…

January 2, 2020February 13, 2023

Meet Lou

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I met two different people who said they were working on children’s books and were either working with an illustrator or interested in finding one. It got me wondering what it would be like to work on a project as an illustrator; and with some of my clients, that’s exactly what I do to create a logo.

When it comes to my personal desire to make a regular practice of drawing (call it a new year resolution this time of year), I was trying to work on realistic and botanical type drawings to hone my attention to detail. I’ve also been thinking lately about creating designs for the business. What would that look like? Should I put together some business card templates for fictional businesses or create logo design elements to expand my portfolio and show off my flexibility? I have a hard time getting creative in that situation and believe that business projects are often driven by the existing brand or individual. But creating fictional worlds and characters? I have an easier time doing that.

Lou has been around a long time. She’s just now taking an identifiable form, and her story keeps going…

You know you’re on the right track when every day she adds another line to her story, and you get excited for the chance to sit down and try to draw that. Here’s to a New Year and new adventures—with Lou of course!

November 21, 2019November 21, 2019

Juicy Succulent

This was another sketch that was created while working on the rebrand of Red Silk Essentials as a possible new logo idea. My inspiration came from my friend and silversmith, Bailey Schreiner Parker, she’s the Boho Luxe Bohemian behind Beaded Bohemian, who likes to cast lil succulents into her designs. Now, looking back, I’m itching to draw some more succulents and this time in color. I love their fractal, repetitive, spiraling design.

I wrote that back this Spring, when I thought I’d get some illustrations completed and posted up. I gotta confess, the drawing practice was set aside while camping this summer or knitting or reading or making dates with friends lately.

To make up for it, I’ll at least share where I left off. After finding many inspirational images online, I can probably doodle succulents for ages. This one’s complicated…

It’s starting out on paper but it will probably be scanned in and refined or archived. Compared to the sketch for RSE which was sketched on the tablet, the rainbow cornucopia’s being sketched from the tablet!

This one was inspired by the real life plant. I snapped a picture of it when I spotted it, leaving it where I found it; and decided to sketch it later while putting my own twist on the fairy slipper. While playing with the scan of the illustration, I decided to merge it with the real photograph. Still dreaming up the border.