Watercolor - Lesson 2- Using two pigments

Oranges and A Lemon

This week our lesson was about using 2 pigments - Aureolin and Alizeron Crimson with a touch of blue to make the shadows show themselves off.

The original still life was set up before us in the classroom and later we received a photo to help work with out subject over the week. I made a gray tone jpeg of the work to further help see where the shadows fell and where the highlights were to be. Working with values is very helpful and certainly makes the work much more interesting and 3 dimensional. It was now time to begin my first fruit still life.

I started out with a light yellow wash over my fruit and then moved on to the lemon. I felt that my washes were consistent and were partially successful, the fruit were marginal but appeared to be round and the shadows appeared to be coming from the right point but I over worked this piece. It appears that in the course of doing so, I am learning how to apply color, blend and certainly how to make mud so far; however, I do feel that I am progressing.

I continued to work from fruit to background and back and forth until I have become somewhat satisfied with the piece. I need to work harder or smarter to have my skin of my paper remain fresh and for the colors to remain transparent. Scrubbing out and relaying paint, may work for an exercise, but the fluidity of the hand and the intention of knowing where you are going is the same in all art forms. It keeps the piece alive, interesting and inviting. I will continue to work towards this process.

Here is the photo from which I was to work.

Just had to do another silk.

Yesterday,I got several of my boxes filled with their images and they are now ready for the final cutting of tops and bottoms, placement of feet and topper and then they will be completed. Still a lot to do though isn't there? Well, before I get to all of those busy steps, I just have to work with some silk. So here I go.

First, I wash my silk in advance according to directions in case there is any residue on them that will keep the dyes from penetrating the silk.

Next, I pinned my 36 x 36 china silk square to my frame,

which has some problems, but I am still in the early stages

of this new passion so I think this will do it for now. I use stainless steal pins just in case I get a bit of rust that will slip into my silk.

After pinning, I chose

my dyes. I have chosen 3 for this piece, my favorites- cyan, veridian

green, and magenta. I deluted my dyes 1 teaspoon to about 3/4 cup of water. With the pr

ocess of layering colors I don't want to start out too dark.

I layer on the colors letting them bleed together and then apply several applications of salts, alchohols , and dyes. This is the final stage of the piece and is drying with salts.

The three pictures on the sides are in the following stages:

top: ironed off the stretcher and ready for steaming.

middle: stretched and dried

lower: last layer to include salts

Well, that was a lot of fun for me and I believe I like this color combination enough to make a garment out of. So the next adventure in silks will be for me to dye up some yardage. Stay tuned and if not-

See you around town,

Janet

Let's make some paper box lanterns.

This episode of my blog is about making my lanterns. They are just little light boxes made from book board, book cloth, wooden knobs, a light and some wonderful out of date images that I collect from old resources and from the many copy right free books and cds available today.

First things first. Decide how large one wants the box and then cut out the boards. (The bottom board will need a hole cut out so you can push the light up.) After the boards are cut, you have to determine how large the frame opening will be and make each board into a frame. Once that has been completed, time to glue up the sides to bottom. I always do this on a scrap piece of paper and I do not worry if the boards and paper get glued up. I will tear off that paper later prior to adding the book cloth, but to begin with it adds a bit of stability.

After the glue has set, it is time to cover the boxes with cloth making them ready for the image.

Be careful as you apply glue to your cloth- do not get any glue on the front sides or it will live there forever. Take your time-and remember when glueing, don't let the glue be too watery or too thick. The little bear said this one is just right. Wrap the box with the cloth folding in the bottom and tops and don't worry about your windows just now. That cloth is still damp with glue and will be very hard to cut into. Sit the boxes to one side and do a little chatting on your face book page while you wait.

That was fun. Now back to our boxes. If the glue is dry, it is now the time to prepare the openings for your images. Take your knife and make sure you make a cut in each corner of the cloth up to the points where the squares meet. Then cut out the extra cloth in the middle, apply glue to the board not the cloth and turn in. Once again be very careful not to get glue on any cloth that is seen by the eye. Glue makes ugly marks on your cloth and well you might get some of it off, but when it drys it will come back. Like a bad penny I have heard.

Well, that is enough of a project for today. Below, are some of my boxes that I covered yesterday and today I will place the images in. Tomorrow my blog will be about what ones does with an image to get it right for the box. Hope you join me then, but until then-

See you around town,

Janet

Welcome to Janet's Place

Hi, I'm Janet.

Glad you could stop by. I have always made things and do so most every day. It is not lonely, but I do spend most of each day surrounded by things to make or what was made and it might be nice to share some of what I do with others.

Over the years, my hands, heart and mind have created things that I in turn have cherished, given away or sold. Over the course of my blogging about things, I will talk about my love of pottery, the difference between a basket maker and a basket weaver, book arts, silk and more.

In May I will participate in theStockley Gardens Fine Art Show so each day will be mostly about preparing for that show. I do hope to fit in my new passion for silks so we will see where it all goes.

So that is a bit of an introduction about Janet's Place- so stop by often and see what is new in the garret and if you have any questions or like to chat drop me a comment.

See you around town.

Janet