The Legacy of Lines

Pear Blossoms in Ink
pen and ink on illustration board
copyright 2012 Rose Welty
7in x 5in
$45

Pen and ink has long been a favorite medium of mine. My uncle did several pen and ink drawings and they hung in my parents home when I was a child. I remember staring at them for hours. There was one line drawing in particular that I remember tracing with my eyes - I could see where he had pressed hard, where he let up, and where he paused to think about where to go next. I even imagined how he moved his arm to get the curves - and I think he did - rather than turn the paper.

He led me to the magical world of pen and ink. All of which has now led me to colored pencils, where I am finding another world filled with line drawings, paintings and expressive mark making.

Pear Blossoms in Ink is now for sale. It is matted, ready for you to frame with an 8in x 10in frame:

I offer free delivery to 27587 or USPS delivery

Free local delivery in 27587 $45.00 USD USPS Delivery $50.00 USD

Five Useful Links on Color and Design

Another page in the flower book.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my thoughts about switching blogging platforms. I am still thinking through things. I will let you know what decisions I make in the end.

In the meantime, I have been doing lots of reading about designs and logos. Thought I’d share a few links I’ve found helpful:

1. colorschemedesigner.com – you pick a color, they’ll give you back a complementary scheme or a triad scheme or a monochromatic scheme…you get the idea. Very useful!
2. colourlovers.com – this is a fun site where people upload and rate color palettes. It gave me some ideas about color in design – and what people find appealing.
3. Seth Godin Squidoo page on web design – about a gazillion resources listed, books first then some sites. It certainly was an encouragement to me that I could educate myself at least a little bit!
4. Grantasticdesigns.com – lots of basic information on several topics of web design
5. About.com: Graphic Design – plenty to read on different topics!

How are your goals for 2009?

Here’s an iris from the bunch I treated myself to last week. It’s so nice to have fresh flowers in the house!

The flower book is nearing completion….I need 11 more drawings for it to be done. I hope to do 3 more this week, so that would put me at under 10 to go.

Do you realize what next week is? Next week is the end of the first quarter of 2009. It is amazing how time flies…weren’t we just reading about inauguration day?  Back then a bunch of us were making plans and goals for the year. So the question becomes: are you one quarter of the way through your goals for the year?

I have stopped my practice of posting my monthly goals and reviewing them, but I am still making that monthly list (it’s posted above the laptop on the corkboard). I’ve even added weekly goals to the mix (which is a huge help for me!) So, to answer my own question, yes, I am a quarter of the way through my goals. I am even coming close to achieving one of my dreams for the year.

If you are looking for some spark in meeting your goals, here are a few resources:

1. Blogging – are you looking to “improve” your blog? Darren Rowse is holding another of his 31 days to a better blog programs. This year he is having a signup. I have signed up, I’m sure that not all of it will be relevant to me, but I’d like the chance to be prodded about a few things.
2. Motivation – Teresa Mallen has a great series going at the moment, Motivation Mondays. She has some really good ideas.
3. Unplug – Is the online world crowding out your creativity? I recently tried an “unplug” and it really did help. I wasn’t entirely offline, but I cut way back and didn’t expect myself to do anything, it restored some peace and sanity.
4. Remember -  Remember why you set the goals you did. What was it really that you were trying to achieve – some feeling, some status, some completion? Remember why and it might help with the doing.
5. Dream – Dream some big dreams out on paper. Maybe you have something you want to do but it just seems too far to reach? Write that dream out. What would be the step before that? And the step before that? Back to today. (Or, in the reverse if it’s easier, what are you achieving today that gets you a step in the dream direction? What’s the next step beyond that?)

Another Good Book

Another sketch in my flower book. This time from my Indian Hawthorne bushes out front. One of the lovely things about spring…my yard bursts into life…beautiful purple blooms on the phlox along the ground, beautiful white blooms on the Indian Hawthorne bushes above them.

Picked up a another good book this weekend, Watercolor Painting Step by Step by Arthur Guptill. I don’t even paint with watercolors…but I do with acrylic inks which are similar. I really bought the book because I know how thorough he is. I learned so much about pen and ink from him, I just know he is going to teach me how to truly wield a brush successfully.

Of course, I have blown my little rule of not purchasing a new book until I had read the stack I already have (one of my goals for the year). I’ve finished 3 of those books – not bad for being in the 3rd month of the year, except that I have the new Guptill book, another new book on brushwork, and two more (one painting, one drawing) that I am hoping to get for my impending birthday. I need to get reading!

On the Backside of Spring Break

Well, we are heading to the end of Spring break…looking ahead to the chaos of normal schedules around here…that to say, just a quickie tonight…off to do the VSD for this month.

Copper Canyon Daisy and a Business Plan

Another in the flower book. This week I’ve been drawing up a business plan. I started at the Small Business Admin site. Of course, I don’t need something as elaborate as they describe, but I definitely think having such a document will help me to make some good plans for the future.

I began with some headings that are common to all business plans, added a few more that I wanted, and just began filling in information. It has been very helpful. I now have a good idea of what I need to research for the future, areas of the market I need to investigate, a better idea of my current needs, and also a firmer grasp on what it’s going to take to do some of things I’m thinking about tackling.

Have you ever done a business plan for yourself? Please share in the comments.

So Thankful for You All

Friday night I sketched this in the flower book from a reference I had taken in CA this summer. I sent out a post asking if anyone knew the name…by the time I woke up Saturday morning I had several comments (all agreeing) on the blog and a few comments on Facebook. I am so thankful for all of you, you truly make my life great.

This is a black-eyed susan or Rudbeckia Hirta, common to North America.

Thanks everyone for your support, not just in this case, but in so many ways over the years!

The End from the Beginning

Another sketch in the flower book

If we knew the end of things from the beginning, we often tell ourselves that we would do things differently. That’s why they say hindsight is 20/20. It’s also why motivational gurus often ask you to imagine yourself in 1/5/10 years, then make a list of what you need to do to get there.

It’s also why emerging artists struggle endlessly with developing their style and established artists tell them to be patient…because the established artists can see their style now, even back in their early works. The end was there, right from the beginning, but one doesn’t always have eyes to see it.

Or does one? I’m going to tell you one of my little studio secrets, in hopes that you can tell me that other artists experience the same sort of thing.

When I begin working on a piece, I start out making decisions, thinking about rules, tricks, solid concrete things I know about drawing and painting. Then, as I near the end, all of sudden, my mind starts giving me all sorts of commands, “put a big dark mark there, pull up paint there, more dark blue in that corner…etc”. It’s fast and furious and I can’t stop to look at the work while I am doing it. I just have a “sense” about where things go, my eyes don’t even focus on the work. Then the commands stop, I can once again focus on the work and I know it’s done.

Does that happen to you?

Wish I Had Something Clever to Say

...but I don't so...this is more in the flower book...

Books Can Be Like An Old Friend

Here is a tulip a sketched in the flower book.

I have mentioned that I've done pen and ink for a long time. I've always loved pen and ink work. I remember buying a book when I was in high school, maybe even junior high. I worked through the book, read all the words, copied most of the drawings. I learned alot, even if I couldn't have put what I learned into words back then.

Then, after college and a few years of working as a software engineer I decided to do some art in my spare time. I bought Rendering in Pen and Ink by Arthur Guptill. It is a fabulous tome on the subject. I worked through it as well. Dutifully, I did the exercises...practiced making all the different lines that he suggests...spent several hours doing those practice "moves"...whiled away the hours staring at the illustrations in the book. I still turn to that book now and again, always feeling refreshed for having done so.

You know, that's why I love books...some of them become old friends.

As a side note, I understand that Guptill also wrote a companion volume to the pen and ink one above. As I was searching on Amazon I found this one, is that perhaps a reprint of the companion volume which has long been out of print? Does anyone know?

Sketching

Here's another from my sketching session the other night. It was one of those great times where things just flowed and I had done three small sketches in less than an hour. It made me think I ought to try for more of those in my life. My evenings are not always conducive to pulling out the paints...but who can complain about pulling out a pen and opening a sketchbook?

Reflections on Edges

Here's another page in the flower book.

This is a little different style than yesterday. (Here I outlined everything first, then shaded to emphasize form.) I actually did this one first. I like this drawing, but it did make me want to try doing one without outlining all the edges first.

I was a little nervous how I would handle drawing without edges everywhere...I tried to tell myself to build slowly, move around, and wait for my eye to see it first, then put the pen down where my eye saw it. By the end, my pen was flying without my mind pausing first...

I suppose it is a little confusing to be talking about a drawing that isn't in this post...forgive me gang. I'm just in a thinking/reflecting phase...my hope is that a little indulgence here will lead me to a leap forward in my artwork! :D One can always hope...

More in the Flower Book

Here's a sketch I made tonight in the pocket moley flower book.

I was still thinking about edges (lost, found, hard, soft) here...because I am more familiar with pen and ink work it was easier for me to think about the edges than with painting. That means you'll be seeing more pen and ink in the near future...

Finding Focus and 400th post

"Anticipation"
Click here for purchasing information

This post marks my 402nd post to this blog! Wow, it's hard to believe that. Next year, early in the year, Rose's Art Lines will celebrate it's second birthday.

Recently I have been discussing issues with a fellow artist. During our discussion we began asking each other how we decide to paint a subject. This has always been a tricky subject for me. However, as I have only a finite time for art, in and amongst my household duties, I really do need a firm handle on the issue.

There is so much in art that I would love to explore. However, if I were to follow every whim I would not be able to mature in any one area. Some areas I may only put on the back burner, but how do I decide what to focus on for now?

I'm thinking through this question, in particular reference to my plans for next year. How about you? How do you decide what to paint?

A Great Quote

This past weekend I picked up a copy of Outdoor Sketching by Ernest W. Watson. He begins the book by cautioning the reader that learning to draw in the outdoors is a difficult thing.

He then says, "Is the prospect, then, disheartening? It might well be so for the weakly intentioned; for those in whom the fire of desire burns brightly the quest is full of high adventure, rewarding at every step along the way. The enlargement of one's power of expression and the awareness of new beauties in nature are great sources of delight."

That sums up the art adventure pretty well, I think.

My wonderful husband came home the other night with arms full of flowers, ice cream and chocolate! I am so blessed.

Here are some quick sketches I did of the flowers during family movie night.

After Vuillard in Brush and Ink and Pen and Ink

Last night I decided to get some work done in my Mendelowitz book. The chapter I just finished reading was on line. He mentioned the standard ideas around lines. He stressed quality of line, lost and found edges, weight of line, etc. One of the exercises was to play around with a brush and ink.

I have been hoping to explore the brush with ink for a while, so it seemed the time to do it. (I even recently bought a sumi-e kit - that's for another night :-) So, I messed around making all sorts of lines, trying different brushes, and adding water. He suggested either copying a drawing from the chapter or doing something similar. I chose the Edouard Vuillard drawing of his mother. I wish I could find it for you online, but it's a wonderfully sensitive, delicate sketch in pencil.

First, I tried it with the brush, see image above. Before putting brush to paper, I knew that the brush would naturally give me heavy lines and so to convey the delicacy I would need to be careful. Without outline, I just went line by line and tried to capture what I could see. It came much closer (in terms of delicacy) than I expected.

Second, I tried it with a dip pen, see image below. With the pen, I knew I would get a delicate line, but whether it would be "flowing" and "graceful" enough, remained to be seen. Again, without outline, I attempted to be as fluid in my movements as with the brush.

All in all, a challenging and fun exercise. I certainly feel more inclined to keep trying with the brush and ink. I did a few sketches of random things around my bedroom - even tried adding a bit of water and using a "wash" for shading. Ah, it's so fun to explore!