Painting an "Inchie"

When you make hundreds and hundreds of one-inch-sized works of art (inchies), the question inevitably arises--what do I do with these? A friend suggested I make large paintings of them. Sounded good to me, so today I made a 12 x 12 painting of a 1 x 1 inchie.

Here is the 1 x 1 inchie:


And here is the 12 x 12 painting (due to the size of my scanner, you aren't getting the full painting, but this is pretty close:


I liked how it started to look like a landscape painting, so I decided to leave out the diagonal yellow lines, even though those are what attracted me to this inchie in the first place.

Howells: The evolution of a painting

AVAILABLE
Howells
Acrylic on canvas board
11 x 14
May 2008
$100

I've been wanting to do a series of Oregon City paintings, focusing on industry, business, and decline. I'm really attracted to the retro signage and buildings we have all over this little town. I've already photographed several of the subjects I want to paint, and I completed the first painting yesterday (above). Here is the evolution of the painting:


Here you see the painting in its very earliest stage, as well as the photo I'm working from. At this stage, I have roughed in the basic shapes and lines.


In stage 2 (above), I'm thinking more about volume and color, trying to work the entire canvas simultaneously.


In stage 3, I realize the perspective is off for the building roofline. I'm going to have to make some changes to the lines that are holding up the sign. I'm worrying a lot about how to make the lines and the metal look like lines and metal.

Here again is the final painting. I'm really happy with the composition and the sign itself. Not thrilled with the way the metal finishes turned out, but it's enough this time.

Inchies

Ya'll, I am obsessed. I first heard about inchies on http://www.craftster.org/. They are little one inch square pieces of art. You can pretty much make 'em any way you want, but from what I can tell, most people use a collage technique. Right away, I wanted to try making some. So I made a set of about 100 using a map of the Pearl District (Portland's arts district), some scrapbooking paper, and some handwritten messages I collected from the women who were with me at the scrapbooking weekend. Here's a sampling of the result (affixed to a notebook with brads):

Once I got into these, I realized they are all about RANDOMNESS for me. So much of my art is about control--making the image perfect--making the line just the way I want it--trying to get the light right. But the way I make inchies, I have no control over the final image, and each little square that comes out is a little miracle of composition, line and color. Of course they don't ALL turn out that great, but out of 100, you might get 25 really great images.

So I made some more (4 of 100):

And then some more (4 of 100): Then, I went to Chicago for the GREAT ART WEEKEND (more on that in a separate post), where I collected found paper all wekend, and created some more. In fact, if you look at the first picture on this posting, you will see approximately 540 Chicago inchies in progress. Here are a few complete Chicago inchies:

If you don't get it by now, you probably never will. But that's okay; I'll be making enough for both of us. However, if you want to make some, here's a tutorial on craftster: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=211483.0;images

Mommy and Son Project

Duncan has been home from pre-school a lot this week. On Tuesday, I suggested we make a Robot. I was thinking about some construction paper and glue. But no. He had a particular Robot in mind--the one from a book his dad likes to read him called Le "Manitoba" ne Repond Plus by Herge (he's the same guy who does Tin Tin). So, we find the book and start making the robot. I cut out the shapes while Duncan picks out and glues on the buttons for the eyes, nose and mouth. Sometime while we are working, Duncan says, "Let's make all the stories that the robot is in." After some clarification, I realize he wants to make the whole picture, not just the robot. So, we get started on the porthole with three fish (he mostly glues it together while I do the drawing and cutting), the boy, and the girl. Duncan lost interest about 1/2 way through the girl, but I compulsively had to finish her anyway. Now, Duncan says, "we still have to do the monkey." Here's what the actual book looks like:

Slow Going Part Deux: Still Going

I am still working on the painting for my handy man friend (though he has probably forgotten my name by now). It is for his daughter Sophie, so my little hippo (who will be wearing a tutu en fin) is named. . . wait for it. . . Sophie. It's a terrible photo--blurry and the color's too green, but at least you can see the progress since the previous slow going post. Jeremy, if you're out there, I'll try to finish it before she graduates from college.

The Little Trailer that Could

This trailer was sitting by the side of the road on my drive home. Everytime I passed it, it screamed out to me, "Notice me, photograph me, paint me." So I did. About one week later, after having sat there for years, the trailer, along with all the other accumulated detritus in the yard, disappeared.

I've since taken photos of several trailers on my street, just in case there is a trailer Rapture in which all the quirky vehicles on Livesay Road suddenly disappear into the heavens leaving patch after patch of dead, yellowed grass where they once stood. Here are just a few:

Mini Masterpieces

I've been working on some tiny paintings: 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

The Swirl

2.5 x 3.5

acrylic on canvas

. My favorite shape has always been a swirl. This one turned out kind of cosmic.

The Tulip

2.5 x 3.5

acrylic on canvas

This one is based on a sketch I did many years ago. I guess I've been drawing these same two shapes, the tulip and the swirl, as long as I can remember. What's that about?

Argh!

The image above is a hand-carved stamp I made using a linoleum block. I then aged and stamped a blank notebook to create a cool pirate journal.

Slow Going

Well, it's been a long time since I posted, mostly because my art has taken a backseat to finishing my book of poetry, which is due to the publisher at the beginning of May. I do have a work in progress. I guess I can post a picture of it, though it's very rough at this point. Here it is:

Sophie, a commission for my friend Jeremy's daughter.

It has actually progressed a little further since this sketch, but not a lot. The color scheme is very Marie Antoinette, and the little girl is a hippo in her birthday tutu. I'm not sure when I'll finish it. I'm going out of town to give a talk on children's book illustrators (see my other blog for more info). When I get back, hopefully, I'll get a little further on Sophie. I've also been kind of obsessed with paper crafts lately, since I went scrapbooking the other day and then found the website craftster.

Merry Christmas 2007

Every year, my family decorates Christmas cookies. We like to add nontraditional forms to the mix--this year we had an elephant, a pig, and a dog in addition to the usual holiday shapes. I thought I would share my favorite cookies with you on the blog. After all, these are art, kind of.

Ballerina Reindeer

Paris Hilton Angel

Bento: A New Painting

I just completed a new painting for a group show with the Three Rivers Artist Guild. The show is entitled The Art of Food, and I've been chairing the committee to get the show organized. I had ambitious ideas about a painting of a sushi chef I know who works at the local Market of Choice, but in a pinch, I ended up doing this variation on a still life. I am intrigued with bentos in general because they are, inherently, works of art. This is a fantasy bento--rather than painting one from real life, I looked at hundreds of photos of bentos and chose the contents I thought were most beautiful in combination with each other. The painting is acrylic on canvas board, 12 x 9 inches unframed. A painting like this takes me at least 20 hours, not including the time spent researching/referencing and composing the sketch. I'm quite happy with the finished painting.

Sketches from the Italian Countryside

My recent visit with Barb Blumer got me reminiscing about our trip to Italy back in 1999. It was my first experience with plein air landscape painting, as well as my first experience using oils. Barb always reminds me about how excited one of the teachers got about my drawings, and I always remind her how excited one of the teachers got about her compositions. Anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and scan those old charcoal drawings in and post them on the blog so Barb could see them again. They're not so great after all. But they're not so bad either. I've got two poems I wrote about this trip to Italy. Maybe I'll post them on the blog.

You can see Barb's awesome paintings at http://www.barbarahallblumer.blogspot.com/

I've been busy working on my book of poems, as well as getting a new wall and flooring put in to make my studio fabulous. I'll post pictures when the work's all done.

Nadine's Kitchen

Boy, this one has been tough! I'm not sure it's totally there yet, but time to move on to the next. One thing I borrowed from David Hohn's teaching--if the composition is static, try turning the picture on an angle. What do you know--it works.

Nadine Illustrations

I thought I'd post an illustration in process to show how I'm creating these. I start with a basic sketch, then I add on as I go, building up layers of paper. The last thing to go in is the paper for the walls and floor. I won't decide what they will look like till the very end. This is a very fun process.

New Illustrations Started

Okay, I've broken through to the other side, and thanks to Antonia's permission, I've allowed myself to start using collage for the illustrations for Nadine. Hurray! I've actually started. Here's the first look at what Nadine (the book) will look like. Retro illustrations using cut paper. I'm loving it.

A Scene from Froggy Went A-Courtin' from Thumbnail to Finished (almost)

Well, my class has been over for several weeks now, and I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever finish the painting. I thought I'd go ahead and show the finished work here, so you can see how the concept evolved from thumbnail sketch to a finished (almost) piece of art.



Stage 1 (above) was the thumbnail sketch. Here you see the main elements--the three cats peering into the hollow tree. This thumbnail was done with tracing paper and a pencil, then marker over top that.

Above, you see a more finished sketch. Here we have all of the characters taking shape. This sketch was created on a large sketchpad with colored pencil, then revised several times with tracing paper.



Above is the value study. This was completed with color pencil on white paper. I had a really tough time with this stage.

Finally, the finished art begins to emerge. Painted on Bristol Board using acrylics. The light still isn't quite right, and the highlights need to be put in on the cats, but I like the way the scene has come together. Also, you can see the color palate I would work with for the entire book. Will this ever be a book? Depends on my ability to pitch it to a publisher. I think I'll have an easier time with it if I already have a few books under my belt.

CD Cover Art for Dad's CD

My dad, Bruce Jennings, just recorded a 2-disc CD of music that he used to sing to my sister and I when we were young. The title of the CD is, appropriately, When We Were Young. Duncan listens to it every night when he goes to bed. He calls it "Grandpa Bruce Music." I wanted to do cover art that would feel very fun and modern, but would evoke the era I was raised in--the 70s. I took inspiration from the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, as well as a dress fabric I saw in Star Magazine recently. I'm really happy with the way the project turned out.

Getting to the Value Study Stage

We only have three more illustration classes left (sob!). The goal now is to come up with three finished pieces of art using the sketches we've done so far. I've selected two of the scenes. Not sure which the third will be. First, I'm going to do "Last to come in was the old gray cat." I posted a thumbnail for this sketch earlier. Here is a more developed sketch--I'm still not happy with the proportion/perspective:

I need to make the wedding party smaller to increase the sense of height in the room and not make the bugs seem out of proportion with the cats. I like how one of the cats is looking at the reader. I learned this is called a "cheat." I wanted to make sure the reader understood these figures as cats.

The next scene I am definitely doing is the proposal scene. I started by creating the finished sketch/value study for the protrait of Uncle Rat. Then I will do the scene with Froggy and Miss Mousie. One of the things this stage requires is fully developing the characters. I had to think about Uncle Rat. I want him to look stern and vaguely threatening in the portrait, yet still a bit comical, so he isn't terrifying. I'm pretty happy with this drawing:

I like how Uncle Rat is holding sheaves of wheat. I have decided he is a miller. Portraits done in the 1700s often showed a clue about the person's profession. I based this portrait on a few done in the late 1700s. I'll scan them in later to show here on the blog.

Next stage will be to do the scene with Froggy and Miss Mousie (see post below for explanation of how this spread will be laid out).

New Scenes from Froggy

Well, the next assignment in my class was to sketch three pivotal scenes in the story (Froggy Went a Courting). I had a very hard time with this assignment--definitely using some brain pathways I am not very familiar with. My drawing really has to come up to speed. What I'm realizing is that unlike painting, where you can kind of edit the composition to match your skill set, with illustration, there are just some things you have to put in. So here are some of my efforts, with notes attached:

The text for this sketch was: "He took Miss Mousie on his knee and said Miss Mousie will you marry me. Without my uncle Rat's consent, I wouldn't marry the president."

This was the only one of my three sketches that was really well-received. I had to agree, because the other two were just causing me all kinds of problems (as you will see later). The guys thought this sketch was good "storytelling," and they liked how I introduced Uncle Rat in the scene by way of the portrait. Their main suggestions were: crop the image to get closer, have the portrait spotlighted on the facing page, and only show a portion of it in the larger image. Here is the sketch the guys suggested:

The next scene I chose was: "Where should the wedding supper be, way down yonder in the hollow tree." I didn't hate this sketch--it has a nice layout, I think. The guys, however, felt it missed the main point of the text, which was to introduce the Hollow Tree--the scene for most of the action in the story. Here's the layout they suggested, which really shows the tree as a destination. One of the amazing things about my teachers is that they can come up with amazing visual problem solving on the spot.

I'm not even going to show the third scene because the issues are so similar to what I just showed in the Hollow Tree scene. I need to focus on the storytelling a little more and think about what I really want to say with layout.

Rojankovsky's Cat

Feodor Rojankovsky won a Caldecott Medal for his illustrations of Frog Went a Courtin way back in the 50s. I thought I'd show how he treated the same text I'm working on. This is obviously "the moment."
Rojankovsky was a Russian who was obviously influenced by folk art. I believe my tastes were influenced by him at an early age, both directly and indirectly. Many of the books I loved that were published in the 70s took their cue from his line-heavy work; loose, rangy rendering; and flat perspective. Other books that came after that rely on this style include Just Right by Lilian Moore with illustrations by Aldren Watson and The Fox illustrated by Peter Spier (also a Caldecott winner). Rojankovsky also reminds me of the work of Roger DuVoisin, but DuVoisin worked earlier and contemporaneously with Rojankovsky, and the two must have been aware of each other.