Saturday, March 27, 2021

Wildlife Refuge, Florida Landscape 8x10



This is a scene from the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, which is a very diverse spot to visit. It has jungle-like trails, marshes and the Cape Canaveral Seashore. This marsh is on the Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, a popular spot for birders. 

Carmen

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Shirley Temple Goes to the Royal Wedding, Papier Mache Doll


I saw a paper mâché doll on a children's craft site and I was inspired to make one of my own. A toilet paper roll and a styrofoam ball are the basis for this. I found the hair and the fascinator in a craft supply store. When I was done, the name popped into my head. 

Carmen


Sunday, February 28, 2021

February Challenge for Valentine's Day: Love

The challenge for this month is to use the word "Love" in whatever decorative way we choose.

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 Carmen's Entry:
I decided that in these strange and dangerous times that I would put a message in my "Love."

carmen beecher.com

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Kathy's Entries


I had my sketchbook handy during a slow time at the Robot Love exhibit and doodled a few ideas and have just been using those to play around with different media. But, more importantly, to force myself to use my new laptop and all the newest versions of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Just a few ideas for our challenge...

First one I tried watercolor with Elegant Writer Pen

Second try with Micron Pen and Markers

Third try with my CS6 Adobe Illustrator (it's going to be hard to give it up!)

Fourth try, channeling Peter Max in the newest CC version of Illustrator
playing with it's new gradient options.

******

Jean's Idea

Tried my hand at Procreate. This was fun to play with the pen tool?
Hug the one you love!

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Challenge for January 2021:CMYK

 The challenge for the Pieces of 8 for January of 2021 is "CMYK" suggested by member Jean Thomas. Jean left that wide open to interpretation so here are the results!

Kathy's response to the challenge:

Small 6x7 inch mixed media (postage stamp, micron pen, colored pencil, watercolor) 
on 140 lb hahnemuele sample paper from Ralph's Art Supply.

Small 6x7 inch mixed media (postage stamp, micron pen, colored pencil, watercolor) 
on 140 lb hahnemuele sample paper from Ralph's Art Supply.

10x10 inch acrylic on wood board

I had a little fun just playing with only three colors and black in each painting above. 

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Carmen's response to the challenge:



I used one of my paintings as the background, then cut out letters over it. This was all done in Photoshop. I spent two weeks in ICU at Holmes Regional Hospital and the nurses were amazing. I resolved then to do something for them, so today I finally felt good enough to make this banner on the computer.

carmenbeecher.com
carmenbeecher.blogspot.com

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Jean's response
Lately I've been doing small sketchbook watercolors, and did a series of fish. 
I looked at this one and thought, "cyan, magenta, yellow, and black."
With a graphic arts background, this format is very familiar to me. That is what makes everything in print, "full color!"
He's not any type of fish, just a CMYK fish!










Thursday, January 7, 2021

 

A Quick Post of Recent Work 
by Fay Picardi

Several of you have expressed an interest in finding out about the recent class I took on Comic Poetry with David Laskey, a former student of mine at McLean High School. Portfolio: http://www.laskycomics.com/ Comics and Art for sale: http://www.etsy.com/shop/LaskyArt 

Wikipedia defines Comic Poetry as a hybrid creative form that combines aspects of comics and poetry. It draws from the syntax of comics, images, panels, speech balloons, and so on, in order to produce a literary or artistic experience akin to that of traditional poetry.

In other words, almost anything goes. Try googling “Comic poetry definition” and then go to “images.”

Well, if you are like me, you are still confused. David made it really easy to understand, so I will share some of the examples and assignments he gave us.

With David’s direction, we did several exercises using either a simple traditional poetry or an original poem which we wrote. Start easy. David supplied stimulating inspirational visuals and further explanation about them.



The whales sleep standing up for about two hours at a time. They then surface and resume their lives until it is time to sleep again.

The first original poem I tried to make into a comic poem was based on the photo and an article about sleeping whales.



I had a lot of fun doing this one. It gave me some practice with water colors as well. It reads either across the top and bottom or up and down within the panels.
*****

Ballard Park, Original Oil on Canvas

  I had not painted outside in two years, so this was quite a challenge. It was one of those paintings I had to improve upon in the studio. ...