Black and White

I've been in awe of Mayako Nakamuro's black and white work for a couple of years now since discovering her on Flickr.  The rawness and energy of the mark making is breath taking.  See her work on Pinterest as well.

Using her as inspiration, I began a series of 12"x12" black and white pieces, using India ink, graphite, acrylic, and crayon:

1. I'm considering this and the two below provisionally finished.

2

3

A dozen or so pieces in various stages of the process

#2 above, in process

Another in process: a layer of marks, then a layer of paint

This is the first layer: India ink washes, graphite, pencil, and white Caran d'Ache crayon

Same materials as above, the first layer

This is the piece above, with a layer of paint.

I'm finding working in black and white very freeing.  It allows me to pay more attention to the quality of marks and the range of value.  When stuck in a rut, it can be extremely helpful to look at the work of another artist and use it as a springboard.  Some shy away from "copying" another artist, but I feel that even if you begin by copying, if you do enough pieces you inevitably make them your own.  For this group I really did have a couple of Nakamura's pieces up on my computer screen, and referred to them when I felt I was repeating my same old familiar marks.  But for the most part I feel I found a way to move forward with my own work.  THANK YOU Mayako Nakamura for the inspiration!!

Hope you all have a fabulous holiday!

Yesterday was my birthday, and I want to thank all of you who posted birthday on my FaceBook page.  It was, indeed, a very happy birthday!

Ink on Yupo

OK, so here is the video demo that I promised.  You can find the background for this post in my previous post.  I just learned this last week at NCSW, with Leonard Ragouzeos, so I am a real beginner here.  I would send you to one or Leonard's workshops, but he does not teach on any regular basis.  You can beg him if you like, but meanwhile, look at this video and give it a try.

Have fun. Will I be teaching this in a workshop?  Maybe.  Let me get my own thing going with it first.  I am teaching a four day Big Fat Art workshop at Pacific Northwest Art School in September, and will at least demonstrate the techniques there, and let you fool around with it.

Drawing Workshop

I'm going to try to squeeze in a little post here about the drawing workshop I'm taking with Leonard Ragouzeos at North Country Studio Workshops. We are working with India ink on Yupo paper.  Watch out! I will not be able to resist the urge to demonstrate some of these techniques....  Meanwhile, some pix:

Ann working on a figure

Kathy working on her Javelina

My third composition

My first composition

My second composition

Someone else's figure

Someone else's figure

Vicki's figure

Ann's fiigure

My figure in graphite on paper

Grid of value studies

Kelsey working on Robot Man

Mary Jane's gorgeous head drawing

Value studies (mine)

More of my value studies

 Thanks for visiting!!!  More when I get back to the studio.  You are going to LOVE this set of materials.  Can't wait to show you.