Author: Mixy

artist, thing maker & idea magpie. I am making it all up, one bit at a time.

I will always be learning: day 1 :D

Well folks, I’m happy to report the course is running! Big thanks for all your kind support – it really worked!

I haven’t got my student loan through yet, but I’ve got my ID badge and I had first day today!

The story, so far…

Enrollment on Monday was the usual fiasco… but that seems to be the nature of enrollment days. Which baffles me every time, they do it every year, right?

Randomly we were sent about from room to room with groups of other students, and everybodyTalkingAtOnceAndVeryHighSpirits, and then to an induction to the photo studio – which I found the most useful part of the day – although one part-time technician + more than one dedicated photography courses means …well, we’ll see.

I left with very mixed feelings: I have such strong memories of the foundation course 2 years ago. Exhillerating, Mind-expanding, Enlightening, Exciting, So so Stressful, the Self-Doubt, Criticism – internal and external, Judgement, Exhausting, Draining, and Fantastic. I came out with a group of friends I know I’ll keep in touch with for a very long time. And more ideas than I thought my head could contain. And some of gloomiest moments of what’s the point of it all-ism. And an overwhelming need for more. Art IS a drug.

Can I do 3 more years of this? Can it ever live up to that fantastic year? Am I trying to relive the past? A lot of inspiring tutors had taken redundancy last year, the department is stretched. The facilities are ok. Old and tatty, but it has a homely feel.

The course runs Wednesday and Thursday, plus Monday mornings (a bonus 1/2 day of learning. Guess I can juggle to squeeze it in). Advertised to start next week, it began today. Depending who you ask, it’s either Art & Design or Fine Art. Details, details I guess. It’s just there are so many of them.

Throughout Tuesday I swung radically between Pro or Con. I made the decision to give it two weeks. Unless this week was enough to judge, in which case I’d give it one week.

Day One

We are a friendly group of 9, most already know each other from last year, there are 2 others from my year.

As an intro, we were asked to bring an example of recent work and give a short presentation. Well, as you know all my recent art is part of a larger (8 weeks @ a page a day!) format.

I’m going to let you into a little secret here………..
Until today, you were the only ppl who’d seen my project.

I’ve liked it like that, but it was also fun to take him (the book) out into the other world… as I explained why I hadn’t just taken a page or two from the book, I found myself describing him as ‘like a little animal I’ve been feeding and nurturing’. Looking back that might have sounded strange.

In the afternoon we were given 2 hours to produce 10 A3 line drawings from around the college, the theme: structure. As my brain ached from the struggle of translating 3D structures to flat pencil lines (strictly no shading) I thought back to all those hours of drawing practice I’d promised myself, but instead allowed IK distract me into something more messy, colorful, and with sugar-high instant gratification!

I had forgot how mentally and physically just concentrating really hard can be! The mental version of running a marathon straight after a fortnight in bed with flu. And having eaten a big roast dinner. Wearing flip-flops. I told the tutor this. She suggested it was more like a 1/2 marathon.

Some hours on, the drawings don’t look so bad, only one or two were a struggle to identify.

I’m back on that rollercoaster of a learning curve – Weyhey!

beginning of a new adventure

I started the page a day project on 16 March this year. 3 books and 6 months later, what began as a whim rapidly snowballed into an all-out obsession, and I have loved ever minute of it!

This is starting to sound a bit final, a bit endy, and it isn’t that at all. Although I won’t be starting the inevitable book 4 straight away…

Tomorrow I enrol at art school to begin my degree.

I did the same last year, but cos of lack of applicants/the college’s hugely disorganised system, we found out on enrollment day there was no degree course.

My fallback plan was to use this year as training, practice, to develop and explore my creativity alone.

It’s my belief that life throws us curve balls sometimes which don’t make sense til later. It turned out that the last year also saw my home life turned upside down. If I’d been at school most likely I would’ve missed time and been fairly unfocussed as a result. Instead what I needed to balance this chaos was plenty of quiet alone time and to throw my soul into my art. Which I’ve certainly done!

At the time of typing to you, I’m in that space between kid-on-christmas-eve-anticiptation and yeh-like-it’s-gonna-actually-happen-this-time-cynicism. Gotta say, this isn’t a comfy space, but one way or the other, I’ll know by this time tomorrow!

So, watch this space folks – I’ll let you know tomorrow! 😉

day last-but-one

While I was playing with my new inks last week, I developed some of these experiments on Thursday’s and Friday’s pages

the milky opacity of white ink dripped in transparent colored ink details the runs of the liquid

With a thick coating of white gesso on part of the page, scribed with pencil for deep furrows of swirl, the inks had routes to wander around

ink on wet white gesso reduces the saturation of blending colors

and new routes made with small watercolor brush, trying the page together as a whole.

swirls an spirals painted into the ink before it dries

The ‘day last-but-one’ thing – well, I’ll explain that bit later…. 😉

never say never (ever)

If there’s one thing that will motivate me into action, it’s being told that I can’t do something. Even (or especially) when the person doing the telling is me.

In reaction to a phrase in my last post “When space limits me to work on just one project at time…” Uha, really? I went on “… working within the parameters of my living/painting space, I have to exercise a little more self discipline…” I have to what? Says who??

ink drips on handmade paper

Working on small (8″ x 10″ and smaller … often scraps) scale, there’s really no excuse, there’s no ‘no space’ that can’t be remedied with a small amount of putting stuff away!

Opaque white ink dropped into puddles of transparent colored inks, left to flow.

Settled with a selection of old doodles on watercolor paper, some bottles of ink and water; and the giddy enthusiasm of new colors, I soon had a small dripping/drying/oozing/dribbling production line set up.

Aided greatly by the way I work – splashy and messy – no harm can come from cross contamination and minor spillages.

In fact, I ended up using the least soggy works to mop up some of the more puddly over waterings

drips of ink, then water, then ink…etc, wet on wet + wet on dry

Release from these self imposed boundaries!

inks dripped onto wet threads draws up the pigment leaving outlines. Highlighted with stitching (recycling that thread!)

subtlety

The range of colors, the colors themselves, all add up to a mood or visual sensation. By changing the hues, we change much more.

Restricting colors (I find this a BIG challenge!) is a technique I am striving towards.

When space limits me to work on just one project at time, the Inner Kid won’t listen to me. “More Colors!” is the constant command.

If I had a few pieces on the go and space to dip between them this would be much more simple

But for now, working within the parameters of my living/painting space, I have to exercise a little more self discipline to make these more subtle images happen

Initially this page was to be just 2 colors: Olive green and burnt orange.

So the fact that I only allowed in some different shades of orange, I consider a victory!

And the results have (for now at least) left Inner Kid in slightly hushed awe: Maybe less is more!

The Spirit of Fizzing Zing

I don’t think any of us are surprised to find, that after a monochrome day there was a pent up explosion of color just ready to burst out of my head onto the page!

Dripped ink puddles on the page

But before the top layer of writing /doodles, these puddles need *something*

They need some …. they need to fizz … to explode

There’s a spirit in wet ink that just has to be coaxed out

Enlivening, twisting, meandering. These lines come by dragging threads through the puddles

Monochrome Monday

I’ve thought about a black and white page for a while.
I’ve even tried.
But resisting any color at all was harder than I cared to admit!

Anyway, prompted by John Clinock of Art Rat Cafe I determined to give it another go. Armed just with black and white gesso, black and white Dr PH Martens’ Bombay Inks, black and white gel pens, this is what happened!

I’d do it again – thanks for the nudge, John!

Mixed Mish Mash

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This weekend I spent playing with ink on gesso and acrylic medium.
Dripping, spraying, dribbling and seeing where the runs take it.
On wet and dry gesso, ink on wet inks, ink mixed in with medium, water on dry inks… all sorts of permutations. The circles in the gesso came from the end of the drinking straw I was blowing some ink about with. Good messy fun!

ink runs

Two pages in one post,


Playing with ink never tires, never gets samey, never ceases to amuse me.

Alternating between transparent, opaque, and water in drips and runs, watching the pigments flow and merge;
Pulling at the puddle edges with a brush or pen or stick… imprinting in wet ink…

Big love for ink!

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