By sion, on August 16th, 2010
 yesterday Denise came over & we did a bit of playing with various media – neocolour & inktense pencils, india ink, paint & and some exhausted dye. My little pencil landscape jobby is lame proof of how much I hate trying to do landscapes. My desire for realism (or at least truth & meaning) falls into the black hole of my laziness/impatience, hardcore. A teeny tiny fragment of a landscape now – a rock, perhaps, or a bit of bark – that I could get right into (so why didn’t I? Because I’m an idiot who only just thought of that approach to landscape and who only now realises that this is how, in fact, she relates to landscape generally. And maybe life. Little bits of treasure; the big picture is boring). Anyway.
 Playing with ink to get impressions of landscapiness was much more fun – squirting water onto paper to set up paths for ink and then spraying ink over top & seeing what it does; THAT was cool. I got some nifty little bits to draw over/into. Messing around with old dye was cool too.I need to experiment & see if I can get fabric to behave the way the watercolour paper did with the dye – I’m guessing I’ll need to stretch it, but how cool would it be if I can get it to work?
 Then today, Dianne came over and we messed around with clay and then dye. She brought over a few molds for hands & feet & we cast them so I can mod them & make my own molds. Fun, and they look lovely when they come out of the molds (I daresay the ones I make from paperclay won’t be nearly as delicate & pretty heh – which really is the idea anyway, since I’m aiming for spirits of the earth). While they were drying out we started on fabric – Dianne wanted a big tree to stitch up as a wallhanging, so I mixed her up some DR-33 (like alginate; thickener stuff) and gave her a few pointers & let her have at it. Miss E decided she wanted to do one too, and since we were using brushes I let her have at it – and that’s her effort over there on the left. Cool, huh? I couldn’t get up much enthusiasm (I don’t know what’s up, but I’m not well; think I’ll go to the doc tomorrow) but before the weather went stupid did make up a landscape piece. Not sure, having done it, whether I’d want to sell pieces like that. I’m sure I could sell it as fabric, perhaps even as expensive fabric, but I’m more inclined to see it as a painting (one I might stitch on, but still). Quandaries.
By sion, on August 13th, 2010
 re covering up the design guideline thingies: gel medium and gesso = fail. Texture paste, however, slathered on thick & smooth, appears to have been a win. I think I’m leaving the previous one as is, and this one might be finished enough too. Oh no that’s right; there’s one incongruously still-green leaf with a withered flowerhead that I haven’t painted yet.
By sion, on August 13th, 2010
 not finished, but I’m tempted to retain the sort of fading-to-nothing effect of the rough placement lines rather than painting it all solid … shall see. Equally tempted to put it aside for the time being and paint the completely-dead shrivelled thing it is now, but having issues with the other canvases the same size as these two. Word to the wise: don’t buy cheap pre-printed canvasses thinking you can gesso over the design. Not even for crappy practise pieces: those designs are printed in some magic stuff that just keeps showing through umpteen coats of gesso. I’ve slapped some gel medium on & will gesso again tomorrow, but it’s getting a bit ridic. Wish I’d just bought more of the regular cheapies in that size :/
anyhow, meanwhile …
house: shambles
challenge entry: not even started yet … ok I’ll be honest; not even designed yet
weeks days to Macleay Quilters exhibition: um … 13, crikey
days til paintings, painting diary & drawing assignment (24 drawings) are due: 3
on the other hand, most of the other stuff I need to do for the exhibition is either done or necessarily has to wait until a few days before (ie printing). One last meeting to get through without yelling at anyone this Saturday morning, then Denise & I are having a painty/drawing afternoon, then on Sunday I’m intending to dye some more fabrics & finish up drawings etc & print crap out & stick it in my diary. Latter part of next week is set aside for the challenge, and then I daresay I’ll be doing all the printing etc over the weekend. Hope Geoff isn’t planning to work us too hard right off the bat; once the exhibition’s over I’ll be free to focus a lot more, but that week is going to be crazy.
By sion, on August 6th, 2010
 I think, anyway. Been eyeing off a pair of trees on opposite sides of the street for weeks on the way to/from the toothless terror’s school, and the other day one of the owners was pruning so I begged for a branch & brought it home to paint. Of course by the time I actually got round to attempting a painting, half the petals were gone and the rest were wilted …
I think it’ll do for one of the “play with things you learned from studying the enlightenment painters” works I need to have in week after next, and I’ll try to do another later tonight (after Waking The Dead, yay!) of the even-more-wilted-now-it’s-been-out-of-water-for-hours branch. Just for.
By sion, on August 4th, 2010
one of my workshop buddies sent me the pics I took on her phone at the workshop (my camera’s batteries went flat on the last day, naturally).
This was the first torso. The second (the one I posted the other day) is supposed to be all distorted, FTR – it’s not about pregnancy, it’s about the kidney tumour that killed my Nan. Not that I ever saw her in the nuddy AFAICR, but the relentlessly distending belly certainly had an impact on me. This one is “about” middle-aged figures, which is to say I was just exploring where things sag and pooch and wrinkle, how the boosies lie when they’re not all pert any more & you stretch/lean/whatever, etc.
Geoff sat in front of this one for a while, absently turning it around on the turny thing I’ve forgotten the name of (ha, banding wheel! I do love the googleness), and then pointed to the handless wrists and said “what happened here?” and I said “oh she has a world of issues, that one” – meanwhile thinking … really, hands (lack of) is what he notices? Seriously? Not the jagged hollowed belly or the exploding head or the half-mask facade of a face or even the potential technical issues in that ragged hair/head? Alrighty then lol.
By sion, on July 14th, 2010
I’ve spent 5 days these holidays doing a ceramics workshop with Geoff (head of the art dept). Paperclay is cool. That’s proper kiln-fired clay, not this stuff, just for the record – real mud containing a buttload of recycled paper plus nifty stuff called deflocculants and suchlike. Bloody cold to dip . . . → Read More: an intro to ceramics
By sion, on May 12th, 2010
awesome diagram. ‘Scuse norty bits.
I’m just back from a school excursion to Sydney for the Biennale, so I’m too buggered (and in demand from the small blonde person) to write a proper post. Had a ball . . . → Read More: in case you needed to know …
By sion, on May 5th, 2010
Anyone going up? As of today, Wendy Martin has her hot little hands on (amongst other things) a stack of Betta patterns and some of the specially-dyed fabric to make them with. We also sell the same fine cotton poplin we make all our dyed fabrics with in black for the Betta background, so . . . → Read More: creative by the sea
By sion, on April 28th, 2010
proof of finished drypoint plate:
test proof (on scraps) of etching plate that goes underneath to add colour:
composite done in corel to give an idea of how the two will work together in the final print (any grey tone in the etching will be either blue or red in the edition. Possibly green too):
it’s VERY cool . . . → Read More: technology is awesome
By sion, on April 21st, 2010
for a post title.
More stuff wot we bin doin at school. I won’t bore you with the pictures, but we’ve to do TWENTY drawings of a white bowl in our sketchbooks. Or a bucket, if you’d prefer. TWENTY. The same bowl/bucket, but it’s okay to change angles a little between each drawing. . . . → Read More: drawing a blank …
By sion, on April 9th, 2010
Macleay Quilters Inc is inviting people to participate in the challenge for their biennial exhibition, this year themed “Spectacular!”
Anything goes so long as it conforms to the basic definition of a quilt (ie 3 layers held together with stitch), fits within the size reqs and gets in on time. No larger than 30” . . . → Read More: call for entries!
By sion, on April 1st, 2010
Hi!
School is fun. The first day of class, Wendy had us doing mark-making exercises (Wendy likes us to make marks, does Wendy). After making our many marks on 3 sheets, each group of 3 or 4 students had to arrange their drawings in a grid and do some more mark making on the . . . → Read More: okay, the story so far!
By sion, on March 9th, 2010
just popping in to say I’m LOVING school even though it’s wiping me out too much to post. I’ll try & remember to take a camera in so I can show what we’re all playing with. I also need to take some pics of what my daughter’s been up to – last weekend she . . . → Read More: just a quickie
By sion, on March 3rd, 2010
In case you missed the attempts at resurrection with accompanying explanation: somebody hacked the blog and replaced it with one of those wanky little graffiti pages bragging about how much the hacker roolz. I reinstalled several times, but every time I uploaded a backup (all from pre-hacking, I’m not that stoopit) I’d get locked out . . . → Read More: and we’re back … sort of
By sion, on December 6th, 2009
now that they’ve received them, I can show you the stockings I made for my grandbaby and his parents :)
Stacey asked me to make a personalised one for Carter, and I thought his mum & dad should have stockings too. They’re not matchy exactly, but kind of coordinating, and I tried to make them . . . → Read More: stockings
By sion, on November 24th, 2009
even in the appalling heat of late … I just don’t seem tohave a lot to show for it! Some gifts, so you won’t be seeing those for a while, some random stuff, some xmas stuff, and other than that it’s been experiments (some failed, many worked – so far – but are stage . . . → Read More: I have been working, honest …
By sion, on October 16th, 2009
I got sick, got a puppy, changed meds brand, and somewhere amongst all that got some of my old energy back. Everything still hurts, but at least I don’t want to sleep all day. Not sure the energy is related to any of the above happenings, but I figured I should take advantage . . . → Read More: hi ho, hi ho
By sion, on September 11th, 2009
I feel like that guy on the xkcd comic, the most boring [edit - least interesting, sorry] guy you’ll ever meet:
… okay, so I’ve got more than four posts, but I feel a bit like all I do is apologise for not posting more, lately (and now I have a complex about how boring I am; . . . → Read More: splendiferous
By sion, on August 7th, 2009
Heads up!
I got home from dropping the kidlet at school this morning to find a parcel on my doorstep. “Who’s that from?” I thought. “I’ve only ordered dye lately, and surely that won’t be here yet”. Nothing on the sender details. I tore it open to find a large, flat red . . . → Read More: score!
By sion, on August 6th, 2009
I don’t know why I went incommunicado. Just felt unbloggy. I didn’t even read blogs for weeks there, which is downright weird. Been working on a bunch of different things, from newsletters (did I mention that I’m now both editor of Macleay Quilters’ newletter and a VP?) to quilt patterns to blah . . . → Read More: ending radio silence
|
|
yesterday Denise came over & we did a bit of playing with various media – neocolour & inktense pencils, india ink, paint & and some exhausted dye. My little pencil landscape jobby is lame proof of how much I hate trying to do landscapes. My desire for realism (or at least truth & meaning) falls into the black hole of my laziness/impatience, hardcore. A teeny tiny fragment of a landscape now – a rock, perhaps, or a bit of bark – that I could get right into (so why didn’t I? Because I’m an idiot who only just thought of that approach to landscape and who only now realises that this is how, in fact, she relates to landscape generally. And maybe life. Little bits of treasure; the big picture is boring). Anyway. 
Playing with ink to get impressions of landscapiness was much more fun – squirting water onto paper to set up paths for ink and then spraying ink over top & seeing what it does; THAT was cool. I got some nifty little bits to draw over/into. Messing around with old dye was cool too.I need to experiment & see if I can get fabric to behave the way the watercolour paper did with the dye – I’m guessing I’ll need to stretch it, but how cool would it be if I can get it to work?
CHITCHAT