Art 4 Shelter 2025

 I don’t have as any paintings as in the past, although I don’t think I did any last year. 

Here’s the one from the homework assignment from the latest session of Kat’s painting class.

I’ve still been working on copying paintings and one of the things I’ve been doing is copying some citrus paintings of Elena Katsyura.  She is on the web and Daily Paintworks.  I love the glow she gets.  I believe she is working in oil.  Given that and the limited palette, I am not getting that, but it’s been a fun exploration.  Here are two from life.  

The last thing to share is a quick drawing with my beloved Neocolor II crayons.  This is not for Art 4 Shelter.  I just wanted to do something this morning and didn’t have much time.  

The ground is from a mixture of color and pastel ground thinned with a bit of water.  It was a 15 minute or so quick study using one of the above pieces. It was fun, since I haven’t had the Neo IIs out for a long time. I am getting a knee replacement in a few weeks and wanted to have some easily accessible art materials to use as a I recover. 

The rind color needs to be a bit more distinct from the background. 

Several to Share

I have been working slowly and with what seems like a lot of layers.  There are several pieces that I am not sharing, but here are two I will share.  I would like to get better at showing brushstrokes with the Neocolor IIs.

This week I also went to an informative and interesting talk about paper-making at Wet Paint.  Since I don’t work with watercolor, it was not as applicable to what I do, but it was fascinating.

Cake, Take 2

It was really fun to revisit this piece. I like more things about this version than the first version.  

I plan to revisit the other two pieces of artwork we copied as part of the Neocolor class that I took at Wet Paint. 

Third Sitting

I'm done.  I added a background and fussed with a few details.  Backgrounds challenge me and after I was done I had a different idea about what I could have done, but overall I had a really good experience with this one.

A few of the others that I've finished recently (not the copies from class) will probably go to Art 4 Shelter.  This one will for sure. 

Also, I wanted to post the last copied piece of artwork from the Neocolor II class at Wet Paint Art.  The original piece was Andre Derain's portrait of Matisse.  I really need to do a better job of lightening my pencil lines before I get started.  I do not like them peaking through.  As much as I love color, it actually made me nervous, especially in the background and in the jacket, to have such differents in color and shapes just next to each other without understanding why.  That means it was a good thing to do, since bumping up against those self imposed constrictions in my brain is part of what all of this is about for me. 

One last thing.....I found a new app that I like.  It's called DrawingGrid.  There is an Apple version and an Android version.  It is very easy to use and it has a diagonal feature that I like.  It really helps my drawing.  I have finally made peace with the fact that while I want to continue to learn how to draw it works 1,000 times better for me to use a grid when I am drawing something to paint. I just don't see well enough.  The grid and diagonal lines both are a useful tool and they help me see things and relationships better and I am finally okay with that.  

Occasionally if I am planning to paint from something relatively simple in nature like this one I might free-hand draw it, but otherwise it's the DrawingGrid for me. 

 

After Two Sittings

I hope to finish this one tomorrow.  Here's where I ended up after my first sitting last night.

Here's where I ended up tonight. 

Water based media is very, very different, but I am having fun exploring.  I like the Stonehenge paper in the craft color. 

How To Bee Better?

I am still working with Neocolor IIs.  Here are 3 pieces using pictures in my yard.  The most recent one is on the top.  It is on black paper.  It’s hard to get coverage, but I also like how the colors behave. I also like the top of the flower and the bee the in this one.

The other two don’t do much for me, but working on the same subject matter multiple times was useful.

I am interested in figuring out how to blend better when I am using these more like watercolor.

Copied Artwork #2

For the second week of class, we treated the Neocolor IIs like watercolor.  Since I have not played much with water based media, I found the blending to be challenging.  This took me about 4 sittings to complete.  Class finished up this past Thursday, so I am a bit behind.  When I am done, I am thinking about doing a second version of each piece.

Here is an in process shot.

After spending so much time on this one, I’m looking forward to seeing a Georgia O’Keefe in person.  I think I will appreciate it more. 

Hodge Podge

Before I started the class at Wet Paint, I pulled out the Neocolor IIs and started a piece the way I used to use them (small piece on its side and layering up color).  It didn’t get finished before class started.  When I  pulled it out to work on, I tried doing what we did in class last week on top (filling in color and activating it with water).  Last night, I decided to finish it and I scribbled, painted, or whatever.

One of the many things I love about the Neocolor IIs is their opacity, making it possible to try and fix things.  A lot of the time I find that my lights need to be lighter. For this one, I used the side of a white piece, plus some scribbles to make that happen.

The photo I used was from a trip I took in the fall. I didn’t know what flower was, but I liked the crazy center part.  Using Google Lens, I believe this is a Japanese anemone.

Back To It

Other than knitting, I have not felt the siren call to create.  Sure, it would whisper ever so slightly from time to time, but it's been easy to hurry past that.  Recently, it got louder and, at the same time, I found several classes that I wanted to take.  

The first class was a Valentine Card Workshop with Jane Davies.  I become aware of her through a friend I met at one of Kat Corrigan's classes.

Valentines and/or the well-known heart-shaped symbol was used as a way to explore collage, shapes, colors, patterns, and other parts of what Jane referred to as visual language.  The class was online.  While it was only 2 hours, she covered a lot.  Even better, it was fun!

For the next couple of days, I played around with making some different hearts, but didn't complete them.  When Valentines Day rolled around, I had only glued down and finished two of them.  That morning, I decided that I wanted to make more so I could hide them around the house for my partner to find.  I gave myself a set and short amount of time and buzzed through a bunch more.  They didn't have to be perfect.  They just needed to read as a heart and be vaguely interesting.  

It was a blast and I think my partner had fun stumbling across them throughout the day. 

I don't have a stack of "collage" paper, so I mostly used things cut out from magazines.  The polka dots came from a thank you card from a friend.  

Here's one I made for me to hang up in my drab cubicle.  While I don't spend much time there, I've slowly been adding things, even though it is a shared cubicle. 

The week after the Valentine workshop, I started a 3-week class at Wet Paint where each week we are copying one painting using Neocolor II crayons from Carn D'Ache.  I was interested in exploring different ways to use these and this class looked like a great way to do that.  It is also a remote class.  

Week 1 was copying from a Wayne Thiebaud painting using the Neocolor IIs and we were mostly coloring in / filling in areas of color and later activating them with water.  It was a fun way to play and practice.  One area where I would like to be more careful is when you put down the small bits of contrast or outline colors in this piece.  You really don't need much and I was a little heavy handed.  It also helps to be careful with your brush and amount of water and it would be good to work on that.  Even so, I can't help but smile when I look at this one.  

I learned a lot and will probably do a second version.  

Postcard for Wet Paint

Wet Paint has a summer postcard project each year and also has a event at the end. One of the requirements is that you have to mail the postcard to them. It’s no fair dropping it off. 

I’ve been meaning to work on a piece for it and finally did today. 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Neocolor II crayons. When I was doing cat in hat portraits, I was mostly using them as crayons. Lately, I’ve been playing with them as though they were watercolors. 

Last Year’s Hummingbird

 I got together with a friend today and played around with my Neocolor IIs. The first thing I worked on was a very long warm up. Next, I started working on a hummingbird drawing from a picture I took last year. Since the hubby is off playing cribbage with this family this evening, I finished it up this evening.  

In this one, I used the Neos more as though they were watercolor. I’m not sure what to do with the background, so I’m leaving it as is.

I Was Gone And Now I’m Back

When I say I was gone, I mean that I was gone from my daily art practice. It’s hard to come back once I’ve lost the daily habit. The project approach has been a good one, but I think I need to define what it means to me so I can make it sustainable again.

I’ve been playing with gouache a bit, along with slowly working my way through Shari Blaukopf’s class about sketching skies in gouache. I both want to work through this class and play with gouache and also find myself avoiding it all at the same time.

While this makes me feel as though I’m flitting around too much and probably should decide on one thing to focus on, I also just gone done (about 5 minutes ago) taking with a short class from Wet Paint. It was about using the Caran D’Ache Neocolor II crayons. Up until now, I’ve just been using them as crayons. In this short, but very fun class we added water. In one excercise, we used them almost like watercolor and in the other exercise we used them more opaquely, but activated with some water. It was super fun.

I went too complicated for the subject matter for the first exercise. For the opaque one, I went with a simple apple. 

One Last One

Here's the last one for Art 4 Shelter. I decided to paint from one of my recent bird pictures. 

Trumpeter Swan - Crex Meadows Wildlife Area 

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Neocolor II crayons?

You Would Think After Five Years I Would Remember

You would think after five years I would remember to stop mid-way through, step away, and view what I am working on from a distance, but I don't.  When I'm done, either with "the session" or on a piece, I will finally step away and take a look.  As a result, I get surprised by my own results.  

Up close, I thought the face and eyes were okay.  From a proper viewing distance, I am really pleased.

I keep saying it, but I love the Neocolor crayons and I also really enjoy layering. 

It’s Absurd and Ridiculous

That’s what these drawings of cats in hats are.  Absurd and ridiculous.

Cat in Knitted Hat #4

They are also a lot of fun and they make me smile.  Nuff said.

It’s Alun Armstrong Month

Roz declared here that March is Sketch Alun Armstrong month.  I confess that I didn’t know who he was, however I decided to fit a few Alun Armstrong portraits into my general March project involving portraits and I am glad that I did.  First, the overall idea is just playful.  Second, he has a really fascinating face.  Third, I’m finding it easier to work on trying to sketch people I don’t know.  If I only get a partial resemblance, it doesn’t bother me.  

Here’s the portrait that I worked on yesterday and today.  The eye on the left is off as to placement and shape, but otherwise I’m very pleased with the result.  

The first one I did had less resemblance.

For both of these, it was such a good exercise to push myself to complete a piece. The one in pencil is more of a sketch, but it’s a complete one.  Honestly, I am kind of amazed that I can do this.

I Am Not A Reindeer

 I am not a reindeer.

I did not voluntarily dress up as a reindeer.

I do not want to play any reindeer games.

Wolfie Contemplates the Choices He Has Made In His Life

So far, I have heard back from 4 people, who have given me permission to draw from their photos of a cat in a hat. Meet Wolfie. To me, he looks as though he (or maybe she, I don’t know) is contemplating every choice he has every made in life which has led him to this point. Actually, he looks like a good-natured cat who is hoping this will be over soon. 

This project is going to be a fun challenge. For this one, I had to make up the body below the chin, since the cat was being held by a person and because of that, I also had to jazz the background. It also was challenging to figure out how to try and capture values of a dark gray and white cat in an interesting manner.  Lastly, it was way different trying to capture this hat rather than the brioche hat in my first drawing which start all of this. Simple brioche knitting looks like columns and that was easier to do. 

That doesn't take away any of the fun of this project or working on this drawing.  

In closing, it always surprises me when eyes are in shadow, how little is needed to capture them. I also really like the right side of the face (which is lighter).  The value transitions built believable volume and shape, especially on that side.  

How Many Cats In A Hat?

So I decided to do a little rework of my portrait of Chandler in Neocolor color II crayons and I like this slightly revised version better. By the way the pattern on Ravelry is this one, although when I took the picture this drawing was based upon the hat was only about 1/2 done.  

I had so much fun doing this that I would really like to do more portraits of cats in hats and I was thinking about donating them to Art 4 Shelter. However there's a problem with this plan.  Both orange cats have more or less decided that they do not like having their picture taken while wearing a hat.  The best follow up picture that I've gotten of Chandler is this one.

Hammet is even less cooperative.  Although I can't really blame either of them.  

Here's my possible solution. In 2015, an author by the name of Sara Thomas came out with a book called "Cats In Hats" with 30 separate knit and crochet patterns. I just went on Ravelry and looked for projects linked to the patterns in this book and am reaching out to the people who made projects and who took the best project pictures featuring a cat, which I think I could use for a drawing.  

I'm partially writing this blog post, so I can include a link to it when I reach out to these people and ask permission to use their photo.  

Wish me luck!   

Should Not Have Been A Surprise

I think my partially knit, brioche hat either makes him look like a king, a bishop, or a pharaoh and it works much better cropped. 

Than, not cropped. 

Although I thought the proportions in the picture were off when it came to the front legs and paws and how the back of the body cut off, I decided to try and draw it as is.  That was not the best decision.  

It was an especially silly mistake to make since I freaked out earlier this week when I wanted a straight on picture of myself to compare with a self portrait that I drew.  I tried taking a selfie and was appalled at how my face looked.  The first thing I notice was that the ears on the side of my head looked really small and the rest of my face just looked weird.  I had Daniel take a picture and my face looked normal.  After that I did a little research and found this.  

I must be the last person in the world to take a selfie and to become aware of this phenomenon.  It's not just selfies, of course.  Chandler was on my lap, so this was a really close up picture as well. 

Last, but not least, I am having a blast with the Caran D'Ache Neocolor II crayons.