Another book painting

The Alex Awards are given every year by the American Library Association to 10 books written for adults that have special appeal for teens. One of 2009’s Alex Award-winners was Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow.

You hear the word “werewolf” these days, and if you are teen-friendly (or movie-savvy), your thoughts immediately jump to the Twilight franchise (Team Jacob). But that’s not this book at all. Although many of the characters in the book are lycanthropes—shapeshifters—it is not the most important part of the story. While it is significant that the characters are able to turn into wolf-dogs, the story is about so much more than physical identity. Set in the streets and hills of Los Angeles and roaming down into Mexico, it follows a meandering trail amongst such characters as a kindly dogcatcher, a battered wife, a pair of bridge-playing bully boys, a curious cop, and some distinctly unsavory drug dealers. It explores the complexities of loyalty, loss and love in a truly poetic fashion. And Sharp Teeth is written in free verse, with a broad, epic feel to it reminiscent of Homer. I always hesitate to use the word “unique,” but I can’t think of another book like it. It’s dark and violent, humorous, sweet and touching.

I painted this because the teens in our high school book club chose it for next month's book; then we couldn't get it, so we had to choose something else. I'm hoping we read it later in the year.

This painting feels unfinished, but I'm not sure what else it needs. Background? spatter? more details? I may go back in and tweak it some more--I did it on a day I didn't have to be at work until noon, but the 11 a.m. deadline to get ready to go put a time limit on what I could accomplish. But I decided to go ahead and post it, and go back to it later with some distance.

EDM Challenge #224: Draw a jug or pitcher

I collect odd pitchers, and I particularly like anything that fits in with my chosen decor, which is Arts and Crafts-inspired as to furniture, dishes, etc. I found this one in a junk store, and was captivated by it. It's made in Japan, and has the quirky personality that I like from many of the Japanese pottery wares from the 1940s and '50s. (I collect wall pockets from both American and Japanese potteries from that era--I'll paint one of those sometime soon!) I particularly like that it has a lid, so that if you don't use up all the milk or juice at breakfast, it can go right in the refrigerator; and that the little fruits are 3-D, like majolica. Also, the artist picked a color scheme, and then decided to throw in an extra color at the last minute when it came to the handle and knob, which is fun. I drew this first in pencil, then outlined in ink and painted in watercolor, on Canson XL watercolor paper, 140 lb.

EDM Challenge #75

Draw the ingredients and/or process of a favorite recipe:

This one is distinguished by being both tasty and EASY. If you have the ingredients on hand, takes about 5 minutes to get into the oven, then go do something else for awhile et voilá!

I decided to mimic some of you on the EDM list who work in pen first and then watercolor afterwards. I've never done this before (don't know why), but it's fun! I sketched lightly in pencil first, then went over it in pen. The thing I notice is that it encourages you (well, it encourages ME anyway) to be minimalist about line and also to simplify my watercolor technique. I won't work this way all the time, but nice to know it's an option I enjoy!

Hope you try and enjoy the recipe...

Uncooperative Cacti

Yes, that's right, I'm blaming it on the cacti!!! Here's the story: My friends Cindy and Tim were having a party for their 25th anniversary, and though they said no gifts, well, my mother came from the South, so I never show up at a party without SOMETHING in hand. I knew they had recently changed over their yard to drought-tolerant, so I decided a clever little cactus would be just the thing. I stopped by the nursery to get one, but they were all so cunning that I couldn't decide...so I bought four! Then when I got home, I had the bright idea (four hours before the party) of painting a picture of the cacti to give her as well! I set up three of them in a tableau, then I painted, and painted, and painted, and those darn cacti turned out to be HARD to paint, especially in a group. (Should have just picked ONE.) So I ended up taking #4 to Cindy and gave her an IOU for a painting sometime in the future--but this won't be it. I just couldn't capture them sufficiently. I'll try again soon.

Regarding the creative process

Margie (http://www.margiesartstudio.blogspot.com/) asked on everydaymatters@yahoogroups.com how everyone goes about the creative process--do you paint from your imagination? Only from life? Only from references? I thought that was a good question to illustrate with a painting (and a back story).

I have to have references. I am so envious of people who can paint from imagination (like Margie--look at her characters on her blog!). But I don't seem to be able to paint from within my head--or at any rate, very badly.

Frequently, however, I decide the subject of what I want to feature and then go looking for things to assemble, and they can be in-person, photos from Google Images, whatever. Here is a painting I did as a final assignment.The semester-long assignment from the watercolor class I was taking (from Carol Bishop at Los Angeles Valley College, a great teacher and mentor!) was to choose an object (mine was a blue teapot) and paint it every single week for an entire semester, looking at other artists' work and taking something from them to express in your rendition of the object: color palette, brush technique, theme, whatever. And the final assignment was to take everything you had learned and do a painting in your own style.

I soon got really bored with painting the damn teapot, so I kept trying to think of creative ways to use it. It featured in various paintings as an animated character, the moon, a teensy prop in the background, a wallpaper design...somewhere the teapot was there, but rarely the main event after the second or third assignment.

This painting included a back view of one of my "yard" cats from a window that I sketched really quickly one day, the blue teapot (from my kitchen), a mouse I found from a rodents and marsupials book in the library, trees/forest ditto from a botany book, and I also looked on the internet for a photo of Cinderella's carriage and the glass slipper to get good references from which to paint. I assembled them all, and figured out how to put them into perspective with each other, then combined them into this one picture. It's a plodding way to work, but my imagination seems to be limited to ideas ABOUT the painting rather than the visualization of the actual contents. It's called "Bereft of Cinderella."

Work-related again

Somebody on this list does wonderful paintings of books she is reading, and it inspired me. My middle school book clubs read The Mortal Instruments series (City of Bones,  City of Ashes, City of Glass) by Cassandra Clare over the summer, and we will be discussing them at our first meeting, so I did a quick re-read to be prepared, and then a quick painting just for fun. This isn't quite all of it, but I didn't feel like doing the patch job with the scanner like I did on the sunflowers! (All that's really cut off is the rest of the metal bookend and some background--

nothing essential.)

322 Continued

Here's another sign. This one didn't work out so well--I think I'm going to have to do a lighter/warmer color for the backgrounds and a darker/cooler color for the lettering, for these to work. Next, I want to try some with INK.