Sue Clancy's Blog, page 39

finished the feline fiddler

I finished the cat portrait I’ve been working on and have titled it “Strad O’Varius”. It is already scheduled to be shown in upcoming art gallery exhibits.  My last post – here – tells a bit about what inspired this piece.

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“Strad O’Varius” by Clancy – 30 x 24 inches – hand dyed paper, acrylic and color pencil on cradled board.

 

finessing feline fiddler

I’ve been very busy lately and mostly off-line because I’ve been creating a portrait of a Russian Blue cat. You can see my preliminary drawing beside the painting. My idea for this piece came from watching my fellow Pacific North-westerners braving the rain and cold in order to perform – or to attend a performance – of music.

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in the gouache

Here’s “Mandolin Man”, a piece I finished that tests my new red gouache color. On the musicians neck strap you can most clearly see the new red I’d mentioned in my last post. I also used the red as a “mixer” in the brown of the Labrador fur – so it’s more of a dark red brown. I also played with the opaqueness of the gouache – and tried to leave some colors “transparent” in places too.  I’m enjoying working in gouache. Of course “Mandolin Man” also has ink and color pencil (besides the gouache) and is on vintage sheet music.

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gouache it’s red

I’ve been back to the art supply store recently – and have gotten a red gouache color I’m happier with! Check out my test swatches below…

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The red on the top left, both in the book and on my palette, was the first red, the one I wasn’t happy with. It’ll be fine as a mixer for other things but I think I will like the new red better! It’s the one in the book on the top right – or the blob of color 2nd blob down on the left on my palette.

Now to try it out…

oh gouache its cold

As I posted on my blog here I’ve been experimenting with Gouache, a new-to-me art media. Well, I’ve been enjoying my efforts in the studio that I decided to add gouache to my “running around loose” sketching kit. I took an old Altoids mint can – the mini mint size – and put some of my gouache colors in it and slipped that into my go-sketching bag. I also took my watercolors. The watercolors are in a flat tin about the size of a small I-phone but just a little wider.  My bag is about the size of the unabridged hardback version of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. (one of my favorites!) The sketchbook is 3 inches by 5 inches.

Here’s a photo of my kit and my sketchbook – with the page I did while out-in-the-world.

[image error] Judy and I walked along the Columbia River. It was so cold that about half-way through our walk we popped in to a coffee shop for hot chocolates. I did the sketch of the boats on the river quickly while drinking my hot chocolate. It took 10 minutes or so. The paint dried fast in the cold wind.

The result of today’s adventure: I think gouache is portable enough and is workable even with frozen fingers. My only issue is that I don’t like the red color that came with the kit. It’s too magenta for my taste and not red enough – it’s not fire-engine red.  So I’ll go back to the art supply store soon!

And yes, I took a towel with me on my sketching outing. A paper towel. Douglas Adams would be pleased I think. Note to self: bring gloves next time.

Happy Cats New Year

Here’s hoping your New Year is a purr-fectly good one! Cheers – with assorted cats!

Some of these artworks are in galleries currently.  Caplan Art Designs www.caplanartdesigns.com and Joseph Gierek Fine Art www.gierek.com

I’m planning in 2018 to create more cat themed fine artwork with an eye towards a printed artist book of my cats. Towards my book idea I’m beginning a Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/sueclancy – this page isn’t officially launched yet… you heard it here first.

Happy Holidays assorted chocolate labs

Here’s hoping you have a Happy Holiday!  For your amusement (or if you find yourself in need of dog therapy) here are some assorted chocolate labs – and one yellow lab. Cheers!

For more dogs look for the book “Dogs By Sue Clancy” on Amazon.

Kim Cooks Sue Draws cookbook update

Chef Kim Mahan now has the printed cookbooks now available for ordering (and shipping) via the Class-Cooking website.  http://www.class-cooking.com/classes-shop/kim-cooks-sue-draws  – The Chef even has a few signed copies (signed by both of us) available just ask for a signed copy when you order.

Each cookbook page is unbound and on paper suitable either for cooking from or for framing – or both.

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oh my gouache: learning new art media with cats

As I posted recently (here) I’ve been playing around with a new-to-me art media: gouache.

Here’s my process of learning a new art media:

Read 3 or 4 different sources that describe how to work in the media. While I’m reading I’m looking for “basic best practices” as well as what the “chief virtues” or strengths of the medium art and whether it’s advertised virtues might meet my needs.
I look at artworks by other artists that use the medium. It’s best if I can see the art in real life – but seeing reproductions online or in books is helpful too.  I was lucky enough to get to see some real-life works using gouache at the Portland Art Museum (see my last post)
Buy the best quality medium  materials that I can find.  I went with Holbien Artist Gouache. It’s a company that’s been around a while and the primary mixing gouache set I got for the initial test is professional quality. (I did not get the “Holbien Acryla Gouache” as it is more like acrylic and would not be helpful for my purposes)
When I get new medium materials I do something with them as soon as I get them home. Even if all I do is put some paints on a palette and make a few marks. I find that the sooner I start the better my chances of developing a new habit/ability instead of having “something I always meant to try”.
Then once I’ve dabbled a bit I’ll take a subject matter that I’ve done fairly well using other mediums. I use that subject for the first 3 or 4 times and render it as well as I can in the new medium.  This way I can focus on the details, methods and possibilities of the new medium rather than thinking of subject matter too.

Here’s what I did with my new gouache set (the primary mixing set) plus a few extra colors I knew I’d need (since I draw a lot of animals I knew I needed browns).

I picked the sheet music because the paper is very thin and fragile – even more thin than the paper in my Brooklyn Art Library sketchbook. So I reasoned that if the paints worked fairly well on the sheet music then I’d be able to use them on other thin papers.

I picked Siamese cats as a subject because they’re, well, musical.

The result of my test? Oh my! I think I may be falling in love with gouache!

oh my gouache

The cookbook signing I did recently with Chef Kim Mahan went very well (cookbook info here) and then I took some days off.  Which means that I read books and dabbled with a new-to-me art media – gouache.

You see my wife and I went with a fellow artist friend of ours, Donna Young, (www.donnayoung.com) to the Portland Art Museum to see The Wyeths: Three Generations.  An exhibit of works by N.C. Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth and Harriet Wyeth.  https://portlandartmuseum.org/

Naturally the three of us discussed the compositions of the works – and we discussed the art mediums each Wyeth used.  Donna knew more about gouache than I did – and one of the things she said that it was less water-y than watercolor and not as plastic as acrylic. My curiosity was peaked.

After our day at the museum I looked up gouache and read of its ease-of-use in books about art mediums; I read of the application of gouache in bound sketchbooks but also its use when a painting/image is intended for reproduction.

I thought “Ah ha! This might be the solution for my problem of how to color my Brooklyn Art Library sketchbook”.  I’ve been slowly working on a visual story titled “Time Tavern” but the paper in the sketchbook as it comes from the Brooklyn Art Library is so thin that I knew my usual methods of adding color, acrylic, watercolor and etc. mixed media would over power the paper. Just using color pencil didn’t feel as bold as I like to be so for some time now I’ve been pondering what to do to add color. (You can see my last post about that project here)

What Donna said about gouache, and my subsequent readings about it, made me think it might be an option for me. So I went to a local art supply store where I got some Holbien Artist Gouache.  Here below is a pic of the colors I got, my palette set-up and the color notes I made.

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I also generally scribbled with my brushes dipped in each of my new gouache colors on various pieces of paper – some thick, others thin. First tentative color marks make me very hopeful…. oh my gosh, I think I may like gouache!