Owner: Beth Robinson: Artist Perpetually in Progress URL:http://www.artbybethrobinson.com/journal Join Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 08:15:33 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: I dream about creating complex layered work with paint and paper and stitch. Come with me on my journey as I learn and practice the skills and principles I need to make that art happen. Site statistics:Click here
Where the Butterflies Went 2008-04-24 20:57:42 The butterflies were made for a chunky pages swap and by the end I remembered why I had stopped doing these swaps. I become tired of doing the same thing. But that was also the very reason I joined this one - to push myself to make variations by giving myself a deadline and a purpose. I definitely came up with some combinations for wing patterning that didn't initially occur to me. The last four butterflies are shown below.
My Creative Output Will End 2008-04-30 06:40:38 And that's actually rather freeing.I can only complete so many creative projects in my lifetime, whether I spend much time on them or little. There may be more or better projects if I spend much time, but I can't know for sure, and they will still be only a limited fraction of the ideas I have had and the things I would like to have tried. It sucks, but it's life. And realizing it makes it easier for me to be at peace with the little amount of time I currently have available.The idea came from my rewording of a statement by Dan Goodwin in his article at Creativity Portal called One Full Flavor. His emphasis was on how the concept can be used to bypass the too many options part of creator's block, resulting in multiple completed projects instead of dithering and Read more:Output
First Layouts for Bird on a Branch 2008-05-03 15:36:06 I tend to create my collage compositions by physically arranging and rearranging the components until I find something that works. This is part of the reason that I find it difficult to consistantly use a sketchbook.Some time ago I was playing around with some paper I had from when Marissa sold her scraps instead of creating her own collages and realized that some of them fit nicely to form a tree with a branch. And maybe I could put a bird on that. For my next project I want to develop the idea more thoroughly on an 8"x10" canvas.This is my first try, almost the original idea, except I had to keep cutting bird shapes until I realized that maybe a sitting bird would be better than a profiled bird.I was starting to put the pieces away - since I didn't have time t Read more:First
, Layouts
, Branch
Surfing - An Attempt at Minimalism 2008-05-07 07:17:11 Why do I always strive for layering and complexity in my art? Well, I like it! But this is also a common theme in the altered art world. What happens if I try to go minimal but stay mixed-media? What do I need to do to keep the work both effective and mine?This is my first attempt. I glued a torn piece of paper to an 8"x10" of watercolor paper and then extended and distorted the patterns with Pitt Artist Pens, essentially colored India Ink. It's interesting, but I think I can do better.The dirty little secret here is that the other driver for going more minimalist was the need to have a completed piece every month to display as part of an online art group that I'm in and want to stay in. That deadline combined with the layered and st Read more:Surfing
, Minimalism
Background for Bird on a Branch 2008-05-10 20:10:17 I wanted a nice bright green as the first layer of my background. It felt like a risk, but it seemed like a worthwhile foundation. As I painted it in I also mixed in some browns for variation.Then I collaged in the branch pieces. They don't take up the full space because this is an 11"x14" canvas and the finished piece will be 8"x10". I'll remove the canvas from the stretcher bars and restretch it.I didn't wait for the paint to dry fully so using the gel as an adhesive pulled up a bit of the paint in various places. This was unexpected, but I liked the effect, and the value variation, so I enhanced it on purpose. Then I wanted to start obscuring the strength of Marissa's design, so painted over the branch portions in translucent Read more:Branch
Ripples Sketchbook Spreads 1 to 3 2008-05-13 06:43:22 The expanding circles doodle that I used in Taking a Line for a Walk stuck in my brain so much that I decided to commit an entire moleskine to elaborating and varying the idea. I've never tried to stick with a series that long and this is going to be a bit of a challenge for me. The idea is mutating already and I have no idea what the last page in the sketchbook will look like.I began
Four Faces Challenge - First of the Merfolk 2008-05-19 07:06:34 My next attempt at developing the minimally mixed style that I first tried with Surfing is in answer to the "Four Faces" challenge, one each week, at Coachcreativespace, a ning community that I joined recently. This time I added stitching to the collage with drawing. The piece is 8"x10" on watercolor paper.The challenge didn't have any other guidelines beyond the ti Read more:Challenge
, First
Ripples Sketchbook Spreads 4 to 6 2008-05-26 06:49:28 I continued with rings of asymmetric growth from the origination points, altering which direction the objects grew in. I really like the movement in these and will probably return to this variation of the motif.But the next day I felt like combining circles with ovals, or origination dots with origination lines. The ovals made me think of eye, so I played that up a bit on the next dood
Stitched Background For Bird on a Branch 2008-05-27 10:55:44 Before I could start the stitching I needed to alter the coloring on the background from the simple paint and collage version in my last post.I used ink pads, just stamping the full squares into the canvas with an uneven pressure so the whole rectangle was not printed. I also used a few bits of print blocks I'd carved for other projects. I thought it looked great. A few days Read more:Branch
Second Merfolk Face 2008-06-01 19:37:05 This face took two tries. The first time I tried to do it only from an image in my mind and ended up tearing a piece of the dark blue paper into ever smaller and eventually useless piece. I was adapting my ideas along the way, trying to figure out how else to fit the face onto the 8"x10" sheet. I even tried drawing on the sheet first, but then couldn't figure how t Read more:Second
Stitched Little Bird 2008-06-04 06:29:19 Apparently my little bird is something of an owl, or at least that's what it looks like with the large eyes. Otherwise, I followed my original sketch pretty closely, using beads for emphasis and adding a little bit of metallics for extra feathering. Now I just need to sew on the bird and wrap the canvas. And figure out what project I'll work on after this one...
Ripples Sketchbook Spreads 7 to 9 2008-06-08 06:39:37 I began adding color by extending the largest expanding circle with the greens, deliberately not letting it intersect the centers of the other circles for more interest. That wasn't quite enough, so I made the center green as well. I was really pleased with this one. The next page I tried to have red and blue intersecting circles make purple.I added colored lines inbetween black
Third Merfolk Face 2008-06-10 06:57:46 Marbled paper sometimes seems to have images in it, so this time I looked for curves that I could turn into a face. The one bit reminded me of an ear, so I started there. Because of the way the design went, I figured I would add the nose and such for the profile in pen, then did my cutting and gluing so the face would fit on the 8"x10" watercolor paper.I wasn't sure how I'd a
Ripples Sketchbook Spreads 10 to12 2008-06-15 20:21:41 I did go back to patterns for some of these drawings. I wondered what would happen if I expanded one ring and added designs to it and also what would happen if I divided the field of the drawing, so I tried two of each.My mind drifted and I tried something intended to be a landscape. It was okay, but not impressive, so I abstracted and rounded the idea further for the next page.
Background Beginning for Three Arches 2008-06-27 10:10:30 I'm starting another 8x10 piece with a 11x14 canvas background. This time I began by laying down papers. I could have developed a collage simply from here, but that's not what I have in mind. I have a really cool piece of arched lace that I want to be the focus of the finished piece. The next step is painting and unifying the background so that all of what you see no Read more:Three
, Arches
Evening Dawns Completed 2008-06-22 14:07:41 The bird on a branch piece has a name - "Evening Dawns" - to go with its completion. The muted background and the owlish appearance of the bird inspired the name. This picture shows accurately where the "cropping" ended up when I took the canvas off the 11"x14" bars and wrapped it around the 8"x10" bars. I'm very pleased with how it turned
Art-o-mat at the Library Redux 2008-07-08 20:33:31 Woohoo! The Art-o-mat at the Doylestown library has been cycled out from when I first blogged about finding it last year. The current machine has some nifty gears and shiny bits in with the robot that don't show up well in the photograph.Of course, I had to buy a bit of art. I chose a mini art quilt by Nikki Wheeler and a collage by Rachel Freeman. Both are nice pieces Read more:Library
, Redux
Ripples Sketchbook Spreads 13 to 15 2008-07-04 20:26:18 Color again - but this time colored pencil instead of markers. I love how this medium lays down on the paper of the moleskine sketchbook. It gives me a lot more room for shading if I want to make the pieces appear more three dimensional than the overlapping does on its own. The design element of having one circle be squiggly lines instead of smooth also seemed to work well.I coul
Recommend Site To A Friend
