Printmaking

Over the years I have looked at a number of printmaking books and they all seem to say the same thing or are geared to crafty sort of activities. This one pictured here however is much more interesting and instructive than many of them. Although it is written primarily for a British audience it isn’t too difficult to imagine where to get the materials listed in the exercises here in the US. I’m not going to give an in depth review of the book. I will say that it has introduced me to some printmaking techniques and processes that I was not previously aware of such as Mokulito and Lithino. The images are very clear and instructive along with the text. The book is emphasizes creativity and using your imagination.

An early digital drawing/painting

This is one of my early quick sketch abstracts of a coastal scene when I was first starting to work digitally. It was done during July of 2013 with Sketchbook Pro for Android on the first Galaxy tablet i owned. It was a quick exercise in letting go and not worrying whether it would turn out or not and trying out a few brushes.

My phone camera and the Piedras Blancas Light Station

I met up with my friend Ted who lives in Cambria and he took me to see some places he likes to go to to take pictures. I met Ted on Instagram and was able to meet him in person.

It was a gorgeous day. Here are a couple of images to show off how well the zoom feature of my Galaxy S22 Ultra camera works. I used two of the standard zoom presets. These photos have not been doctored or manipulated.

A visit to the Crocker Art Museum

After first stopping off at Corti Brothers market few weeks ago I was able to visit the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento California. I was able to see some art works up close and in person instead of in a book and online. Here are a few highlights of my visit.

Besides a few of Wayne Thiebaud’s pastry and landscape paintings there was this one that caught my attention.

I have always liked Robert Arneson’s humorous sculptures.

The Masquerade by William Baziotes

Everything is Something 5 by Emilio Villalba. I love the impasto quality and colors of this large oil on canvas painting.

Although I’m not fond of much figurative sculpture I do find Manuel Neri’s work fascinating because of the materials he used and textures and distortions.

Finally I got to see a Richard Diebenkorn painting in person.

Untitled galvanized steel wire piece by Ruth Asawa.

Cambria, A Peaceful California Village by Franz Bischoff

I thought this was a nice piece because we have been to Cambria many times and I would be going there again during this trip to the Central Coast.

On the work table today

Here is the work table today with several bits and pieces in the works for several assemblage pieces. Stay tuned to see what happens.

A mess of bits and pieces being worked on.

Laminating tiny paper hands

I cut some hands out of card stock with a Cricut machine. Well actually my daughter cut them for me with her Cricut machine. I then laminate them together in groups of six with thinned wood glue to make thicker and sturdy hands that will painted and used in some assemblage pieces.

Tiny hands cut from card stock. They are based on one of my own hands.

Three lamented tiny hands.

Old ideas from "Ideas"

When I first started out working with digital art in 2013 I had a small iPad and a Galaxy tablet. Loaded on the iPad was an Adobe app called “Ideas”. It was a lot of fun to work with. Then I got rid of the only iPad I have ever owned and kept the Galaxy tablet which unfortunately didn’t have the “Ideas” app installed. As it turned out sometime later Adobe discontinued the “Ideas” app. These are a few of the drawings I did with it.

From the Past

I did a show and lecture at BYU Idaho some years ago. Although I didn’t sell anything (not that I expected to) it was a marginal success and gave me a change of pace. The big pieces in this picture of the show in the gallery are from the Cayucos Lattice series of laser cut and painted abstracts. I had showed these at one of the Salt Lake City libraries a year or two before this show. I had hoped to show them at the main branch of the library but they had me show in one of the branches up in the Avenues and during a time of year when there wasn’t very much traffic. The majority of people who attended the opening were my own family and I think there was only one or two others who came. You win some and you loose some.

Using the Inpainting Tool in Affinity Photo

I took this picture of Holister Peak between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay, California. I wanted to try out the Inpainting Tool in Affinity Photo so I could clean the picture up some. I took the image with my phone while my wife was driving. Here are the final and before clean up images.

Holister Peak is one of the Nine Sisters and series of nine volcanoes that run from San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo County, California.

The image before cropping and removing the poles, power lines, and fence and making the colors brighter and richer. The Inpainting Tool was a pleasure to use and did a rather nice job.

Playing around with a little tilt shifting

I played around with some tilt shift effects in Affinity Photo with an image I took on a camping trip with my brother Kent to Bryce Canyon in July of 2020. This picture was taken on an outing to Mossy Cave Trail, Tropic, Utah. It's not the best image to play around with the effect but here is what I ended up with anyway.

The waterfall at the end of the Mossy Cave Trail helping people cool off even though that day wasn’t a very hot day. The photo was probably taken with the camera in my OnePlus 7 phone which was not a bad camera as mobile phones go. The Affinity Photo app on my Windows Surface Book 3 laptop was used to meddle with the image.

How I make titles for my art works

I make my titles using Affinity Designer. I compose everything so they are right reading then I make copies of everything and flip them backwards. When I am ready to use one I cut it out and paint the printed side with paint and place it wet paint side down to what ever surface I am adhering it to and burnish it so all of it sticks to the surface. Before I add the paint I mark the back of the piece with an up arrow so I make sure it isn’t upside down when it is adhered to the surface. When it is completely dry I wet the paper with water and carefully rub all of the paper away revealing the right reading text.

Backward title text just about ready for some paint.

The back side of the title strip with an arrow pointing up to make sure the strip isn't positioned upside down. If you look carefully above the arrow you can see a little cut to indicate where the center of the title is. I draw the arrow at this center point to help see it better.

The title strip has been painted and applied to the bottom of the frame. I usually add the title to a piece when it has been completed. After the paint has dried thoroughly I will the layer of paper.

Here is how it turned out with the paper rubbed off. To see the full image go to the recent work gallery page.

Trouser

I have brought the Trouser series back out of obscurity. I selected 21 of the best trouser drawings from the Small Studies project and created outlines of each one using Affinity Designer 2. Each outline is 30 inches in length. The width of each one varies.

The ideas is to cut the outside shape and paint the patterns and textures inside with acrylic paint. I haven’t decided whether to laser cut or use a CNC device to cut the shapes.

This is an image exported from Affinity Designer showing all 21 trouser outlines.

The slide show below shows a few concept illustrations of what they may look like. They would be cut from either 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch top quality plywood.

Making a few tiny pieces

I was going to add descriptive captions to these image but am leaving them as is for the time being. I did add captions but after all the work spent they ended up disappearing when I tried to add an additional image using the mobile app. This has happened a couple of time previously and it is very aggravating to have all that work end up missing. Maybe I will come back when I have the energy and add captions.

Anyway here is a peek at what I have been working on that will go into a couple of assemblage pieces I am working on.

Fourteen years ago

Here is one of my experimental wire pieces I did back in 2010. I used Inkscape an open source vector design app to design and produce the template for drilling the holes for the red tie wires to fit through. I used a hand drill to carefully drill the holes through the template that was printed on an inkjet printer then taped to the piece of 1/2 inch thick plywood. The black multiple wire cable is some I purchased along with the red single strand wire from a DIY store. The diagonally placed stick anchored to the panel with black uncoated wire and end with the blue pointed end attached using two nails is a tree twig.

I only created one other larger piece like this using red and wires. I count them as failed experiments that no one has much interest besides me. I have a couple of ideas using this style that I have put on hold indefinitely.

I don’t really like the title I originally gave this one but can’t seem to come up with one more suitable.

Tools: The spoon

This is my trusty Art Deco spoon that I use for dishing up paint when mixing and mixing Durham’s Rock Hard Putty. It is the only spoon I own in my art tool box.

Stainless steel table spoon with what looks to me like an Art Deco design.

They are tiny

I use these tiny nails now and then. I purchased them over 25 years ago from a craft store in Salt Lake City that is no longer in business. I still have a few of them left. There are more of the pewter color than the gold color left.

These tiny nails measure 6 mm (about 1/4 inch) in length.

Tools: Recording ideas with Google Keep

I have been using Google Keep for several years to record titles and details of ideas as they come to me any time of the day. Sometimes they hit me late at night while I'm trying to fall asleep or back to sleep after waking at odd hours and find myself coming up with ideas.

I keep them in small groups and am up to #21 which I just started this morning. This year I began adding dates to sections.

A long title

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Another one where the idea came quickly to me.

After being bottled up for so long behind a disposable low-hung curtain, he finally manages to rise above it to introduce his newest and easiest nosy balancing act.

Wood, acrylic paint, fabric, paper, wire, nails
11 x 7.75 x 3.5 inches (28 x 19.7 x 9 cm)
March 2024

Counting house

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This may be the first of several counting house pieces. The little hand pieces were designed using Affinity Designer then individual pieces were cut with a Cricut machine from card stock. I glued four of each of the hands together to make a sturdy thicker piece which were then painted first with white paint then several coats of yellow paint. The tiny books are made from pieces of wood covered with heavy paper then painted. I used an extra tiny chair leftover from the dripping yellow chairs piece and made this one dripping blue.

It was new and improved, but now this bona fide A-1 expendable counting house seeks new management.

Wood, acrylic paint, paper, found object, fishing tackle, paint transfer | 16 x 6 x 3.5 inches (40.6 x 15.2 x 8.9 cm) | March 2024