My New Online Kirigami Classes

My online Kirigami papercutting classes are live now for registration.  Check it out HERE.

http://www.ornadesign.com/v2/home/cyberclasses/

What Happened in Classes This Week?

In drawing and mixed media classes this week, among other things, we were working with little still lifes of fruits.  Of course it's hard to draw them without knowing how dark and/or light parts and pieces of them are.  So we started by testing the softness and hardness of various pencils and then creating value scales like the one below.  It goes from white on the left to black on the right with all the intermediate steps in value in between....

Then, using little fruits each person made a small study of apples and pears, trying to use the full range of values in their drawings....

It looks to me now like I could have gotten a bit darker in overall value....

In mixed media class we attempted to create a drawing of the same fruits using Prismacolor colored pencils in only process colors:  canary yellow, process red and aquamarine.  By mixing these three colored pencils,  you can create a full range of colors as in this drawing.  It requires some patience, layering one color on top of another, mixing them together to get just the right color and value.....

Above is my attempt.  Give it a try--it's a challenge!

More ideas

Work is slowly moving ahead with lots of good interruptions. We have a number of visitors coming and going over the next weeks, so I get a bit de-railed, but am trying to stay on course.

I've gathered some information about a great gallery space here in Paddington that would be perfect for the tea work. I have asked an artist friend, Lisa Giles, if she would be interested in doing a joint show next year. She works beautifully with paper and I think it would be great fun to combine our work.

So I have completed the weaving piece, which is about 48 x 40 inches. I think the red knots add something a bit different from previous work.

Next is working with round bags, binding them together is tea-dyed linen thread. I hope to make this really long so it will sort of snake against a wall. I'm gathering as many round bags to sublimate the supply I brought.

Pearlflower - a new Scratchboard Engraving

I wanted to finish my series of small 5x7 inch scratchboard engravings so I could move on to larger sizes.  This is "Pearlflower,"  the last of the smalls.

Practicing White Clayboard Engraving

I'm having a little love affair with clayboard engraving (scratchboard.)  I started in the traditional black and have now moved to colorized white clayboard.  This satisfies my need to create in the most tedious, time-consuming medium available.  Actually, I love the detail that can be achieved.

Right now I am experimenting with ways to colorize the clayboard, which is a very smooth surface and doesn't take paint very well.  I've tried watercolor, acrylic, ink, gouache, and oil.  Anything opaque isn't making me happy.  I like the luminosity that a transparent color can provide.  Oil, gouache, and straight acrylic is too thick to scratch well.  Watercolor looks nice but smears when re-moistened.  Ink stains the board and is luminous enough but is soooooo tedious to work with because you need to build up layers of color so gradually to avoid blooms. 

Here are two ink-colored boards I've done recently.