Tacky Glue

I have been working on some fairly unusual collages for the past couple of days. Because of their heavy elements, they required some more aggressive adhesives.

The first piece uses a discarded library book cover, a linoleum block print, a lot of papers, beads, and two table knives. The second uses a lot of the same stuff, along with some large, wooden cubes with letters on them.

For the paper and beads, I used Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue. Great stuff. It goes on clear and dries clear. It held the beads on both pieces very well without a coated feeling that would dull their brilliance.

The book covers, blocks, and knives were held on with Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue. It was exactly as described - tacky. It goes on white, but does dry pretty clear, and held on the heavy stuff with no problems at all. I also used it on the Mona piece where I wrapped the edges with a very heavy fabric backed metallic vinyl wallpaper. The wallpaper laughed at the Clear Gel Tacky Glue, but was no match for the Fast grab Tacky Glue.

The good news is that both of these items are easily found at your local Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics, and can be gotten online from any number of places as well.

The Blingless piece will go on auction tonight on eBay, and the Mona piece will go on auction on eBay on Sunday night as part of the Art Squared group's Old Masters revisited show. Please drop by and check them out.

Ritmo Charcoal Pencils, Drawing on Plaster

Long ago, I did a whole bunch of drawings on plaster. Why, you ask? I don't exactly remember, but I had these Fredrix canvas boards of various sizes, and I mixed up Plaster of Paris and coated the boards with it, leaving it sort of rough. After it had set up for a couple of days, I coated the boards with clear acrylic, collaged stuff on them, drew on them with Ritmo Charcoal Pencils, and finally gave them some ink washes. Most of the pieces were very small, but I pulled this piece out today for Illustration Friday, and it brought up a question I need an answer to.

What happened over at Ritmo?! They used to make these charcoal pencils that were wonderful. They were not all flakey and dusty the way charcoal usually is. They were sort of waxy, and gave a wonderful, dark line. Then one day, the art store got a new batch, and these were all dusty and flakey, and the great age of Ritmo Charcoal pencils had passed. Now they are just like any other charcoal pencil. Sad.

As for the Fredrix Canvas covered boards with the Plaster of Paris, these worked very well in the smaller sizes, but larger ones [20x22 or so] tended to warp badly, so you need to be careful in preparing them. I did these when I lived on the NC coast, where the humidity is always 90% or better. Now I live in the desert, where the humidity is more like 12%, so I might have different results here.

I like the rustic surface that the plaster gives, especially if you work it a little into its setting up phase. It's fun and pitted. If you do not coat it with clear acrylic before you paint, however, the paints will SUCK into the plaster at an alarming rate, so do experiment. The rough texture of the plaster also yields a line with lots of character when drawn upon, although the rough texture will eat up pencil points pretty quickly.

If you happen to have some old Fredrix boards around with paintings on them that you hate, this could be a great way to recycle them into a fresh, new surface. Then one day when you are dead and famous, they can x-ray your work and find that wonderful painting underneath and write articles about you.

What Would Van Dyke Do?

Anthony Van Dyke was a Flemish painter who lived from 1599 to 1641, and has the great fortune of having a brown named after him. Personally, I would prefer to have a pleasant green or vivid blue named after me, rather than a brown, but that's what we remember about Van Dyke, and I suppose that's good enough for him. This in one of his paintings. I'm sure you will recognize it.

If you look at this painting, you'll see there are a lot of browns. So which one are they referring to when the label says "Van Dyke Brown?" Apparently, that's not an easy question to answer.
I started by trekking out to the local art store for some Van Dyke Brown watercolors. I bought one of every brand they carried, plus I already had some of my own. Here's what I started with, from left to right: Grumbacher Academy, Windsor & Newton Cotman, Daler-Rowney Artists, Daler-Rowney Aquafine, Dr. PH Martins, Windsor & Newton Artists, Maimeriblu, Daniel Smith, Sennelier, and Van Gogh.

I performed this experiment on Arches cold press watercolor paper.
I started with a dab [highly scientific, I know] of paint straight from the tube, and using clean water, I pulled the paint down the sample area. I learned several things from this experiment.

The first thing I learned was that no two Van Dyke browns were the same. Which is the real Van Dyke? If I had a real Van Dyke in my possession with which to compare these samples, it would be much easier, but I don't, so I can't tell you who got it right.
All the paints had their own unique traits, but the Sennelier was a BIG surprise. When I opened it, it appeared to have separated, like a whole lot. As you can see from the tissue, I squeezed out a quarter or more of the tube just trying to get past the separated binder to the actual pigment. What a nasty mess. I tried swabbing it with a tissue, only to have the tissue permanently adhere to the paint. Disastrous.

The first three samples did pretty well. The Grumbacher had some slight binder separation. The Grumbacher was fairly finely ground, and showed virtually no granulation. Personally, I like granulation, but you may not. It was a fairly cool brown.

The W&N Cotman was warmer, almost ochre when diluted, with slight granulation. I thought it had good color depth. The Daler-Rowney Artists was also a little bit ochre, and had moderate granulation.
Interestingly, the Daler-Rowney Aquafine differs remarkably in color from the Artists color by the same company. It was a vastly cooler color that came off a little duller than the Artists.

The Dr. Martins was a brick red, far from brown. It dried to a very dull, featureless finish with no granulation, no depth, and a very flat tone.

The W & N Artists was a great paint. Unlike the two Daler-Rowney paints, the W&N paints were fairly close in color. The W&N Artists had good depth and granulation, and did not come off as flat at all.
The Maimeriblu was a gorgeous paint; great depth and great granulation in a much cooler tone. It was my personal favorite for its character. I had never tried that brand before, so I was very pleased, and will definitely buy more.

The Daniel Smith was just a very neutral tone. Light granulation, good depth, but just neutral. Almost a non-color. Very hard to describe.

The Sennelier, aside from the separation disaster, was almost the same brick red as the Dr. Martins. It had slight granulation, but was otherwise sort of flat. Lastly, the Van Gogh; cool and neutral like the Daniel Smith, although with less granulation character. It didn't do much for me.

I hope you have enjoyed the brown "review." Send along your questions and comments, and don't forget to post a link to work you've done with any of the featured supplies. Thanks.

Pen and Ink Revisited

I spent a good deal of time today discussing pens and inks with a very knowledgeable gentleman named Francisco, who was a tremendous help on the issue of the Rotring pens.

First of all, I learned that the Rotring pens have an all metal tip, and it and the reservoir are a single unit that you generally toss and replace, rather than filling them the way you must with the Koh-I-Noor pens.

Now, some of the Koh-I-Noor pens have a teeny tiny felt tip that will, eventually, wear down and flare out, whereas the Rotring pen with its metal tip will not wear out. Also, Francisco tells me that the Rotring pens are less prone to drying out, but the manufacturer recommends that you use only the ink they supply in their pens. Some of the Koh-I-Noor pens have this small metal opening with a tiny pen that fits inside, and that configuration makes for some more serious dry-out issues.

On the issue of cleaning these little pen tips, which I personally have a very hard time seeing even through the serious magnification part of my glasses, Koh-I-Noor makes a cleaning solution that you put the tips and stuff into to soak. It all sounds very time consuming.

Another thing to consider with these rapidograph pens is that they need to be held vertically to give a proper line. It would require a little retraining of the way in which you make your lines, so it is something to consider. However, properly used, they make a spectacularly clean, consistent line.

The Rotring pens I checked out came in .25, .35, .50, and .70 tip sizes, and have a pretty hefty price attached to the set. For comparison, a Rotring .25 is equivalent to a .01 Micron Pigma. The Microns come in a size .005 which is even finer, they don't need filling or soaking, and when they run out of ink or the tip becomes damaged, you just throw them away and buy another. And since they are only $2-3 each, it is a much lighter committment.

If you have done work with any of these rapidograph pens, let me know. And again, thanks to Francisco for his expert advice on this subject.

Book Review: A Guide to Drawing

I want to recommend this book A Guide to Drawing by Daniel M. Mendelowitz and Duane A Wakeham. It is my absolute favorite drawing book. It is not a tedious my-way-or-the-highway kind of "this is how you draw thus-and-so" book. It is a book with inspiration as much or more than instruction. The book is filled with drawing examples, not just from a single artist, but hundreds of artists, working in a huge variety of media and styles from realistic to totally abstract. Get it just to look at the pictures for inspiration. It has projects, but they are not step by step items; rather, they are open ended experimentations for you to interpret. You can find it used at a great price, too. Well worth the money, new or used.

On working with super soft graphite

I did this drawing for Illustration Friday today. The word of the week is Visitors, and I used my husband and a photo of a tarantula for reference. I wanted to try to draw the whole piece, minus the preliminary sketch, in 9B graphite. If you have never worked with a 9B pencil, it is a little like drawing with a warm stick of butter.

The blacks you can get from the graphite are really dark. I used a Derwent Graphic 9B pencil for the body and the spider. I used a Faber-Castell graphite Pure 2900 9B pencil for the background. The paper is Stonehenge.

The object of the exercise was to draw something entirely with a super soft pencil. This is OK, but my anal style would have preferred to go to something harder on some of the facial and spider details. I found both pencils to work well, although the Derwent was easier to handle for the detail. Had I been doing something in a larger scale, the all-graphite-all-the-time of the Faber-Castell might have worked better.

I also love the Stonehenge paper, and use it whenever I want a pristine, white surface on which to draw. It has a crisp body, and perfect tooth for graphite. The surface is not so delicate that you can't erase, and it erases very clean.

I finished the piece with a serious coat of Windsor & Newton Artists' Workable Fixative for Pastel, Charcoal, & Pencil. I usually buy Krylon fixative, but the store was out and only had this. I find it works equally well. Very soft pencils need to be fixed, unless you live in some sort of museum and can whisk your work behind a mat and glass right quick.

This piece is currently on auction on eBay. Just follow any of the eBay links to my store.

LithoCoal

Lithocoal is some funky stuff, but it has great possibilities if you are willing to play with it. I used it on this piece, which won Best in Show, back when I entered shows. That was a long time ago. I still have this piece. Back to the LithoCoal.

Lithocoal comes in a stick form, which is a little like a jumbo piece of charcoal. It draws a lot like charcoal as well. It also comes in a powder, which you can mix with water or some other solvent/vehicle, and use as a wash. Then, when you get everything the way you want it, you heat it to 250 F, and that permanently fixes it to whatever you applied it to. In this case, I applied it to paper, and put it in the oven to set it. But according to the manufacturer, you can apply it to any surface that can be heated to 250 F. So you could use it on glass, metal, cloth, all kinds of stuff.

By sprinkling the LithoCoal, I could get some very delicate and interesting effects. Also, you can work and fix in layers, so you don't have to be at your final destination on the first round. Then, once it is set, you can go back into it with watercolor or acrylic or whatever, and it won't bleed into them, so your delicate powder work stays put. I really have not experimented with this a whole lot, but if you have, please post us a link so we can all see what you've got going.

It also has some uses in lithography, which I do not do, as I am totally afraid of anything seriously toxic. Check it out at www.lithocoal.com

Art quilts and such

I did some art quilts awhile back. Art quilts, incidentally, do not appear to sell very well, at least not for me. Maybe someone else. They were good fun to make, however. For this piece, I used some fabric from some old Japanese kimonos. It used to be that you could buy kimonos in heavily compressed 200 lb. bales. A screwy idea, to be sure, but I bought one. What can I say? I was single, and it was a long time ago. Anyway, so I used these old kimono pieces, and then I drew the eyes with Prismacolor pencils on some silk scraps. I got the beads from JoAnn Fabrics locally, but there is a link on here so you can go there online and purchase stuff, too, if there is not a JoAnn's near you. They have an awesome collection of beads, so you should definitely check them out if you are in to that sort of thing.

If you know of anyone who still sells those bales of kimonos, please post it here. They are very cool, and when you cut the straps on the bale, it literally explodes, and you are suddenly knee deep in silk. You could spend weeks just examining them.

I think I'll put this and some others in my eBay store, just in case someone is interested. Just follow the eBay link.

Big Sale Stuff

MisterArt.com is having a big sale just now. When your cart reaches $200, you may be eligible for free shipping, although there are apparently some restrictions, but don't know what they are. So you can follow the link on the side here if you're interested.

Pen and Ink and Telephone Time

I am trying to get a Rotring pen to test, but in the meantime, I did a little experimental piece with some other inks. I started with this cool picture from a 1964 college annual. Annuals are a great source of inspiration, and can be gotten inexpensively on eBay.

I scanned the picture, and used photoshop to reduce it down to just black and white, and began drawing. I used Micron Pigma pens. I love these pens because they don't clog, they're permanent, and the .005 is incredibly fine.

I used a piece of Indian handmade watercolor paper. At only 6" x 8", it has 4 natural deckle edges, and a firm, crisp surface that handles the very fine line from the Micron pens very well with no feathering. I laid out the picture with the Micron pens.

I used the Higgins Waterproof ink and a brush to do large black areas, and the Microns on the small areas.

I added a little watercolor tinting in the end. Have you used these products? Got some great tips? Please comment and add a link so we can go see your work.

Oh, and you can purchase this piece on eBay here.

Pen and Ink

I recently got this great note in my email.


Hello.
I recently viewed your web page/blog, which is really pretty cool. I’d like your opinion on ink. I’ve used dip pens in the past with India ink. Recently I’ve purchased a Rotring drawing pen and I want to use a permanent acid free ink. The Rotring pen operates more like a fountain pen and is designed to keep ink in the pen for days. I’m concerned about drying and clogging. I know Windsor & Newton makes ink formulated for calligraphy and fountain pens that also have a high permanence.

What’s your experience with inks? Can I leave India ink in the Rotring pen for days on end? Are some less “cloggy” than other? Should I try something else? Currently I use Higgins Waterproof Drawing India Ink, Winsor & Newton, sumi and Koh-I-Noor Ultradraw.

I don't have an answer yet, but I am working on it. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on the pen issue, please share!

Mixed Media with inks

This is my submission for Illustration Friday this week. It is a mixed media piece of my reluctantly compliant daughter in a thinking cap.

I started with this funky paper I had in a drawer. It's kind of a soft, thin paper, and it has pieces of white fabric embedded in it, which is kind of cool. I don't know where you can get it online, perhaps someone else knows and will post that information. I happened to get this sheet at Townhouse Art and Frame in Wilmington, NC, which is only about 2500 miles from here, so I don't expect I'll run out and get any more anytime soon.

I started with a sketch of my daughter in a little thinking cap I made. I did the sketch with a Derwent Drawing pencil #67 Ivory Black. It's kind of like a waxy charcoal. You can see how thin the paper is. anyway, then I sprayed it with fixative and let it dry, which takes about 3 seconds here in the Arizona desert, but your conditions may vary.

Next, I covered the whole surface in clear acrylic, in this case, Mod Podge. I wanted the shiny, slick surface that Mod Podge has. OK, maybe it's not the most archival thing out there. And maybe someday some museum curator will worry about it yellowing or cracking. Yeah, that I should live so long...

Then after that was dry, I added some watercolor to the face and hat. For the face and lips, I used some Daniel Smith Moonglow watercolor along with some Sennelier Bright Red watercolor. For the green yard in the cap, I used Daniel Smith Undersea Green watercolor. I really like both these Daniel Smith colors because they tend to granulate in a very beautiful way, with the colors separating out from one another a bit. Over top of the Mod Podge, they can be easily manipulated, and work a little like a hand tinted photograph.

Next, I used a combination of Daniel Smith Walnut Drawing Ink, Higgins Indigo Waterproof Drawing Ink #4305, and Higgins Black Magic Waterproof Drawing Ink #4465 in layers over the hair and background. The drawing ink puddles around the fabric scraps in the paper in a nice way. The paper is so thin and porous without the Mod Podge, that the colors will simply bleed off and become mush unless you seal the surface. Here is the final result.

So, have you used any of these products? If so, comment and add a link so we can see your work. This piece is now on auction on eBay - just follow the link to see this and other auctions.

Drawing on Different Substrates

I draw a lot, although I find a plain, clean, white piece of paper to be a somewhat uninspiring start. I like to draw pictures of dead people on trash, really, although some people consider discarded books to be more treasure than trash, and I understand that. Anyway, the point is that it can be a challenge to draw something that spans more than one kind of paper because some papers are slick, some are toothy, and some are just plain too soft to work on without a fairly soft lead. Here are some examples.

This is a piece I just did on the inside cover of a discarded library book. The card part was fairly slick, the background paper was mildly toothy, and the manilla card envelope was very toothy. I did the whole thing with one pencil, but I had to be careful to make the different surfaces come together into one drawing, so I had to work a little harder into the darks on the slick card than on the toothy manilla. Here's another example.

Again, different substrates require different measures. So what to use? Well, all these drawings are small, obviously, and not very dark the way a landscape might be. I use a Sanford Turquoise 2B drawing lead in a charrette Fixpencil 77 lead holder. I love this lead holder! I have used it since 1983, and in the following years I have aquired a number of them. It is made by Caran D'Ache. I love it because it is lightweight, unlike most lead holders. You can use it for hours without tiring. Also, it doesn't have that awful knurled grip that many lead holders have, so you don't feel like you're gripping sandpaper all day.

I use a Gedess lead pointer. It sort of spirals the pencil instead of holding it straight, and it has a diamond grit insert that does the sharpening. his is only my second pointer since 1983, when I bought both items together, so you can see they are very durable.

I like the Sanford [used to be Beryl] Turquoise drawing leads the best of all that I have tried. They never have any unfortunate "grits" in them that can ruin a drawing. Very homogenous and consistent within each hardness.

So what do y'all use? Post some of your favorites, and include a link so everyone can check out your work. Also, if you know of a company that markets these items online, post that, too.

Only a beginning

I love new art supplies. They are so full of promise, and I know that the piece that rockets me to art stardom is locked in their little tubes, pressed into their lovingly hand prepared surfaces, or wrapped in their wooden cases. OK, well, maybe not. Nonetheless, I do try out lots of different things, so I decided to start a forum for reviewing art supplies. I hope you will comment, and provide links to your own work using the same products. Remember, knowledge is power, unless you happen to be a Republican.