Mockingbird Works

Goodbye and Good Riddance 2009

2010-01-01T18:31:00.001-06:00

Snow scene, © 2009 Sydney Harper
watercolor on paper

Time to look back at 2009 before I leave it and go forward in 2010. In most years I keep a text file where I jot down my accomplishments, big and small, each month. When I went to look for the file for 2009, I realized I never got that far. Most of this year fell outside of the norm.

Following Christine Kane’s suggestion, my chosen word for 2009 was Delight but my year was anything but delightful. What I realized as the year wound down and my life calmed down, is that I had major changes to make before I could get to “delight”.

Brief detour here. A friend mentioned on her blog that this New Year’s Eve was a blue moon and the next one wouldn’t occur for about another 20 years. That got me wondering what was going on 20 years ago, 1989. Those last few months of 1989 were among the worst I’ve ever had – brand new job in a new location, my mom died, car wreck. I could go on but I won’t. I cried more in the last four months of 1989 than I ever have before or since then. But I made some wonderful friends and had a number of wonderful experiences that would not have occurred otherwise. It also made me realize that October tend to be a particularly difficult month for me since I seem to have a lot of stressful Octobers. My point (really there is one!) is that a lot of good came out of all of those bad experiences. That’s what kept me going through the last few month of 2009.

Enough of that, lets get on with the review. When I went back and looked at my index card with my 2009 goals, I was surprised at how well I did.

I did not make as much money as I hoped in my goal but I did double the amount I earned the previous year. Besides I intentionally set a very high goal.
I had a goal to learn Photoshop and maybe Illustrator and ended up learning Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver. I still have more to learn with these programs but I feel much more confident with the programs now and I enjoy using these tools. I used what I learned to make a published magazine ad and to develop a web site for a customer. In fact I enjoyed this so much that I decided that I need to explore this aspect more in 2010.
I started organizing and decluttering the house. There’s still a lot more to do but there’s also a noticeable difference.
I reached my goal for the number of paintings I wanted to do. They are not the quality I wanted since many of them were studies and experiments but I learned a lot in the process.
That leads me to my other goal, to learn more techniques and to experiment. I focused mostly on color and negative painting in 2009 and I learned a tremendous amount.
I had some more personal goals like becoming more mentally and physically fit during 2009. I did that but I will be working on that more in 2010.

All things considered it was a successful year. Even though it was full of anxiety and upheaval, there were some amazingly productive aspects to the year. My next post will cover 2010. I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Getting Back in My Groove: Garlic Sketch

2009-12-06T00:27:00.001-06:00

Garlic Bulb and Cloves, ink and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine
© 2009 Sydney Harper

So getting back to my veggies that I’ve been sketching, here’s some garlic. Well, on second thought, I’m not sure most people would consider it a vegetable. It’s food so it will have to do. I decided to punch up the color a bit on the garlic, otherwise it would have been a little bland. At first I was afraid I had gone too far. Now that it is a day later, I like it better. I still may try it again sometime. You can see my previous veggies here, here, here, here, and here.

My personal life has been rather chaotic lately, so it’s been difficult getting back into my groove. I think I’m almost there now though. I still have some backlogged things I want to do but they should be easy to squeeze in.

4 Favorite Not Quite Art Blogs

2009-11-15T10:26:00.001-06:00

Three Leeks, ink and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine
© 2009 Sydney Harper

I thought I would do something a little different today. While I read a lot of artist blogs, there are several blogs I read that aren’t necessarily art blogs but they cover topics that are somehow related to art. Here are a few of my favorites.

1. The Pen Addict

The Pen Addict covers pens of all kinds, mostly for writing but also drawing, and occasionally they’ll cover other things like paper products and pencil/pen cases. Really though it’s all about pens. There are frequent giveaways and Saturday is usually Ink Link day with links to other pen reviews. I found out about Jet Pens, a US source for Japanese pens, from the Pen Addict.

2. Photoshop Tips for Artists

This blog doesn’t have frequent posts or even a lot of posts. If you’re trying to use Photoshop or want to use Photoshop for your art photography, these tips are very good. If you don’t have Photoshop, check the very first tip for suggestions on how to afford Photoshop.

3. Seth Godin

Seth Godin is mostly about marketing. I’m on a “learning about marketing” kick recently, but mostly I read his blog because of his unique perspective. If you don’t already read Seth’s blog, check it out sometime. I usually come away with lots to think about.

4. Abstract City

This is Christoph Niemann’s heavily illustrated blog on the New York Times site. I’m as fascinated and amused by his story telling as I am with the variety of techniques he uses to create the illustrations. Go back and look at some of his previous posts to see what I mean.

The sketch at the top is another one of my ink and watercolor root vegetable sketches. This time the subject is some leeks I happened to buy at the store.

Turnip Sketch

2009-11-08T15:19:00.002-06:00

Turnip, ink and watercolor in Moleskine
2009 Sydney Harper

I think I like turnips because they have that purple blush at the top. Well I like eating them too, but I would probably ignore them if they were just white. It’s interesting how important color is in our food. I was hoping to find some turnips with greens attached but it wasn’t meant to be. Probably because lots of people here eat the green tops so they can sell them separately.

An interesting historical tidbit about turnips is that turnip lanterns were the predecessor to today’s jack o’lanterns.

This sketch was done in ink and watercolor in my watercolor Moleskine.

Carrot Sketch

2009-10-28T23:39:00.001-05:00

“Carrot”, ink and watercolor in watercolor Moleskine
copyright 2009 Sydney Harper

Digging through the refrigerator, I found a carrot. It’s been there, uh, a while so why not sketch it. Beside it’s fun to paint orange things. Right now I’m enjoying sketching lumpy, bumpy vegetables more than smooth ones. They just seem to have more character. Soon I’ll be left with only brown and beige root vegetables. I guess I should have been mixing them in all along.

Red Onion Sketch

2009-10-24T17:50:00.001-05:00

Ink and watercolor
in Moleskine watercolor notebook

I’m continuing with the root vegetable sketch theme, depending on what I’ve bought recently. This time it’s a red onion. I’m enjoying doing these. I think what I like most about these sketches is the pen. I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different pens lately, but I’m enamored with the finest tip of my set of Zig Millenium pens (005 size or .20 mm line) for these sketches.

I’m going to have to see what else I can find at the grocery store. Of course, there’s lots of the usual stuff left to sketch but I’ll have to look for some out of the ordinary vegetables too.

Sweet Potato

2009-10-05T22:13:00.001-05:00

Sweet potato
ink and watercolor, 5 x 8 inches

Around here, it’s the sweet potato season. Towards the end of summer and early fall, you’ll see flat-bed trucks beside the road filled with sweet potatoes for sale. That’s my indicator for autumn. Earlier in the summer, you’ll see them with watermelons and tomatoes. Maybe it’s because I like fall or maybe it’s just because I like sweet potatoes, but the sweet potato trucks always make me smile.

This is done in ink and watercolor. Lately I’ve enjoyed seeing other people’s ink sketch before the watercolor is added, so here’s my sweet potato before the watercolor was added.

Quick TV Sketching

2009-10-02T23:27:00.001-05:00

One of the things I do to practice quick sketches is sketch while watching Sunrise Earth or sometimes just any show on TV. Sometimes that’s as close as I get to watching TV. It forces me to work quickly and not agonize over details. Usually I just do ink sketches, but here’s a couple where I tried something different. Sometimes I’ll do little landscapes. Other times, I’ll sketch random bits and pieces.

The sketch above was done in watercolor pencil. It was a shoreline in Massachusetts or Maine, I forget which one. I like the sketch but the watercolor pencil didn’t work well for me. I found myself spending more time on it than I wanted. But then I don’t use watercolor pencils that often so maybe it’s just an experience thing.

Watercolor worked much better. I used my travel watercolor kit for the sketch above. I don’t have much time to think about colors or technique and sometimes I don’t get a chance to finish what I’m sketching. It’s a good change of pace from my usual sketching.

Just a Pepper

2009-09-13T23:33:00.001-05:00

“Just a Pepper” – Sydney Harper
4 x 5 inches, watercolor

I was looking for something quick to paint. Then I remembered that I had bought some peppers at the farmers markets the other day. It was perfect for a quick little watercolor. The paler yellow and green has a freshness about it that I like.

I have this big pack of small sample watercolor papers that I got from Daniel Smith years ago. Since the pack resurfaced recently, I’ll grab one of the sheets when I want to do a little watercolor sketch or practice painting. This time I grabbed a piece of hot press watercolor paper. For some reason, I’ve never tried hot press paper before. I think I like the hot press better. I’m not sure why I never tried it before. I may grab a few sheets of hot press the next time I buy paper.

Beautyberry

2009-09-07T00:00:00.001-05:00

Beautyberry by Sydney Harper
watercolor, 5 x 5 inches

I have an American Beautyberry bush in the backyard that’s one of my favorites. It’s an ordinary shrub for most of the summer with small flowers that aren’t very showy. This time of year is when it really shines. Right now it’s full of clusters of purple berries. Plus it’s practically indestructible. We have heavy clay soil and unusual weather patterns since I’ve planted it. One year it froze to the ground when we had a late spring hard freeze, but it sprouted back up. Plants have to be sturdy to survive in our yard.

I started this watercolor sketch outside one afternoon, got about halfway, and finished it inside. This summer has been crazy. Painting and drawing has come in fits and spurts. Things seem to be falling into a better routine now so I’m looking forward to more painting time.

Three Mockingbirds

2009-07-18T22:57:00.001-05:00

A little over a year ago I made a bunch of quick mockingbird sketches with the idea of a painting or drawing or something. You can see a few of them at the link in the previous sentence. Luckily I made lots of notes and stashed a couple of not so good reference photos. Plus if all else fails, we have plenty of mockingbirds around the house. That was the last I thought about it until last night. I grabbed my old sketchbook, a piece of charcoal paper and my Pitt pen set and started drawing. This is the end result.

Three Mockingbirds, 9 x 12 inches (8 x 10 inches displayed)
ink, gouache, and white charcoal on paper

I added a little bit of white gouache for the white feathers and a teeny tiny bit of white charcoal here and there. I love to watch mockingbirds running around the yard looking for food.

Watercolor Papers and Moonflowers

2009-07-13T18:27:00.001-05:00

Moonflower, watercolor, 5 x 5 inches

I’ve been painting the latest batch of small watercolors on some watercolor paper samples I have. Normally I prefer Arches 140 lb or 300 lb paper. It’s what I learned on and it takes a lot of punishment. Every time I try a sheet something else, I end up regretting it. Since I’ve been using these samples, though, I’ve found a few that I might try again.

Unfortunately the paper I used for this painting was not one of them. I lost the little identifying label so I don’t remember what it is, but hopefully I won’t run into it again. If you’re putting down multiple washes like I did here, it just doesn’t hold up. Pretty soon it starts bleeding and pilling. I ended up stopping before I planned to stop.

So if you’re just starting out with watercolor and having trouble, try some different papers. You might hate Arches and love some other paper. To me there’s a huge difference between watercolor papers. So don’t assume it’s you, it might be the paper.

In spite of the paper problems, there’s a lot I like this painting. I might try another version on a different paper one of these days. Moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) are one of my favorite flowers. They’re one of those remarkable flowers that blooms after the sun sets. They’re similar to morning glories except they’re white. The other remarkable thing about moonflowers is that hummingbird moths love them. I had never seen one in the yard until I planted moonflowers. They do look a lot like hummingbirds at first glance.

Rooftops in the Negative

2009-06-20T12:08:00.005-05:00

Watercolor, 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches

I’m still playing around with negative painting. I’ve always been fascinated with rooftops, so I decided to try some negative painting with rooftops. It’s very loosely based on one of my sketches, which is pretty darned loose too. Anyway I like the way this turned out. I’ll have to try some more of these. I might try it a little differently next time though.

This was one of those times that I had a huge ah-ha moment. I haven’t done that much watercolor and I’ve struggled to find a style of my own that I was happy with. But lately I’ve been working on Linda Kemp’s Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines, Jeanne Dobie’s Making Color Sing, and Stephen Quiller’s Color Choices. Even though Stephen Quiller’s book isn’t strictly watercolor, I saw the connection between all of them. I could feel my style mentally taking form. Now all I have to do is find a way to make it take the form of actual paintings. So it looks like more practice is in store.

Negative Painting

2009-06-09T23:30:00.003-05:00

Leaves, 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, watercolor

I bought Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines by Linda Kemp the other day. I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I got it. It’s only 125 pages but it’s chock full of information and exercises. She covers supplies, paint qualities, underpaintings, negative shapes of objects, how to paint negative shapes, and composition and planning. Even if I decided that I didn’t want to do any more negative painting, I would still get a lot out of this book. The underpainting section seemed a little early and misplaced to me, but she admits at the beginning of the section that she debated where to put it. There’s probably not a perfect place to put it.

If you do get Linda Kemp’s book, be sure to check out her free video lessons at Jerry’s Artarama. There are eight video lessons that coordinate with her book. There’s also a DVD of the book which I haven’t seen. The painting above is one of the exercises from the book. Doing the exercises has been worth it for me. It’s more difficult than it looks. Below is another little exercise from the book, creating landscapes with layers of watercolor washes.

Landscape, 5 x 5 1/2 inches, watercolor.

I’m about halfway through the book right now, so I’ll let you know my progress as I go along.

Virtual Sketch Date – May 2009

2009-05-31T01:18:00.001-05:00

14 x 11 inches, charcoal on paper

This month's reference for the Virtual Sketch Date was a photo of two sister's at a hoedown. I decided to focus on just one of the sisters. I also decided to do it in charcoal. It's been a while since I've used charcoal and I rarely do portraits. I ended up covered in charcoal so I must have had fun with it. I was nervous about it at first since I don’t often do portraits, but I’m kind of pleased with it, all things considered.

Sky Studies

2009-05-24T18:30:00.003-05:00

I was out of town at a conference, so I’m a little behind on posting these. Vivien Blackburn is having a sky challenge. I don’t get enough practice painting skies with watercolor so I took her up on the challenge. We’ve had lots of rain lately and I was afraid I would be painting mostly rainy overcast skies. But one day before I left, I decided to paint whether it rained all day or not. I did all of these from our front porch. Luckily, we had a bit of clearing and some nice changes during the day. It was good practice and by the end of the day, I had started to find my rhythm. I might have to make this a regular practice.

May 9 1PM, watercolor in Moleskine

At this point it was still gloomy and rainy but I could see a bit of clearing in the distance.

May 9 3PM, watercolor in Moleskine

Finally there’s a bit of a blue sky. I grabbed my sketch kit and rushed out to paint it.

May 9 6PM, watercolor in Moleskine

By late afternoon, there was a lovely, interesting sky with a nice sunset behind some dark clouds.

I’m hoping to get in a few more sky paintings. You can view all of the works of the sky challenge participants at Vivien Blackburn's blog.

Backup Sketchbooks

2009-05-03T19:24:00.002-05:00

The other day I wrote about my traveling sketch kit that goes almost everywhere with me. Sometimes I’m caught without my sketch kit when I want to get something down on paper or just fill up some time while I’m waiting. A while back someone mentioned buying a bunch of little notebooks and stashing them everywhere for jotting down ideas and notes. (I can’t remember who it was now. If you know, shout out in the comments.) It was such a good suggestion, I thought I would share it.

I ended up buying a pack of tiny spiral-bound notebooks (5 x 3 inches) at the dollar store. I put one in the car, one in my bag, and several more on desks and such. I use them all of the time now. I make tiny sketches. I draft out painting ideas and take notes of things I want to remember. If I need to write something down for someone else, it’s easy to rip out a page. I use them all of time when I’m talking to clients at work and need to make a quick note. The one in the car gets used all of the time for jotting down notes.

Here’s a couple of pages from two notebooks.

On the left is a sketch I did at the doctor’s office on an unusually busy day. On the right is a note of a color combination for a strong dark black (alizarin crimson, viridian green, phthalocyanine blue). I keep them in a ready available spot with a pencil or pen so there’s no searching around for a piece of paper and a pen. I don’t know how I managed without them.

Virtual Sketch Date: April 2009

2009-04-25T11:19:00.005-05:00

Rhododendron Bud
Watercolor, 7 x 5 inches

The reference for this month’s Virtual Sketch Date was a beautiful photo of a rhododendron bud provided by Jeanette Jobson. I decided to use watercolor and focus on the main rhododendron bud. I had fun doing this one. I would lay down a wash and then do some other things. Then I would come back and lay down another wash. So it was a relaxed, enjoyable painting.

See all of my Virtual Sketch Date posts.

Turtle Point Alabama

2009-04-21T21:35:00.003-05:00

Turtle Point is a country club along the Tennessee River in Killen, Alabama. I was there one dreary, misty morning for a baby shower. The river (and the country club grounds) was just beautiful so I walked around for a while taking pictures for use in paintings later.

Turtle Point
5 x 7 inches. Acrylic on painting board

This is a view up the river from the main country club building. I took some artistic liberties with the painting. In reality there is a boat dock and a small pier there. It was the rest of the view that interested me though.

There’s a lot that I like about this painting. This is another limited palette painting. Actually given a choice, I prefer limited palettes. If I have too many colors on my palette, I get caught up in the colors rather than the painting.

I’m still going through Stephen Quiller’s Color Choices. I had to smile at his comment at the beginning of Chapter 3. “I recommend doing many small studies before working large and going for your ‘masterpiece’! You can cover a lot more ground with a series of small examples rather than laboring over a large piece that, when finished, may or may not work.” I know I’m enjoying working on the small pieces and I don’t feel so bad when they flop.

Traveling Sketch Supplies

2009-04-10T16:18:00.002-05:00

I decided to participate in ProBlogger’s 31 Day Challenge to Build a Better Blog. I had to travel to a trade show and then got swamped trying to catch up, so I’m a few days behind. The challenge for day 2 was to write a list post. Since I just got back from traveling, I thought I would show you my traveling sketch supplies. In addition to sketching, I’ll also use my sketchbook for jotting down notes and saving pictures of things I like. I’m pretty easy going with my sketching supplies though. I grab whatever is available.

Paper - I have an inexpensive Cachet sketchbook and usually my Moleskine watercolor journal too. The Cachet sketchbook is a little more all purpose than the watercolor journal.
Paint – I have a small refillable Holbein travel watercolor kit and a water brush. I’ve had the Holbein kit for many years. Their current version is much fancier. Sometimes I’ll also carry a few cheap brushes.
Pens – Currently I’m carrying a set of black Zig Millennium pens plus a cheap ballpoint pen.
Pencils – I usually have several pencils – a soft one, a hard one and one of my favorite Ebony jet black pencils. I also have a click eraser, a kneaded eraser stored in a pill carrier, a paper stump, a sand paper pad, and a pencil sharpener.
Miscellaneous Supplies – The small ruler is for those times when I want to make sure I draw a straight line or just to measure something. Often I’ll cut out interesting items and paste them into my sketchbook so I take along scissors and a glue stick. I also take along a teeny tiny stapler and roll of tape, mostly because they’re so darn cute. But they have come in handy for meetings when someone needs a piece of tape or a staple.
Not shown – Sometimes I’ll also take along a small set of colored pencils or a small set of watercolor pencils.

That’s it! If I want to travel really light, I’ll just take my Cachet sketchbook, a pen, a pencil and a click eraser.

Virtual Sketch Date: March 2009

2009-03-28T12:12:00.004-05:00

Pencil and colored pencil, 7 x 10 inches

This time I decided to sketch for this month’s Virtual Sketch Date. Partly because I knew if I painted it, I would get caught up in the details. Also I was just in the mood to try something different. This was done in pencil with a little bit of colored pencil added in here and there. I had fun with this. It’s good to shake things up and try something different sometimes. You can view the work of other participating artists here and here.

Selling Art

Earlier this week I was at my day job, working on a customer’s computer on site. While I working on the computer, Rick was showing someone my art on Flickr. They mentioned how much they liked one particular painting. Now I’ve never made much of an effort to sell my art. It’s more of a mental roadblock than a conscious decision. A more alert person would have offered the painting to them for x number of dollars. After all, I can make more. Me, I just thanked them. Oh well, next time. For those of you who make a better effort to sell your art than I do, here’s a list of observations and suggestions from someone who recently spent some time buying art. I thought there was some good information in there.

See all of my Virtual Sketch Date posts.

Narcissus

2009-03-21T00:41:00.003-05:00

Acrylic on Daniel Smith painting board, 7 x 5 inches

We have a lovely patch of narcissus blooming in the yard right now. The daffodils came earlier, right before our last snow. I brought a bunch of them inside and there are still lots of blooms outside. This is the best that I’ve seen them. So I just had to do a quick painting. I had to keep reminding myself that this was supposed to be a quick painting, using up some leftover paint on my palette.

Just to show that you can make art with almost anything, I'll leave you with this Extreme Sheep Herding video.

Two Truffles

2009-03-15T20:10:00.004-05:00

Two Truffles
acrylic, 5 x 5 inches on Daniel Smith Painting Board

I had two dark chocolate truffles left over from Valentine’s Day, so I decided to paint them before I ate them. it’s an incentive to paint quickly. I painted it on some old Daniel Smith Painting Board I found the other day. I don’t even think they carry it anymore. It is stiff and slightly flexible with a surface texture much like watercolor paper and the thickness is similar to the heavier watercolor papers. The down side is that it’s brittle. I haven’t had any chip with normal use, although I suppose it would if you dropped it. It’s not that easy to cut though. Even with a straight edge, that last little bit tends to break off randomly. Otherwise, I like painting on it.

While I’m thinking about it, check out this video at the Digital Photography School. It’s about creativity and inspiration and lack of inspiration. The focus is on photography but I think all creative types can relate. The Digital Photography School is also a good place to learn about using your digital camera, whether you have SLR or a simple point and shoot camera.

Backyard Sunset

2009-03-08T10:20:00.002-05:00

Backyard Sunset
watercolor, 5 x 7 inches

We've had some beautiful sunsets lately. You have to be quick to catch them. When you do, for a few moments the western sky turns bright rosy orange. My only view from our backyard is through the trees and over the rooftops, but I love the bright colors filtering through the trees. I had to capture it.

I checked out Jeanne Dobie's book, Making Color Sing, from the library. It's worth it just for the sections on greens, grays, and glazing alone. But there's a wealth of information above this. There's a lot of good composition tips too. Sometimes the colors in the step-by-step demonstrations seem a bit off, at least in this copy, but you can still get the idea behind it. Overall an excellent book.

Finally, a couple of links before I go. For you Freelancers out there, FreelanceSwitch has an hourly rate calculator.

Roz at Roz Wound Up has been covering Journaling Superstitions and other Journaling tips lately. Here's the link to Journaling Superstitions #3 but scroll through her entries to find the rest.

Virtual Sketch Date, February: Lake Louise

2009-02-28T16:44:00.003-06:00

Lake Louise
8 x 10 inches, acrylic on canvas

This month's reference for the Virtual Sketch Date was a photo of Lake Louise, Canada was provided by Debbie Later. I decided to do this month's Virtual Sketch Date in acrylic. I tried not to get too caught up in all of the details in the rock layers. If I don't watch myself, I will. I had fun with this and learned a little in the process.

I visited Lake Louise many years ago. It's absolutely beautiful. It was spring when I visited. There's a trail that goes around the lake. At that time on the shady side of the lake, there was still some ice. Some of the ice was in little needle like pieces arranged vertically. When a breeze would come through, you could hear the little ice needles tinkling as they fell over.

See all of my Virtual Sketch Date posts.