Cay Denise

Sometimes 5-minute sketches don't look like they took a full five minutes.  This one may not look like it took five minutes, but it did.  Most of the time was spent drawing the hands and arms. I like the finished work.  The shading worked out nicely around the corseted part of the body, and I like the shading along the arms, shoulders and neck areas.  The tulle material of the skirt was drawn using dual lines to suggest folds in the fabric and that the fabric is light weight.  I think it is successful in doing that plus the bird works even though it is only outlined. If you do black and white sketching, do you ever think they would look better with color or do you think they are more impactful remaining black and white?

There is a wonderful exhibit underway in Folsom, California!  It is a presentation of art quilts (2D) by Deb Cashett and Kris Sazaki aka The Pixeladies, and 3D fiber art creations by Susan Else.  The exhibit can be seen through April 6th.    The mix of the two types of works (2D and 3D) complement one another very well.  The Pixeladies design and print the fabric used in their quilts digitally.  They tap headlines for the source of the words, phrases, names, and quotes, etc. that are used to create themed motion and form in their pieces as well as light and shadow to embellish certain elements. Susan Else does wonderful work in creating 3D figures, bones, furniture, structures, etc. Some of her pieces even have interior spaces while others may have motion or lighting.  She selects her fabric patterns carefully and for dramatic and suggestive effect, and she does a lot of hand-piecing in her works.   I highly recommend seeing this exhibit especially if you're a visual artist and are

These are practice pieces that have unusual perspective from the viewer's position.  The first has the viewer looking up at the face while the second has the viewer slightly looking down at the face (the latter face in the 3/4 position).   In the woman's face, I like her upward glance plus the glasses that also have some reflected light around the nose area (added with white Posca pen).  In the Munster effort, I love the eyes and really like the shape of the lips and its smile lines.  His chin should be longer, but the thickness of his neck comes across in spite of that.

This is recent sketchbook work that includes photos of the 5-minute initial sketches plus the finished work--after more time was taken.  Both were done with Muji pen, and pencil was added for shading.  I like the sense of translucent fabric around the face and body in the first finished image as well as the roses in the headpiece.  In the second finished piece, I like the squiggly lines used to abstractly imitate lace, and the shapes of the gloved hands Since I'm trying to focus on identifying my likes, weakness and dislikes are not included. When you look at your work, do you see both likes and dislikes?  Do you focus on one or the other?  If so, which one and why?  

For whatever reason, I seem to want to finish my 5-minutes sketches because they don't seem to 'be enough'.  I think the first 5-minute sketch below is fairly generic in that you would't necessarily know what the image is likely to be.  The other 5-minute sketch is different.  Most of what needs to be there to show body position and mood--is there.   Out of curiosity, do you think the first 5-minute sketch captures the 'essence' of what the finished piece looks like?  If not, what line(s) could have been added, subtracted or altered in order to do that?

It was a delight to attend an in-person book talk by Peggy Orenstein, author of 'Unraveling'.  The book is  about her during the pandemic to learn how to make yarn -- that included shearing a sheep, carding and spinning the wool, and dying the wool with natural ingredients (e.g. flowers, bark, etc.).  When done, she would knit a sweater with the colored yarns from all this work.  It was good discussion.  I was interested in the talk because of having been asked to illustrate a friend's poem that involves sheep shearing, carding wool, and knitting.  Now I have resources to check into as I learn about the process. Aside from the book talk, the entry fee included admission to the current museum exhibit which is a portion of the 2021 Quilt National pieces that are on tour.  There were some great pieces in it!  The exhibit is up through April 16th, and if you haven't seen it already--I recommend it.   These are images of just a few of the quilts on display.  I've chosen

More work...from 5-minute sketches to finished ones that have a combination of shadow, detail and patterning work.  The bottom piece in particular has a lot of patterning intended to create background texture without districting too much from the figure.  I learned a lot about how to use different kinds of marks to differentiate space, texture and decoration.  Another step in my sketchbook is to do a mark-making chart of using lines in varying gradations to see what their potential is. As for the recent work I've been doing with 5-minutes sketches, sometimes I like them and other times I don't.  Do you create 5-minute sketches?  If you do, do you like or learn from them, or both?  Do you take more time with 5-minute sketches to complete them?  Do you learn something by doing that and if so, what?  Or do you do it because you're uncomfortable with the unfinished versions?    

Wow...my second male sketch post this week!   This one was done on 110 lb. recycled paper with a Muji pen, pencil, and white Posca pen for embellishments.  It was an interesting effort because of how the sketch was done.  I usually start on the top right of the page doing that side of the face and continuing along the jawline and up the opposite side of the face.  What I did here was the top right down and around the right-side cheek, along the bottom of the nose, around the left-side cheek, and then up.  Then I think I did the lips, and was able to add some hair and beard hairs before my 5 minutes was over. In the finished sketch, I used a lot of cross-hatch lines to add different shadow intensities on the face, and then used pencil to complement and blend that work.  The Posca pen was mainly used for the beard and hair plus eye reflections. I'm liking him.  There is a sense of character captured in the face, and I even achieved a believable head tilt in it!

As you can see from past posts, I don't draw as many male images as female.  That said, this is my take on a Renaissance man. The image was drawn on 110 lb. recycled paper.  The 5-minute image was sketched with a Muji pen.  The other tools used in the finished piece include pencil and non water-soluble colored pencils.   This is the first time I've tried to draw fur, and the outcome is good at suggesting it. I like the lettering in the background that reminds me that I want to do more of this kind of lettering that was more frequiently used in very old paintings.  I'm also liking how the hat came out.      

Finding a married name I'd long misplaced, I searched for her.  That led to learning she had an additional name I hadn't known, a partner she may have divorced, children, and that she died many years ago.   Poem-making helps me express what I feel.  Right now, that feeling is loss...a fresh one to me, even though it is an old loss in age.  Her father, a lovely man, could probably not bear the loss of his only child.  He followed her the following year.  Another loss to mourn and be saddened that I didn't know of sooner.   Turning the pages of that found and tattered address book, there were more names of people who are gone, those I've lost touch with over the years, and those I don't know any longer and maybe really didn't know at all. I'm thinking of all those names representing separate branches of my personal tree of life, so-to-speak.  Some are strong and unfailing, others are growing stronger but groan or even break in blistering winds, others may be s

With a daily goal of doing three 5-minute sketches, most don't look done to me.  Some I leave as is while others I continue working on.  When continuing, I take a photo of the sketch at the 5-minute mark, and then use a stopwatch function to track the time it takes to complete.  These are my latest practice pieces showing the transformation from bones to done.   In the 5-minute sketches (left), most seem to capture an essence.  What do you think?             

The PSE 2 class is coming to a close while my head is full of information plus possibilities are brewing. Photoshop Elements is an amazing program!  For me, it has so much untapped capability that I'm only beginning to better understand and utilize. The Guided functions are very helpful (though not always intuitive) for doing basic and fun alterations to a single or multiple images.  For example, you can add frames around images, you can move a face in one image to another image, you can create text that has photos in the letters rather than colors (great thing for a trip scrapbook cover).   In the program itself, there are fun filters to play with to see how 'far out' you can push images.  Images may begin dull, but they can end up being unrecognizable and totally awesome!! Layers are the KEY to the program's capability.  The user's ability to use the platform to customize and uniquely alter photographs and other images really comes down to learning layers, how to

A recent article in the New York Times has a well-done quiz about four works of art and whether you can spot which parties were successful in their copyright infringement litigation.   From my read, it comes down to the transformative and true parodying nature of the works at issue when deciding cases under the 'fair use' doctrine.  For example, an author can't just revise a book, its illustrations, scene settings, or slightly alter the plot of an already published book protected by copyright law--and legally make money by selling the revision.   This article is helpful in learning more about the 'lay of the land' in terms of how copyright infringement law is viewed by the courts especially with how they define the concepts of parody in art works and the transformative nature of them through their rulings.     The article is a short read and can be accessed at this link (though you may need a subscription to view it): Link to New York Times Article

I haven't done one of these in some time and usually really like colorful ones.  But I had decided recently to use print-outs of one of my pen/pencil sketches in a mandala.  I knew I wanted dark around the edges to help those sketches pop.  The rest was unplanned.  Most of the paint used was leftover heavy-body acrylics from a palette used for another project, and the decorative part was done with Posca pens. Mindless creations are a form of relaxation -- especially when approached without worrying about the outcome. This is one of those kinds of pieces. What kind of creative work do you do for pure enjoyment with no goal in mind?