Carrasco Studio

Art Among Armadillos. Rooting Around for Mural Directions

A friend of mine since highschool has commissioned me to paint a 5'x9' mural in the entry of his new home in the Texas foothills.  Usually I paint on canvas and ship the painting out, but this time he said he wanted me to paint on site and install my "aura" as well as my mural.  Of course it sounds like fun.

And, after I finish, Phil will fly down and we'll take off for a trip with my best friend Norma (from San Angelo) to fabulous Big Bend....one of the wonders of the world, in my opinion.  If my friend, (I'll call him "A") wants to go, he can come too. We'll go at the end of October, so the weather should be perfect.

Anyhow, we are right at the beginning of the mural design process, and I thought some of my subscribers and Facebook friends might find it interesting.  In fact, I would love to hear comments and input. Please!

Here goes....................

 

Dear A.
For your 5'x9' entry mural, I have included 4 possible ROUGH designs to give me some direction in where you want to go. You mentioned that it would be fun to have an abstraction instead of the usual cattle grazing in bluebonnets mural...something different to "annoy people".  Love it.

So, instead of my usual initial pencil drawings, I did them in color, since you stated you wanted the design to be abstract, and color is so important in an abstraction.  Abstraction, to me, is  where nothing  recognizable as figurative....the painting is geometric or a loose color field with what we painters call "marks". The language of paint and color...value, color, texture and shape are paramount.  But, to a lot of people , abstraction can mean stylization, a loose sort of rendering or an impressionist approach. I present these beginning color sketches are to help me understand your vision and show me a direction for your mural. You should be able to  see how I  went from figurative to increasingly abstract. You can pick one or pick and choose...your wishes (with my input) are my command.

You sent me some photos of your house in the hill country near Austin, and some of your landscape...Texas natural with some of the flowers, the live oaks and the cedars.  I have been in Austin several times and loved it....it's freewheeling openess and mix of people and cultures, and the land, especially the land.  I was fascinated when a friend took me out to her acreage and we waded down her spring in the shade of the oaks and cedars....the ancient aquifer water dripping  down in trickles and falls from  the limestone ledges , the lush line of growth and creatures along the spring, the heat and the sound and presence of insects and birds.( Ack, the ticks!)

So, what I tried to include in your renderings....all except the last true abstract version.....(1) the spring and pools, (2) the rounded pillowy shapes of the live oaks and the cedars (especially striking to a Pacific Northwest native used to the sharp points of firs and hemlocks), (3) the purple blue of the blue bonnet wild flowers, (4) the stacked limestone ledges, and the (5)  hot blue of the sky and  (6) the glare of the Texas sun. And, of course, (7) some nymphs (except in the abstraction.)  De rigueur for a landscape. 

#1 is impressionist and loose, the next, #2 and #3, are more stylized, and #4, of course would be the abstraction.

When I asked you about the bodacious level of the nymphs, you said you wanted them not so defined.  A gleaming haunch seen through the water, a giggling girl leaning around a tree.  After all, your mother does visit, although I know your 102 yr. old mother. She is sharp as a tack,  has probably has seen it all and when it comes to actual seeing , doesn't see much at this point anyhow.

 Let me know your wishes, oh Tall Person among Cedars.  We'll come to a fabulous conclusion.  Hope to hear from you soon.  J

Do offer suggestions....we appreciate any feedback, viewers and friends, and remember, these are ROUGHS!

Attack of the Teen Aged Ducks

Ducks at Highpoint pond        ©  Jennifer M. Carrasco 1/21/10

The mallards born and raised on this pond since last spring are used to being fed, and while they don't really attack, they are very enthusiastic when they see people park themselves at the edge of the water.  " O boy", they exclaim in quacks, "bread on the water", and they churn over, with chevrons of reflected light in their wake.  If you feed them, fights and exclamations ensue.  Splashes, sparkles and honks.

A very pleasant evening in the late summer sun was spent with friends in the meadow, and later, on my front lawn with roses, hummingbirds and a sunset Tiepolo sky.  Thanks for coming!

For the stalwart who attempted the West Seattle bridge construction project and turned away in despair, I apologize for not reminding you about the hideous traffic.  In the years to come, we will again have a convenient connection to the mainland.  Just remember, if you plan to visit at this point, pack food, water and a sleeping bag.

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 7/21/10  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.

Hola! What lurks in yon grass?

I'm inviting you to join me on next Tuesday evening, July 20, 6-9 pm and spend some time painting and/or drawing in the meadow, next to the HighPoint pond and all the ducks, barn swallows, cedar waxwings, goldfinches, dragon flies and clovers and grasses, and reflections in the water and fresh air. And it's FREE.  It's accessible to everyone...nice level walks, sloping meadows and viewpoints everywhere.  Tame, safe, and very pretty.

One of my students, Engrid, mentioned to me that she was noticing all the different lovely shapes of the meadow grasses.....the bobbing plumes, the delicate patterns of the crisscrossing blades and stems.  Think about it.  Right in front of our eyes!  We must draw and paint them!  And bring your camera too....

 

Bring what you need for creating, composing or just getting composed, and come sit in the grass with me.  I won't be teaching or even talking, for that matter....just sitting in a peaceful little meadow in the middle of the city  with my watercolors and pen. 

The meadows of the PNW are miraculous to this very Eastern Washingtonian, (Pomeroy Washington in Garfield County, to be exact).  Not only are they lush and full of clovers and wildflowers, but THERE ARE NO RATTLESNAKES!

Let's say hello to summer....it's on the wane already and we'll need to fix it in our hearts to help us brave the rains of coming winter.  And, of course, if it does rain on the 2oth, all bets are off.

 And, by the way, whoever sent me that case of beer via FedEx (with no message).....A big thankyou!  Manna from heaven.  Who needs roses. (I have my own)

 

Watercolor Lesson 6, CandP Coffee House..Water, Reflections and Inspirations

Lesson 6  Water, Reflections and Inspirations CandP class.
 
Winslow Homer   Bermuda sloop

1.  Take a look at the Homer painting.....can you see the reflection AND the shadow.  Using color swatches from the paint store, see if you can match values and hues.

  John Singer Sargeant                                       Capri waters

John Singer Sargeant

John Singer Sargeant          Valdosta Stream

Show Sargent and Thulow water paintings....how do they do it. (I'm pretty sure that the Valdosta painting by Sargeant is an oil, but it could be a lovely watercolor as well....the man had staggering abilities).

START WITH A WASH first....drop in some warmer colors. 1. Many times, you need WAIT until dry before applying the next layer. 2. Do not scrub. 3. Start with a big brush.(I think these are the three main problems)..and show that a lot of white isn’t really white..can be too “jumpy”. Try toning all of paper down down with a pale wash first....LET DRY BEFORE APPLYING ANY MASKOID.

Thulow           Water Mill

2.  Demo wave examples.........show paintings....different types of marks...squiggly, subtle, choppy.....all of them have the attribute of being  more or less horizantal to the viewer. (HORIZON) (Varies, depending on the choppiness or  how the water is traveling...i.e, waterfalls, rapids, rollers and waves,  stormy weather at sea, etc.) Show smooth waves and more choppy.  Take a look at the Winslow Homer examples below.

3. Practice brush strokes.....rollers, smooth waves, choppy. patterns for warm up....then work on your own painting.

4. My heartfelt thanks to Brian Neher at http://www.portraitartist.com/neher (on Facebook) for his wonderful compendium of artists from the past.  Not only has his site been a wonderful source for teaching, but he has given artists a  huge compilation of inspiration and pleasure....I have spent hours looking at the examples he has selected for his albums.  Check out his site....and enjoy...and admire Brian's own work as a very accomplished painter and portraitist in his own right.

So Long for Awhile!  Paint in the Rain, Paint in the Sun....each mistake, each improvement moves you along. You have achieve Long Strides in the world of Watercolor.  Remember, make big shadows!   Your Admiring Teach.  JC

Water Reflections and Shadows Lesson 5, Watercolor

                                               Shojin Lake by Mount Fuji, 1934                                       Koitsu Tsuchiya  

No, alas, I did not do this lovely wood block print.  But I have stood on the shores of this lake. and one time when I took the bullet train from Iwakuni to Tokyo, an Australian business man sitting next to me swore that the CEO's of Sony and Panasonic lived in the clouds in the summit of Fuji.  " Economic Gods,"  he added in case I didn't catch the joke.

This print could drive you crazy if you give it much thought.  I mean, which came first, the mountain or the sailboat....in the reflection.   Not only is this a beautiful piece of art, but it also calls our attention to the surface, the horizontal plane of the water, and how objects are  reflected in long or short  narrow horizontal shapes on that plane.  And how did the sailboat end up sailing on top of the mountain, anyhow?

1.  Look at assignments.....compare light or dark with value strip.  Adding yellow?  (doesn’t brighten)...cobalts are lighter than pthalos,  some quinacridrones are lighter  than their bluish tones suggest.  Value= tone.

2. A reflection is not a shadow. A shadow appears as an absence of reflection...a whole shape in still water,
a broken shape in disturbed water (as with a reflction). A shadow will let you see below to an undefined or defined undersurface.               
4.  Hand out Patricia Seligman’s printout and discuss. Weak light, pale shadows, strong light, strong shadows.
“Shadows are cast away from the light. As long as there is light in the sky, the reflection of the tree will always come toward you.  The shadow, though is cast away from the light, only coming toward you if the tree is backlit.”  Patricial Seligman...How to Paint Water
5. Paint work on your waterscape and boat(s) or try painting the boat and shadow sample from P. Seligman’s book.. ...or a waterscape from one of my books.

6. Assignment: Read page 68 to 69.

And I spent a very pleasant hour, albeit a gray and rather damp one, doing some small gray and rather damp sketches of Elliot Bay and Seattle.  We were on Alki Point, and it was soooooo peaceful.  Our big thrills were the waves stirred up by ferry.  A couple of times I thought I was giving my precious Da Vinci brush to the fishes.

Summer's Lease , Lesson 4, CandP Coffee watercolor

To enhance the quality of the day... that is the highest of the arts...Henry Thoreau

Ollala Path                                                                               © Jennifer McCabe Carrasco 5/18/10

I really like the black and white version better...Lunar Black Watercolor Primatek, Daniel Smith.

Lesson 4   Watercolor values.

1. Reading ..37 to 38...French Style values...start light...add more and more glazes to painting.or drawing.  How many values do you see?  color?   Look at Tiepolo drawings.

 How can you glaze over a painting to  unify it and keep it from being too “jumpy”.  Best glazes...aureolin yellow, cobalt blue, and Rose madder genuine. (Look on page 37.  Look at glazes on pg. 37....where were they applied?

2.  Look at lunar black value studies,,,,can glaze over and over to get a deep black.  Now, match a color in the strip  to the value....squint!   poke hole in value strip. Show with black plexiglass.   Look at Mitch’s color chart.

Give out color chips. How would you make this color from primaries?  I am giving you 3 colors... and match them to your value strip and.reproduce the color using only your primaries.  Make sure the value is correct. Paper punch on their value strips so you can see without distractions.  Show me your colors before you go on to the next project.

3,  When you finish, look at your value study of your waterscape.  Is there anything you need to correct in the values?  Remember....usually, the sky is the lightest...then the water or the horizontal plane.  Then the slope, and elements in the vertical are often the darkest. But remember, even within the very darkest shapes, there are variations .

Ollala Path 1                                                                   © Jennifer McCabe Carrasco 5/18/10

4. Paint your waterscape.....working in 4 values of color in the broad shapes.  For example, if one shape is mostly the darkest value...then paint in that shape any color in that darkest value.  (Some colors have a wider value range than others...i.e.....blue or green or purple goes from the lightest value to a very dark  value.  Yellow goes from very light to medium dark before it chickens out and becomes something else.  In a very dark shape, yellow would not work.

Look at the yellow in this painting by John White Alexander.

With your own painting, don’t worry about “Real” or local color.....think about value and temperature....cool (recedes) hot (advances)Work large brush first....top to bottom, light to dark.

Assignment: Re-read 66 to 67 carefully.

Home on the Value Range. Drawing Lesson #4

 

Line  value drawing with cross hatching. 1981

Lesson 3  Drawing on the right side of the brain.

1.  Look at drawings...memory drawing of room and  Ed Koch....Shift?   Judy’s question...analytical? More analogy, relational, holistic.Suspension of time, no decoding speech, active without anxiety.When is the crisis time for young artists?   Look at drawings of Koch and have each student “explain”  their room drawings. 
 

Yeah, I know....this is an iris in my garden, not an ironweed....but the poem is so lovely and applies to iris as well...."profoundest violet", indeed.

Ironweed

By Robert Morgan

There is a shade of purple in
this flower near summer’s end that makes
you proud to be alive in such
a world, and thrilled to know the gift
of sight. It seems a color sent
from memory or dream. In fields,
along old trails, at pasture edge,
the ironweed bares its vivid tint,
profoundest violet, a note
from farthest star and deepest time,
the glow of sacred royalty
and timbre of eternity
right here beside a dried-up stream.

1.  Iris......modified contour line. Mark midlines on your paper view finder. Stare at my leaf and negative space until you see the shapes of the negative.  Hold up your viewfinder and do the same for the iris.  Try drawing the negative spaces (Right brain) instead of the iris.  Don’t tilt or move your head and arm.  Get comfortable first!

2. Again, draw your hand holding something on the plastic.Then cover a sheet of your notebook with charcoal and rub it in with a piece of paper towel to get a medium value tone..


3. Do hand exercise., pg. 106-110  Pick up some of the highlights with your eraser.  Darken some shadows with your charcoal.   Hand out Escher drawing....look at the shadows and highlights.

Assignment:  Read chapter 6.  Apply charcoal to your paper. Using the viewfinder (prop your paper viewfinder) over a complex vegetable like a radish with leaves, a tomatilla, or three green onions.  Let some of the veggie parts go off the edge of the view finder.  Draw and shade the veggie(s) like you did with  the hand exercise.

Have a flowery day.

Bearded Iris                                                                       ©Jennifer M. Carrasco 5/12/10                                         

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/17/09  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission

CandP Watercolor class #4 Green thoughts in a Green Shade

 Jerry drawing                                                                 ©Jennifer M. Carrasco  5/15/10

  Lunar Black Primatek watercolor paint (Daniel Smith)..washed on 300 lb. Arches.....then LIGHTLY, LIGHTLY apply some color watercolor glazes over the top.   Sort of like after Dorothy got whisked off to Oz.  Although, I think the black and white type of rendering with granulating paint  is quite chic.      

The best way to show depth is to have variation in values. The best way to learn this is to paint without color... (Tom Lynch) 

Jerry drawing                                                                 ©Jennifer M. Carrasco  5/15/10

Value does all the work and color gets all the glory. Unknown quote.

Lesson 3...Water color and Water.  The "Green Thoughts" is a quote from the poem, The Garden, byAndrew Marvel.

1.  Would people be interested in a coaching type watercolor class?
Look at waterfalls....lay them out and make suggestions. Show pictures again of my steps...then show Marsden Hartley's waterfall.  He just got in there and let 'er rip! Bold, direct and almost abstract.

Ask about pigments reading...stain glaze? Use for first wash...can lift only for a short while.Sedimentary, granulating and opaque.? Name a few...good for rocks!...let move, don’t overwork  Hand out pigment chart.
2.  Discuss frisket and maskoid  (show leaf frisket)  ...would suggest using old brush for liquid frisket, (rubbed in soap first) and applying that way.  Look again at brushes.....fan brush is not appropriate for watercolor.  When you scrub with something like a fan brush, it forces pigment into the paper where it dies, and because of the bristle shape you have no control in making marks.  It’s for blending with oils.

3. Brush movement...Show Homer..rounds and riggers are good for squiggles. Flats are good for sideways marks and chunks of color or value. (Show on example). Demo.  The flat 2D surface...it is a flat plane....the surface of the water!

4. Values....in landscapes and sea scapes.  Show Albala’s diagram of planes.  When the sun is shining, the sky is usually the lightest value, the water the next value, and vertical and slanted areas will be the darkest.  Show examples in Trevor Chamberlain’s book. (flop a tissue over the example so students can see)....then tell them to Squint!!!!  When a plane changes, the value changes. (show “bendable” strip of a single grey value...how it changes the value of the grey when the strip is bent into planes.).

5.  Make a four value watercolor strip.  Leave a moat between each value!

6. Flop tissue on your seascape and  the shapes you see....Exterior shapes...simple straight and curved lines. No minor details!  Draw some interior contour lines that describe the planes and curves of some of the shapes....a topography of sorts. Bend paper to show example. “Color” in the 4 values (show Mitch’s design) with your pencil and then do the same thing with lunar black on watercolor paper.

Assignment.....Re-read 36 and 37 of Jan Hart’s book.

-on painting a watercolour...
Make the best of an emergency. (John Singer Sargent) 

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 5/17/10  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission

Babbles and Torrents. Watercolor Lesson 3

Thanks again to Mitch Albala and his wonderful presentation.  His book is a jewel, and he is one of the best teachers I have ever had.  For the next 4 classes, we'll do a water reflection/landscape with exercises based on some of Mitch's exercises in his book, Landscape Painting. This book is one of Watson Guptil's top sellers, and is available from that company or through Amazon.com.  I can recommend it highly, no matter what media you are using.

In case you are wondering about the "old hands" and "dudes" business,  I am just substituting the terms for beginners and experienced painters.  It gives sort of a down home bunk house flavor to my discourse.  You know....southeastern Washington wheat farmer.

Lesson 3....Waterfall

Old hands Work fast and loose this time.   Don’t be afraid of being crude and direct. ! Use only your large brush!

Mix several dark value neutrals in your wells.  No paint straight from the tube!
Alizarin and viridian or blue green.  Pthalo or manganese blue and burnt umber, auroelin yellow and purple. Manganese blue and burnt sienna.

Plan the directions of your waterfall and apply a light value of one of your neutral mixes for each side of the waterfall with only your large brush. (1)

DON’T PAINT THE WATER ITSELF....the rush of white water is your paper left untouched. (1)

Add darker values of neutrals to your rocks with only your large brush while the lighter washes are still wet. Let them float and disperse out. (2 and 3)

 

 

With PALE cobalt blue washes, use the sides of your flats to mark out the lines in the water and go behind some of the waves and foam. (4)  Slip some  of that blue glaze over the farthest area of land and rocks as well....the glaze will unify the shapes and push it back.

(4) (continued)

Go back and forth, making your rocks darker where the light doesn’t hit and where it shows  the geologic directions.  Vary your rock sizes! When your cobalt marks on the water are dry enough, go over the farthest  part of the water fall with your big brush with another Pale glaze of cobalt or a mix of cobalt and a little violet to “push” it back in space. Big brush only.


Dudes......Show how to get secondary colors from primary, then tertiary.  1+1=2   2+1=3  (breakdown)  All three make a neutral.   Complements...opposite on the color wheel

Mix colors and  finish the “daisy”  Then, out of your primaries, mix a green fish, a purple fish and an orange fish.  (Don’t get opaque...paint with water, then drop in your secondary.  Now, mix a very dark color by mixing all the primaries together.  Paint lines on your fish...give it gills and eyes and fins.  What happens if the paint is still wet?

 

Assignment:  Old hands go online and find some photos and paintings of  water and reflections....it could be with boats, land, docks, etc.  Bring one you like to class.  I will have you design a water/ marine painting for a 1/4 sheet from this
 using some of the principles from Mitch’s book.  This will be a 4 class project.

Both Dudes and Old Hands read 18-37 of Jan Hart’s book.

Still waters run deep. Taking time to calm down...reflect.

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/17/09  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.

Drawing Lesson 1 The Path of a Pencil through Space and Time

"In Brazilian rivers, there exists a fish which sees with a two lensed eye, a kind of bifocal adjustment that permits the creature to examine the upper world of sunlight and air, which with the lower half of the lens, he can survey the watery depths in which he lives"....Loren Eisley

 

I like the idea of this creature as a metaphor for an artist, a creator who looks intently at the world and sees both the surface and the depths.  

I have decided to include both the present......the searchers in my class, their drawings and their presence,  and entries of my drawings and quotes I have placed in my journals. I also include a summation of each drawing lesson. 

I have 35 journals I have kept over about that many years...my mother, an inveterate writer, gave me my first journal and told me to fill it. Thirty-five years later, the first journal is a mess....the bindings are gone and all the pages are loose.  But I am so glad I have it, since I have forgotten so much.  It is a record of my past.  Time unbound.

 

I lived in the Philippines for 16 years.  the journal starts there when I was 36 years old.

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain....4/28/10

You will learn five basic skills...edges, spaces, relationships, light, whole....components to whole.  And format.......(show demonstration with rocks and frame.)

My hopes and expectations for the class....that you can learn to switch over to “see”mode. I hope you can make it to every class...it will have a great deal to do with your success.  Life happens, so I will put the lesson and the assignments on the blog....do access my blog after every class and do the assignments in a timely manner .  These assignments can’t be done at the last minute.  Like piano practice, put aside at least 20 minutes for each assignment in a quiet place...not to be disturbed, not in front of the TV.  One a day. Consider it meditation.

All drawing is the same...some is just more complex.  Anyone can learn to draw.  This class will not make you an artist: it will teach you a skill, quickly.  For example, you can be taught to ride a bike, but not to be a cyclist.
In this class I will teach you accuracy and segue, hopefully into more expressive drawing.

Discuss  Milton Glaser video.  Conscious looking..to understand the world. 

Draw and date in your sketchbook: ALWAYS SIGN AND DATE.

a. Your hand.......Draw quickly..
b. Your face (use mirror)
c. A person from memory.. Draw quickly....

Training the eye......Discuss and demo stereotypes, natural urge to hurry, to be “efficient), YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO DO BUT FOCUS AND DRAW. Don’t be anxious  We all start somewhere..

1. Read page 89 -92 Blind Contour drawing of hand......turn away from paper(taped), use soft pencil,  DON’T LIFT POINT,  Go Super Slow! Don’t look at paper.  Find an edge and follow it SLOWLY with your eye and pencil at the same time.

2.  Memory drawing...hold a live flower in your hand (not a daisey, please!)  Choose a fairly complex flower..  LOOK INTENTLY. TWO MINUTES, close eyes and see it in your head..   Hide it  and do a line drawing...don’t lift pencil.  Stop, fish out the flower, look intently for another two minutes. Hide and finish drawing.

3. Do a “semi-Blind”contour drawing of your hand, looking down at your paper only to change direction of your pencil line.  SLOWLY.  Don’t lift the point.  15 minutes 

Assignment.  Chapter 2 and 3

Do a “semi” blind contour drawing of: 1.  a crumpled piece of typing paper.  2. a set of keys   3. a twig with a leaf or flower attached  4. a dandelion or an alley weed.  Spend at least 15 minutes drawing the object....Don’t try to draw all of these projects at the last minute. (Defeats the purpose! )

Remember, take the time, make the time, to do these drawings when you can close out the demands of the world.  Fall into your drawing and your subject. Become the dancer and the dance.

".....great footed blossomer, are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,  How can we know the dancer from the dance?"

  W.B. Yeats        

©Jennifer M. Carrasco 9/17/09  All blog entries on this site, visual or intellectual, are the property of Jennifer M. Carrasco (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reproduced or used without her written permission.