Saturday, April 30, 2011

Zucchini Mufffin

 All done.

(click on it to see it bigger)


This was fun. Tedious, but fun. All Polychromos on Stonehenge. No solvents. Its about 4 x 11 on a slightly larger piece of paper. So pretty much life size.

I'm not sure what to call this type of subject and style. I posted this question on Facebook the other day and got some fun suggestions! Its botanical + architectural (since it shows a top, or plan view; side or elevation; and a cross-section), + gastronomical, because its food. Right? So I was doing creative combinations like gastrobotanitectural, archibotanomical, etc. Those are a mouthful. Maybe I don't need to call it anything. But it would be fun say "Paula does these botanitectural food pieces" - or something. Suggestions welcome!!


One thing I have learned doing these is to keep the light source consistent - or else. Like, if you start the piece in natural daylight, that's how you need to complete it. When the light fades and you turn on the studio lights, WHAMO!, it looks totally different. This makes it difficult to do a marathon drawing session, or to work on a seriously overcast day, when you need to turn lights on.



The other thing to watch out for is crumbs!! Little bits fall off and can leave an oily stain if left sitting on the paper for too long, so beware, and brush often (the drawing, that is).



Another pesky thing are flies. Bleah. I had one in the studio, and although he didn't land on this, there will be other muffins and other flies. Especially as the weather warms up.




I worked on this over a couple of days, and when I stopped for the night, I carefully covered the muffin (on its little display stand - a coffee mug) with a Ziplock plastic bag. That kept critters off of it and also kept it from getting dried out.

Oh, and I did end up using green, after all. Zucchini bits are green. Green is fine in food if its actually supposed to be green. Last post I was saying how green wasn't a good color for food (mold, you know). Unless you're drawing mold on purpose. (Hmmmm, is that the seed of an idea?)

Anyway. I'll be doing more of these. But I've been neglecting my children's book side while this 'fine art side' has been having its day, so I'll be doing more of that now for a while.

Friday, April 29, 2011

not crackers or an onion

This is what's on the board.


It will make more sense when I do the other 'views'.
Its colored pencil, and drawn from life. All Polychromos, on Stonehenge.

Have read all my new botanical art books and am inspired. Interesting that they all recommend Polychromos, mostly, for colored pencil work. They all give a list of recommended colors for doing plants, but of course they don't apply to doing food. Green too often equals mold in a food picture, and we can't have that. Also, Ann Swan does a lot of shading with greys to build up the values, and there again, I don't feel grey is a good choice for food. So am rewriting the book, so to speak, for doing food.

Oh - this is a zucchini muffin, in case you were wondering. And there are a good 10 colors or so in there so far. Can't do too much more to it, but knowing me, I'll try to fiddle some. I picked a challenge, for sure.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Old Onion

This poor onion was sitting in a tureen on the kitchen counter along with others, waiting to be diced into a spaghetti sauce or maybe something a little more exciting. While its friends were content to keep waiting, this one gave it up and started to 'go funny'.

What fascinates me is how part of it is dying, while at the same time its shooting new life out of its head.

And so I had to draw it.


This was done with Polychromos and graphite, on illustration board. Its about 6 x 8 inches.

An interesting challenge was to get it drawn before it changed too much! This puppy GREW right before my eyes, I swear. I'd work on it, then go do something else for a few hours, and come back to find it had morphed into a slightly different creature. Just enough to make me wonder if it was just me. (Like, back in school, when we had an unsuccessful figure drawing, we'd say "but the model moved!") The same was true here - but it really did move!



Using graphite to do the 'peels' seemed like a good choice. I didn't feel like rendering them, and also felt like they'd detract from the rest of the piece. The 'story' was in the onion itself and the shoots.

And I had to get a 'square' in there somewhere. That's my 'thing' now I guess. I love square shapes. So if the art itself isn't square, there will be something square in it. You heard it here first.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Easter

Here are two wildly different Eastery images to at least acknowledge the holiday. Neither is new, but its the best I can do.

This was a card for NobleWorks a while back. I actually re-purposed the image from another larger illustration I did, adding the grass and a few other Eastery touches.




And this mango just looked like an Easter egg to me, so I kept going with the colors and took it all the way.
Its colored pencil on illustration board.



I boiled eggs today and am starting to put my baskets together.
Hope you all have a nice holiday (if you celebrate it). Otherwise, have a happy weekend!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Working on a commission I'm not at liberty to show, so meanwhile, I'll show you other stuff ~

I received my order of botanical art books - whee! Can't WAIT to sit with these and gorge myself on the beautiful art within.



I have some framed art that I'm a) trying to photograph properly to sell and b) trying to decide whether to redo the backing on or not. These are framed prints that were selling in a shop here (which has closed), and the backs are not sealed up with paper, ala gallery framing. They were purposely done that way, since people sometimes wanted to switch out a print to put it in a different frame. I'm trying to decide whether to upgrade that, or leave them as is, before putting them up in the etsy shop. "As is" would fetch a lower price, so methinks that might be the safest way to go. Still mulling.






I also joined and uploaded some art to Fine Art America. I love the stretched canvas option they have.



Have also been fiddling with my online shops and am updating my whole shopping page, so lots of 'behind the scenes' stuff going on. I did list the originals of the cracker drawings for sale (unframed) if you're interested. The frames I had ordered that I thought would be perfect for them, aren't (grrrrr...), so they're going solo.

And for now, its back to the drawing board for me ~

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Cinnamon Graham

Another one finished. All Prismas, 8 x 8 inches.



These are the 4 in the series that look best together I think.



I'm going to do some prints, and will frame the originals.

I just picked up some framed art and prints and cards that I had in a shop here that has, sadly, closed. Another victim of the bad economy. Sigh. So I may put them up in my etsy shop. Some have fancy frames, ooh la la. I will share pics when I do.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying Spring, and all that's blooming in my yard - jasmine, lilacs, irises, azaleas, daisies and roses. Ahhhhhh.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Cheese and Graham

The cheese cracker is finished ~



and a graham cracker is in progress.


I'm purposely using generic brands of crackers for these. So the cheese cracker isn't a Cheez-It, the round butter cracker is not a Ritz, etc. I'm keeping my options open in case I ever have the opportunity to draw something for one of the major brands.

These generic cinnamon grahams have a slightly different 'finish' than the ones I'm used to, and although they have a 'break' scored down the middle, they don't break nicely (I had to break several, and then of course eat them, before I figured out I wasn't going to get a nice clean edge.) So I just went with it, and did one broken.

I'm exited about an idea I have of doing larger pieces, sort of botanical and sort of architectural, combined. I've had it incubating for a while, and think its time I just started. I've just ordered some botanical illustration books - by Ann Swan, Wendy Hollender and Rosie Martin. (I intended to just order the Ann Swan book, then Amazon had a "frequently bought together" link with the others, so I got them all, and got free shipping as well!) So can't wait to get those.

Meanwhile, back to the graham cracker ...

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Tip for working on thick board, and more crackers

Here's a little something I like to do when working on thick paper or board - in this case, really really thick (not sure what the ply is - 10?) illustration board ~




I take a piece of the same illustration board I'm doing the art on, and make a window the size (plus a hair) of what I'm working on. In this case, the window is 8 x 8, plus a little bit, just so its not super tight. This way, I can rest my hand on the surrounding surface comfortably, and don't have that annoying 'edge' always getting in the way. I HATE THAT. It doesn't take much to annoy me, so anything I can do to make things nicer, the better.


This system also keeps one from having to hold the edge of the board, and is nifty when one wants to color all the way to the edges. With these, even though the illustration board is white, I'm still doing a layer of white Polychromo on the background to give it the same texture as the rest of the piece. Fussy, I know.

This is a cheese cracker, in progress.

And here below is a finished toasted sesame cracker (you may have already seen it, since I put it on Facebook the other day.)



The frames arrived today. Why, when they say "whitewashed", are they not actually whitewashed? I suppose that description is open to interpretation. The picture on the website looked 'whiter'. Ah, well. I'll frame up a couple and see how they look. Maybe they'll be fine.


Saturday, April 09, 2011

2 Saltines and a Buttery Round

I've finished the first of the crackers.

Last time I posted a wip of this, which had the start of a background color. Once I did that, I couldn't change my mind. I continued on, and the darker I got with the background, the more color I had to put into the cracker itself. I took it as far as I wanted to, then started over on a fresh one, with no background. I decided I liked the really subtle colors in the cracker, and that a plain white background worked better. So this is the "tarted up" version, and the second one is her plainer sister.






Then I moved onto a "round butter cracker" (a generic version of a Ritz).




I'm purposely having them 'float', rather than have them resting on something, with a shadow. I like the formal portrait presentation of things. These are 8 x 8 inches (the image is actually more like 6 inches, floating in an 8 x 8 space, to allow for framing overlap).

I will do a graham, an oyster, and I have an assortment of fancier ones to choose from. Maybe I'll do a rye crisp too. The possibilities are endless. I may move on to cookies or English biscuits. Whichever way I go, I'll be into this for a while.

Haven't received the frames I ordered yet - anxious to see how these look framed. Its another reason I went with the white backgrounds - the frames are white washed, and I imagined these looking good in a pale frame, as a set. We'll see.


Sunday, April 03, 2011

WIP- colored pencil, cracker

I'm starting a new little series of colored pencil pieces. Crackers. This is a humble Saltine.




These will all be 8 x 8 inches. So far its Prismacolors, and is on Strathmore archival illustration board.

I said a while back that I wanted to do a "Pantry" series. And I think this may be how I do it. Cataloging, one thing at a time, things that might be in a pantry. For now, anyway. I may get more ambitious with it later.

I love the square format, and love doing single objects in a straight forward kind of way. I also like the architectural qualities of crackers, with their evenly space little holes and perforated edges. They're obviously stamped out by a machine to all be alike, yet they're not. They're all individuals and have imperfections. The salt crystals are different on each one as well.

I just ordered some square frames, and am hoping they will work with these new pieces. They are white-washed, so I wanted to do some art that would work, colorwise, with those. And I thought they'd be good pieces to have hanging in a kitchen.

So that's it for now. I'm planning to do at least 4 of these, and will have to decide whether to offer them individually, or as a set. But first things first - finishing the first one!

So that's it for now. Back to the board.