Bear with me a bit more as I drone on and on about process.
I’m notorious for drawing the same shapes over and over all while using the same color palette (warm red, orange, yellow, pinks). I still haven’t figured out why though, except, I think this is another of my “do it for the process” things. You’ll see the results of my habit all over this website thanks to my savvy and brilliant web designer, Jenny.
I started in 2017 with acrylic gouache, taking a pattern class given by Lisa Congdon, but then discovered the beauty of watercolor and watercolor gouache and took a five-year detour playing with watercolor, sloshing my brushes into water cups.
In 2023, I’m moving back to acrylic gouache, just for the opaque quality of the colors and because of this amazing book:
I’m also going to try and branch out a bit, back to practicing Lisa Congdon’s pattern class, just to challenge myself to learn more techniques. I’m excited to paint more with acrylic gouache.
I want to add backgrounds to my little shape drawings. I keep admiring the abstract artists who don’t choose to paint on a neutral background, but with dark and rich backgrounds, similar to August Wren and Zoe Ingram (the author of the OH MY GOAUCHE book above).
I am doing it for the process but will try to update you all as I go! It’s going to look a little different than the shapes I do now. I’m a little bit scared!
Do you do anything “for the process”? Would love to hear about it!
I do calligraphy for the experience of personal expression in the rhythm and flow of letter shapes, as dancers project themselves in the rhythm and pattern of the dance and music. I select colours, style, and adapt shapes and techniques; feel the pliant nib bounding and gliding over silky smooth paper, and watch the watercolour and gouache blend when I use them instead of ink and respond to the text. Or use letters and words as elements of pattern and design. I’ve been told children can’t read cursive or calligraphy, but I still create pages of imagined books. And I do gold leaf illumination that will never photograph or print to look like the real thing. I smile every time I burnish gold to a mirror finish. I can imagine your lovely surface designs as a background, like modernised versions of the medieval diaper designs painted behind capital letters.
I’ve enjoyed playing with cut and torn paper, too, and will rip into more sometime. I really don’t know why I took my first three pictures ever to a conference, but I think it was mainly to say to my friends who’d be there, ‘This is fun – you might try it and I’d love to see what you produce!’…but a publisher saw them and said, send me a dummy of the story, and I didn’t say, ‘No’. I’ve never created a dummy or illustrated a book. What was I thinking, taking them along?! A whole book? I guess I’ll make an attempt, but I’d be absolutely thrilled for someone else to illustrate the story. The pictures were just a celebration of the satisfaction derived from the process.
I love this! Way to go! It felt very satisfying to read your process.