1) "The Hoarder" (scan), ink on paper, 30cm (H) x 21cm (W)
2) "The Hoarder" (photo, click to view detail), ink on paper, 30cm (H) x 21cm (W)
After much thoughts, I decided to post "The Hoarder".
Reason why I felt (still feel) reluctant was that I didn't feel comfortable about the yellow of the starfish. It wasn't what I wanted. But because of the "lightfast" quality of ink, I had a hard time to maintain one tone of yellow in one smooth application.
My original idea is to have a rather light yellow on the body of the starfish. But with such fast drying medium, I kept leaving streaks of light yellow color. Then I began to apply more yellow to cover up the "streaks" which lead to the present yellow.
The problem of color streak is less obvious if I'm using darker tone of a color. Anytime I dilute the ink to create a kind of watercolor effect or simply want a lighter shade of a color, the streaks show up. This is driving me nuts and I can't seem to avoid it. (BTW, my fellow creatives, do you know how I can avoid streaks while coloring?)
Anyway, by avoiding to look at the drawing for a couple of days then returned to look at it again, I found it less "disagreeable". I also reminded myself that I'm still learning my craft. It is o.k. to produce "not good enough" artwork. And that 368 (yes, I counted it!) light bulbs are a real labor of love. I owe it to myself to show this drawing!
As usual, I'd like to hear of your comments. Thanks!
NOTE:
- The use of yellow is to follow a prompt of a project which requires drawings to be done relying heavily on one color.
- 1st pix: This is the scanned version of the drawing which shows a more accurate color representation from the original.
- 2nd pix: This is taken by digital camera. The color is less vibrant (due to my lack of skill to take decent photos) but the details (i.e. shading) on the light bulbs are clearer.
I'll need to find a better way(s)? to display my drawings ... hmmm ...
24 comments:
I love how your mind works! These pieces are just so intriguing and I envy you the patience it must have taken to draw and colour all those lightbulbs! It's wonderful, so pleased you shared it.
PS - nice to see your pic!
Amazing, another magical drawing. Sometimes things happen that are happy accidents and although we are not getting the look we want, the look we do get can be more interesting. I am so happy that you shared this picture even though you didn't think it was "perfect". It made me smile and made my morning.
#68 lightbulbs? That really is a labor of love. I'm glad you decided to post it - it's wonderful!
I love the title - I can just see that little starfish storing up lightbulbs! It is so delicate.I am glad you shared it.
Thanks for stopping by - it was good to hear from you.
Take care.
i think it if fun! I want to know the story behind why the starfish is hoarding lightbulbs! de-LIGHT-ful!!
Does that adorable starfish need more light in his life?
Your work is so wonderful!! I LOVE it! Your starfish are immensely charming!
I'm very impressed you managed to keep the red and yellow from running together, I would never have noticed that the yellow wasn't perfect if you hadn't mentioned it (and I still can't tell.)
(P.S. I'm looking forward to seeing your tree - will the starfish be visiting?)
I love your drawings. Very whimsical, the rose thief is delightful! I don't see any problem with streaking.
"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity." [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]
A lovely depiction - Cheers!
I love your drawings. I've had a look through your recent posts, too. Can't help you with the streaks, I'm afraid, because drawing REALLY isn't one of my skills, but I love your simple, elegant style. Thanks for your lovely comment on my blog.
Janice.
Thank you for your comment and for letting me find your blog. I really like your work. Very interesting and pretty. You are right. 368 light bulbs is a labor of love. :)
I love the way you use starfish in so many different ways, and I especially like the one titled Hostage in blue below.
So nice to find you and thank you for commenting on my humble blog! I look at your art and am blown away! "Not good enough" artwork? I know about THAT! A huge act of being Fearless (my word for the year) is to just put it out there ... yes, we are learning through our art and if it all were perfection then it would be lacking some grit and substance. Having said that, your piece is wonderful! And yes, 368 light bulbs demonstrates love, persistence, and dedication to your craft. I look forward to seeing more magic from your pen ...
I think this is a very interesting art piece, I love the sunny, happy colors. I'm glad that you decided to share it.
Thank you for visiting my blog :D
Love your little starfishes. What a great painting.
If you still wanted to make the starfish lighter, could you go over it with a slightly opaque white or cream? Sometimes, I think the mistakes we make can lead to the most creative solutions.
How to keep streaks from happening? I think if you wet the entire field that you want to have colored, and then keep a very saturated brush, working quickly, go back and forth over the field with your brush, overlapping paint slightly.
Oh yeah, and keep your paper tilted so the excess water can run down instead of pooling. Use a squeezed dry brush to pick up the pooling water at the end, but make sure to touch the pool very lightly, so you don't remove color from the paper.
This is what you do for watercolor, anyway, and I'm assuming it would work for any very liquid transparent medium that dries quickly.
Hi Everyone,
Thank you soooo much for all your loving support to my art pursuit! You gals keep me going! :D
Here's to making "not good enough" art work! So many things can evolve as from that willingness to not be perfect...I love your experiments with pen, ink, and brush. And there is an underlying sense of humor that is wonderful Thanks for stopping my blog!
Thank you for stopping by my blog for a visit and leaving such wonderful words. Your art is beautiful, I love the 'yellow' art work. It's so bright and cheerful, yet intriguing at the same time. What can usually be 'not good enough'; is usually the best art we do! Thank you for sharing your talent with us.
Drawing the pile of light bulbs must have taken a lot of time plus patience... nice drawing!
Good for you for posting even though you didn't think it was perfect. I love yellow and was immediatly drawn to your color scheme.
I thought you might like to check out this blog http://valentinaramos.blogspot.com
I think it will inspire you. Take care.
Beautiful work! I think it's fabulous...perhaps sometimes you have to step back and look at it from a different perspective - another day! Sometimes we get so into our work it's easy to get lost in the details. Maybe the difficulties you had led you to something cool anyway? However, I would like to know how you get rid of streaks as well though...hehe...I've always had trouble controlling brush strokes and such...
Hoarder...I went right past the color, and connected to the idea of "hoarder"...I feel that "hoarding" in my life...and the life of my family!
Will return, to learn more:)
I love the composition of this, again lots of nice white space, and its not symmetrical, so your eye travels around the page, ending on the hoard.
Pointing out what you dont like about something will only make us look at it, but your inner trials are fascinating to read.
Wetting the area first on the watercolour paper will dilute water colour paint, not sure about ink. Using blotting paper over the top, would lift some pigment but only while wet, and might spread it out too.
Enjoy the break. Are you going to write stories again??
Hi Hybrid J,
Great imagery! I like how your design divides the paper...and LOVE the surrealism. Makes me wonder! Thanks for stopping by my blog!
I love it!
It's so vibrant and best of all FUN.
I think it's great you posted it despite feeling it wasn't 'perfect'.
That inner critic voice can hold us back from sharing and I'm glad you didn't let it :)
I just was doodling starfish 2 days ago and love the synchronicity of finding your blog today with this starfish picture!
Thank you for your kind comment on my blog.
☺
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