In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.
Proverbs 16:9
Sculptural Trees
Author: Carolyn A Pappas
Northampton Garden
I’ve been delving into my reference files and made the above drawing from the same scene that I drew in this drawing from 2009. I made the earlier drawing from life and added the watercolor at home. I find it very interesting how I approached my current drawing differently (more loose and imaginative).
Boston!
My dad and I went to Boston for the day yesterday. It was an absolutely beautiful and sunny day. Unfortunately, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is closed on Tuesdays, but we are planning a return trip. We visited MCPHS University, and then stayed around the Prudential Center and also went to see the Mapparium, which I had never seen or heard of before.
I also bought a new computer, the Asus Zenbook, and I am in the process of setting it up. I’m not loving Windows 8 so far and I am happy that my purchase came with a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it comes out.
Spinach Illustrations
The above images are three illustrations of spinach I made for Sow True Seed, an open-pollinated and heirloom garden seed company. I illustrated three varieties of spinach: America, Winter Giant, and Bloomsdale Longstanding (shown in that order), and these images will be printed on the seed packets. I had my choice of vegetables and I picked spinach because it is a personal favorite of mine and it reminds me of my Greek heritage.
The company sent me reference images to work from, and I also did a lot of image searches online while researching. In the end, I used my own props and made up the spinach from my own imagination. It was a huge challenge for me to work from imagination and I’m glad I took a shot at it. The ink work is a little different than what I do normally – I was going for a more heavy handed look, like a woodcut.
I am thinking of framing these together and hanging them in my kitchen. The packets won’t be sold until the start of next year, and I will post a picture when that time comes around.
Spring!
“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Today felt like a late January winter’s day with snow and wind, but over the past few weeks the snow mounds have gone down some and I can see grass on my lawn again. I am trusting that true spring weather is coming soon.
For the past few weeks I’ve been busy working on projects for other people, which I will post when they are finished. I’m looking forward to when they are complete and I will be able to make some things just for me again.
Testing some new paints
I splurged and bought a Winsor & Newton compact paint box and I took it for its first test drive today in my sketchbook, trying out different mixes and seeing how colors look when they are layered over other colors. The photo below was taken with my phone, and the colors don’t appear as vivid as in real life. I’m looking forward to painting some pink roses with the lovely pink peachy colors in this set. Overall, the palette seems very suited to the natureish type of things that I love to paint.
I also had a custom stamp made for myself (1 x 2 inches) which says: “From the Studio of Carolyn A Pappas.” I felt very official with a stamp with my name on it and I’m already thinking of some things to stamp up.
Here are some links I have come across recently which interested me and may interest you as well:
- Take a peek inside the sketchbooks of J.M.W. Turner. I love the urgency in his sketches.
- Danny Gregory is looking for people to email him their stories of their encounters with their personal monkey (inner negative voice).
- I read some interviews of designers/freelancers discussing money and how they manage it which I found very interesting. Read them here and here.
The Princess Box
I was planning on giving this to my daughter as a part of her Easter gift, but I decided to hold onto it and give it to her when she is a little older. She will be able to keep her necklaces and bracelets in it.
On a related note, artist Elsa Mora has been making and painting some custom sized boxes for her new home, which she wrote about here and here. I really enjoyed how she discussed how she constructed and waterproofed the boxes.
Gifts and Talents
Bonus Art Day
The blizzard we had yesterday turned out to be a blessing in disguise, an extra day off work and time to spend inking and watercoloring. I made the picture below, plus got a good chunk done on something else which is in progress. I had fun experimenting with the circular format (4 inch diameter) and now my little card is on its way in the mail as an after Christmas thank you note.
Back to the Drawing Board
After I posted my last wip which I was working on for the #twitterartexhibit, I sat down to paint the watercolor wash and had a horrible disappointment. Some kind of gel came out of the tape I used (frog tape) which gummed up my washes and ended up ruining the entire thing. I had to get rid of it entirely, which has happened to me before, but I was under a deadline and I felt under terrible pressure to redo it. Needless to say, I am going back to my trusty blue tape from now on!
I decided to do something completely different altogether in colored pencil. I had stopped working in colored pencil for some time because I was getting a tendinitis in my elbow area, but I worked on this slowly and with a gentle grip and didn’t run into that problem this time. I went back to a common theme: sunset (or in this case, dusk) on a lake.
Colored pencil never seems to scan or photograph well for me and I tried my best to adjust the colors in the image to match the original. The sky has a little more pink in it, but otherwise it is fairly close. I tried to keep a sketchy feel and I am happy with my efforts.
And now my little drawing is in the mail and on its way to Moss.