ArtiphyTheHeart

Working Deep

I have a gift.  You may think it has to do with artwork, and you'd be right.  But art is only the vehicle.  My gift is helping others retrieve and decipher their own personal symbols, and helping them display them. These symbols are like breadcrumbs.  The kind of breadcrumbs that are left in fairy tales which lead the way back home.  Home to authenticity.  So I spend a lot of time with my own symbols, and with others who do this deep work.  Right now, I'm digging deep into Extreme Journalism with Juliana Coles in her Altered States class.  

   

 I won't explain these pages.  It would take too long, and they have meaning for me only.  If you see something in them that you recognize, that message would be for you, not for me.  

Just as it is easier to build a house when you have the right tools, art as communication is easier and more effective when you can reach into your bag of acquired skills and pick out what you need on the spot.  I spend lots of time working hard and playing hard to hone my skills in every medium possible.  

Drawing everything in sight is a good, daily habit.  With a time limit, no erasing.  Use a dedicated sketchbook.  It's good for the eyes.  

Learning to see is the mother of all skills and this skill comes with drawing.  Everyone is good at it and no one is good at it.  That's the beauty of learning to see as an artist sees.  What's good is that you develop it.  What's bad is not trying.  Other than that, there are no goods or bads.  Drawing is a tool, not a value.  Tools are neither good nor bad.  They are useful.  My advice is to keep as many on hand as you can.  Keep them clean and sharp.  

As for this particular drawing, do you see the bottom of the Liquitex gesso bottle?  See how flat it is?  That's a trick our minds play on us.  Our minds tend to flatten objects where the base sits on a table.  Try drawing a coffee mug.  You really have to look twice, or more, to get that you've flattened the bottom of the cup when it's really curved, just like the top.  It's the table that is flat. The mind filters out a lot of what the eye sees so it won't be bombarded with more information than it can handle at one time. Consequently, where cup meets table, the mind says flat.  But look again, because what's really there is a curve.  Now look at the masking tape.  See the curve?  When you learn to see with your eyes and not your mind, you draw the curve.

Crayon 101

It doesn't take long for a room of mixed media artists to start discussing the stuff we use.  Probably because as process artists, everything that exists is a potential tool.  Some tools seem to work their way into discussions more frequently than others.  Crayons definitely fall into this category, so here's my two cents worth.   It's all information, so feel free to pass this post along if you think it might be helpful.  

I've been using both oil pastels and water soluble pastels for a long time.  Like most people, I thought the terms "oil soluble" and "water soluble" were the dividing line, and that's what I was told in art school.  But there's much more to it.   

 

 Above is a pic of a one of the less expensive brands of oil pastel.  To get these to work, think of them as oil paint sticks, and blend them with linseed oil, terpenoid, mineral oil or even baby oil.  I like working in oil media, but these crayons have never dissolved into the creamy paste that is so desireable, so I use them only on top of other oil media when I want a dry crayon look.  I almost never use them alone, and can't get them to blend as well as I'd like them to.  Alternatively, Caran D'Ache makes a beautiful, highly pigmented oil soluble oil pastel.  If you want the cadillac of oil sticks, that's what I'd suggest.  No pics of those here, but I'm sure you can find one if you Google it.

 

 

Here's a look (above) at two of the more popular brands of water soluble crayons.  The top picture is Portfolio brand.  As the box indicates, the crayons are oil based, but soluble in water.  They are creamy and blend beautifully.  I use these on top of oil media, or on top of fully dried water media, knowing that it could take up to three months--sometimes longer--for the oils in the pigment to completely dry. I generally keep them away from art journals and other books, although I've heard of people who use them in books and say they've had success with it.  I haven't.

Underneath the Portfolio box is a tin of Caran D'Ache NeoColor II water soluble crayons.  As the tin states, these are water soluble wax crayons.  They are beautifully pigmented, creamy, spreadable with water, and they are wax.  But what many people don't realize is that while the NeoColor II series are water soluble wax, they also contain oil.  So you must take this into consideration when choosing how you will use them.  

 

 

The skinny crayons in the pic above are individual Caran D'Ache NeoColor II sticks.  These are usually what people think of when the subject of Caran D'Ache water soluble crayons comes up.  But Caran D'Ache also makes the more expensive per crayon and harder to find NeoArt water soluble wax crayons.  The chunky 4 pictured above are the NeoArts.  These are the creme de la creme for art journalists and mixed media artists who require a water soluble crayon containing only wax and no oil whatsoever.  In addition, these are the most highly pigmented of all the crayons and outlast the others exponentially.  

And then there's Crayola.  Don't scoff.  In my opinion, Crayola school crayons are one of the best sources of pigmented wax resist drawing implements available!  You can apply them heavily and spread them with a hot iron (Careful! There are special tools for this), or melt chunks of them and spread them around like pigmented encaustic.  You can use them as a resist and then remove the wax with and iron and pressing paper (Careful!  Learn how to do this safely and properly before you try it).  I know fiber artists who color with school crayons on 400 thread ct. fabric and heat set it to make it washable.  I suppose if you're not afraid of burning down the house, you could try heat setting them on paper.  I've tried, but never done this successfully.  They continue to rub-off.  That's something you'd want to keep in mind, especially when working in an art journal.  I usually don't use them in books, and when I do they're not part of the top layer.

For more information on what seems to work with what, see Kelly Kilmer's list of personal favorites. Kelly's also a fan of the chunky NeoArt crayons, and I owe her a big thank you for convincing Debbie at Frenzy to carry them individually as open stock.  As far as I know, Frenzy is the only place you can get them in the metro-Phoenix area since our local art supply stores stock only the Neo IIs.  There a couple of places that sell them in sets online. They are not inexpensive, but because they are so highly pigmented and last so long, they may be the best buy if you use them often.