2024 #30×30 Day 06
10×10″ Oil on Panel.
“Ug. So much green.”
“There’s a rare green pigment made by scraping verdigris from Shang vessels.”
“What? That’s bullshit.”
2024 #30×30 Day 05
10×10″, Oil on Panel
“What if,” he asked, “there was an island where dreams came true?”
She laughed through her nose and bit her thumb. “Make sure you’re alone out there.”
2024 #30×30 Day 04 : Spit vs. Isthmus
“In summary, a spit,” he said, with a finger pressed to the bridge of his glasses, and growing worry that his audience was drifting away, “is a projecting depositional feature; whereas an isthmus is a strip of land connecting two larger landmasses.”
10×10″ Oil on Panel
10×10″, Oil on Panel, Title: “Just try to leave a thought unthought,” he said. “Can’t do it, can you?”
For a long time I didn’t believe in titling work. I thought perhaps, it was even a bit pretentious. But of course, I was doing mostly plein-air(e) work and that can just have location for the title.
I think, as a student, as an urban sketcher, and later a teacher, my work lived in a technical realm.
Non-fiction, if you will.
These days, I’d like to think there’s more storytelling. I want to hint a bit at what I’m thinking, but also, play a little game. How does the work change as the title changes? The visual experience is altered by the context of a title. And too – I think we should take some time with titles. Sometimes I end up changing the title after enough time has gone by. Wait a bit, live with the work, and the title might reflect how it makes you feel after you know them better.
But my on-the-spectrum-quirk of mine is this: I Don’t Like Title Case.
If a title is going to be a tiny story, I’d rather see it formatted for the page. Including quotation marks and punctuation, and correct spelling. (Not my strong point).
Sometimes I worry about the strangest things, don’t I?
2024 #30×30 Day 02 : Work and Rework
Today’s painting, showing the morning’s work, side by side with the afternoon paint-over :)
In some ways I didn’t change much, in other ways it’s a whole new painting.
This is what I’m talking about; re: color mixing in oils. You can endlessly rework the piles of color on your palette; even scrape color off your painting and put it back on the palette for re-mixing. You can create complex harmonies by taking one of your colors and chopping it with another. You can load the brush or knife by picking up more than one color at a time.
Wonderful how you can push your piles of paint in one direction or the other, and never have to settle for good-enough.
I’ll leave you with my detail shots. I do this because it’s the closest you can get to seeing the work in person. The ability to lean in and see the surface, or back off and see the whole.
By the way, thanks to everyone who commented yesterday; it was great to get so much support for my move into this ‘new’ direction (even though it’s been a long time coming, and I don’t think it’s new for anyone who’s been following :) :)
Thanks guys! Inspiring as always to paint with you!
~m
This will be the seventh year of #30×30! (You can look back at my past years HERE.) And of course I’m talking about our annual online painting marathon where we encourage each other to make thirty paintings in thirty days, and post them publicly at the end of every day.
The positing is really the key.
We do encourage people to use our Facebook group, but of course the world has moved on and we’re almost all on Instagram. Maybe even that is old news; all my friends in gaming are jumping on this new artist’s app Cara. But it doesn’t matter where or how you share – use your social media of choice.
We love to call it; sharing, this thing we do in online. But I think it’s really the (very) human need for praise. Encouragement. I’ve joked #30×30 is a mutual admiration society – but it’s not really a joke. It was an oversight, leaving support-group-of-your-peers out of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Making art is such an ephemeral process. Not just, Are we making good work? but, Are we doing the right thing? Are we living up to the challenge of living our best lives? Sometimes it feels to me that art is not a valuable way to spend the coin of your days. Other times I think it’s the *only* sane response to the universe. Being human, and being creative are practically synonymous. There’s some debate if we should say we’re higher than other animals. And this year we’re not making a good case for our species. But if we do have anything special at all, it’s got to be creativity.
And that’s what I have to bring up right off the bat.
This year, I’m going to do oil paintings for my personal #30x30DirectWatercolor.
I know, I know, it’s right there in the title; watercolor.
And when Uma and I founded the event, I was completely, manically, 100%, sure; I would spend the rest of my life making watercolors.
But it turns out I didn’t know myself that well? or; You can’t keep a true artist in a lane? or, We must grow as artists or wither on the vine? Or however you want to say it. The reality is, I’ve been suffering a lot of dread these last few months about this topic. After travelling around teaching, and writing a few books about watercolor, and generally making such a big deal about watercolor, naturally – I have a lot of friends who love watercolor!
It seems like a betrayal to discover that I’m presently obsessed with oils.
(Just look at that thickness! It’s the complete opposite of washes on paper. So juicy!)
But of course; it’s not just oils. I’m getting quite interested in sculpture. I wrote a novel(la) last year. I’ve recently done some dabbling with acrylics. I’m still doing digital art in my spare time, and I’m still fascinating with collaborating with AI. (Now, that’s a dangerous topic around artists :)}
I’m having a real problem focusing on watercolor. It’s like I’m doing anything but. (Including playing too much video games).
It seems ridiculous to announce “I’ve said everything I have to say in watercolor.” Clearly there’s more than one lifetime to be spent on any media.
I also don’t want to make a value judgement like, oil is better than water. Even though there are a lot of lovely things about oils – the color you mix is correct every time, no drying to a different shade – you can alter your painting drastically – the thickness? (did I mention the thickness?) Honestly – I am creating mixed neutrals in oil that I could never get in watercolor. That’s on me I know, not on the medium. But regardless, my color sensitivity is evolving. And the total lack of fear about mistakes. The ability to scrape off and paint it again – even days later. This is really such a relief, I feel kind of dumb for all those years of saying “I don’t care about mistakes, just rip up the painting and do another one!” < What was I talking about???
I know, some people may feel, if I’m not making videos about watercolor, then why do they even bother to follow me? (No judgment from me! I don’t know! :)
But the truth is; I’ve come to a position where I can’t enjoy myself in watercolor. It’s very weird for me, as I know I loved ever second of it in the past. And who knows; this strange mindset might shift again, and where will I be then?
Today, at age 55, I have realized I should talk less, and paint more.
So for that reason, and because my work is in flux and I’m unsure where it’s going, my other proclamation is; I’m doing #30×30 for myself this year.
This means I won’t be making any process videos, or talking technique. The old tips and tricks are still here :) but my work is in flux. I can’t give any advice right now on how to paint. I need to spend some time finding out the hard way.
I hope you understand, and you’ll keep following your own muse, and that we’ll still see you over on #30×30 Direct Watercolor Facebook. The most important thing is helping each other, and staying engaged with art.
Thanks; ~marc
Question for you: Why are you doing #OneWeek100People?
I’ve spent most of my adult life just getting good at drawing – for no particular reason. Besides the reason, ‘I love drawing’. That’s the best reason to do anything, isn’t it?
I’ve worked as a game designer, and of course taught art – but to be totally honest, these weren’t really *goals* of mine, just things which paid me to get better at drawing.
If I had to give a reason why I wanted to draw, there is one thing – well, two things.
One was to illustrate book covers. When I was a kid, I was addicted to reading. My dad worked at a bookstore for a big chunk of my primary schooling, and I had access to free books.
Technically stolen books I suppose. We had this ongoing scam where he would buy books from customers, and we would both take whatever wanted off the top before entering them into inventory. Though – I don’t actually think they had *inventory* as such. They just had books, and they had shelves. They had space, or they didn’t have space. When the K shelf was overflowing with Stephen King, they stopped buying King for a couple of days. It wasn’t rocket science.
So – I built my first library of Star Trek novels and John Carter of Mars with petty theft. Not so great, but, A: my dad’s long dead now so I can tell the story, and B: that bookstore is still performing highway robbery every day – offering pennies for used books for over 50 years. So it didn’t seem to hurt them in the long run. I hope the owner doesn’t read this, but I also doubt they’re too surprised to hear it. But I also doubt they’d care: they’re probably millionaires twice over, all built on the back’s of people’s leftovers.
But hey – I’ve spent plenty of my parents money there too! I’m making my family sound worse than it was :) Dad only worked there for a few years, and I shopped there until the day I left for college. I didn’t have an allowance per se, but one thing my parents always said; I could buy as many books as I wanted.
So yes; I always wanted to illustrate pulp-fiction novels, but I’ve never really done it. Games was a suitable distraction I suppose. I did write a fantasy novella last year, but that’s a long story. I’ll talk about that another time.
So by now I think you can guess the second thing.
Comics!!!
I love comics! Graphic novels if you’re being fancy. Bande dessinée in French.
I don’t think there’s a single one that isn’t a labor of love. So much drawing! It’s really a crazy proposition. The artist is going to do literally thousands of drawings to make a story, and then hope they can attract enough attention so they can afford to make the next book. If there’s a writer and a publisher involved, then good luck – you have three people to pay! I don’t know how anyone does it.
But I do think it would be an excellent theme for a future #OneWeek100People. What about #OneWeek100ImaginaryPeople? OneWeek100Characters? Anyone interested? The complete opposite of urban sketching :) You can’t draw anything from real life! Haha!
I think it would be a good project for myself. See if I can really draw fast enough to make it in comics. Maybe it’s something worth doing in September? SketchbookSeptember?
Definitely drop me a line if you’re interested!
~m
#OneWeek100People 2024 : Pushing Outward
As much as I love #OneWeek100People, there is a tension for me. The ability to take a week off and go sketching is an absolute self indulgence. I’m retired-slash-unemployed (the line is fuzzy), and we don’t have kids. No too many illnesses at home to take care of. So, I’m completely free to ‘do nothing’ if I feel like it :)
But – to be honest – I don’t feel like I’m learning that much any longer? With the sketchbook drawings I mean.
I know that I’m getting incrementally better with every sketch, but – when you’re a beginner, you proceed by leaps and bounds. It’s very gratifying! And it feels very productive. When you’ve reached a more advanced level, it can feel like you’ve peaked. Your technique isn’t changing anymore; now it’s a matter of refinement.
Like playing an instrument, you can become more fluid, more expressive – but you can also fall into a kind of professionalism where every performance is identical. Somewhat like the piano player in the hotel lobby, playing on autopilot.
Having the goal of 100 in a week is a way to attack that. To put yourself under stress, to try and get back to the beginner mindset. To add a little adventure back into the mix. But it can also become a mechanical process of tweaking efficiency. Making art into an assembly line. I don’t think anybody wants that.
That’s one of the reasons why I picked up the oils a few years ago. I was trying to go at them with a completely open mind – but I think I’m still a sketcher :) We always build on what we know. I love the calligraphic stroke, the use of dark marks as a chunk of structure. I still think in terms of ‘Larger to Smaller, Lighter to Darker’. And using the white paper, which is watercolor thinking.
In the case of these paintings, I’m letting a scrubbed out underpainting show through, much like a wash beneath the ink strokes. But with the oil, I have the added dimension of thickness, and the direction, or movement in the brushwork.
A paint stroke in oil is underlined by the shadows it casts on a smoother passage. Sometimes in watercolor you’ll get a halo or a hard edge that pools around a stroke, due to pigment floating to the edge of the dampness. In the oil, this is an actual cast shadow which moves with the light. Somehow I feel an oil painting is more ‘alive’ because of this.
I know some of you don’t love it when I talk about oils :) I see the comments :) I think it’s a sense that I’m leaving people behind, or that I’ve ‘moved on’ from what you came here for.
But if you look at this oil sketch, it could just as easily be gouache over watercolor. It could be posca markers over glazing in colored pencil. The underlying way of seeing is the same.
I’ll end this #OneWeek100People marathon with this ‘failed painting’, because it’s the failures that teach us more than the successes :)
I didn’t like the way this one turned out, so I scraped it off. The sooner you scrape off an oil, the easier it is to start again.
If you let it dry, you have to sand off the panel, and at that point it’s almost not worth saving it. I worry about the dust being toxic. Paint pigment is only a hazard if you inhale it, or it’s transported through the skin / lungs via solvent. I don’t paint with solvents anymore, only linseed oil, so they’re perfectly safe to paint with – but sanding down a panel is about the worst thing you can do. Wear a proper filter mask!
Anyhooo – I was surprised to see the the under-drawing remained intact. The same kind of sketch is underneath all of these heads. It exactly like a gesture drawing done in charcoal, or the pencil lines underneath yesterday’s watercolor sketches. This is done in pink gesso (regular gesso, tinted with a few drops of red ink), so A: it dries fast and you can paint over it immediately, and B: I can correct the drawing with white gesso, or even ‘white it out’ and start again.
So! That’s my week! I hope you guys had a great time with your own marathon. I’ve been looking at the Facebook group, (though Facebook is being annoying and only showing me a fraction of the posts). And also seeing some of you tagging me on Instagram, and it’s been a great pleasure to feel like I’m sketching along with you.
Thanks to everyone who participated!
I’ve made a few noises about ways I can change up my own #OneWeek100People. (Such as trying to get 100 every day, and seeing what the impossible challenge does for my mindset.) I did also think of trying to do 100 people entirely from imagination. Crazy as that sounds :) The complete opposite of urban sketching :) I’ve always toyed with the idea of doing a comic book, so that’s a skill I’d love to take on.
If anyone has other ideas for how to expand or enhance the event, please drop me a line. I would like this event to be open to any approach. More ways we can keep learning together.
Take care, and happy sketching!
~m
Ok, I did it! Day Four; finished my 50 in watercolor!
I really wanted to do 100 in color. In fact, I wanted to do 100 every day this year! 500 in a week! – But I’m a long way from achieving that.
It’s kind of an interesting goal. 500 in a week. I haven’t really tried it for real, but I keep thinking about it ;) A genuinely stupid idea, that might actually be amazing if you accomplished it.
You’d really need to be organized. Like – the biggest problem is the wet drawings. If I was using dry media I could just work in a book. But you can’t do that in watercolor – too much waiting to turn the page, to much re-visiting the drawings for darks.
I used to tape each page to it’s own (coroplast) drawing board, but you can only really carry six boards in your average day bag. I have used larger boards. Maybe that’s the trick – bring a set of 16×20″ panels – draw 10-15 figures per sheet. I’ve done this multi-drawing-page thing in life drawing classes for this exact reason. Dealing with the wet sheets when you don’t have a lot of room to work.
But you’d need 6-8 coroplast panels. or perhaps fewer if you taped paper to both sides. A person could carry that all day, especially if you made some kind of sling. But a big board can be impossible on a windy day. It might be much better to do this in summer. March is still too soon in Montreal. I’ve been working small this week, with only a tiny shoulder bag, because I’m in and out of the subway and the cafes. With the big panels you’re stuck working outside, practically speaking.
Or; maybe I could go back to books, and just bring three books. They are making sketchbooks thinner these days so you could cut down on the extra weight. If you alternate, and it’s a sunny day, it might be possible to go from spread to spread and have dry pages by the time you’re back to book one. I know that would work on a hot dry day, especially if there’s a breeze.
See, there’s enough ideas out there to do #OneWeek100People more than once a year :) It sounds like I need to try a midsummer marathon :) Let me know if anyone is interested in doing it more often! Maybe it could be three times a year.
#OneWeek100People 2024 : Day Three : Tried to do 100 watercolors! < and failed! (but that’s ok)
So, if I couldn’t do 100 pen-and-ink people in a single day, what makes me think I can do it in watercolor? I only managed 25 today! The same thing happened to me last year! What’s that saying about doing the same thing over and over expecting different results? :)
It shouldn’t be a surprise that doing a sketch (clear-line in pencil this time) AND painting it – naturally that’s going to take twice as long.
Plus – I have to find a restaurant (or the study carrel’s at the public library are perfect) where I can lay out sets of six or seven sketches and work them all wet at the same time. I do these in waves, getting all the first pass washes, then going back for any dark touches. Then clearing the deck when they’re dry and doing another round. It must look like a kind of crazy game of solitaire.
So; these are all done from cellphone snaps, rather than from life. It seems like the only way to get a huge number of sketches in a day. Besides, if I go to a nice café, I can have a slice of pie while sketching :)
I don’t know what I was thinking with this people thing! I should have been sketching my desserts. Maybe this summer I’ll do a 100-pastry tour of Montreal. That sounds like a lot more fun :)
[ Click anywhere in the gallery to start a slideshow ]
Back in the day, (I’m sure this was N.C. Wyeth, so that’s 1940’s), he used to have costumed actors come into the drawing class. They would strike some poses or do a little skit – then leave the room. Students would have to paint the models *from memory*.
So, my point is, once you understand the planes of the head, and the way clothes drape, you don’t really need to be staring at someone to draw them. I’m quite sure I could just sit watching people, maybe make some squiggly five second doodles, then just draw them from my ‘notes’ when I get home. Remind me to try that sometime and post the results!
These days when I use a cellphone picture, I don’t even try for a good picture. It’s basically impossible when you’re trying to take stealthy shots. I actually don’t like taking pictures of strangers. It feels like bad behavior – though I don’t really think it is. It’s actually less intrusive than drawing them live! But it seems more weird to be doing it.
I don’t know if that’s just me. What do you guys think? Is it rude to take people’s pictures? I think in Europe it would be considered more rude. People here are willing to let it slide. I’ve had one guy shake his head at me, but that’s one out of hundreds.
Tons of artists do subway sketches; do we all hide what we’re doing?
One thing about drawing live – if you get caught, you can just show people the drawings and they usually enjoy it when they see it. If you’re just collecting people on your phone, it’s much harder to explain what you’re up to.
Here’s a story: I was finishing off my day at Fameux, a notorious Montreal landmark (a 24 hour greasy spoon with – honestly – terrible food :) but somehow there’s an allure to a place like that. I had a poutine, because, why not, it’s traditional in a place like this. And I like their completely fake lemon meringue pie. The kind that is basically Jell-O with a mountain of whipped cream topping.
Anyway! – I’m finishing up these dog walker sketches, and the waiter approaches me, asks if I can draw his puppy that recently passed away. So I took his phone and did a quick sketch for him. He seemed really moved, and offered to get my dessert but I said that was ok, no worries.
You really can’t get that kind of heart warming interaction by taking photos, can you now? Sorry to all the street photographers out there. I know that’s a whole art form, and they’re always seeking credibility for what they do. But it’s just not a charming interaction. Photography has that aspect of ‘stealing your soul’. It seems somehow like a ‘taking’ activity. But when people see you drawing, it’s really like magic for them. In this case, it was absolutely a ‘giving’ opportunity.
So; that’s my conclusion. I do this snapshot thing for the marathon, but I really wouldn’t do it ‘in real life’. so – maybe next year I won’t! This will be the last year of these kind of fun-but-fussy sketches! That’s my commitment!
Citizen Sketcher 