I have never been a fast painter. I see friends who bang out piece after piece during a day. Why can't I get the hang of trusting what I feel and slapping it down? Instead, I tend to linger, plot out the strokes, the colors. In the end, I often end up ruining a perfectly good painting by overworking it. Being a good artist is also knowing when to quit, so I guess I'm not such a good artist sometimes.
But the trouble is that it's the sections of the paintings... One will be completely done while another is barely started. So I guess my brain says that since I'm still working on the painting, I can go back to the done section, and that's where the trouble comes in.
I need more practice at doing quick works. When I was in college, we did a lot of gesture drawings. The teacher would put us on the clock, giving us 5 minutes, then 2, then 1 to do full page (18 x 24 inch) drawings. You didn't have time to think about stuff too much. You were forced to quickly reconcile what you were looking at and get your hand moving to capture it. And it got me a lot more comfortable with laying down rich, thick lines instead of the barely visible itty bitty sketches I was doing before.
I need to do that with my watercolors. Some of the pieces I've shown here were done fairly quickly, so I know I have it in me to trust what I'm doing, I just need to convince the rest of my head to trust as well.
So, I am going to start a series of small paintings, called ACEOs (art cards, the size of baseball cards) where I am going to do more gestural type works.
I'll start posting them as I get them done - first one in three weeks! Just kidding!!!! first one tomorrow at the latest is what I'm hoping for.
What tips do *you* have for speeding up artwork? For trusting your own instincts? Help me out!
Peace,
Joy
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Next for the Orrery Project
Previous posts have focused on the rocket that is the center column for our orrery. The one pictured here doesn't have the bottom section with the fins, but our new one does. Now that the rocket has been carved and the holes bored into it to accept the drive tubes, it can be put aside for a bit and we move on to the next section - The arms.
You can see here that each planet has its own arm. The rocket is cut into little sections so that each arm will spin freely on a bearing between the rocket sections. So it's time to craft the arms. While the arms are being built, the planets can also be blown. If we have some good weather, we'll get going on that too.
Back to the arms. They need to be very strong - the piece is going into a college, where no doubt, there will be drunken college students attempting to take Jupiter home with them. A lot of thought and design has gone into this orrery to make it "Student-Proof", as best we can anyway... Since they're pretty thin, we've chosen to make the arms out of carbon fiber (what they make jet fighters out of, and the new SpaceShip One) It's extremely sturdy, and very lightweight. Lightweight matters because the planets themselves, being blown glass, are going to be on the heavy side and we want to make sure all that weight off of one side of the rocket doesn't screw up its ability to spin freely, so wherever we can make something lighter, it's a good thing.
But how do we make an arm from this mystical "Carbon Fiber"? We can get CF in various forms from online stores that sell to homemade airplane makers, or car hobbiests. It comes in rod, tube, tape or a fabric. Hmmm.... Fabric.... I used to work professionally as a costume designer for theatres, and have worked with fabric all my life. I could use my fabric knowledge with this new technique! How hard could it be?
You can see here, the feather spars I built for our mobile projects. The longest is about 16 feet long! The largest is about 4 inches wide by 3/4 inch thick at the tube. Only about an 1/8 inch thick on the feather.
Now here is a closeup of those feather spars before I did the final trim work on them. You can see that it is a cross weave fabric. It's a very thick fabric, and the weave is loose so it tends to wiggle all over the place. It is also highly toxic, so gloves, goggles and a mask are required. I first make a long pattern of what the full piece needs to be and then carefully cut the CF to match.
The feather shape is laid out on plastic in a specially designed mold that will hold it in its "feather" shape until it's set. It is wrapped around a central tube, which gives it stability and also a way for us to pass the wiring needed for each planet, and then soaked with a two part epoxy glue. The plastic is then rolled over the top, sealing the piece inside. I then squeegee out the excess glue and smooth it under the plastic so that there aren't any bubbles or dry spots. I add weights to hold it in the tight curve shape. Then it's just a matter of waiting for the epoxy to set up. I check on it often during the next 12 hours to make sure nothing is coming loose or slipping.
I will use this same technique for the orrery arms, but on a smaller scale. The longest arm is only 3 feet long, with a gentle curve to it, and fairly thin - it will be under 3/8 inch thick. I plan on squeezing the pieces towards the inner part of the curve to that when I trim and clean it up, it won't be as visible as it would be on the outside where people are seeing it more.
That's the plan. We'll see how it goes! How hard could it be?
Peace,
Joy
You can see here that each planet has its own arm. The rocket is cut into little sections so that each arm will spin freely on a bearing between the rocket sections. So it's time to craft the arms. While the arms are being built, the planets can also be blown. If we have some good weather, we'll get going on that too.Back to the arms. They need to be very strong - the piece is going into a college, where no doubt, there will be drunken college students attempting to take Jupiter home with them. A lot of thought and design has gone into this orrery to make it "Student-Proof", as best we can anyway... Since they're pretty thin, we've chosen to make the arms out of carbon fiber (what they make jet fighters out of, and the new SpaceShip One) It's extremely sturdy, and very lightweight. Lightweight matters because the planets themselves, being blown glass, are going to be on the heavy side and we want to make sure all that weight off of one side of the rocket doesn't screw up its ability to spin freely, so wherever we can make something lighter, it's a good thing.
But how do we make an arm from this mystical "Carbon Fiber"? We can get CF in various forms from online stores that sell to homemade airplane makers, or car hobbiests. It comes in rod, tube, tape or a fabric. Hmmm.... Fabric.... I used to work professionally as a costume designer for theatres, and have worked with fabric all my life. I could use my fabric knowledge with this new technique! How hard could it be?
You can see here, the feather spars I built for our mobile projects. The longest is about 16 feet long! The largest is about 4 inches wide by 3/4 inch thick at the tube. Only about an 1/8 inch thick on the feather.
Now here is a closeup of those feather spars before I did the final trim work on them. You can see that it is a cross weave fabric. It's a very thick fabric, and the weave is loose so it tends to wiggle all over the place. It is also highly toxic, so gloves, goggles and a mask are required. I first make a long pattern of what the full piece needs to be and then carefully cut the CF to match.
The feather shape is laid out on plastic in a specially designed mold that will hold it in its "feather" shape until it's set. It is wrapped around a central tube, which gives it stability and also a way for us to pass the wiring needed for each planet, and then soaked with a two part epoxy glue. The plastic is then rolled over the top, sealing the piece inside. I then squeegee out the excess glue and smooth it under the plastic so that there aren't any bubbles or dry spots. I add weights to hold it in the tight curve shape. Then it's just a matter of waiting for the epoxy to set up. I check on it often during the next 12 hours to make sure nothing is coming loose or slipping.
I will use this same technique for the orrery arms, but on a smaller scale. The longest arm is only 3 feet long, with a gentle curve to it, and fairly thin - it will be under 3/8 inch thick. I plan on squeezing the pieces towards the inner part of the curve to that when I trim and clean it up, it won't be as visible as it would be on the outside where people are seeing it more.That's the plan. We'll see how it goes! How hard could it be?
Peace,
Joy
Sunday, March 01, 2009
More Little Watercolors
I've gotten a great response for the little watercolor I posted of Shadow, so here is another one I did a bit ago. This is of Larry, our beautiful Maine Coon tuxedo boy. He is from a kaboodle of 5 abandoned kittens we rescued (yes, we're suckers for cuties....)
This piece is only 6 inches wide, and really captures his eyes. I really like the super closeups, if I can get them to pose for that long, but Larry happens to be one of the most easygoing cats I've ever had, so it's easy. I just have to tell him he's adorable, and he flops down and goes into some really cute pose.
Since my watercolors are only personal projects so far, I don't often get time to work on them. Paying jobs come first. Today, it's raining and dreary though, so maybe I'll take some time, get a mug of cocoa, put on my slippers and lose myself in some little paintings.
Yes, that sounds like a really good plan.
Please post a comment here and on facebook. I'd love to hear what you think, suggestions....
Peace,
Joy
This piece is only 6 inches wide, and really captures his eyes. I really like the super closeups, if I can get them to pose for that long, but Larry happens to be one of the most easygoing cats I've ever had, so it's easy. I just have to tell him he's adorable, and he flops down and goes into some really cute pose.Since my watercolors are only personal projects so far, I don't often get time to work on them. Paying jobs come first. Today, it's raining and dreary though, so maybe I'll take some time, get a mug of cocoa, put on my slippers and lose myself in some little paintings.
Yes, that sounds like a really good plan.
Please post a comment here and on facebook. I'd love to hear what you think, suggestions....
Peace,
Joy
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Focus on OneThing, or Many?
Is it better to focus on one thing, or allow yourself to do many different things? There is usually a consensus that if you do one thing, you do it well. If you branch out, you'll never be a master at anything.
I don't know if I agree with that or not. Sometimes, I feel like if I did just focus on one thing, I would get extremely good, but I just don't have the attention span for it. When my brain is working on a painting and gets stuck, it helps tremendously to go and do something completely different. It's like it lets that part of my brain sleep and recover and then can wake up with new ideas, while the rest of me is still creating.
Here are some extremes:
This is an itty bitty painting, only 6 inches across, done in watercolor. It is of my beautiful little cat, Shadow. Painting releases stress for me, and I tend to get lost in a painting and the time flies by.
The other extreme: Big friggin glass sculpture
This big thing is the Lifetime Space Achievement Award for the Space Foundation. That's me and my partner, BJ, with award recipient Jim Lovell. Jim is holding the individual award that he gets to keep. (It's on display at his restaurant north of Chicago)
This type of building feeds the engineering part of my brain. Figuring out how things will fit together, and then creating the pieces and carving them to complete a larger whole piece is more complicated, requiring me to keep a lot of portions in my head at a given time. The thing I *don't* like about this process is that I'm really bad at seeing progress. I see things finished. If I'm making slow progess, I tend to get discouraged and think I'm not getting anything done. And than all of the sudden, one day the whole thing gets done, like a surprise to me.
I certainly don't think I'm a master at any one thing, but I *do* think I'm pretty darned good at a number of things, and if I had to choose which one to focus on and become a master at, I think I'd go insane. Also, given my temperament, I *still* don't think I'd become a master at the one thing. I'm just too hard on myself. And anyways, I feel like if you finally DO think yourself a "Master," then you're closing yourself off to growth and learning, and what fun is that?
What do you think? Do you have experience with Many vs. One? Please post a comment.
Peace,
Joy
I don't know if I agree with that or not. Sometimes, I feel like if I did just focus on one thing, I would get extremely good, but I just don't have the attention span for it. When my brain is working on a painting and gets stuck, it helps tremendously to go and do something completely different. It's like it lets that part of my brain sleep and recover and then can wake up with new ideas, while the rest of me is still creating.
Here are some extremes:
This is an itty bitty painting, only 6 inches across, done in watercolor. It is of my beautiful little cat, Shadow. Painting releases stress for me, and I tend to get lost in a painting and the time flies by.
The other extreme: Big friggin glass sculpture
This big thing is the Lifetime Space Achievement Award for the Space Foundation. That's me and my partner, BJ, with award recipient Jim Lovell. Jim is holding the individual award that he gets to keep. (It's on display at his restaurant north of Chicago)
This type of building feeds the engineering part of my brain. Figuring out how things will fit together, and then creating the pieces and carving them to complete a larger whole piece is more complicated, requiring me to keep a lot of portions in my head at a given time. The thing I *don't* like about this process is that I'm really bad at seeing progress. I see things finished. If I'm making slow progess, I tend to get discouraged and think I'm not getting anything done. And than all of the sudden, one day the whole thing gets done, like a surprise to me.
I certainly don't think I'm a master at any one thing, but I *do* think I'm pretty darned good at a number of things, and if I had to choose which one to focus on and become a master at, I think I'd go insane. Also, given my temperament, I *still* don't think I'd become a master at the one thing. I'm just too hard on myself. And anyways, I feel like if you finally DO think yourself a "Master," then you're closing yourself off to growth and learning, and what fun is that?
What do you think? Do you have experience with Many vs. One? Please post a comment.
Peace,
Joy
Sunday, February 22, 2009
It's Country Livin'....
Yes, I know I live in the country, so I should expect things like this on occasion, but when they actually happen... It's a bit of a shock! We have a mountain lion. Right here, in our yard.
I have always had a big family of pets. Growing up I had cats, dogs, chickens, guinea pigs, and fish. Now, I have just cats, but a good number of them. Since I live in the country, and we have a pretty big yard, the cats get to go outside during the day. I try to bring them all in at night, since we've heard rumor of mountain lions, and I've seen bobcats, foxes, raccoons, skunks, possum and a slew of smaller critters. A couple of our cats are explorers though, and don't like to come in. They have radio trackers on them so that I can find them easier and bring them in at night. They're not very old, so aren't very "Street smart".
Last night, I went out to find Larry, our beautiful tuxedo Maine Coon. He knows the sound of the radio beeper, so came running from the next hill over, Observatory Hill. I stood on the deck, waiting and watching him running towards me. He got into the gate and stopped cold, looking to the left and then up at me, back to the left, back up at me. He's played this game with me before, where I have to come down and the Chase Is On!! before he'll finally be "caught" and brought in. So I started heading down to get him. It was dusk and he needed to come inside.
As I rounded the big pine tree, I saw what he was looking at. About 20 feet away, a large deer had been killed, partially ripped apart and was laying there. YUCK!!! Larry ran and I had to chase him, but was completely freaked out by what I'd seen, and of course, hearing every twig and leaf crackle as some huge beast right next to me. I caught him and brought him in and BJ and I went out to investigate the deer. Read BJs account here: http://blog.imperialearth.com/
There were large signs of strangulation and it was eviscerated with very large claw marks in it's rump. That was it. I was freaked! I went back in and had a very vegetarian dinner and even locked the doors! Like that would make any difference at all...
Later, as it was dark, I did NOT go outside, but shined a big flashlight down to see if I could see anything. Two enormous glowing eyes shined back at me! YIKES!!!! WHAT THE HECK IS THAT????? It was mostly behind the pine tree, so could only see the eyes. We got the binoculars and watched for a bit. I guess it relaxed that we weren't any kind of threat, so it moved out to where we could see it better, sat down for a while just staring up at us. I was freaked out, but oh my gosh, it was beautiful. It was a huge mountain lion. The tail was a good 3-4 feet long, with a big black tuft on the end. The eyes were about 6 or so inches apart. He was about 20 yards away.
As he sat, he was about 3 1/2 feet tall. After a bit, he turned around, stretched out and laid down. WOW. What a sight!!! Even rolled over on his side, showing off his big tummy! Just Beautiful!!! Tried to take pictures, but it was just too dark. The flashlight wasn't enough for the camera, and neither of us was going to go out for a closer look!!!
All I could do was keep saying "WOW!!" I'd seen them in zoos before, but never one just out in the yard.
After a bit, the wind and rain picked up. I looked again for him, but he'd gone to seek shelter. Somewhere... Then I was freaked out again.
I went down past the tree today, and the deer is still there, moved into the rocks surround now, and more of it eaten. I'm figuring that the lion is still hanging around though.... close to his meal. I started hearing twigs and leaves crackle again, so high-tailed it back into the house. None of the cats have been let out today, cause they'd just be a lion mcnugget in a flash. I'll be watching for him tonight. I sure bet he'll be back.
Peace,
Joy
I have always had a big family of pets. Growing up I had cats, dogs, chickens, guinea pigs, and fish. Now, I have just cats, but a good number of them. Since I live in the country, and we have a pretty big yard, the cats get to go outside during the day. I try to bring them all in at night, since we've heard rumor of mountain lions, and I've seen bobcats, foxes, raccoons, skunks, possum and a slew of smaller critters. A couple of our cats are explorers though, and don't like to come in. They have radio trackers on them so that I can find them easier and bring them in at night. They're not very old, so aren't very "Street smart".
Last night, I went out to find Larry, our beautiful tuxedo Maine Coon. He knows the sound of the radio beeper, so came running from the next hill over, Observatory Hill. I stood on the deck, waiting and watching him running towards me. He got into the gate and stopped cold, looking to the left and then up at me, back to the left, back up at me. He's played this game with me before, where I have to come down and the Chase Is On!! before he'll finally be "caught" and brought in. So I started heading down to get him. It was dusk and he needed to come inside.
As I rounded the big pine tree, I saw what he was looking at. About 20 feet away, a large deer had been killed, partially ripped apart and was laying there. YUCK!!! Larry ran and I had to chase him, but was completely freaked out by what I'd seen, and of course, hearing every twig and leaf crackle as some huge beast right next to me. I caught him and brought him in and BJ and I went out to investigate the deer. Read BJs account here: http://blog.imperialearth.com/
There were large signs of strangulation and it was eviscerated with very large claw marks in it's rump. That was it. I was freaked! I went back in and had a very vegetarian dinner and even locked the doors! Like that would make any difference at all...
Later, as it was dark, I did NOT go outside, but shined a big flashlight down to see if I could see anything. Two enormous glowing eyes shined back at me! YIKES!!!! WHAT THE HECK IS THAT????? It was mostly behind the pine tree, so could only see the eyes. We got the binoculars and watched for a bit. I guess it relaxed that we weren't any kind of threat, so it moved out to where we could see it better, sat down for a while just staring up at us. I was freaked out, but oh my gosh, it was beautiful. It was a huge mountain lion. The tail was a good 3-4 feet long, with a big black tuft on the end. The eyes were about 6 or so inches apart. He was about 20 yards away.
As he sat, he was about 3 1/2 feet tall. After a bit, he turned around, stretched out and laid down. WOW. What a sight!!! Even rolled over on his side, showing off his big tummy! Just Beautiful!!! Tried to take pictures, but it was just too dark. The flashlight wasn't enough for the camera, and neither of us was going to go out for a closer look!!!
All I could do was keep saying "WOW!!" I'd seen them in zoos before, but never one just out in the yard.
After a bit, the wind and rain picked up. I looked again for him, but he'd gone to seek shelter. Somewhere... Then I was freaked out again.
I went down past the tree today, and the deer is still there, moved into the rocks surround now, and more of it eaten. I'm figuring that the lion is still hanging around though.... close to his meal. I started hearing twigs and leaves crackle again, so high-tailed it back into the house. None of the cats have been let out today, cause they'd just be a lion mcnugget in a flash. I'll be watching for him tonight. I sure bet he'll be back.
Peace,
Joy
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Rocket is Complete!
The fins are finished! They were cut from solid cherry boards with my radial arm saw and trimmed up with my bandsaw. The blade on that could use some replacing.... Cherry is so hard that mostly the bandsaw blade just burns it while it's trying to cut. Funny, burned cherry wood smells exactly like popcorn. Now I'm hungry!Anyways, the fins were roughed out with the saws, but then mostly hand carved to shape on a flat belt sander. I often use the end of the sander to do curves and ripples, so used that to get the curve on the underside of each fin to match each other.
They are just loosely propped in place in the photo. I have a lot of work to do on the rocket body before I can finally attach the fins. In fact, since I've taken this photo, the rocket is now cut into its 10 pieces along the guidelines you can see above. Each little piece will then get a slight channel on each end for the bearing that goes between, and then will get a hole bored through the center to accept the guide tube. When they're all cut, the tubes will nest inside each other and rotate on the bearings, hopefully centered on each other .....
I can't yet cut the channels and bore the holes, as my bearings have not yet arrived. So I move on to another section of the project - the motor drive!
Peace,
Joy
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Continuing the Rocket for the Orrery
It's finally stopped storming, so I can continue to work on building my rocketship today. Why does it matter if it's storming? Some of my equipment (lathe, drillpress among other stuff) is out on a covered deck. The covers keep them protected when it rains, but I'm not too good with my hands when it's cold and wet. I have very low blood pressure, so if my hands get cold, they don't work very well, and that's not something you want happening when you're working with a high speed drill press, or have a large gouge aiming at a huge piece of rapidly spinning wood on a lathe.
So when my hands start giving me trouble, I choose warmer, indoor work, which I certainly have enough of.
But I WANT to get this rocket done! And today is warm(er) and dry, so I'm going to take advantage of it!
You can see in the picture the carved rocket body next to a spare turning block in case I screwed up the first one (and it still isn't too late to do just that....). These pieces are 20 inches long and 4 1/2 inches wide and weigh about 10 pounds each. Pretty massive, really. I drilled the holes for the arms and weights into the top pieces before I turned it (cause once I turn it, I don't have a flat surface to go perpendicular to anymore). I also routed out the channels for the fins before I turned it. You can see the channels at the base of the rocket. There will be 4 fins that I am going to start carving today. Oh, and I'll also sand the top of the rocket to a nice cone.
The rocket and the fins are carved from solid Cherry, a hard and beautiful wood. One of my favorites to work. Once I get the fins carved and fit and make sure that the rocket stands like it's supposed to, I'll start doing more tooling to the rocket body itself, but that's for another post. One thing at a time!
Peace,
Joy