Mixed Media and a little Madness

I was trying to write a simple fb status update and I realized I had waaay too much to say right now, so I wiggled my typing fingers and moved from my phone to my computer.
So. First: I am REALLY enjoying my dive into mixed media. There are so many things I've played with this week, and more things I plan to play with in the coming weeks. I'm switching back and forth between 2D and 3D, and I'm interlocking so many mediums together - one informing the next.
Another joy is the fact that I have learned so much from my students as well. This semester I taught a class that involved a lot more process and mixed medias. I came up with lessons that would allow the students to stay within the perameters of the assignments, yet explore and bring in new mediums both familiar and unusual. I encouraged experimentation and new pathways. I assigned projects that got me SO CURIOUS to see what they would come up with - and I was not dissappointed! Along this path, they invariably use materials I had not considered - and I was able to add to my own arsenal of mediums and ideas. I'm proud that I had such a great group that encouraged eachother creatively - pushing to new levels with each project.

Back to my own mixed media experiments, let me run down a list: This week alone I have played with magazines and collage, oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolor, digital, tissue paper and acrylic medium, modge podge, mixed media paper, duralar paper, tone paper, hot glue assemblage with 3D pieces, tubing, nails, air dry clay, fabric scraps and stablizer paper. I've gessoed many surfaces, I just bought new air dry clay to try, as well as a green metallic lustre wax finish, tonight I'll use the sewing machine and try to bake some fimo pieces that have been waiting to add to a doll I'm manipulating. I've worked on 2D pieces, added to a shadowbox relief, and worked on some full sculptural pieces. I've rearranged parts of the studio and stared at the walls. I even got giddy when I found some lettraset in the basement. I could use those in my mystery letters!

I chatted with someone earlier - a friend at the art store - he asked what I've been doing lately/ what I'm up to and words just tumbled out of my mouth. Teaching, (almost finished - just gotta grade then I've got summers off from that!) getting prepped for my most intense convention ever (an actual big booth at GenCon!) and my mixed media explorations, my scavanging and estate/ garage sale hunting for my junk booth, and how I want to create a book - but I've only got till August - and how time is fleeting! I also have my patreon and mystery letters which I thoroughly enjoy putting together. ITS LIKE ALL MY ATOMS ARE VIBRATING SO FAST I'M GOING TO DISSOLVE INTO ANOTHER DIMENSION. Hopefully all this effort will flower into something kick butt.

SO. Wish me luck folks! I'm going to stick not just my nose to the grinder but my whole face. Aside from a small trip I want to make in mid June to CA, I'm going to just lock myself in create mode. I might need someone to drag me away on occasion just so I can get some basic human interaction before I forget how to speak without mumbling into oblivion. Much love all around! 

Sneaking in the Doodles

Life gets busy.
Its easy to set my mind to work on specific tasks that are related to my paid commissons, or my teaching jobs. Finding time to work on personal projects is very random and haphazard. I have a visual narrative currently on hiatus, my paintings are slowly getting worked on at the most random of times and my goal to start creating a heavy amount of sculptures since August has resulted in only a few explorations: one tiny face, the disjointed beginnings of a larger plan, and recently a small bit of a collaboration with my studio neighbor. (Of which I'm excited to get back to)

But the one thing that remains consistent is my sketchbook. Even if I am too swamped for anything else, I always have my sketchbook ready to capture passing thoughts, imaginative brain drainage, and even moments drawn from life: quick studies from the eye to the hand.

I have not been active on this blog lately, preferring the short sort of facebook blips and updates.
But the Blog wants to come out and play...
So tonight I re-break the ice by sharing some sketches of people I've drawn live.
I have also included entire pages to show my thought process. I use my sketchbook as a notebook for everything. Passing thoughts, dreams, quote captures, to-do lists, AND drawing. I carry it everywhere, and I find it infinitely more useful and cooperative than my iphone. (and a hell of a lot cheaper)

One of the more recent drawings happened while I was watching the band Hog Eye Navvy - This is Wizard, one of the members. I was reminded that the last time 
I drew Hog Eye Navvy, I also drew Wizard.
Something about his beard drew me in. Also included on this page spread are model gestures, notes from a mini-lecture about contemporary traditional fine art galleries,
and a mini comic strip inspired by a ridiculous statement on a commercial.

Here is a closeup of Wizard.

A Portrait Jay Scott Berry, drawn during his magician lecture at Indy Magic Monthly. (OCT 2013)

A portrait of Sal Lizard, while he was telling me one of his 'being Santa' stories.

I had some extra time with this one - I was sitting in on the class of one of my favorite instructors, Jacob Dobson. I drew him lecturing his students. I felt the need to practice my skills with groups and depth.

Some drawings of Students volunteering their faces for the rest of the drawing class. Also included are to-do lists, a non-valid postage sticker, and quotes from Jay's magic lecture.

More students appear in this one, along with other faces from my imagination, and a wacked out figure inspired by 2 sculptures I have completed. Also, more to-do list notes.

If I draw gestures from a model, I get tired of seeing pages full of the same thing - so I shake it up a bit with some wild monsters and wacky colors. The central strip of text was a dream I quickly scrawled after waking.

NOW, back to the projects and commissions at hand!!