"Hawthorne Bridge", 16x20", $450+s/h

"Hawthorne Bridge", 16x20", $450+s/h

They don't make art supplies like they used to. 

I finally figured out that Arches paper can go bad! The first time I started a composition and the paper behaved like mulch, I thought I was going crazy or had stretched it incorrectly or something. I started this 16x20 composition (based on an earlier, on-sight sketch posted here), and got the pencil composition to where I was really happy with it. My heart sank with the first watercolor washes. The color stains and mottles. There's no real ability to lift or scrub. If you do the latter it pills immediately. I decided I didn't want to either abandon the piece or start over, but to just do the best I could with it.

Apparently the problem with decreased quality has been going on for awhile, as evinced by this 2009 blog post. Their papers are supposed to be archival and were considered top of the line when I was in art school, during the latter half of the 80s. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Declining quality in everything is a hallmark of this era. Craftsmanship really isn't an integral part of the digital age of global corporate monopolies and shadowy oligarchies, is it? I'd been using paper purchased about 20 years prior - having been away from fine art during a long run of my NYC life - but it should've lasted.

Come to find out, Arches newer products are also subpar

I'd ordered a new, larger hotpress watercolor block before finding out of the flaws in the older, single, large sheets I'd brought with me to Portland from the east coast. I got it at the end of last March, but didn't unwrap it until today. (I was hesitant to work later again.) The bound sheets fell off the supportive backing immediately, when I removed the outer plastic!

This block cost $48. That is a LOT of money for someone in my position, so I've already emailed customer service.

I won't be buying any more Arches! I've got some paper to use up but when I purchase new I'll be checking out other brands for sure.

Wordpress > Blogger & the Etsy store idea

I'm also moving my art blog back to Wordpress. Blogger is just passè, as are blogs themselves for the most part, but the people who read are all over there. I'd been thinking about going back to an "all in one" and has made a few art posts in my latest, mostly exercise blog over there, but now I've decided it's better to keep the art all in one place. I just have to set aside the time to start a new one & export all the posts over from here.

I also haven't gotten around to setting up any Etsy store. The thing is, it'd be extremely difficult for me to sell originals at anything approaching a fair price without representation. Putting out the possibility to the universe is in the preliminary stages. I've been checking out the store of one of my favorite tarot authors. She sells prints. From the looks of it, they're sort of upscale, computer prints. I need to find out how I can do that. I could offer cheap prints and hang onto the originals until / unless the right buyers find me.

Pink & Purple Flowers #sketch #mixedmedia

Charlie, on keyboards

Jam Night, 7/5/2017

Backyard, Purple Rhododendron & Rock Circle

Rose

Carpet Design, finished indexed file

Work in progress shown in the last post

WIP #carpetdesign #workinprogress

The Path to the Deck

Carpet Design

Sir Henry on a Path

2400 SW Park Place, landscape & architectural illustration

The Fountain

Haven't been posting consistently as I've been in favor of starting a bunch of stuff. Working on the other view from April 9, 2017 today, but in the meantime here's one I decided I wasn't going to work any further, in the studio. 

Fountain, photoshopped

Fountain, scanned

The set-up

"Dude Henry" #photoshop #scottishfold

"Dude Henry"

This was inspired by my sister yesterday, when I sent her the undoctored photo of Henry, listening to Charlie play the piano. She said, "Next time get a beer and a clicker!"

Maritime Museum, Waterfront Park #PDX #mixedmedia

Cat and Toes, in Space

Middle Pillar #meditation #illustration

Mixed media illustration for an animated infographic

River View Cemetery #watercolor #pdx

Or was I in Greenwood Hill Cemetery? Looking at the map again now, I'm not really sure.

The goal was to work in River View Cemetery, but we approached from the south. So I might've actually been in Greenwood Hill. This was one of my driving lessons. Mixed media study, started March 28, 2017. 

Glyph Arts Space & Cafe

This is from a sketch I started (pencil only) 6/13/2015 with the Meetup Group: Portland Coffee & Sketch Club. The cafe is already dead, of course. It was really cool! The tables were all art display cases & there were pieces hanging on the walls. There was a poetry wall at the entrance, full of little niches where you could place pieces of paper you'd scribbled some prose or just blather on. 

I should join that group again sometime! I haven't gone to any Meetups since I moved to The Hill. Got an email from one of the organizers inviting me to join last Sunday, but didn't see it until too late & was busy already. If I can plot a highway free course to the next one, I'll make it a driving practice.

I'm not surprised that place closed, even if it was awesome

Because of media hype, I'm not the only person duped into a case of Portland specific over-optimism. I talked to one of the owners, a woman, who was really nice and also recently divorced. I'm not sure what stage of that opening a cafe started in, but... She let me leave a prominently displayed stack of my pet portrait cards, which led to absolutely nothing, lol. Yep. I'm one of them too.

According to a bunch of old Gawker articles, Fred Armison is / has been a skeevy kind of asshole, a douche canoe success of a hipster. I remember him saying on some interview (maybe comedians in coffee) that Portland is a place people open improbable businesses that survive. He's part of the media problem, the big myth. Even some places that seemed probable have already bit the dust since I've been here.

Portland is NOT a place where it's easier to make a go of your creative dreams. I just got lucky. I'm in a place, at least for now, where I can return to a place of creativity I was at in art school and then go way further. I'm finally an artist! But when I do get work it's hardly ever for a local client. In this I'm not alone either. I talked to another expat New Yorker early on here. I forget what exactly he did for a living but he said his clients were mostly from back east. Around here, people want to pay you with a cup of coffee. He wasn't wrong... And there was another lady I met in the South Park Blocks while walking Henry. She was a freelance copy editor. I'd love to work down there, she said, gesturing toward the Pearl, but there are NO JOBS.

Boats, South Waterfront PDX

My multi-media sketchbook doesn't take near as much abuse as my Arches watercolor block, but that's ok. Keeps me from getting overly precious about sketches. The whole point of "plein air" is training in observation and editing. You can't possibly reproduce nature, and anyway that's boring in the age of ubiquitous smart phones with ever improving cameras.

This is the 2nd study I started on March 20th, my outdoor easel's maiden voyage. (First one is here.) Now it's a bit different in that I've got my learner's permit & I'm obliged to drive at least most of the way there, like to Riverside Cemetary on my 2nd outing. 

Happily I've just discovered that google maps gives you a highway avoidance option in the maps directions. Fantastic! It's only been a couple weeks. We started around the neighborhood. I've driven downtown the last two times I did my office cleaning job. Baby steps. It's been decades since I've driven after all.

Composition sketch #illustration #pencildrawing

This is a work in progress, what will be an illustration for a hybrid Middle Pillar ritual, one that combines hermetic & yogic meditation practices. At the beginning I was thinking it was going to be black & white, ink wash & ink pen. But now I think I might use a limited palette and some metallic inks. (The latter don't translate well to digital, especially when you're just snapping a picture with your iPhone, but they lend some special flair.)

I was thinking I might even make an animated infographic out of it with Adobe Illustrator & Animate... 

Mahindra Carpets Catalog, converted from Quark to InDesign

Hawthorne Bridge, study 1 #illustration #watercolor #landscape

I finished my first study of Hawthorne Bridge, from my maiden voyage painting outside with my new, fancy easel in downtown Portland! I might do a larger version with a slightly different composition entirely in the studio, so I can get a more finished version of the bridge and intense colors. I have a second view to work on, which I'll probably get to on Friday. This was the first view I chose. After that I picked something with easier levels of distance. It's all good. If I want to get paid to render historic architecture I've got to practice, practice, practice.

I also want to do some parks and graveyards!

This is funny but I was just looking at the 10-day forecast for my zipcode to try to figure out when I should try to get back out there.

Ummm.... Looks like Thursday is probably my best bet, so I should take it just in case things don't improve. You do often get breaks in the day here even when the forecast isn't promising, but you can't be sure it'll happen.

I'll have to think of how I'll adjust for mildly rainy weather. Perhaps I'll be able to accommodate that if & when I start working with oils again. The thing is, if I'm trying to show the beauty of this area, some of my work has to include some rainy, ominous, murky and sublime.

Well yay! Both of the sketches I started yesterday, down at the waterfront, are worth of some more drawing and attention in the studio. Of course I snapped a picture of both spots I chose. The first one was the harder of the two, too complex and all in the distance. I was attracted because of the perspective study I just recently started.

Charlie dropped me off and I was set up in my first spot right around 1:30pm. I lasted until 4pm. It's tiring! Drawing and painting are intense meditation exercises: observe, respond, assess, keep going and don't waste time. And I've more often done still lives, often with a sort of "fixed" lighting situation, in the past.

I also had some good news this morning. A final of my latest logo project was chosen. I'd expected it to be a much lengthier process! I'm so into the subject matter¹ & drawings that I'm going to continue to work on one of the concepts that wasn't chosen.

C-2-3

I can see why C-2 wasn't chosen. She's looking very 1920s, with shades of my more illustrative logo for Upward Goddess. But... I'd been starting to play with different brushes and line treatments in both Illustrator & Photoshop while drawing her. I want to continue and make something vectorized. I can add some color too, if I want. I'd been keeping things really simple - just black & white - for the logo because it needs to be easily printable. Every yoga studio needs a t-shirt!


¹ The moon. Yoga. The subconscious. Gabriel and Yesod.

Today's going to be the maiden voyage of my Sienna Plein Air easel! It's not that easy to assemble (just so) and disassemble without looking like an idiot, but I've practiced a couple times already.

Packing List

Knapsack

1. pochade box (that's the easel part that goes on top of the tripod) with watercolor palette within
2. 19 colors 
   
3. 2 water bottles and 2 collapsable water cups, 1 water sprayer
4. paper towels and q-tips
5. 1 watercolor block, 2 sketchbooks (1 med & 1 small), scrap paper for color testing.
6. brushes
7. drawing supplies for pencil sketch: mechanical pencil, sharpener & extra leads. Various erasers. Ruler
8. credit cards, concealer, hankerchief & lip gloss. 

Might not seem like it, but this took a lot of thought! And obviously I decided to start my new blog today in honor of the occasion. I'll set up the links & crap later on, when I've got time.

Was just considering whether or not to pack my selfie stick into the tripod bag. Was just showing off my organizational skills to Charlie & realized I didn't have a mahl stick included. That's for resting your hand on when you've got wet media on your surface and need a steady hand, like a bridge in pool.