Monday, February 26, 2018

Pig, Hawk, Kiwi, Frog

I've occasionally posted my ceramics on this blog (see dino pots and bird drawings on ceramics) and this is one of those days. Since there's no point in denying that clay has become a second medium for me, I had considered starting a second art blog. Perhaps something that mirrors this one like "Comments on Clay". But then I thought that's dumb. This is my art blog. If I branch out to beyond woodcuts (as I have with posts about monotypes, stone reliefs, and Sketchbook Sunday) then I branch out. "Words On Woodcuts" isn't just a description of the blog. It's also part of my brand as an artist, I suppose.

I recently finished four new pinch pots with drawings on them. I'm told they relate well to my prints, and I think that's true. Certainly in process. Both ceramics and woodcuts involve a certain amount of uncertainty that opens up possibilities for unique expression and "happy accidents" so-to-speak, as they both involve a multi-step process where outcomes are never completely certain. I go into projects with a general outline of an idea, but allow my intuition and the materials themselves to guide the journey to a final outcome that marries expectation with discovery.












Saturday, February 24, 2018

Winter and Summer Animal Prints Put Into Collages

This week in my K-2nd grade Animal Kingdom after school class at the University City Arts League I had the kids create summer and winter scenes with oil pastels and watercolor, then cut out their prints from last week of animals that change the color of their coats based on the season and place them in the scenes. I think the results are pretty wonderful.








Friday, February 23, 2018

"KT Event: The Asteroid Hits"

This is a second mixed media (woodcut with watercolor painting and charcoal drawing) that I made for a pitch video coming up. The first was posted Wednesday.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

"KT Event: The Asteroid in Space"

I'm slowly gearing up to publish my next commercial trade picture book The Nautilus and the Ammonite. I made this watercolor and woodcut collage of the asteroid from the KT Event heading toward earth. It will likely be used as part of a pitch video for the fundraising portion of this project. But honestly, I've been wanting to use that little woodcut of the asteroid in another work since I originally carved it for this double page spread of the book.

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Sketchbook Sunday: Violin Practice

This is a sketch of my daughter who is practicing for her Suzuki Violin Level 1B audition next month. She always looks so serious when she practices.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Children's Scratchfoam Animal Prints




This week in my University City Arts League after school class for K-2nd graders we made prints of animals whose coats change from brown to white in the winter. The kids drew directly on scratch foam and then printed on both brown and white paper. Next week we'll turn these into mixed media pieces with collage. I just love these drawings of a weasel, fox, hares, and caribou printed on the brown paper.










Sunday, February 11, 2018

Friday, February 9, 2018

"Year of the Dog" Hand Colored

I was going to send out the black and white version of my Year of the Dog cards, but over last weekend I colored one for fun and decided that I had to color them all. Finished and mailed out the last of them tonight.

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Sketchbook Sunday: Just Drawing with the Girls

This week I sketched with my daughters a bit. This first drawing is by my 8-year-old Lysistrata, and I think it is just amazing. I so want to make this into a linocut so we can make copies and color them.

The next print is by 6-year-old Bebe and it is of the Morning Glories we planted and grew last year. I guess she is already longing for spring.

The last drawing is mine - a quick line drawing on Bebe.



Saturday, February 3, 2018

White Line Portrait of Will

I've been playing around more with faux white line woodcuts using Scratch Art Scratchfoam that I draw into with pencil and print with markers. It's a particularly useful technique to be able to teach kids or short workshops to adults and still get the general look of a white line woodcut. This is a portrait of my husband that I made to test using Crayola markers. I just bought some higher quality Prismacolor markers and will experimenting with those later this week.

Friday, February 2, 2018

Groundhog Day 2018

6" x 4"
Oil-based ink on 140 lb Cold Press Strathmore Watercolor paper

This is my 4th annual Groundhog Day card. (Sort of - I started in 2014, but skipped 2016.) You can view the previous years' cards here. This is also the first with no text. None necessary in this case, I suppose.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Mary Azarian's Groundhog

Happy February! Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. I mailed out my annual cards yesterday, so hopefully people get them in time, or at least only a day or two late. I'll post that print on this blog tomorrow. But for now, enjoy this charming woodcut of a groundhog made by one of my all-time favorite woodcut artists Mary Azarian and found in her 1992 publication of A Country Calendar.