Yee Haw

This little cowgirl is a project I started one or 2 years ago and never finished. It is gouache  (pronounced: g'WASH) and micron pen on wood. My daughter, who was probably 5 at the time, adored Jessie from Toy Story. I loved that she identified with such a fun and confident character.

Since I knew nothing about gouache I wanted to keep it relatively simple.

I have a love/hate relationship with gouache, and watercolor in general. I love the flat color, and i've learned to love the dry texture of it. I love that I can make it opaque by mixing it with white. 

But it also drives me crazy for the simple fact that it behaves like it's supposed to: since it's water soluble glazing multiple layers can result in "mud". Consistency when color mixing is another challenge, and quick drying time means one must work quickly and carefully.

Like anything it's just a matter of practice... not being afraid of mistakes and discovering what works and what doesn't. I hope to play around a lot more with gouache.

Shopping Lady

My 40 hour job is retail. I've worked in retail for over 30 years. It can be a grind... crazy hours, a roller-coaster work schedule, nearly 8 continuous hours on your feet, working with the public. I deal with some real "characters" day in and day out. So I drew this lady (her name is Phyllis):

and then I added some color and a background:

I used Photoshop to color her in and added a "texture" on top of her using a "clipping mask". 

Drawing cartoon characters is one of my favorite things to do.

I would like to work at it more, practice drawing hands, improve my characters gestures and develop a consistent style. It's simply a matter of spending more time in the sketchbook I suppose. But no time for it today, as I have to get ready for an exciting 11:30am-8:30pm shift. 

Til next time,

:)

Carolyn

Begin... again.

I've begun drawing again. Manually I guess you could say. Cheap sketchbook, Sharpies, Gellyroll pens. Simply making marks on paper. I've also purchased some ink and watercolor paper.

Simply making marks on paper.

I've posted a few of these marks... doodles actually, to Facebook, and it seems that people like my drawings. I mean to make them just as a sort of play, my art therapy, and it makes me happy that people like them, but too me they are only stepping stones as far as what's inside me to what I want to actually come out.

I constantly struggle with "finding my style", my "niche", etc. At nearly 50 years old I thought I would have found it by now.
And much like my love-affair with photography it seems that life gets in the way and I'm unable to build a body of work that feels progressive rather than random. There is also the thought that just because I do something well, or have the potential to do it well, doesn't mean that I should do it for a living. Maybe for now I just need to continue making my "marks", experiment, play, and eventually start to give myself little challenges and deadlines.

Until next time,

Carolyn