Etching & Aquatint - Some of my work this semester

Winter berries and the first snow...

My Columbus Day hike to John Muir cabin... Gorgeous day!

making due with what I've got...

I don't have a great camera... I was pretty disappointed with the quality of the pictures it takes after I bought it. The flash isn't good and it isn't consistent; sometimes the flash goes off sometimes it doesn't. And the shutter speed is REALLY slow. Enough complaining, though...

Despite the deficiencies of my camera, here are some cool pics I took the other day. I love the green and that spring is finally happening... and I love these curtains that I've had for years and am finally using! For someone who never liked flowers... I think I like flowers now (they are very well designed, by nature, and since I'm obsessed with design it makes sense - in my defense).

small victories

Having a busy life can be so frustrating! I try my best to take care of things right away, but when difficulties arise, I only have so much time (during business hours) and energy before I have to move on.

Case in point: Two full months ago I decided I would figure out how to put a FAVICON on the website at work and on a friends I was working on... so, work said they didn't trust the code I had provided (I got it from a forum; perfectly valid). They have to be concerned for security, so understanding this, I decided I would put one on my site and prove that it was safe. When I tried to log in via ftp to do this, I was locked out of my web-hosting account. Many password resets later I still couldn't get in. This must have gone on for at least a week, when I had to abandon it for more pressing things. My friends had another friend put theirs on their site; mine (and work's ) were still default... until tonight! Yay for perseverance:) It was such a small, simple task and for life and technology to join forces to keep me from my goal... not cool. I can't believe how many dashboards my web-hosting co. has for my one tiny, tiny site... that was most of the battle. I finally found where my hosting log-in was located (and it wasn't very intuitive).

This just proves that I don't give up that easily(!!!!) Ha!

www.eclecticalchemie.com

next evolution of SOAR

This proves it... I'm always saying it's all over for me come Halloween. I have been crazy busy; going to school in the fall was a new thing for me and I'm not sure about taking "thinking classes" next fall. I'll probably take two art classes, instead:) I mean, if I'm going to shirk the repayment of student loans, I might as well enjoy myself. I have a lot of new art from last fall and this winter.

This one is a silkscreen interpretation of a sketch and digital illustration "Soar" I did for Illustration Friday... it's the evolution from media to media - I also started a pastel of it, but haven't finished it. This turned out very MESSY, but it was fun to experiment. I did the background as a speedball reduction, the "airstreams" behind the birds were cut paper and I used an ink extender to make the ink transparent (it didn't work perfectly, but I think it is a good representation of the look I wanted). I did an embossing for the "wave" patterns down below, and the birds are photo-emulsion. I did a frame that was photo-emulsion that broke down, so less then half ended up with that screen and only one of them turned out (shown here).

organic seascape

I love silk-screening! It is so magical... I love the rainbow pulls. You can get so much atmosphere and mood out of combining the colors and playing with how you "slop" the ink on! I created something really beautiful tonight; can you say "Christmas Presents"? Each one is different and I've experimented in almost every one of them. Their imperfections just add character and I've placed the leaves at the bottom so they hide most of the worst ones. I love how the leaves break the frame... something I always love to play with:) I couldn't get the whole thing on the scanner, but this is the majority of it... I only did two black and the rest are on off-white flecked paper. The colors came out sooooo yummy. I got the idea for them from some fabulous "organic" experiments done by Leanne in my class (hers are really superb; she did them when there were more things still growing and she has been silk-screening for a while). Still I think all of my experiments make for a really lovely composite!

6-color Nasturtium

Here is one with two screens of the 6th color... the screen slipped, so I have some with one, two, three, and four black dots in the middle. This one is matted in gold, which the scanner kind of went crazy with. I didn't like the black dot too much (looks more like a poppy) so I kept a bunch without the black dot (see below). I like the freedom to be able to do that and change your mind as you go. If you start with enough to begin with you can have numerous final pieces! I love print-making:)

5-color Nasturtiums

For midterm I added two more colors. Here I liked how the 5-color looked and kept a few just like this. This one is matted in a slightly darker ivory mat...

4 of 4 colors

The final (for midterm, anyway, and on a diff colored paper) Mt Roberts print... I called it "Mystic Mt. Roberts" although I'm sure there's a better name for it in my head somewhere... maybe just "Mystic Mountain." This was one of three prints I did with a water-soluble stencil for the black... the other lost all detail and came out all black. I am going to redo the black plate so that I have more detail and the little flecks of other colors can be seen as windows. I was going to redo it as a photo stencil (this one was a water soluble stencil and all detail went away after I printed this!); now that I think about how I want it to look, I may do the Speedball screen filler like used in the rest of this technique (it is called a "Reduction" since you block out until you are down to your last color). You paint the filler on with a brush and it gives it that painterly look. Maybe I will try both and see which one works better...

3 of 4 colors

The deep purple came out a little funky... It is a pretty loose process, so I just have to embrace the imperfections and I do like how it came out kind of bubbly where it bled a little, which gives it more of a misty feeling...

2 of 4 colors...

I had a really productive class last Thursday... but I forgot to bring home examples! Here is one from two weeks ago. It now has the third color (indigo/purple) on it, after last week. I will do a black screen over it to add some details on the "tram/pagoda." I might try to add some detail to the Mt as well, but I don't want it to get too busy!

















I also did a rainbow pull that turned out really cool. I used silver, white, lt blue, and lt lilac and it looked like the moon! Then I printed the bear and waterfall from the Ak quarter, because I was working through my process for a project at work (that probably will go to the wayside... :( unless I can think of a way to use it!) The best things that I have learned in this class is: don't expect perfection, enjoy the happy accidents, and try new things to cut-down on starting over. When the bear's ink started bleeding I would turn the screen and pull from a different direction... I wasn't able to save all the moons, but Dianne says I might be able to print a black "drop-shadow" to cover the bad spots.

mt roberts

I drew a picture of the Tram on a very misty night and it was the inspiration for this marker drawing that I am then going to interpret into a silk-screen print. I forget what our teacher called it, a block-out build or something. We are using screen-block and painting it on the screen with the lightest color showing being printed first, on the bottom, then we will block out the areas we want to stay the lightest, next lightest and so-on... it is really messy and fun, and even if it isn't perfect, that is the point. It is really nice not zooming 300x's to work on something (I like things to look perfect at 300%!(?) It gets worse the longer I work on a design). I miss doing "hand work", it is so rewarding to see the happy accidents happen:)

old sketches

I was looking for some free space in my old sketch books... none! But I did come across some great quick sketches that I did in school. Some times, some days you've just got it... other times it just doesn't come. I hadn't had a drawing class in more then four years, and was getting back into the grove! I think I had it with these; jonesing for figure drawing... of course this model was good; I have a great longer pose of her that is too big to scan at home.

printmaking

I'm way overloaded... but if I can devote some time to my printmaking class, I will be extremely happy! Here is the first thing we've done... a paper cut screen print. I need to work on registration, but it was fun to give it a over-achiever shot with four-colors. It is a nasturtium vine... they are everywhere here this year. I don't remember seeing so many here before, but I love them! So bright, happy, and overgrown during a very bleak summer.

school?

School starts in 6 days, which means I won't have any time to do anything... I already don't. I give myself one month before the breakdown. I'm hoping that won't happen, but I am working two jobs and doing this on-site property manager gig. I may be giving one up and it will cost me. Cool thing is I am doing a logo identity package for a friend and they are creative people who have been a dream to work with:)

I am feeling like I need to create something since I haven't left the house all day... I think I will try to do a tree for a friend:) It's easier to create for someone else then for myself. I feel that autumn inspiration coming on! I guess that happened when I realized school time is here.

proclivity!

I have a certain proclivity to using this word! I woke up with it in my head... crazy:) I also have a proclivity to all things design. What a wonderful word; I love how it sounds, even.

DEFINITION:

pro·cliv·i·ty /proʊˈklɪvɪti/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[proh-kliv-i-tee] –noun, plural -ties. natural or habitual inclination or tendency; propensity; predisposition: a proclivity to meticulousness.

[Origin: 1585–95; < L prōclīvitās tendency, lit., a steep descent, steepness, equiv. to prōclīv(is) sloping forward, steep (prō- pro-1 + clīv(us) slope + -is adj. suffix) + -itās -ity]

I'm not crazy, I'm creative!

I've decided to start using my creativity as a crutch, like people do with bi-polar… which most creative people probably are, or are more prone to it!

So the other day I said something crazy and when my sister was about to make that value judgment I told her "I'm ahh-r-tistic… no, I'm creative!" I think this can explain away EVERYTHING! It's why I am a perfectionist; it's why I am critical; it's why I have misplaced values; it's why I'm OCD; it's why I obsess. Who can understand these tendencies better then the artists of the world? It is sort of a pre-qualification for becoming an artist!

I'm finding that when I'm on a creative-obsession-binge, I am the happiest! It engages me and (seems to) give me purpose. I feel empty without something to keep me busy brain occupied! So call me crazy, whatever, and you bi-polar people who think you are the only ones allowed to self-medicate and use your illness as an explanation for all your personality quirks… move over, this creative is there!

busy, busy... and Special K Saves The Day

I have been very busy... I found a new job and started that on Tuesday! I love it:) It is doing what I do with some extra learning thrown in for good measure. I will have to find out from my boss if I can share some of my work here. I did two ads and point of purchase displays for an August promo... I will try to do a fun online "button" as well, if they go for it. They have been really open to my ideas and this is the first job where they trust my expertise and are using me and my abilities in the correct way (well the state did, but I had to convince each client of my skills... when you have to do that with every client and you have a lot of clients, it gets old!)

decided I didn't like the way I drew Kanon. I used his blue blanket with clouds as a backdrop, this little cloth world, and his big Alligator crawl toy (I forget what they are realTo feel productive, I am including a little caricature of my son that I did when he was 18 months...he's seven now, so no it's not recent. I was concepting for a class powerpoint presentation that was basically Kanon saving the world from a gigantic alligator. I took actual pictures when Ily called...) Then I took pictures of him beating the Aligator down... His weapon of choice? The balloon! If I can find the presentation, I will post it. I have had good intentions of making it into a cartoon-strip in Illustrator; started it, but didn't finish... I am including my story-board. Fun Stuff ~ julie

more work...

This is a good way to get these into picassa, so I can start my portfolio slide show!

As you can see I like rounded corners, so much so that I find it hard to use "sharp" cornered boxes (bad design feng shui!) Speaking of feng shui, I had to confess to my supervisor (she is design obsessed like me) that even in my home I round the corners; I looked around one day and realized that I have furniture in every corner of my living room. I really think that the rounding the corners helps the energy flow:)