Day 10- 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"We hold the world in our hands"  11" x 11"  $245 SOLD
Watercolor, permanent marker, and Elegant Writer marker

Yes, I truly believe that each and every one of us makes a difference in our world!  I had this idea of a girl holding the globe in her hands and really enjoyed painting this.  Last year, one of my students (who happens to be a teacher herself in Duluth, MN), Mary Beth Downs taught me how to do "wire drawings".
 At least that's what I call them.  That's because they look like wire to me.  I can't tell you how to do them on this blog; it's actually something that you have to see.  Basically, they are contour drawings with changes afterwards. This will be a process that I will teach in one of my summer workshops if you are interested. (email me to be on the list:  Karen@karenknutson.com )  I use a permanent marker to do the initial sketch picture below.  When I started this, I honestly thought that this would be an easy painting, and picked it, due to babysitting my sick grandson this morning.  But the finishing touches took hours.  I used the Elegant Writer calligraphy pen to make some of the lines thicker and then activated it with a wet brush to cause it to soften a little.  Elegant writer felt markers are water soluble and therefore are really fun to mess around with!  Karlyn Holman introduced me to the Elegant Writer pens years ago, and I love them.  Click on this link to buy them from her store.  One of my heroes is Alphonse Mucha, and I was trying to do this painting in his style.  A lot of doodling, but it was worth it!
 

Value sketch (left) and first drawing using permanent marker (right)

Flying by the seat of my pants

"Helga, the Housekeeper"

Sometimes, you just need to fly by the seat of your pants!  Upon arriving at my Buffalo destination last night, I discovered that there was no mirror for the audience to see my demo.  So, I held the painting up with my left hand, while painting vertically with my right hand.  Then the audience could see what I was painting.  It actually went pretty well.  I finished the details on the hair this morning, using Tombow markers and permanent black markers.  But otherwise, this was my demo for the Buffalo group.  I was asked when I started painting funky ladies.  I think it was after watching a video by Anne Bagby, one of my favorite artists.  She has been a great influence on my work.
 And I finally discovered what my imaginary housekeeper looks like.  "Helga, the Housekeeper" has been my nickname for myself whenever I do my monthly deep cleaning.  I just know that this is her!  Got her hair all tied up in rags, but she's a bit of a diva, having to wear jewelry while she cleans.  And let me tell you, she is a minimum cleaner! I have no idea why I keep her around.  :)  When I arrived in Buffalo at the airport building, there was a blackboard, so I again flew by the seat of my pants and did the drawing on the blackboard so that all could see, as we did a funky lady drawing together.  They all loved learning the tricks!  It was a fun evening.  Below is my blackboard drawing. 

Crazy Lady Paintings

"Sending you a Big Hug"

This is one of my latest crazy lady paintings. If you look closely, along her neck there's a message. It probably looks like hair at first, right?  :)   I just finished teaching a 2 day workshop in Watertown, SD at Jennifer Stone's beautiful new studio.  What a great time we had!  So many laughs and new friendships were made!  I had 19 students, and they all did a fabulous job at creating very imaginative crazy ladies of their own!  Below is a collage of their paintings.  (Remember, I made this on www.PicMonkey.com)  It's a great site to make collection photos. 

Drawing Challenge, Day 23

Today, Kathie George challenged us to use Elegant Writer Pens or some other pencil that smears when it is moistened.  I first learned about Elegant Writer pens from Karlyn Holman, and you can buy them from her website if you want.  I love using them for shading.  This is one of my funky metal sculptures that holds a wine bottle.  Below is the real photo of the art piece. I had such fun drawing this! I love to make the crosshatch design at the top and then wet between the lines of every other one.

So, I promised you that I would have a lesson on commenting on my blog.  Here goes.  If you are on my blog list, you will receive an email that shows my latest post.  You must click on the title of the article, in order to get to the page, where you can add a comment.  For instance, if the title is "Drawing Challenge, Day 23", you would click on that link, and it will lead you to the correct page.  Now, read the blog, and scan to the bottom of the page.  Beyond the 3 little photos (of past blogs) you will see "no comments" and if you hover your mouse over that, it will highlight.  Double click on that, and a box will appear where you can leave a comment.  Once you type your comment, press "Publish" button.  You will have to wait for me to approve it before it will appear on my site, so just wait a few hours, or if you're lucky that I am close to my computer, it may happen right away.  You may need to answer a test to see if you can read the numbers on the screen (That's something that the blog site does to stop hackers.  It's pretty easy.  Just type the letters and numbers, and you should see a message that says that your message will appear as soon as Karen approves it. ) That's it!

30 Paintings in 30 Days: Day 21!!

"I've Got Rhythm!"  $145  (watercolor and markers)  11" x 11" image

Yesterday, I babysat my granddaughters all day, so by the end of the day, I was pooped.  No painting at all yesterday.  So, this morning, I thought, keep it simple, and get 'er done!  I love elegant writer pens, because you can sketch with them, and then if you put a wet brush on the lines later, it will smear. I like that "out of focus" effect.  I did a contour drawing of another crow, and decided to add doodling within his body.  Keeping the background simple was a "must" against the busy crow.  Because it has piano keys in the body, and because he looks like he's stepping out, I named it "I've got Rhythm". 

30 Paintings in 30 Days- Day 16

"A Little Tipsy"  $95  Watercolor and Markers  (11" x 11" image)

In honor of the hangover that I had this morning, after a really good time last night (see yesterday's blog),  I decided to paint a crow who is getting into the wine, and he is a little tipsy!  I did a contour drawing of the crow, which gives it the feeling of a caricature!  Then I took an elegant writer calligraphy pen and drew on top of the original drawing.  When I added watercolor paint, the elegant writer smears, which is an effect that I love.  This was a pretty fast painting. 

30 Paintings in 30 Days: Day 8

"There's Something Fishy about this Pelican"  (watercolor)  11" x 11"  $125

Yesterday, I babysat my granddaughters all day, and so I didn't get a painting done till now.  Good thing I was one day ahead with this challenge.  Now, I have to play catch up!  My oldest granddaughter, Alex, is 4 1/2 years old, so she loves to do anything artistic with grandma.  I knew that I should be painting, so I talked her into painting a pelican with me.  She decided to make her pelican purple.  I sat in awe of her artwork!  So free, no worries, always loving everything that she did!  What a lesson it was for me to just take it all in!  I had the drawing from yesterday as my start today.  I decided to make it playful, like Alex was! I did another painting similar to this with my crazy ladies.  It's pictured below.  It sold right away! If you are interested in purchasing any of my paintings, just comment below.