Day 28: Fused Glass Powder Sgraffito Drawing 30 in 30 Challenge

Today is Day 28... only one more challenge to go...

Today's challenge is to post your finished 

Albert Einstein Drawing. 

They are looking absolutely fantastic!  

You should all be so proud of yourselves.

 Today I'm posting my drawing of a girl, Jeanne Hebuterne; partly because I think it will help you to see how deep I make the black powder in the darkest areas before firing a drawing,

and partly because I've always loved this photo and I didn't feel like drawing Einstein.  lol

Here's a little history about Jeanne...

She was born in Paris in 1898. As a child, she loved to draw, and later pursued a career in painting.  In her late teens, she began modeling for some of the many sculptors and painters working in Montparnasse.  At nineteen, she was introduced to Amedeo Modigliani, an Italian Painter living in Paris.  They fell in love and became inseparable.  He painted many portraits of Jeanne in the three years they spent together, and she painted at least one portrait of him.

Jeanne's parents weren't too keen on the relationship.  He was fourteen years older than she...Jeanne's family were devout Catholics, Modigliani, a Jew....   Certainly, they didn't want their daughter hanging out with a guy who was smoking, drinking, and drugging himself into a complete human disaster, either... but that's another story.

They became engaged but were never married because of the family differences...  They had a daughter together in 1917, and Jeanne became pregnant again shortly after.  Money was tight. They traded work for food and an apartment, but never got ahead of his drug problems. He was picked up by an agent who arranged his only solo art exhibit, only to have the show closed because it wasn't acceptable to show huge nudes in the storefronts... 

Just as he began to gain popularity and see some success in selling his work, Modigliani's health quickly deteriorated. He had been hiding the fact that he had tuberculosis, and coupled with his lifestyle, he became ill very quickly and died rather suddenly on January 24, 1920.  After the funeral the next day, Jeanne's parents, relieved that the relationship had ended, gave her no choice but to bring her daughter and come home to live with them.  She was 8 months pregnant.  When they arrived at her parent's home, Jeanne was so distraught that she threw herself from the 5th floor window and committed suicide.

Modigliani, painted by Jeanne Hebuterne

Jeanne Hebuterne, painted by Amedeo Modigliani

The story is sad and the images haunting, but I dearly love looking at them.  So many beautifully talented artists live tragic lives and never see the fulfillment of their life's work...

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Onward to positive things now!  I want to give you a little hint to help you get ready for the final challenge, for Days 29 and 30...  Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.

The final challenge is going to be a self-portrait.  I KNOW you don't want to do it, but please do.  It can be very simple or very complex, serious or silly, but~

your drawing must include your face.  

A self-portrait can be a beautiful expression of you as a person, and on the final day of the challenge, I'd love for you to look yourself in the eye and say I DID IT.

Use your phone or a camera to take a black and white selfie.  To get good contrast, I stood by a window and let the ever-gray Ohio sky light my face from one side.  Overcast days are the best for taking black and whites!  

Charge on Sgraffito-ers!

An InLinkz Link-up

DAY 18: Show off Your Whites!

Are any of you feeling like this yet?  

If you are, you're definitely not alone.

Keep Doing it Anyway

You're all making great progress!

Fused Glass Sgraffito Drawing 30 in 30 Challenge

How are you liking the "White Challenge"?  Whites are a challenge in almost every art medium, because there are so many shades involved in making something 'look' white.  Check out the millions of shades of white paint next time you're at the hardware store!

A few of you have figured out that white powder against a dark background kind of 'disappears' after firing. The white is just not strong enough to fully cover a dark color, and it has to be applied in such large amounts to show up much at all.  

I call this 'Bathtub Syndrome'....

You know when you run a bath and then realize the water isn't hot enough? So you try to warm it up adding hot water until the tub is nearly overflowing, only to find out that it is just a bigger tubful of not quite hot enough water? darn.

It happens in painting too.  When you mix white with a color, it's best to add a little of the darker color to the white, and gradually add more color until you get the shade you like.  If you do it the other way around adding white to try to lighten a darker shade, you end up with  a LOT of paint that still isn't light enough.  Bathtub Syndrome.

Here's something for you to try if you need a "great white subject"!

It's been a busy weekend around here, I have a lovely group of ladies in town for a sgraffito workshop, extra kids spending the night, basketball games, and the dog has just delivered the head of a dead mole to me as I type this... gross. I think I'm ready for a hot bath!

An InLinkz Link-up

Day 12: Artichokes and Real Life

Yesterday's challenge was to do a study sketch of a vegetable, thinking about it's texture.  I chose an artichoke for my subject partly because I have a lovely sheet of Bullseye's Artichoke glass, and partly because I like the intricate detail and texture of artichokes. Plus, they are healthy and yummy.... Besides that, when it comes to a challenge why not pick something totally ridiculous?  Today I haven't been able to spend the time to really study the artichoke as much as I would have liked to. Real life is happening in my house, and I'm predicting another school cancellation tomorrow...

I know that many of you have been strapped for time during this challenge.  It's OK!  I bet real life is happening in your houses too.   If you skip a day or many, or if you're just following along right now... you're not alone!  If you have just joined in, it's not too late...remember that this challenge is all about learning and camaraderie.  Any effort you make is worth it, even if you aren't proud of what you produce on a particular day.  We're all in this together...

I've done a lot less glass work this month than what I had planned to do; and instead I've developed a new relationship with my computer that I didn't plan.  I am blessed to have learned a lot just trying to keep up, and the time I've spent away from my own glass work has been worth it.  Seeing your work and to getting to know you a little bit has been more than I'd planned, and way more than I'd hoped for.
Onward we go....

   Tomorrow's challenge, for Day 12:  Create a glass powder sketch of something you use every day.  We often overlook the things we see and use each day, but they make really interesting subjects for art work.  It can be simple or complex, but make it personal.  I love getting to know you by the things you create.

My computer is being silly, so the link to post your photos won't open until tomorrow at 12:05 am.  Keep watch :)  Technical difficulties will always abscond with the best laid plans, won't they??

 My alcohol ink painting for Day 12 of Leslie Saeta's 30 paintings in 30 days challenge

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy New Year Everyone!

We've made it to another year!  Happy 2015 to all~

I love the 'freshness' that a new year brings.  I get excited when the hustle of the holidays ends and a bright, shiny new beginning to a whole year of possibilities lies before me...  Here's a little story:

Two years ago (as a New Year's resolution) I accepted a challenge to paint 30 small paintings in 30 days.  The challenge was offered by artist Leslie Saeta, and I was pressured by my painter friends to give it a try.  Here is a little background info... I did not care about oil painting.   In college I painted what I would describe as a 'whopping total of two complete failures' using oil paints, and I never wanted to use them again.  As an art major,  I thought I should automatically be good at painting, but I'm telling you that I mean it when I say 'complete failure'.  Fast forward an undisclosed number of years...  I gave in and decided to give it my best shot, even though I knew I would hate it.

The first week was torture.  I,  (being me, of course) chose the most difficult things I could think of to paint.  A yellow fire hydrant on a violet background.  lights and buildings reflecting on wet pavement.   bicycles. backhoes and orange barrels buried under piles of snow.  Those things interested me.  Painting apples did not. Strike one. (apples are easy) Trying to paint the subjects I wanted to paint with this peanut buttery disaster of a medium made me mad.  Strike two. (I got mad).  After the first 4 paintings...Strike three. (I quit).  I was so frustrated!

A few days later I 'un-quit'.  I was determined to finish my 30 paintings even if every one of them sucked, because I wanted to be a better painter.  In all, it took me 45 days to finish my 30 paintings. The timing doesn't matter.  What does matter is this:  The things I learned in that short time by experimenting on my own and forcing myself to practice amounted to so much more than I ever expected; and the speed at which I improved could not be matched by taking a painting class.

This year, I've invited glass friends to join me in a similar challenge.  We'll be working to complete 30 fused glass powder sgraffito sketches in 30 days.  Many do not have experience using glass powders, but have accepted the challenge feet-first.  I know they will improve by leaps and bounds over the next 30 days!  Surprisingly, there are currently 376 glass fanatics from 9 countries who have accepted the challenge as I write this.  It is going to be so cool to see everyone's work, and if we all complete the challenge, we will have created almost 11,000 works of art in just 30 days!

You can follow our progress each day here on my blog, and check out the artists' web pages and blogs by clicking on the photos they will be uploading each day.  Of course I'm doing the glass challenge, but I am also participating in the painting challenge once again, with alcohol ink paintings (call me crazy and maybe I'll break out the oils).

January 1, 2015 Challenge is to create a sketch using only glass powder and your fingers.  They're your best tools!

Glass Sgraffito Sketch Day One, fingers only!

Sunny Morning Aspens, Alcohol Ink Painting,  5x7
Start bid: $20

Artists: Upload your Day 1 sketches by clicking the 'add your link' button at the bottom left.  Choose a photo from your blog, Facebook, or instagram page, or upload one from your computer.  If you have trouble locating the image URL, try using CTRL+click on the image, then choose 'copy image address'.  This should give you the image URL. If you have problems, check the Facebook page for the Fused Glass Powder Sgraffito Drawing 30 in 30 Challenge.  Happy New Year!

An InLinkz Link-up

Water and Winter (and a chance to win each month for a year!)

Winter Water Tower, Chicago
Fused Glass Sgraffito 'Frit Painting'

For today, January 14, 2014~ 
This is a piece I've been working on over the past week.  It's out of the kiln for the third time, and I still haven't decided whether or not it's finished.  All artists struggle with this indecision, but when we each make the final approval of our work, we sign our name to the piece and call it 'finished'.

That's a problem, because the odd thing about glass sgraffito drawing is that it is necessary to sign your piece in the powdered glass before it ever goes into the kiln.  What? 

It does feel a little disconcerting to be signing a piece that's barely begun, but I think it's far more beautiful to sign it in the glass itself than to skid across it with a Dremel tool later.  

So what happens to the pieces that get signed and end up in the junk pile?  People seem to want to know... so here's the answer.  The signature gets smashed off, and the piece 'goes to pieces' to make better things :)
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Don't forget to add your comments for a chance to win one of my glass pendants every month for 2014!

Here is all you need to do:

Please tell me your pet peeves, complaints, and 

irritations surrounding the subject of WATER.

Enter your response  in the "Comments Box" at the end of the post. 

Then, on the right side of this post, click on either 

"follow by email" or "subscribe to posts"

Pretty simple, no?
You'll get one entry per unique response between now and next Sunday, 1/19 at midnight.

Be sure to tell any friends that subscribe to add your name to the end of their comment, because you'll get extra credit for their entry.

Best to you all, I can't wait to tell you about the project!!

Mixing Media…I Can't Help It.

Tree Study in Alcohol Ink

Purchase this painting at auction, starts at $15

My college advisor told me that if my art was ever going to be taken seriously I needed to settle down and pick one medium to work in.  He said 'concentrate on one thing, so that you may master it'.  In many ways he was right.  The problem is that I LIKE to work in so many different media.  While it was very good advice given by someone I respected, I am still at odds when I look back.I think it's important, especially for children to realize that artists don't just sit down and whip out masterpieces.  Even the old masters.  

In sixth grade my school had a program called 'Mini Art'.  A random mom would come in with plastic covered prints of a master's works, and tell us about the artist, their work, and their (normally sad) lives.  In my 11 year old mind I thought my desire to be an artist was out of reach, because I couldn't make a masterpiece at all. My hands were never able to create what my brain imagined, no matter how much time I spent or how hard I tried.The part they left out of the 'Mini Art' program and my art education in general, is that no artist gets anywhere without regular, concentrated practice.  Artists screw up every time they work.  That's how art is.  It's a series of practicing adjustments, and keeping the best ones.  As an adult artist I wish someone had told me this when I was very young.

My piece for the day is a sketch in alcohol ink.  It is an attempt to quickly study and work out the kinks before I have to make decisions about creating it in glass, which is my media of choice on most days.  I work in any media I can get my hands on to figure these things out. My college didn't offer glass in it's program, and my advisor has since passed away.  I wish I could tell him that I found the perfect media to claim as my love, but I need the other ones in order to make it work..

Want to help make a stranger's day?

"The Phoenix", Oil on Gessobord,   6"x 6"

Participate in this auction in my Daily Paintworks Gallery!

A friend and I went to this cafe for breakfast when I was teaching a glass class out of town.  A man came in while I was there, he was apparently mentally challenged and he looked cold and hungry.   I asked him if he was hungry and he said no but I could tell that he was.  He wanted a small cup of water.  

We secretly bought him a coffee and bagel and left without him knowing.

I think about this man often, wondering if he is cold and hungry a lot.

I want all of the proceeds from the auction sale of my painting to go to this coffee shop in Benton Harbor, Michigan, to start a sort of "kindness fund" in honor of that man. 

 It would be a great way to offer any random person the opportunity to have a free cup of coffee,  be warm, and feel cared about for awhile.  

Please, please share this story, and put in a bid if you're inclined.  You can do so by clicking the link under the photo.  You could get the painting and help a lot of people in the process! 

 It's going to be so great to surprise them...