Learning to Draw II

 By April I was already feeling better about my abilities and coming to terms with my handwriting.  Age and not comparing myself to others drawing the same thing goes a long way!  I was getting used to the tools and materials and finding what I liked best.  Turns out, it was ink and detail brush.  Thank you, Rapidograph Black India and the leftovers from my Design I class at KU.

Since everything shut down in mid March, I had a lot of time to draw and listen to books while trying to keep my existential dread at bay...

pencil on painted newsprint

daffodil with ink on painted newsprint
36 x 22 inches

I think this daf looks like it just sneezed...I was playing around making my own colored ink out of acrylic paint and spray gun medium, and spending more time on each drawing. On a walk after a rain, I took pictures of a daffodil patch, and immediately came home and drew it.

field clover head; ink on painted newsprint

A little too stylized but this one got me excited regardless as I was playing with washes and layering of ink.

Rattlesnake Master
ink and paint on painted newsprint
22 x 18"

If I have a color around, I will throw it on something in lieu of washing it down the drain.  The messy background and simple drawing make me happy here.

detail

striped squill found on a hike
36 x 22"

Really going after blown up small stuff and adding color here.

surprise lily greens that look like fries
22 x 18"

I think this is birch???
ink on painted newsprint

I began making more complicated drawings, letting my maximalism show through, and thinking of these are collages of drawn pictures...this is the first step.

Incised Ceramics I

 I went on quite a streak of trying a new technique at the beginning of the year--incising ceramics.  I was inspired by this cute metal vase I saw at Urban Mining and a Vasily Kafanov plate I came across online.

I don't even know what those are supposed to be.

Vasily Kafanov
h/t Worthpoint

This even preceded my bigger drawings, and now that I think about it, I'm sure was an early step in producing those.

A friend gave me some cool porcupine quills...they were sitting near me so I used them to dig into the soft--but not too soft!--surface to make some lines deep enough to hold underglaze and make a crisp line.

Carved with a porcupine quill.

Fired to cone 6 with underglaze and clear glaze.
Decorative wall plate.

pinch pot

yes, please.
cone 10, b-mix, underglaze, copper wash, glaze

This is my favorite early one, but I haven't been able to recreate it.  Instead of underglaze in the lines, I used copper wash. Copper reacts with glaze and the different environs of whatever kiln fire it's in differently.  This was finished in February.

cute bebe cat planter

I began to think maybe just black lines with a touch of color could be a nice way to go.

no thanks

I also used copper on this vase and, although many of my friends actually really like it, I hate the way it came out, looking like bloody scratches with pink flashing.  If it was just a geometric or organic design not meant to be representational, I think I definitely would have run with this application.