Blobbing Paris

 Continuing with the blobbing theme PBers. These are water puddles with color dropped in plus tilting the paper to get the color to run around and 'mingle'.

 I learned to mingle colors and make blobs from watercolor artist David Dewey.

 And from his book, The Watercolor Book.

 Here's a good exercise anyone can do if they have a few art postcards. Piero Della Francesco used a wonderfully harmonious color palette and you'll understand it better when you try to match the colors.

 Some color blob thumbnails jammed on a page.

 Several Tuscan blob buildings plus color swatches.

 Multiply color swatches with a landscape plopped in the middle.

 A color wash ground with a little Tuscan landscape laid on top.

 Another.

 There were plenty of color wash pages in my old sketchbook. These are 'color beginnings' as J.M.W.Turner called them - a big atmospheric wash of colors.

 Why not paint a Paris skyline on top with a little help from Google images?

 After mixing up (but not well-mixed) a biggish puddle of cobalt blue + French Ultramarine blue + Burnt Sienna + Burn Umber, I begin drawing the Arc de Triomphe with a brush loaded with unmixed 'organic color'.

 Extending the puddle of 'mingled' paint down and across, always keeping it wet and working fast I add the Eiffel Tower...

 Ever onward, tilting the paper a bit to help the wet paint/colors run and mingle across the page.

Et voila.

Now YOU do it!

Blobbing Sketchbook

 An old friend kindly lent me back some sketchbooks I'd given him a while back when I was clearing out a closet a few summers back.

 I was surprised

 By these

 I thought I'd give you a look.

 Throw down washes (wet color on wet paper).

Then once the washes are dry, drawing on top with with a brush.

 The underwash colors should be pale and warmish.

 For contrast.

 Sometimes I like to draw with a loaded brush, especially figures.

 Sometimes the layering is just abstract blobs.

 Layered blobs on top of blobs.

 With a bit of spatter

 Always put warm colors down 1st and cool colors on top. Not the other way around. To quote The Watercolor Book:

Applying cool over warm gives more luminous results, while applying warm over cool produces darker, more opaque effects.

A quote from British watercolor artist Brabazon Brabazon:

by Brabazon
"Broadly speaking, my mental processes which I attempt to express can be roughly summarized thus: (1) The creation of the nebulous atmosphere in harmony with the scene which will enable me to pass through and beyond the surface of the paper into a world of imagination in which I can breathe and look about me. This we will call depth. (2)Then I am able to observe the main forms and color masses which interest me: form."
 Are you inspired to paint blobs this weekend? I am.

BONNE WEEKEND!

Shocking Life - Schiaparelli

 Shocking Pink, 9" x 11"

 Sunday I went to see the Schiaparelli and Prada exhibit at the Met. It was the last day.

 'Schiap's famous shoe hat. Don't you love the red lips pocket - so witty.

Elsa Schiaparelli (1890 - 1973) was one ot the leading designers of the 1920s and 1930s with a flair for the unusual. The first one to use shoulder pads, animal prints and the inventor of shocking pink. Schiaparelli collaborated with artists including jean Cocteau, Alberto Giacometti and Salvador Dali to create the Dali Lobsters dress.

 I'll admit I'm biased. I much prefered Schaiparelli to Prada in the exhibit and didn't even give them a look.

 "The more the body is respected, the better the dress acquires vitality...The Greeks...understood this rule, and gave to their goddesses...the serenity of perfection and the fabulous appearance of freedom".

All of Schiaparelli's quotes in the show are taken directly from her autobiography, Shocking Life, (which I'm currently reading) was published in 1954.

 Schiap was famous for her fitted jackets influenced by uniforms and mens tailoring. "[I feel] that clothes [have] to be architectural: that the body must never be forgotten and it must be used as a frame is used in a building…

 "Two words have always been banned from my(fashion) house -  the word 'creation', which strikes me as the height of pretentousness and the word 'impossible'. I kept in touch with the needs of women who had confidence in me and tried to help them find their type. This I believe to be the principal secret of being well dressed'.

 "Waist up/Waist Down" looks at Schiaparelli's use of decorative detailing as a response to restaurant dressing in the heyday of 1930s café society.

 

 "Types are vastly different. Women's looks should correspond to their way of life, to their occupation, to their loves, and also to their pockets".

Women designers are so much more practical aren't they?

I picked up Schiap's autobiography, Shocking Life at the Met exhibit. It's a terrific read detailing all the ups and downs of her exciting life as a tremendous creator and survivor of the highest order.

Vivian Swift’s Atelier

 Author Vivian is clearly an expert embroiderer. Some might be inclined to conclude that she is also an expert at embroidery in the figuritive sense as well.

 I visited last Friday to check out her claim of owning NINE cats(!)  Cat#1.

 If you look at Vivian's books, Le Road Trip and When Wanderers Cease to Roam, you'll see many cats strewn about liberally.

 I decided to take a count. Here is cat#2.

 Cat#3

 Vivian claims there is a cat lurking in her closet.

Do you see it? I do not.

 This is Vivian's studio or  atelier where her books are created. This is for real.

 Vivian's inspo board.

 And the butterflies in Le Road Trip on page 163. Definitely for real.

 Why Vivian has seen fit to hang on to samples of French dirt illustrated in Le Road Trip, I did not inquire, not wanting to seem nosy. Perhaps they have sentimental value?

 Sketches for her newest book in the works on gardens. (I hope I'm not giving away trade secrets here).

 More embroidery samples on the studio wall.

 

Another page from Le Road Trip: A Traveler's Journal of Love and France. I did not see any Morris Columns in Vivian's atelier. Not even a miniature. Honestly it really doesn't matter how many cats she says she has, the woman can tell a very good story and will have you laughing endlessly as well as becoming informed on France in ways that make excellent conversation at a dinner party.

Just do it!