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Why making series? II

by Herma april 17, 2016 16 Comments

I hope you want to hear why I start this series.

It started with a lesson by Carla Sonheim in The year of the Spark. We learned a fabulous technique with gesso and watercolor.

I used that technique for a portrait of a girl from the newspaper.

And I made a self portrait.

That was the beginning of the idea to make more portraits based on family pictures. (only as a reverence) I also had a lot of old frames at my attic and I want to use them for the portraits. I made two last year and then I lost focus. Now in the lessons by Carla Sonheim Y is for Yellow we learn to make a series. The perfect time for me to finish this series. I used all the old frames, painted them black. That is the practical story.

The romantic story is that I made a new family. You can look at a face(s) and imagine if it is your mother, your aunt or your granddad. What is it for person? And how do they all relate? I hope everybody who looks at these imaginary people find there own story.

Here are the last 4 portraits:

drawing, mixed media, portrait, watercolor

Why making series?

by Herma april 11, 2016 10 Comments

I started this series a year ago…. finely I finished it! Such a good feeling!

I start series all the time. Mostly in my head. No damage there. But as I really started a series of work I lose interest after 2 to 4 pieces. I know the process and more or less the outcome so why bother to do more…

All these incomplete series are a burden for me. I know that there is something, in my studio or on the attic waiting for me. I really wanted to finish these series but I lost interest. That cost a lot of energy. So there is damage. I hope to finish all the all ready started projects this year. (or next year)

And I’m more motivated now because I experienced how fantastic it is to see more than four pieces!

I read somewhere that you have to create a lot off the same work to let the public understand what they see. They don’t understand a piece of this and some pieces of that and than again something completely different. To be honest, I don’t understand myself in why and what I create.

So I’m sooo pleased with these portraits. Creating them wasn’t boring, it was interesting. They hang above my piano in the living room so I can see I can do it!

I hope to learn more about myself and my art work by finishing the other series. I let you know!

And I hope to tell you later more about why I made these portraits.

Liefs Herma

drawing, inspiration box, mixed media, watercolor inspiration, mixed media, owl, series, watercolor

Inspiration box and focus

by Herma maart 30, 2016 6 Comments

It is all about focus when you want to make a series. I learned that from Carla Sonheim. And about discipline. I experienced that this week.

Focus on some parameters to work with. Working with the same parameters on every drawing or painting will glue them together. So you create a series.

Pretty simple….

But so opposite of what I did the last years.

When I started painting I made series of four or five paintings! But the last years I followed a lot of lessons and I went everywhere with my creativity. Fun to do, but I lost focus. You can see that in my posts. They are about a lot of different things. I’m not sure why I lost my focus on series. Probably because I focus on learning new things. There is not much time left for making series or a body of work.

Time to get my focus back! (That is why I signed up for this year course (Y is for Yellow by Carla Sonheim)

So I ‘invented’ the inspiration box! I ‘m sure more people invented something like this but I like to think about it as my idea.

I wrote all the materials and subjects I like on small papers, folded them and put them in a box. For example I wrote words like acrylic paint, tracing paper, thick brush and girls head.

This is how it works: I get three papers out the box. These are the parameters I use to make a lot of drawings or paintings. I allow myself to use two or three materials with the three from the paper. When you want to do this yourself, don’t forget to make a list of what you wrote down on the little papers! So you can check which words are in the box.

This four owls are the first results. I had the words owl, sandpaper and a dip pen on my small papers. And I choose to combine it with gesso and watercolor.

It is a small series and it gave me focus on what to make. (I forgot how I love the results of ink on wet paper! (the second owl)

But… I didn’t have the discipline to go on with it. I guess I would discover more fun techniques or ideas if I did and make ten ore more. I have to work on discipline!

animals, Collage, drawing, journal, Minimie, mixed media, photo's

Creative process

by Herma januari 16, 2016 6 Comments

This year I participate in Y is for Yellow by Carla Sonheim. The most inspirational teacher I know. I want to show you the creative process of photo to illustration.

For the lesson we made left handed drawings and blind drawings from animals. I used a picture of a cow I made years ago. I watched her and draw her back a few times.

boerderij dieren, koe

Then I draw her with my non- dominant hand and after that with my eyes closed. (All instructions by Carla) This is the blind drawing.

koe, blind

I really liked the form of this cow. The neck does not close properly, but you can imagine that the line is a leg.

So I cut this form out a paper which I used under a project for rusting. Left over paper.

I made a journal page which I posted in the the Facebook group.

teken sessie II koe033

Someone in the group suggested to let Minimie ride on the cow and this is the result. I printed the cow on a paper I found. There were all ready ink splashes on it.

It was a short experiment, she is definitely not a cowgirl!

It is such a good feeling being in the flow and feeling that everything around you helps you to make something beautiful.

met hoed041

Today (17-1-16) I discovered that she need a cowgirls hat.

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