Monday, February 3, 2014

More from the Drawing Workshop

Here are a few more pix from the drawing workshop I took at North Country Studio Workshops with Leonard Ragouzeos.  North Country offers thirteen workshops in various media, simultaneously, using the fabulous facilities at Bennington College, during this one week in late January.  The workshops are offered every TWO years.

Here are some process shots of one of my pieces.  This is about 3' high:

Stage 1 (well, several stages in, but the first photo I took)

Stage 2, sort of

Stage 3

I think this is the finished piece.
Here are a few detail shots:
Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3
Here is my favorite piece, again with some detail shots:

This one is 3'x3'.

Detail 1

Detail 2

Detail 3
And a couple shots of The Master:

Drawing Mick Jagger


I have loads more pictures, but I'll leave it at this for now.  Thanks for visiting.

The best place to get Yupo is Jerry's Artarama.  There it is available in pads, large sheets, and rolls, so you can work really big if you like.  You can also get it at Blick Art Materials, but the rolls are more expensive.  Why do they sometimes call it "Yupo Watercolor Paper"?  It isn't watercolor paper at all; it is plastic!  Excuse me, "polymer".  It isn't even paper.  Anyhow, it is what it is, and is a really interesting substrate for India ink and other media.  India ink is cheap and available at virtually any art supply store.

Oh, one more picture.  Here is the Class Picture, missing two participants:
Is it my imagination, or did we all end up wearing black, white, and gray (except me)?

18 comments:

  1. Jane, this is wonderful, I love what you did, and would like to learn more about using yupo. Looks like a great class!

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  2. Such striking and powerful compositions Jane. How do you seal the ink on the yupo or are you putting them under glass? Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Paste wax. I have not done that part yet, but Leonard demonstrated it. I have a long way to go in exploring this medium.

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  3. I really love the 3'x3' picture you made...no problems wit scale there !

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    1. One of the very valuable things I got from this workshop was a chance to work large. Somehow I was not intimidated by scale, whereas the 3'x3' canvases I am working on with acrylics are scary still. So I'm hoping that by working larger in this medium I will gradually get more comfortable or confident in my usual medium at this scale. Btw, these pieces each took hours and hours, but the fabulous thing about a workshop is that you HAVE uninterrupted time to work.

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  4. Jane, The variations of tone and line are so dramatic, the surface appears to allow a generous working over. Are all the pieces 3' high? Did you work that large the whole week? I checked my Pinterest site to look for inspiration pieces for the Hip Series and planted my cursor on your postings from this workshop, which were top and center. I was looking for black & white images that would lend themselves to large and cropped x-ray images. I have not tried Yupo as a surface. I think some will be on the way. I am sure this week really energized your work. Looking forward to seeing more and future explorations.

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    1. Oh, now THIS would be a great medium for suggesting x-ray images! The tonality is awesome.

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  5. WOW WOW WOW and again WOW how amazing is this!
    Good for you to wear such an exciting colour, especially when working with so much black.

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  6. I have one piece of Yupo that I have managed to ignore so far. All that I had seen on it was in color and they just didn't look right but these black and white images are compelling. India ink? And white acrylic? Exciting work. I will give it a try when I can get my studio warm enough to work in!

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    1. Just India ink. Manipulated with tools and water and a few other things. I did a lot more subtracting than adding. It is a medium that will take me a LONG time to "master". Now it's all loosey goosey and beginner's luck. Go for it, and have fun! I will do some video demos, but there is nothing like a live workshop with a real master, and Leonard doesn't usually teach workshops, so I feel VERY lucky!

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  7. love these Jane. That larger size is rather scary!! I have never worked with Yupo, perhaps a future project for learning.

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  8. Hi Jane.

    Great works! Was it planned that you were the only one with color in the photo. Everyone else is dressed like the art work. :-)

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  9. love your work and yes, the artists are in tones similar to your drawings. Haha.

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  10. THAT would've been an inspiring class. I say it all the time but it's true...YOUR style always shines through.

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  11. I love these pieces. They were even better in person. I took the surface design class with Jason pollen. It was great learned a lot. Unfortunately, I had a family emergency and had to leave before the walk about.

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  12. Everyone was in black and grey, except you of course!! Love it, and thanks for sharing.

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  13. I have worked on Yupo with different materials (ink, acrylic paint, gesso, water soluble pencil crayons and pastels) and agree that the yupo reacts very differently than paper to whatever I throw at it (sometimes literally). What I love about yupo is how you can remove what you have done quite easily. What I hate about yupo is how you can remove what you have done quite easily. Judging by those fantastic LARGE pieces you created, you might have found your medium. Perhaps it is the ease of negative painting you are having such success with. Check out Creative Catalyst for videos that give a lot of great tips for working with Yupo. (A certain artist you know very well has an excellent video available there, lol.)

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