artamaze by Katherine Hilden

www.katherinehilden.com

Gesture Drawing Developed

Posted in Achievement, Illustration, Life drawing, Negative space, Technique and Demo, Texture, tagged developing the drawing, gloss paper, life drawing, poses, Stabilo All Aquarellable on June 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

These are two-minute poses. Between poses, there’s no time to switch to another page. All six poses are scribbled on the same paper. I encourage my students to let the figures overlap because overlapping takes us away from the clarity of illustration and into greater tension and dynamic.

Above, the page I did in class. Below, the page as I developed it later in my studio. I used the Stabilo-All-Aquarellable pencil on gloss paper, 11 x 17.

Life Studies

Posted in Life drawing, Technique and Demo, tagged gloss paper, life drawing, Stabilo All Aquarellable on May 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

When we have a model in class, I sometimes draw along. These are ten-minute poses. I worked with the Stabilo-All-Aquarellable pencil on gloss paper. Height of drawings, 11”.

Three Face Studies

Posted in faces, Technique and Demo, Texture, tagged Aquarellable pencil, gloss paper, ink, Karen on October 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

When I fill a long studio table with materials for a demo—papers and various drawing tools—I only intend to offer ideas and present possibilities. Nothing I say ever amounts to an assignment and if it did, ha, are you kidding we don’t do assignments. So, no assignments for this group, but when it comes to inspiration they do respond in the most amazing way.

Here’s a student, Karen, who has only worked with pencil before and look what happens after a half hour demo with Aquarellable Pencil and Ink.

Not only does she use the aquarellable with complete abandon and ease, but she draws this face (from a photo) with pronounced and expressive asymmetry. Symmetry takes a bit of dexterity to pull off but basically it’s easy. Also… boring, static, dead. What’s harder is asymmetry and, I think, that’s because it takes more courage. So, does the facile, wipeable water-soluble pencil boost the artist’s courage? Hmm. Maybe. Since you can’t really make a mistake, you can try anything. That’s a good state of mind to be in when you’re drawing.

Another characteristic of the Aquarellable Pencil is that it glides over gloss paper without pressure. It feels effortless.

All three drawings are on gloss paper, the first two in Aquarellable Pencil and the third in ink.

(Click for enlargements.)

Aquarellable Pencil

Posted in Achievement, faces, Technique and Demo, Texture, tagged Aquarellable pencil, bleed, eraser, Gaby, gloss paper, mistake, Schwan, studies on October 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

As the name implies, an aquarellable pencil makes a water-soluble line. After you’ve put down some lines and shading with this pencil, you can go back in with a water-laden brush and make the lines “bleed” or create some other interesting havoc. When you work this way on gloss paper, nothing seeps in, and if you want you can just take a damp paper towel and wipe everything off. Your page, in other words, is infinitely malleable. When you wipe off a passage (or the whole thing), it doesn’t feel like erasing , because the removal is instant and effortless—and does not involve a sanctified ERASER, you know, that thing that screams “you made a mistake” at you. No mistakes here. The aquarellable is a no-fault medium. Easy, forgiving and you don’t know where it will take you.

I gave a couple of demos last class, one for the Aquarellable Pencil (made by Schwan) and the other for ink, permanent and water-soluble (by Higgins). A couple of students took off—fearlessly.

The drawing, above, won everyone’s admiration. It’s about 14 x 11. You can move in close to study its subtleties and you can step back to share its atmosphere. The wet brush dissolved the aquarellable pencil lines with messy control. Without this kind of oxymoron you can’t get this kind of magic. Gaby had worked with the aquarellable before, but never with such daring and with such delicate effect.

Although I describe this medium as forgiving, I strongly advise that you make studies of your subject to get thoroughly familiar with it and to allow yourself to develop an emotional take on the subject.

These are the studies Gaby made before she produced her loose and very moving drawing. Click for enlargements.

The Wisdom of Ambiguity

Posted in abstraction, Achievement, Composition, Negative space, Seeing, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged Alejandra, ambiguity, focus, gloss paper, leaves, plant, Schwan Aquarellable on July 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

If the heart-shaped leaves of the philodendron were outlined more clearly, we might be moved to pat the artist gently on the back and congratulate her on having such good dexterity and a love of botany and in general being a good girl. But we wouldn’t spend any time really enjoying the drawing.

This drawing by Alejanda holds our attention because it takes us in and out of clarity. Now you see the leaf, now you don’t. Now you’re rational, now you’re free-associating. Here you know where you are, here you don’t. It’s a trip, as people used to say. But instead of feeling fooled, oddly enough, you feel that the work is truthful: this is how it is with the mind, it goes in and out of focus.

It takes courage to work like this, with the wisdom of ambiguity.

The artist/student used the Schwan Aquarellable pencil on gloss paper and a plain old damp paper towel for the smudging effects.

A second drawing from the same motif followed, this one done in china marker. Even though this medium was used without any smudging technique, the artist again plays on forms with a love of ambiguity.

Two fine drawings in one class period.

The Amaryllis Curls Around Black

Posted in abstraction, Color, Composition, Imagination, inspiration, literalness, Still life, Technique and Demo, tagged amaryllis, black, china marker, cliche, composition, flower, gloss paper, modernism, red, s-curve, still life, tension on January 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Traditionally, flowers are a sentimental subject in art. The perfume of the cliché hangs over them. The viewer’s mind goes soft. Oh, how pretty! Oh, how boring.

Still, there it is, a luscious amaryllis. It helps, of course, that it’s presented with a twist: just plopped down on this heap of cloth with the plastic stem coiling and creasing, like a cheap garden hose. This is good for the imagination.

In her drawing, Maggy S. is working in china marker on gloss paper, about 14 x 11. On gloss paper the china marker can be scraped off with a razor blade, but only to a limited extent, making for a pretty focused drawing process.

The artist puts down the amaryllis in red and then starts to work the background in black, keeping the texture lively. The flower is readable as what it is and the stem coils clearly, though it alerts us right away to the possibility that what we’re facing here is not all plain, up-front and literal. Now, what to do with the black! If she fills in the black as background, which is what she actually sees (please go back to the previous post to see the still life set up), then the whole thing will become too literal—red flower on black background, get it!!—and the drawing will fall flat. But if the black “background” goes beyond being merely background and takes on a life of its own, we may be getting into art. The artist restrains herself from filling in the left side of the page with black and just leaves that to the imagination, with two results: 1) The white on the left sets up tension in relation to the black on the right. 2) The black now moves through the page in an s-curve of its own. This black s-curve echoes the s-curve in the flower’s stem. Just seeing this is thrilling. Because of that, the drawing may be considered finished.

Given their sentimental association in our history, flowers present a challenge to the modern artist. But many of our mentors-in-modernism have approached the subject with plenty of irony and grit. You may want to look up paintings of flowers and still lifes by Cézanne, Redon, Schiele and Van Gogh.

Rembrandt Didn’t Have Paper Towels

Posted in Technique and Demo, Texture, tagged aquarellable, Gabrielle, gloss paper, paper towel, reed pen, Rembrandt on January 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I often think about Rembrandt and what he didn’t have. He didn’t have central heating, for example, which is why he depicts himself bundled up all the time. It was cold in Amsterdam much of the year. He also didn’t have electric lighting to extend his work day. He painted by candle light. Imagine that. He was also a printmaker and did that without paper towels. He had assistants, but still, imagine that.

Rembrandt didn’t have paper towels and he didn’t have aquarellable pencils, either. He was a tireless experimenter and I’m sure if had had aquarellable pencils he would have used them.

A few weeks ago in my drawing class I gave a demo on how I use aquarellable pencils. I work on gloss paper, which has two properties: water does not seep in and certain pencils, like china marker and the aquarellable, glide easily on the surface. The aquarellable lines, as the name implies, can be made to bleed with water. I particularly like the feathery effect made with a damp paper towel sweeping over the line or along the line. The pencil is called Stabilo 8046, made in Germany by Schwan; it also has the words “paper, glass, plastic metal” on its side. I use it for the drawings at http://facefame.wordpress.com

One of my students caught the bug and has been working with the Stabilo to great advantage. Shown above is Gabrielle E.’s drapery study from last week’s class. The soft edges and blending effects are created with the sweep of a damp paper towel.

Art materials don’t have to be “classic” or expensive. Forget bona fide art supplies. Draw with a twig, a blade of grass, a shish kabob stick, the end of a used up brush, a paper towel; paint with a housepainter’s brush or a kitchen sponge. Rembrandt used something called a reed pen, which at its finest was made of bamboo, but could also be a homemade tool made of indigenous reeds that grow near rivers and ponds.

The Consolation of Doodling

Posted in Therapy, tagged color, doodling, gloss paper, internet, markers, therapy on July 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Your Internet Provider giveth and your Internet Provider taketh away. Your call is important to us…your approximate waiting time is fifteen minutes…due to high volume of calls…you understand, don’t you. No, AT&T, I don’t understand, and I’ve been trying to get a consistent answer from your people for three hours. Insult to injury, I have to talk on the phone. Who talks on the phone anymore? People make appointments by email—hello, that would be the internet—to talk on the phone. The phone… so 20th century. Like a Bogey flick or smoking or not moussing your hair, or whatever.

Luckily, I draw. I’ve never been so desperately in need of drawing as this past Internet-deprived week.

I truly think there’s therapy in drawing. The tools are simple: a pencil and paper, both of the ordinary variety, will do.

In case of extreme frustration with the world out there, I recommend color. You may think that’s too complicated or too messy. Not so. Use markers and glossy paper. I recommend Chartpak markers and the PITT artist pen with the B tip. By glossy paper I mean the kind used for color printing, available at office supply stores and 11 x 17 would be the recommended size. The markers are expensive, so buy them when they’re on sale in August, half price in art supply stores. Buy whatever you like and add to your palette over time. Just start. The PITT pens come in a variety of colors, buy black and maybe a brown and whatever else you feel like.

It’s about feeling. That’s why I’m not giving specific advice, nothing “academic” about this. I’m recommending that you doodle in color because color triggers strong emotional associations. You’ll also discover that the materials I recommended make blending possible. Blending itself has feeling overtones. And one more thing: you will not erase. In this medium, you can’t. This means that your doodles will never be “good” or “bad.” They will only transmogrify from one thing to another.

What to doodle? You can invent forms and let them take you away. Or you can pick up a magazine or some piece of ubiquitous junk mail and draw what you find there.

And exhale!

https://artamaze.wordpress.com