Art in the Times of Covid

Wow, things got dusty in here while I was away!

Resurrecting the blog today with this sketchbook entry. Featuring my brother's dog Smudge; the original images are ghosts of Christmas cards past.

 

 

I've picked up some tricks while I've been away. Back in the day, I would have used transfer paper to render the images and then painted them out. Instead, I went out from the nose and tongue, painting directly, then over-painted and inked. I abstracted the background grass using watercolor pencils and, conveniently, their complements for the hellish background.

 

Here's the interesting backstory. When designing the page, my hands were tied from the start... by the other side of the paper. It's got a large drop-captial A in red sharpie and so a touch of bleed-thru you can see in the "nose" photo. (Lesson learned.) Thus the need to over-ink the "A", which drove the placement of all the other text and page elements we see here. There's hardly any text, but it tells a story with an economy of words.

I've been doing a lot of sketchbook work lately because I've learned I can fit it ten minutes here and there and get things done. You'll see more of that soon, along with some more thoughtful "thoughts". Meanwhile, best of health!