Tools of the Trade

In high school I didn't really appreciate too much about my art supplies, I used whatever I had or needed. In my first high school art class we were assigned to do a study off of a drawing/etching/engraving by Albrecht Durer. I worked very hard on the piece and was pleased by the way it turned out. I used three different pens, something you could tell on close inspection. When I took the piece home I proudly displayed it in my room, and then one day some water flooded through the ceiling in my bedroom and among other things, my drawing was ruined. That year for Christmas my parents, who felt bad about what happened, got me a set of micron pens that were waterproof.
Since that time that's pretty much all I've used for my pen and ink needs art wise. They're good pens, come in different tip sizes and they've lasted fairly well. They also claim to be archival although I don't know how accurate that claim it, for now I'm taking them at their word.
I use 05, 03, and 01. The only problem is that they're not great for major shaded areas but I suppose I really should be using something else for major shading anyway.

Piece of the Week

This piece was one I made specifically to enter into a themed competition, I struggled figuring out how to fit the theme and I went through several piece ideas. I knew about the theme for ages but still it was rather close to the deadline that I sent in my entry. My piece didn't get chosen for the show unfortunately but over a thousand entries were sent in and only two hundred made it in. I do rather like how this piece turned out however and I like the reminders and influence of my trip to Italy last summer. The dove was inspired by Bernini's stained glass in St. Peter's and the seashell has an nod to Botticelli and other Renaissance pieces I saw while I was there. This piece is rich with symbolism and the sacred geometry that I love so much.

A Pattern in All Things
Watercolor
9x9in
2011
Photo by Hawkinson Photography

Tools of the Trade

In school I had more drawing classes than anything else art wise and with drawing comes erasing. I went to college with a knead-able eraser and a rubber gum eraser. One of my teachers who became my mentor shook up a lot of what I thought I knew about art. He told us that we shouldn't be erasing, but working more carefully so that we wouldn't need to erase. He also said my rubber gum eraser was acidic and not good for the paper. Part of why we weren't supposed to erase is that erasing compromises your paper and that effects what you draw after you erase. I hadn't comprehended this before but I've found it to be absolutely true. He told us that you shouldn't use an eraser if you can avoid it, unless you're actually using the eraser as a tool and not just a mistake correcter. He also told us that we shouldn't rub our erasers back and forth as we are wont to do, but to use the eraser in one direction and go the other direction to clean it off. I bet you didn't realize there was so much to be said about erasing, I know I didn't.


Finally, he said if we had to erase we should be using a staedtler plastic eraser. I don't know if other plastic erasers would also be as good but I use a staedtler.

P.S. Another good thing about these eraser techniques is that I've had the bottom eraser for years and who knows how many more years it will take me to use it up.

Piece of the Week

In honor of the crocus coming up, to get snowed on as usual, here's this week's piece of the week.

Awakening
micron pen and ink
2011
11x11
Series: The Importance of Bees

Tools of the Trade

I'm not sure how regular this will be but I thought it might be interesting every now and again to post about the tools I use to make my art.
This time I want to share about the drawing pencils I use. I dug through my dad's art stuff from college when I first was going and ended up with a green and very light pencil. I didn't really know about drawing pencils when I first started college, I'd only used mechanical pencils with .5 or .7 lead, with those pencils I'd learned to make shades from white to black, or silvery black as graphite tends to be. In my first drawing class I think we were supposed to have a B pencil and maybe an H. For those unfamiliar, as I was, drawing pencils go from hard (light shade) to soft (darker shade). Hard pencils are Hs and go from H to 9H (fairly rare, very hard). Soft pencils are Bs and go from B to 9B, there are also a few pencils in between H and B. I think a standard #2 pencil is an HB.


Anyway I brought a the green, very light pencil to class with me and found out that it was Faber Castell, a very good German made pencil. I really liked working with that pencil and eventually bought a set of them.
I tend to use lighter pencils more, I generally use a 5H or 6H to sketch out my paintings or drawings. 5H and 6H are light enough that they just about disappear when the painting or drawing is done.

Piece of the Week

For this week the piece is the most recent from the Genesis series. I hadn't been quite sure how to do the gray part of the painting but I somehow got the idea to make it cloud-like and I really love how it turned out.

Divided From Darkness
Watercolor and Sumi ink
9x9in
2012
Series: Genesis

Nude vs Naked

This is something that I've been talking about with friends lately. I think the first time it was brought up, someone was asking if they'd found some pants for Michelangelo's David, which led to discussion as to whether he was nude or just naked. A few days later I had a similar conversation with a group of friends, aided in explaining nude/naked by a fellow artist.
When I got to my first art history class I think one of the first things we covered was the nude/naked issue. I was not thrilled by the idea of studying the David other works similarly attired. I wasn't sold on the the nude/naked thing but I have since become very converted.
So here's the nude/naked argument, you're welcome to make up your own mind. I have very much come to appreciate the difference between a nude and something that's naked, erotic or even pornographic. A nude is not intended to be erotic or pornographic and even naked can have a negative connotation. A nude is about the beauty of the human body. I would not say that every unclothed figure in art is a nude, and I would say that there are probably many unclothed figures mislabeled as nudes. So there you have it, nude/naked in a nutshell.

Piece of the Week

Welcome to March and piece of the week. March promises to be a very busy month with all sorts of opportunities and deadlines approaching. This week's piece of the week may have been on the blog before, it's from my senior/final show at BYU.

Sea of Glass II
Sumi
2009
Series: Mysteries
photo by David Hawkinson