CrashOctopus Blog

I have a tough time with gouache washes. Large, smooth areas of color elude me. I am learning slowly, and painfully, what works best. I have, for a while, suspected that washes work best on fast-absorbing surfaces - so I did an experiment. The contestants: Gessobord and Sennelier Hot-press watercolor paper. Both are smooth and have about the same surface area.

I mixed up a wash of Horadam (good stuff) raw umber and used a middle-of-the-line Blick #14 round wash brush.

Gessobord first. I slopped some paint on it. It does not absorb anything quickly - it does absorb, but takes its own sweet time. Note the puddling.

I covered the board… in bubbles. I didn’t mean to, it just always does that.

The evil bubbles:

Next up: the Sennelier. I slopped some paint on it. No puddling, no bubbles.

I covered the paper. Sorry about the glare. No puddling, no bubbles. Hmm.

After they dried a bit, I gave them both a second coat. This helped smooth the wash on both surfaces, but little bits of stuff are still visible on the Gessobord. Some are bubbles, but most of it is dust and hair.

The culprits:

It perplexes me that the Gessobord holds onto these bits o’ crap. The paper had a few, but I got rid of them with a few strokes of the brush. On the Gessobord, if I scrub hard enough to get rid of them, I’m back to white board in that area.

I can’t have a wash full of dust and hair, nor can I have white streaks all over. Until I figure out how to get the Gessobord to work with me and release its hold on the bits and bubbles, I’ll have to stay away from washes. At least I can wipe the slate clean with water:

Here is the result of rubbing a damp paper towel over both surfaces. Each had dried for a while, but I did dump a bit of water on the Gessobord (see above). The difference is obvious; the Gessobord hadn’t absorbed much of anything - it nearly returned to white. And this is a staining pigment!

Lesson: Meg needs help with gouache washes on Gessobord. I have a ton of this stuff to use. Also, if you can’t paint in a dust-free, fur-free environment… how do you avoid the bits o’ crap?

This week’s beer is another big bottle o’ fun. Avery “The Czar” Imperial Stout is a newcomer at the store; not yet popular enough for six-packs, only expensive pint bottles.

It is delicious. Sweetness fills your senses, but there’s a hint of tangy, too. It does have a tiny sour aftertaste, but I’ve yet to find a beer without one. It’s verrry smooth and velvety going down. I don’t know how it got its name, but it’s appropriate - The Czar is a beer fit for royalty. And for me.

Ratings:
N:9.5
M: 9

I’m back from my relaxing vacation in the middle of nowhere, Iowa. It was the busiest I have ever seen the place. I will share with you some amusing anecdotes, including some artistic lessons learned.

• Laurens, Iowa had its 125th birthday this year. We celebrated all weekend.
• Laurens is the home of the Straight Story, a movie about an elderly local who rode his lawnmower to visit his sister in Wisconsin. The mower was in the parade.
• It is difficult to take good photos of a parade.
• Laurens, Iowa is a sister city of Laurens, France. 11 French people, including the mayor of the little Provencal town, came to Iowa for a week.
• I thought they’d be bored. Instead, they enjoyed themselves way more than any of the Americans did, even though we fed them burgers and beans twice a day for three days. They really loved drinking Budweiser and riding lawn tractors. They brought a bottle of wine for every resident of the town.
• The Sister finally found a post-graduate use of her French degree by translating all weekend. She was a hit.
• I did not even know Tractor Square Dancing existed. It is the coolest thing ever. EVER!
• It is difficult to take good photos of tractor square dancing.
• I got to hear both my 89-year-old grandma play honky-tonk piano and an outdoor swing band and a church choir sing patriotic songs on the same beautiful 80-degree summer day. Doesn’t get better than that.
• RAGBRAI came to Laurens last weekend, too. When a town jumps from 1,500 people to 15,000 and back in one day, it is quite a show. Lance Armstrong was there. We followed him down the street while munching on ears of sweet corn.
• They strung a wire between two huge tractors on main street for a bike rack. It was overflowing, as were the gutters and storefronts.
• It is difficult to take good photos of 15,000 people and their bikes.
• If you leave your 400mm lens and camera on a tripod, it will be top- and front-heavy. Do not leave it setup near anything, especially small children and cats.
• If you do leave it out and it gets knocked over, face first, into the concrete, you will learn well the protective value of lens caps, UV filters, and vigilance.
• Three hour airport layovers are good opportunities to draw random things. However, people will look at you funny.

Hey y’all - I’m going on a quick vacation, so I’ll be silent during the next week. I promise to come back with some photos and good stories!

A few weeks ago, I submitted a seven-piece portfolio to a juried show. It was my first attempt at jury submission. It failed.

After I finished blubbering and sketched myself a sad squid, I started looking objectively at the situation. Had I simply been rejected, I may not have asked why. But they mistakenly sent me two e-mails; the first one said “Congratulations, you’ve been accepted!” and the second, which came the next day, said “Sorry, but you have not been selected.” Shortly afterward, the art director sent another e-mail explaining the mix-up and told me the “reject” e-mail was the correct one.

I was fairly mad, considering the “accept” e-mail came first. I slept on it, and finally decided to write the director about the situation. I politely expressed indignation about the fiasco, and I also asked if the jury had any comments. I really wanted some insight about why I was rejected.

They were nice enough, and came back with this: “Your work is inventive but lacks focus.” That one line, that short sentence, says so much. I had selected a variety of styles to show the jury my versatility.

Turns out, the majority of juries, galleries, and buyers want consistency rather than variety. Think about it from a buyer’s standpoint: you want to be able to sum up the artist’s style in a few seconds by looking at a wall of their art.

I am still learning and exploring with styles, mediums, supports… everything! Because I’m still new to painting, I don’t know what I want to focus on. I have so many interests that it’s painful to pick just one area. But I have to if I want to become a serious artist. It just feels too soon! I don’t want to limit myself when I hardly know anything and have oodles still to learn. Does anyone else feel that conflict?

I learned a bunch from my rejection. The lesson this week: use your failures to evaluate yourself and improve your art. It’s tough, but it’s worth it. I was back to my normal self in no time, and wiser to boot.

A stout generally tastes like a stout, and the same with a porter. Dark beers, however, run the gamut. They’re like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. I love trying out new dark ales or black beers, because it’s anybody’s guess what you’re going to get.

Moorehouse’s Black Cat called to me from its lonely perch in the refrigerator case. It was a lone bottle, waiting for someone to give it a good home. It had come all the way from England. I obliged.

Black Cat is a dark ale that tastes a tiny bit like a stout - a very mild one. It has the ale characteristic of not having much taste, at least compared to most dark beers. We’re talking a tame, cute black cat (Fig. 1), rather than a witch’s pet or the evil, insane kind (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

This Black Cat is more tangy than sweet, but the flavor isn’t very strong either way. It’s very smooth, with not much aftertaste. Apparently it won some awards in 1998. Meh.

Ratings:
M: 7
N: 6

Flying Ace by Meg Lyman

Pencil doodle

Hey everyone, I’m back from Anthrocon! It was a lot of fun meeting people I met online. I talked to a bunch of great artists, traded sketches, doodled a lot, bought art, and sold a few things. I only moved 2 prints, one commission, and 3 originals, but one of those origials (the Cuddlefish) got 8 written bids, which sent it to voice auction. Yay! I have to wait until August (when they send out checks) to find out how much it went for, since I had to leave the auction early.

I met, bought art from, or am otherwise promoting the following great artists:

Ursula Vernon

Bloodhound Omega

Tamen

Louvelex

Kitsumi

Nevar

Cassandra Rising

I think I am coming down with a cold. It’s either “con crud” or something I got on the airplane. Oh well. Time to go make art before my nose starts leaking on everything.

Hawaii Sunrise by Meg Lyman

5×7″ gouache on Gessobord

$65 - click here to buy

Although I will be going on several vacations this year, none are to a tropical location. So, for those of us who can’t make it to the coast this summer, here, have a beach.

I tried Claybord fixative on this. It worked well for The Shop. However, it turned the black areas of this painting into salt & pepper - there were little white spots everywhere. I had to repaint all the shadows. Lesson: black gouache doesn’t like Claybord fixative.