Working on Mike Kline's Moleskine

Spoonbill, Hornbill and Duckbill
Acrylic, by Mary Stebbins Taitt
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Spoonbill and Duckbill
with their friend Hornbill
Rode a red wagon downhill
with glorious freewill
past the sawmill
and came to a standstill
at Frankie's doorsill.

 Frankie is my grandson.  One of four.

I can't find the paper with the "poem" on it, and I'm not sure I'm remembering it right.

Roseate Spoonbills envelope
acrylic, Mary Stebbins Taitt

Pumice Fish
Acrylic, Mary Stebbins Taitt

I never went to art school, so I have to learn everything by experimenting.  I bought some pumice medium and played with it on the envelope for the first time ever (dumb, I know).  It was so rough, like sandpaper,only worse, so, worried about the mail carriers and postal employees injuring their fingers, I put a couple layers of matte medium over it, but that made it look dull.   :-(  It has lots of texture!  But less than before. (I also used a tiny but of the pumice medium on the rocks and on the road in the Spoonbill hornbill duckbill painting.)

In the Pocket:

Twin Poppies
oil on Graham Cracker box treated with acrylics
Mary Stebbisn Taitt

Flute Practice
oil and Arches Oil Paper
Mary Stebbins Taitt

Flute practice, side view
showing topography of oils

Mike, take the oils out and let them dry some more.  I hope they survive the journey to your house!!!

Cassandra Elise Lapwing revisited yet again (I'm probably still working on this):

Riding the Storm

Riding the Storm
painted collage
Collab Andrea and Mary
click image to view larger.

When we were in Colorado, a number years ago, driving south on the east side of the mountains, a storm sat over the mountains and funnel clouds, sometimes a number of them, kept snaking down out of the clouds.  It was creepy, scary and fascinating.

Andrea Martinez added the house.

I made a college and then painted over parts of it.  The witch is my friend Gail Slaughter and Dorothy, the scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion are all friends of hers.

Working on Mike Kline's Moleskine in the wee hours

I had a bout of fairly severe insomnia the night before last and was up for several hours between 2 and 6 AM, and spent my time painting. First, I covered the backside of the painting of Frankie and the spoonbill, hornbill and duckbill with a painting of Cassandra Elise Lapwing, in profile. I THINK she is played by Julianne Moore. This is acrylics, and it is an "extra" painting, to covered the bleed-through. Since there seem to be MANY pages in this Moleskine, I didn't think Mike or anyone would mind my doing an extra.  I used 3 "colors," black, Payne's grey and neutral #5 grey.

Cassandra Elise Lapwing profile
acrylic
Mary Stebbins Taitt
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Now I was really into Cassandra Elise Lapwing, so I did another HALF portrait of her for a collaboration with Mike.  This is entirely done with one black gel pen and some Faber-castel PITT artist pigment pens in 4 colors, black, sepia, sanguine and grey.

Cassandra Elise Lapwing collab
gel pen and Faber-Castelle PITT pigment artists pens

Mary Stebbins Taitt

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Here is the two-page spread:

Two-page spread

Mary Stebbins Taitt

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Here is the collab image doubled.  This is not what I expect from Mike; I'm sure he'll be much more creative.  Doubling it like this tells me there is something wrong with the original that I couldn't see (or didn;t notice) in the half-image.  That is one weird-looking chick, LOL!!!!  (I did not complete the process of doubling her because my main computer has died and the Cintique is still attached to the dead computer.)

 

Cassandra Elise Lapwing half doubled.

Cassandra Elise Lapwing half doubled
and slightly fiddled with

I really need to get the Cintique on the piece of junk I have to use for a computer now, since my Mac died.

I need to stop playing with this, pointlessly, and get back to the actual Moleskine. What remains to be done is finishing the paining of Frankie and the spoonbill, hornbill and duckbill and the collab with Andrea, which I have started on, but not completed.

Continuing on my painting

Session 4

I worked on the mountains plus trying to get rid of the stupid white lines from my sketch.

Session 5, Monday Night, August 12

I worked on Frankie's Face, the trees on the hills, the logs, some of the clouds and fog in the mountains. I'm very slow--each session is a couple hours long.  You probably can;t even tell the difference.  None of the photos quite look like the actual painting.

New Moleskine Painting, SLOW PROGRESS

I decided to post my slow progress on Mike's book because I'm afraid I won't be ready to mail on the 15th,

Session 1

First I searched for reference photos.  Then, because the paper is so thin, I sprayed it, then drew on it with a white "soufflé" pen. (I tried pencil and ballpoint, but they didn't show up.) I intentionally made Frankie and the animals proportionately a little extra big relative to the porch and door etc.

Session 2

I worked on the boy first.  He is my grandson,  Unfortunately, the ballpoint pen ink keeps coming through the paint, and unfortunately, I only used it on Frankie, on his face, legs and neck!!  :-(

Session 3

Frankie's face was too short in the beginning, but I overcompensated and made it too long.  This is a very slow process.  It will be a while before I finish it, and I have two collaborations to do--I started on one, but not on the other yet.  I've had some health issues and family crises (including a kid in jail, a kid with a concussion, etc).  But I am plugging away.

"What if Everything I told you was True?"

"What if Everything I told you was True?"
Golden "Open" acrylics
in round 3 Moleskine
click image to view larger

I did this on one of the blank pages in my round 3 Moleskine sketchbook.  I bought some open acrylics and thought I should experiment in my own Mole rather than Mike's, in case I screwed it up.  The first thing I did was lay down cobalt blue, red and yellow and blend them, then painted the forest scene over that--it is almost entirely painted with the primary colors, with just a little white and black added at the end.  (I only bought 3 tubes of paint to try out.)  The "open" acrylics are supposed to stay workable significantly longer.)

I am thinking of the scene as something from dream shamanism.

I am slowly recovering from my surgery.  My eye seems to be recovering as well.