May Challenge: to learn from Hokusai

CJT's Celebration of Hokusai's "Big Wave"

I have decided to challenge myself each month to copy artwork from a famous artist, so that I may learn something new.  Each artist has a style, a flair, a signature look that we like but we don't always know how they came up with it, let alone how to do it.  So like Nike says -- just do it!

A very long time ago I was lucky enough to be an exchange student to Japan.  This was when I first saw Hokusai works.  I loved his wood block prints.  They had so much rhythm, flowing lines, mysterious cliffside dwellings and amazing bridges.  And always, there was the famous and poetic Mount Fuji.  All my memorabilia is in the storage shed, and I all but forgot about Hokusai.

Fast Forward to this month - we recently went to Boston where I saw a beautiful Hokusai show at the Boston Museum of Fine Art.  He was a prolific artist (tens of thousands of works) who lived and worked until he was 89 years old.  He moved constantly (more than ninety residences).  Many of his works were published in books, one was of the many views of Mt. Fuji.

I have always loved "The Big Wave".  It is so different from western art, and yet so descriptive in a stylized way.  So I copied it in pen and then watercolor.  I omitted the two boats that were in the Hokusai print.  I just wanted the wave and Mt. Fuji.

This challenge taught me to see the interesting flowing lines he drew and especially the complicated claw-like lines of he foam on the wave.  I hope I take with me a sense of rhythm and flowing line in my future original works.  It was a fun project and I am happy with my representation of it.

Painting from my vehicle

Today I went up to the top of Mt. Rose to the meadow to paint.  I planned it a week ago, and there was snow and rain just a few days ago.

I still went, but there were high winds, so I made changes to my painting plan.  I took a small watercolor kit that I could work in my vehicle.  I was warm, out of the wind, and had a great view from my truck!

Here is my set up:  a box top served as my desk on my lap, the center console held my water container, and the driver's set held more supplies.

There were plenty of people up there!  Several snowshoers with dogs, trekking across the meadow, and kids home from school were sliding in saucers down the hill.  Now there is a hardy bunch of people!

It is a new age - downloading art magazines

Watercolor pencil, watercolor wash, and colored pencil

I recently was contacted by a new art magazine Colored Pencil Magazine, asking if they could feature one of my colored pencil drawings in their new magazine.  After checking it out, I agreed, and they requested the above drawing "Barrel Cactus".  My picture is in their "Gallery" section of the September Issue!  I have ordered the download and the printed version for my portfolio.  They found me through the blogs that I posted this drawing from my sketchbook!

Colored Pencil Magazine is a very nice magazine.  The featured artwork they have is amazing.  What you can do with colored pencil - for example - photorealism - is done by more artists than I knew existed.  One nice feature with this magazine, is that you can order only one issue at a time, and the download is less expensive, and it gives you a chance to see if you want to be a regular subscriber.  I encourage you to check it out - I included the link above.

Finding out about this 1-1/2 year old magazine opened up a new world for me.  It is published by HP MagCloud - a service that will provide download magazines you put together, or print and mail them to the people who order them.  Fascinating!  They do brochures and other printable things for small businesses.  I might use them in the future!

Did you (all you artists out there) know that the American Artist Magazine is no longer being published?!!  Soooo sad - that magazine has been collected by public libraries for many, many years.  Maybe that is why I never subscribed!

When I get my issue in the mail, I'll scan my page and post it!

A new watercolor painting in progress!

Yes, I still love watercolor!  That last exercise to loosen up got me going!  I am doing a full sheet landscape from a photo I took at Monterey, California.  I am working from top to bottom.  I used liquid mask for the clouds (removed now) and the ocean foam in the lower right corner (still on - it is orange colored mask).

The trees were fun to do.  Very loose, flicking movements with a pointed round brush.  The rocks I am doing with a flat brush.  I am just beginning to put in the orange and red colors of the iceplant flowing down the rocky coast.  When I am done with that color and it is dry, I will put in the greens of the iceplant.  I didn't want the green and red to mix and make muddy brown.

I still have more rocks to put in on the lower half of the painting.

An exercise to get loose

When I haven't painted in so long, I decided to loosen up with an exercise in watercolor. Taking a full sheet of Arches watercolor paper, I had no plan, just splattered and dabbed paint around, sprayed with water, etc.  After a while I decided to turn some of the blobs of color into flowers.  This is just one corner of the whole painting.  The entire paintings is rather crazy looking, but I like this little corner.

I used a rigger brush to get the narrow wavy lines.  I hadn't used this brush in years, and it was good to play with it again.