Holidays in Mixed Media 2023!

 

For the past several years, I've posted a Holidays in Ink challenge for those who wanted to play along with an easy-to-travel-with medium and sketchbook during the holiday season. I've been getting asked when I'd be posting the one for this year. I'm sorry that it is so delayed; there's only a week until I plan to start. I did Inktober this year for the first time, so I wasn't really interested in doing another ink challenge so soon. I'm up for color and using lots of different mediums. Therefore, this year I plan to do Holidays in Mixed Media! Feel free to change it and make it your own. I'm doing it with a few friends who have helped set the parameters for a holiday challenge. Here are the optional "rules" we plan to follow.

Dates: November 20-December 31, 2023. (42 days) We plan to create art at least 30 of those 42 days, whether it's for 10 minutes or 10 hours. We might create 30 pieces/sketches during that time, or just a few. They might be postcard size done in a half hour, or full sheets that we've worked on for weeks. We are not counting pages; instead, we are experimenting with processes throughout the dates of the challenge. Holidays are filled with gatherings and interruptions. We are allowing for those by planning only 30 days out of the 42.

Paper: We will be working on loose sheets of assorted types of paper, varying size, color and texture. We want to explore how various materials respond to specific papers, and the effects that creates. I also want to be able to put everything up on my studio walls as I work through the project, to analyze what I've done and guide me from one piece to the next. If I need to travel over the holidays, I can just bring a few pieces of paper with me. It's easy, and I won't be size-restricted.

Media -- Choose at least one from each of the three groups below for each piece/sketch. Of course, you may additionally use collage and anything else you wish. There is no set order for using the materials, nor a maximum limit to the number of different mediums you can use.

• Group A. Waterproof and permanent -- This medium should be waterproof and not move once it's placed down. Examples include waterproof inks and pens, Posca or other acrylic markers, acrylic paint, etc.
• Group B. Water Soluble - This medium can either be wet or dry, but should remain water soluble once dry. Examples are watercolor, gouache, water soluble inks or graphites, water soluble brush pens, watercolor pencils with water applied, water soluble crayons with water applied, etc.
• Group C. Dry Media -- This can be water soluble or not, since that's not a factor when applied dry. Examples include colored pencils, oil pastels, soft pastels, graphite, charcoal, etc.

The painting at the top of this post used all three types of media. I toned the paper with very diluted yellow acrylic paint. Once dry, I painted loosely and transparently with gouache, then used violet Posca markers. Toward the end, I sketched with assorted dry media over the top. 

A note about prompts: We are not doing a prompt list this year. I might use only a few reference images, and do some series with them. Differences in materials and approaches provide variety, and for me, inspire experimentation. Those series might be interspersed with assorted sketches of different subjects. Or I might change my mind! I like the idea of leaving all my subject options open, and going with the flow this time around!

*** Since my blog subscription is no longer working, please help by sharing this project with friends and other artists. I'm not on social media these days, so I'd appreciate anything you can do to help spread the joy around via social media or email; it's always more fun and inspiring doing these things in a group!

Sketches from Maine -- Bar Harbor, Mount Desert Island, and Acadia National Park

I was able to get a few days to sketch on Mt. Desert Island. I didn't have time to write on location, so I left room for it, and did the writing when I got home. Here's a quick video flip through of the sketches. (View at slow motion if you don't want to miss anything; I flipped through rapidly.) This signature of pages will be bound into a sketchbook with my other sketches at the end of the season. That enables me to travel light, and select from many types of paper.

Pilot Parallel Amazing Hack!

 

I love Pilot Parallel pens, but a couple of things about them really annoy me. One is that you cannot post the cap of the pen, so once you take the cap off, there's nowhere to put it if you're not sitting at a desk. The second thing is that they are so long that they don't fit in all of my pen cases. The fact that they don't have a pen clip on them, combined with the length, has caused them to slip right out of my sketch bag more than once. 

I've been noticing for a long time now that there is an indented circle around the barrel of the pen. I've often wondered what would happen if I cut the pen there to shorten it, and close up the resulting opening. This morning I decided to test drive that idea.

In the image above, you can see the indentation around the barrel on the pen on the right. I cut the barrel there, as shown on the pen with the flat edge to the left of it. Once the end was wider because it had been cut, I wondered if the orange cap would now post onto the barrel.

To my surprise and amazement, not only did the cap fit perfectly onto the cut end, but when I removed the cap, that black plug that you see (which comes lodged inside the Parallel pen caps) became an end cap, and was affixed to the end of my pen barrel! Apparently, the pen is designed with this option to shorten it and also be able to post the cap!

You can see in the image above how the black end cap fits perfectly on the end of the barrel. I'm going to put a little glue in there to make it a permanent and secure addition. The pen must have been designed for this; otherwise the black plug wouldn't be there, or wouldn't fit and automatically affix itself the the cut end, and neither would that indented circle around the barrel exist which indicates where to make the cut. They should include instructions for it in the leaflet that comes with the pen!

I have now done this to 13 of my Parallel Pens. On two of them, the black plastic end cap didn't come out of the colored cap to attach itself to the barrel. I just put a drop of Crazy Glue around the cut end, reinserted that into the cap, and the end cap affixed itself perfectly.

If you like the length of the unaltered Parallel and don't mind that the cap doesn't post, don't do this hack! It does shorten the length of the pen considerably. Hopefully it will help some of you who have also want a shorter pen with a cap that posts. One of my favorite pens just got a whole lot better!