Playing around with Picasso's Camel

Picasso's Camel

My version

a sampling of the preliminary sketches

I didn't even know Picasso had a camel actually, but I saw it on a tea set at a friend's house and thought it was a great design idea for a repeatable image.  I figured if it is on a tea set it probably is not copy righted, but still I would rather come up with my own stuff rather than just repeat someone else's image.  One of the main things I didn't like about Picasso's version was that it has two humps and the camels here in Bahrain have only one.  I wasn't particularly fond of the head either as it looks more like a llama to me.  The other thing is that the camels hold their heads even with or lower than their hump most of the time in my observance.  The camels feet are like big cleft thick pancakes that spread out all the way around the leg as they step.  Their bellies protrude and their hips are really small through the flank area.
   So I set about making my own version.  I drew and redrew and redrew some more.  I bet I have drawn this out over a hundred times and it is still not perfect!  It is amazing how the tiniest variation makes such a difference when you are dealing with such a simple design.  When I drew the camel too close to reality (much more spread out from head to tail) then the design wasn't as interesting.  I had to compromise back and forth trying to perfect the image so that it was both recognizable as a camel around here and a pleasing design element.  I wonder how many times Picasso drew his out.  Probably only once... I guess that's what makes him Picasso! LOL!

More from the same series

Forth in Series

As with the first three prints that I posted yesterday
I just continued each successive print from the previous print's ghost, adding new elements as I went along.

Fifth

Sixth

Something New

First in series

Second in Series

I  decided to play around with the camel stamps I made and just see what came up and here is the result.  I just kept reworking the ghost plate from each pull and so there are several variations on the original theme.

Third in Series

Wow! Thanks for the support!

 I am so humbled and amazed that there are actually 101 people out there that are willing to regularly come check in on my blog and check my progress from time to time!  Geez, I will have to get back to work so there is something for you to follow! LOL! Actually you are all a big part of my art world  especially as I use my blog as an incentive to keep working since I have been moving around so much lately.  Sometimes you just need a push to keep going kind of like having a workout partner in an exercise program. All of your input and comments mean so much to me and are so uplifting.  Thanks so much to all of you, I really appreciate your following my blog!

Camel vs. Aspen!

Too funny! I just realized that the pose of this camel is almost exactly the pose of
my little studio dog, Aspen!  Am I attracted to the same pose in all animals? Hmmm.
A Series perhaps?.....We'll see, I am so predictable after all! LOL!

Birth of Venus as a Camel?

I think with a shell under her... Okay, maybe it just felt like a birthing!  It's not always easy to make an image in stamp or print form, at least for me.  There are just so many ways you could go with the design.

This is the same camel that I used for the monoprint with the camel.  I liked her pose.  I have other camel images I am working with from different views.  This image is 5.25".

Here is a view of the stamps themselves and the image test page.  I thought these smaller camels in a
line would make good design pattern elements that could be versatile.

Confession of a stalled artist!

I have been spending a lot of time in my studio looking at stuff I have got started but can't go forward with. I should show you photos of all my working surfaces so you can see what all i have got going on, but not! LOL!  Man oh man, there is a lot of contemplation that goes on before the light comes on here in the center of my universe.  It is uncomfortable if not painful. Kind of like trying to swallow a pill that will not go down!  I'm listening to Cheryl Crow's Shine over Babylon as a coincidence! LOL! Better art prospects to all my Arty friends! (heart)

Kyle finished

Don't know if you can see a difference but I did add quite a bit more as far as color and deepening the darks. Changed the background blue to a cooler shade to play off the warm lights in the face.  I also realized that the picture plane was divided almost exactly in half in the original version so I cropped it in the photograph.  Let me know your thoughts on that or anything else about it.  Again this is watercolor and gouache on 500 ply Bristol Plate and is  11X17 inches.

"My Own Personal Jesus"? Nope, just Kyle.

This is a painting I actually started in Grand Junction but originally drew out from a model session in Texas.  This guy and his wife were both great models and I really miss having access to them as subjects.  I loved his dread locks and beard which he has since cut short and shaved. What a shock that must have been!
  This is still in progress, and you may remember the beginning photo of it from several posts back.  It's watercolor and gouache on 11"X 20  Bristol Plate.  I love working on this surface and I particularly like the milky quality of the gouache.  This is a pretty simple painting I guess, but I was drawn to the great glow of light coming through the hair around his face etc.  Didn't want anyone to think I was slacking over here so thought I'd give a WIP update since I tend to skip around on several works while letting others stew a bit.
  Don't worry, more camels to come!  I just got some great new photos of some very personable camel pals.

Crows to Camels! (3rd off the hand press)

Okay, I went to the camel farm and saw all these really fascinating animals and then I was trying to get something on paper

to just get started back into making art.  It's very hard to get back to work after a move for some reason.  I dunno, dragging yourself half way across the world shouldn't be that big a deal, right?  On my own defense, I am getting better, I mean this is only my 4th week and  I have already produced something, questionable as it may be, that's pretty good considering it's usually taken a year or two to get back in the studio in the past after a major move like this! I'm feeling pretty good about that! This is not really what I had in mind for camel interpretation but I learned some things.  This is the first time I have worked directly with a brush painting an image on the plate.  I used a piece of Bahraini news paper as a Chine Colle' collage piece and unfortunately don't have any spray adhesive due to the fact that the shipping company wont' ship anything under pressure. Imagine that!  So, I used matt medium which is sort of wet and it made the paper stick to the plate instead of the printing paper.  I had to rewind and repress then heat the back of the paper with a hair dryer to get the  collage background piece to adhere to the paper and let go of the plate.  Ahhh, printing on the cutting edge!  LOL!  I feel sort of like the McGuiver of my personal art corner.

Seriously distracting view from my new studio!

Will have to get used to this view so I don't just stand gaping out the window with my mouth open all day.  LOL!

Greetings from Bahrain

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Have moved to Bahrain.  New art as soon as I get my studio set up.

2nd pull from hand press

I didn't really like this one at first but after hanging on my studio wall for a few days it has kind of grown on me.  Let me know what you think.
  I actually got a reversal of my small bird image by stamping the inked image onto some mylar and then transferring that to the plate.  It worked great and made it a lot easier than carving another stamp. I used the same method to get the words to print in the right direction.
   I also found a simple way to transfer my photo image to the stamp for carving.  I placed a piece of the mylar over the photo and traced it in with a marker.  I then laid the wet side down onto the carving material surface and rubbed it with my fingers to transfer the image.  So much easier than trying to trace it off!

First Monotype off of Hand Press!

This is my first hand pulled monotype and a photo of my set up. I got in a little bit of a hurry and  didn't get my registrations drawn in straight.  You can see how the plate is not straight on the paper.   I used my bird stamps again.  My studio space it not very big  and now I am layering work surfaces! LOL!  You can see in the lower photo the piece of foam core board with the ink and rollers up on the drafting table.  While I am inking the plate I have that down on top of the printing area.  Then when I am ready to print I lift the board to the drafting table so I can use the printing surface.  I pressed this with a metal rolling pin.  It worked great  and I even got the indention from the plate.  I am quite pleased especially considering how much trouble it was to get all the right stuff gathered for this deceptively  simple process.

Crow Stamps

I liked my crow photos that I put in my monotypes so much that I thought It might be interesting to have a stamp of them that I could include into an underpainting etc. in other works. They were fun to carve and very easy. I thought I would show them to you and the part of an underpainting in which I tried them out.  I may do a little more work on them as I see a few changes I would make.  I made a smaller version turned one way and then a larger version turned the other way.  I will probably make one with the profile image as well. These two images were printed by inking the stamp with acrylic paint.

More Monotypes

The color must be off  on one of these as the paper used is exactly the same and same color.

Pokrasso Class

Here are a couple of Mono types with Chine` Collage` that I learned how to do in the Ron Prokrasso Class I took last week.
Very interesting technique and new way (for me) to put images and paint to paper.
  I learned how to lay water compatible Akua intaglio inks onto an acrylic plate and run through a press with added collage pieces within the same printing process.
  Unfortunately, now I want a press.  Always something new out there to lust after.
  These two images were done from the same original plate.  The colors are much lighter after the first run through the press so then you take that "ghost " ink and rework it with more ink into another print.
  I have tried for a long time to get some good photos of crows but have only finally come up with these two images and one other that I also used in another print, on my phone camera. Go Figure!  Had to photo shop them just a bit and then sent them to my friend who printed them onto mulberry paper for me.  The tree image I printed myself on rice paper which crinkled up in my printer, thus the blank streaks which absolutely made the image work for me.  Talk about your happy accidents; Or as Pokrasso calls them "gifts".  Either way, works for me!

If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride

As requested, here is a better view of the sculpture from the last post.  My sculpture instructor and Mentor Madeline Wiener would be ashamed at the condition of this piece but she was and still is a fabulous teacher and mentor.  She now conducts the Marble Marble workshops in Marble Colorado where students come from all over the country to work on a piece of pure white marble from the quary that most of the monuments in Washington come from.  What a great experience to carve stone in the woods in the mountains of Colorado!  There are other sculptors that join her in instruction and of course they are all stellar as well.  I actually had the pleasure of learning directly from her in her garage in Aurora Colorado. What a great teacher and such lovely person.

Personal Critic

Well, lest I get too comfortable or confident there is always
a critic to sit atop my artwork and offer his personal opinion.
LOL!  This is an old piece in alabaster that sits in my front yard. It's getting pretty sugary now. I can't believe all the hours I spent wet sanding a perfectly smooth shine on this at one time.
This is titled "If wishes were horses..."   I don't know the name of the critic.

Go BIG or go home?

I'm thinking this still needs work.  What are your thoughts?  This is 36"X48" gallery wrapped canvas.
I went with a little more structure instead of the atmospheric color fields without boundries I've been leaning toward.








This is the step before

Actually, I think it looks better in this position.

back to work!

Progression of the abstract I started a couple of weeks ago.

Thought for the new year!

 "Life is not the way it's supposed to be.. It's the way it is.  
The way we cope with it, is what makes the difference.

No matter how badly last year treated you, just walk tall with your head high! LOL! Gotta love this guys Attitude! I've been moving back to TX from CO so am a little distracted from painting. Be back to blogging soon!   Love and Cheer, Tonya

Apple of my eye

this is from a Saturday model session

It's all good!

Well, I may not be finished but the panic is over!  I am back to loving the elements of this painting and there is a lot more depth and interest now.  The blue reads like a light on my monitor whereas in person it reads more as a dark.

Colorado Monument reworked. Dumb things artists do!

With all that I have on my drawing board and easel, what do I do? I go back and probably mess up a perfectly good painting that was just fine left alone.  I kept thinking everything was making my eye run off the page so I "fixed it".  LOL!  I may have to go back and unfix some of it tomorrow.

Back to work on what's in the works!

This is what's on my drawing table and easel.

The top is a water media beginning drawing on "Yes" watercolor canvas (love these canvases!) 24"X39"



Next is a watercolor and gouache on my favorite bristol plate paper.  21"X 11".



Last an abstract beginning in acrylic and mixed media on Bristol Plate paper.  22"X 28".