Bird Woodblock Carving

Made my second weekend-long visit to the Gopanhwa (Ancient Asian Woodblock Prints) Museum and Temple-stay. In the program are three hands-on activities using woodblocks: woodblock printing on a t-shirt, carving one's own woodblock, and then embossing booklet covers plus printing inner pages with one's own woodblock and other woodblocks before sewing the booklet together. The highlight experiential activity for me is the carving of the woodblock. I don't know what kind of celestial bird this represents but the design is kind of cute -- not my design, by the way, just a small woodblock at the museum that appeared more interesting than the fish and the butterfly for beginners. As for the wild edges, that was accidental. I was under time constraints so didn't put much thought into carving the edges well and am actually impressed with the wild electrical force emanating from the bird. 

4 3/4" x 6 1/4" woodblock

Watercolor Fawn

Painted with my second Altoid paint box, which has rather cheap Korean Alpha watercolors. Principle color used was olive green, with light background washes and touches of Vandyke brown and yellow ochre. Black for the eyes and the nose, and white gel pen to lighten the fawn's spots and put a small reflection in the eyes. Painted in a motel room, with all "tools of the art" tucked into a pocket in my handbag.

"Fawn in the Forest" - 6" x 8" waterbrush painting on mixed media rough texture paper

Altoid Paint-box #2

I really like my first attempt at making an Altoid box painter's tin. With 15 colors it has enough color variety so that I don't have to constantly double-dip the brush tip in multiple colors to get the variety I need. Double-, triple-dipping muddies the tip, especially because the tip isn't cleansed in water frequently. The one downside of this set however is because I used really cheap paint (why not? needed to learn and not waste more expensive paints till I get technique). I found the colors didn't blend well but stayed separate. It's not really important because I'm using a small waterbrush instead of the broad sweeps of a typical paintbrush which require more color blending, but still, I do notice a difference between my inexpensive Korean set of Alpha paints and the dollar-store cheapies I used in the tin. Since a friend gave me a new set of 18 watercolors (Reeves, also cheap but figured they'd be better than the cheapies in the tin), thought I'd make another tin.

Pictured: original Altoid tin with dollar-store cheapie paints (adequate but colors stay separate when attempting to blend)

4"x6" mixed media paper for marker, pen and ink, and watercolor
"Bluebirds & Flowers"

"Bluebirds & Flowers"

Prepping the Reeve Watercolors

Before I squirted colors from the tubes into the new 21-hole palette made from Fimo, I first made a color grid (saw this online somewhere) to check out the transparency and opacity of the new (Reeves) watercolors.

Made a five-columned grid, basically each color name followed by a long swatch of color. However, before (and then after) the color was painted, a vertical stripe of first oil-based marker and water-based marker were painted down the sheet. The idea is to test and see how transparent or opaque each of the colors are both before and after the colors are used. Watercolors are thought all to be transparent but this is not so, and colors differ (sometimes significantly) by brand name. 

Then in the wider last column, a wet brush was used to scrub a bit at the painted colors to see if the colors could be lifted off or if (and how much) they stained. These Reeves colors do not lift off but do stain quite noticeably. I noticed two other downsides: like the dollar-store cheapies, the Reeves don't blend well, and, when dry, their color is noticeably granular, especially in large swatches. Sadly, after all this work of testing, I've decided not to use the Reeves in my new 21-reservoir Altoid tin. From a very old set of Korean Alpha, I made my new Altoid paint tin. Though quite cheap, the Alphas flow better, blend fairly nicely, and most can be somewhat lifted off the paper. A few colors from the Reeves (like flesh tone, crimson, burnt umber and payne's gray -- all somewhat opaque colors) will supplement the 18-color Alphas to fill in the 21-hole paint reservoirs. I'm omitting the white as many watercolorists carry a tube of white gouache for painting quick contrasting highlights.

"testing" transparency and opacity of Reeves watercolors

Making the Altoid Paint-tin

This time I made two tins at the same time, the second one is for the professional-grade paint ... when I finally make the investment.

To make the uniformly spaced holes, mom gave me the tip of using a hole-punched grid. And then looking around the kitchen she suggested using the base-end of the walnut-cracker for systematically imprinting holes in the Fimo clay. Wow! Both ideas worked fabulously! Then after shaping and baking the Fimo, I sprayed one with white rust-proof outdoor paint we had on hand. I'll wait to spray the other with white ceramic paint since that's the recommended paint and I'm not needing the second tin for a while.

Finished Altoid Tin

My 21-reservoir Altoid tin, and a second one almost ready too. They look good against my handmade hanji-art pen box.