"Butterfly Dance" Mandala

With the outdoorsi-ness of summer over, I have time for the palette again. My second mandala, a dance of butterflies. Faber Castell watercolor pencils painted out with a water brush, micron pens (005, 05 and 08) and a Xeno brush pen, small. Just an FYI, the Microns have pretty good archival ink, but the Xeno does not, so it's not a good idea to even put a dab of water on the Xeno ink and expect it to stay put.

Sketchbook 10" x 13 3/4"

center of mandala - horizontal view

center of mandala - vertical view

"The Dance of Butterflies" Mandala - 10" x 13 3/4" with Faber Castell watercolor pencils

Horse Mandala

The Yeoksam Global Village Center (Seoul, S. Korea), a center for promoting cultural programs for expats in Korea, offered a month-long mandala class. Participants would meet once a week for two hours and, depending on the creativity and time spent, by the end of the month each participant would have created a personal mandala.

To reach this goal, participants are given a package of materials:

• a book, "My Nature Sound Therapy" (published in S. Korea by My Nature Sound Research Society, 2016)
• a 25cm x 39cm sketch book
• a package of markers
• a gold gel pen
• a two-piece stencil set
• an eraser

A tiny lecture begins each session but the majority of time is for creating a mandala while nature sounds are played. Music therapy at work! Participants are encouraged to hum along, but I find this VERY distracting! I'll find my inner zen just listening.

The examples in the book and with the instructors were all made with geometric shapes, hence the stencil set. Maybe I'm thinking out of the box, but mandalas don't have to be based on geometric shapes but can also be regularly patterned shapes, figures, whatever. So with this in mind, and since I love animals, my mandala started out as horses in perpetual flow, and later peacocks and fish were added. If you think about it, these animals represent all the sentient beings--those from the earth, from the air and from the water--very Buddhist thinking. I'm not Buddhist, but have lived here long enough to pick up quite a few cultural beliefs and symbolisms.

I also used watercolor pencils and Micron permanent ink markers (size .005, .02 and .08) instead of the supplies provided. Just seemed more suitable to the topic and because markers bleed through paper very easily and can't be layered.

After a total of 8 hours in broken sittings, I had completed my simple mandala.

Fun new experience, and my niece will get the materials now with a sample mandala in the sketch book. Think it'll be something she'd really like ... and have time for. 

Horses, peacocks, fish in perpetual motion

Plein Air Painting at Sochi House

Today is the fifth day in the OAS (Oriental Art Supply) November painting challenge. Since I was traveling this weekend (did templestay at Ssanggye-sa Temple, Jindo Island, Jeollanamdo, South Korea, and because the temple is right beside Sochi House, the traditional home of the famous aristocratic painter, Sochi, penname for Ryun Hur (1808-1893), I did a bit of plein air painting at the traditional house. Actually I started but had to finish at home because before I could finish our templestay group had to hike up the trail to the temple where we were staying.) 

Sochi House

Jindo Island, Jeollanamdo, S Korea. 

Sochi, pen name for Ryun Hur (1808-1893), was a traditional painter and calligrapher with many disciples. Despite his father's wishes, he became a painter (an unstable job that didn't bring in steady income), but though he wasn't loaded with money, he was satisfied with his choice to exercise his creativity. He was a passionate artist, and he became the founding father of 5 generations of artists, with the fifth alive today. He and his artists descendants strongly influenced Korean painting; they seemed to have contributed to a more realistic approach to painting nature. Their pictures show development in depth and tone. Shading and brush stroke were changed to add to the more realistic style. 

Kaleidoscopic Altoid plein air palette --- M Graham paints are too messy for plein air! So are Sennelier too I hear.

Sochi House, home of Korean traditional painter, Ryun Hur (1808-1893)

The pond just in front of Sochi House, Jindo, South Korea

Micron pens and Altoid box plein air painting with M Graham on Fabriano watercolor postcard. (FYI, M Graham and Sennelier are honey consistency paints that are perfectly lousy for plein air painting .... but absolutely smooth and creamy for studio on site painting! My Altoid box is now a kaleidoscopic mess!)

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.

First Watercolor Attempts

Other than an intro to Korean watercolor a year ago (an art exploration that absolutely sold me on watercolor painting) these watercolors are my first attempts at the art. Since that intro, I've watched a few watercolor YouTube clips and wow have I been inspired! Just needed a vacation with some time to put my new interest into action. 

I was trying to teach mom some basics of watercolor and since she's in love with her Birds & Bloom magazine, we referenced that for ideas. Watercolors done on 4"x6" tablet pad of mixed media paper for marker, pen and ink, and watercolor.

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

A friend really liked this baby elephant, to quote her "so sweet". She wanted it to frame but no way is someone getting a three-legged oddly-balanced embarrassment. Made the mom-and-baby elephant pair for her as a consolation, but think she still liked the "sweet" baby better. 

Must work on color mixing. Having trouble maintaining cool and warm tertiary colors. 

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink

Whip-sketched a greeting card for another friend - the background is kind of cool.

mixed media - water color and oil-based ink