Karudden's Blog

Head studies I did some years ago from my mom’s original Figure Studies instruction book

face painting sketch study based on a high school pen and ink work by Ruby Neri that she gave me long ago, and I have always kept and admired. Apparently she’s a very famous artist now, which I only just discovered doing a search for her name! I didn’t know her parents were artists, which makes sense, and I am extremely excited to find out how successful she has been. Go Ruby! https://www.davidkordanskygallery.com/artist/ruby-neri https://www.instagram.com/rubyroseneri/?hl=en https://www.independenthq.com/features/in-the-studio-with-ruby-neri

sketch doodle with origami paper backdrop

I only just realized there are too many fingers on the right hand. How funny, but also a great reminder to practice hands a lot more.

And what I’m listening to lately (for fun): Philomena Cunk audiobooks. For personal interest I listened to a Ram Dass audiobook and a podcast episode by author and spiritual intuitive teacher Sonia Choquette.

I tried to crop those and cannot figure it out, so I went with rounding the corners, which was extremely easy to do. 😉

Painting on cardboard I’m sending as a postcard to a friend (librarian).

I remember when I was working at jobs with the public, having daily interactions with multiple people, like at the drugstore and the independent senior living home, I often thought I should write about and draw some of the interesting characters I met, but I only did that a couple of times. I’m going to make a promise to myself to start carrying a small sketchbook so I can do that when I think of it, even though I’m not out in public regularly anymore, then I can put it down instead of putting it off. Cheers to keeping promises you make to yourself!

This drawing is maybe 20 years old? I found it while trying to make a little progress on my art room space clutter. I like it a lot.

This is an experimental drawing from an intuitive drawing class from a couple years ago. It’s a continuous line drawing, with eyes open, and then we also did them “blind.”

This drawing intrigues me still, every time I find it again in my paper/art piles. It’s at least ten plus years old, and I know I was trying to do something reminiscent of Picasso-style sketches. I don’t know why I don’t date things. (I do occasionally.)

A “mantra for appreciating life’s fleeting phases.” That’s how I feel when the seasons start to change, from Winter to Spring, and Summer to Autumn. I had a loose plan to share pictures of the clutter fest that my art-making space is currently (and has been ever since I removed a table several months ago, which seemed to tail-spin every other area), but I don’t want to do that. It feels pointless unless I have “after” pictures as well, which I don’t. I don’t want to say: “Check out this awful, unwelcoming, constricted space and see how bad it is!” unless I have the happy ending photos to show the results of the makeover.

I’ll do it someday (I say, fully realizing that someday never comes … usually, but hoping it will anyway); for right now, I want to keep my posting commitment, so I am sharing a painting I found in a sketchbook from a few years ago, because I like parts of it very much (the shadow under her chin, her expression, the hand), and that I wasn’t too heavy-handed with the watercolor.

And just for fun, a pretty sunset from a few days ago, because why not.

I was playing with my watercolor on the cardboard and the drips and bleeds of the paint on the surface. Watercolor is interesting to experiment with because you will have a different experience and results depending on the absorbency of the surface, the quality of the paint (and brushes), and, obviously, how much water you use.

I ended up washing off the color experimentation layer and using more earthy tones, cut it down, and turned it into a postcard to send to my friend Katharine. I decided the eyes were lined up strangely, but I didn’t want to paint on it more (though I ended up adding some definition to her left eye), so I collaged over her right eye (but I didn’t snap another photo).

I guess I need to practice WordPress (and watercolor) some more, because I still can’t figure out why I can’t add to or edit a text block I already wrote, once I click out of it. Peace and Love and Cheers to experimentation (and PLAYING!) with paint!

edit to add: I just tried something I hadn’t seen before, opening the code editor version, and adding directly into the html; which is working 🙂