Inundated Trees

9" x 12"
oil on canvas
Thatcher Innudated. June 2009

More rain has swelled all the creeks and rivers. We have had an unusual amount of rain this summer. This was the first sunny day we had in along time.

Four Needle Coptic Bound Journal

Coptic Journal bound with canvas paper
Matte Board covers


I wanted to share with you how I make my hand made Coptic bound journals. I bind books out of necessity, not necessarily a love of book binding. Some of my techniques are a bit unorthodox but the resulting books are sturdy work horses.

Supplies

4 needles - if you have curved sewing needles these will work best but you can use straight needles. Just make sure the eye is big enough to accommodate your chosen binding thread.


Bone folder or back of a wooden spoon. Helps to really crease the pages and reduce swell in the book.

Waxed linen or other sturdy thread. I tried using crochet cotton on a bunch of journals and it just does not hold up. The waxed linen thread is really best

Paper torn down to the spread you want. I'm making a landscape book so my spread is 8" high x 20.5" wide and I folded the pages in half. Nesting several pages together makes a "signature". The signatures will be sewn together later.

2 Covers cut 1/4" higher and 1/8" longer than your folded signatures

An awl is hand, but you can use a nail too

A mallet is optional. A regular hammer will do too.



I'm making a book that will be an oil painting sketchbook so I cut down paper in a canvas pad for my signatures. You can use ANY paper and even mix and match the papers so you can have drawing papers, printing papers and watercolor papers. You can use the book to test drive lots of new papers too.



Cut your pages. Use the bone folder or the back of a wooden spoon to crease your paper. If you use heavy paper, nest 3 sheets to make your signature. Lighter paper can accommodate more pages in the signature.


This flimsy piece of paper is called a jig. Omit this step at you own peril. What you are making is a tool to help you mark consistent stitching holes in your signature and your covers. Make this paper as tall as the spine and 2" wide. Fold it in half. Then mark your sewing holes. You want the top and bottom holes to be about 5/8" of an inch in from edge. Place the other two holes where you want them.(Four holes in total...hence the name "Four Needle Coptic"). Use you awl to poke gentle holes in the jig.



Now you are ready to use the jig to transfer holes to the spines of the signatures. Mark them on the inside fold. Then use the awl to poke holes in the signature.






Using your jig again, mark the holes on the 2 covers. Leave about 3/8" distance between the holes and the spine.If you like you can stack the covers on on top of the other to make sure the holes are in the right place. Use the nail or awl and a hammer or mallet to punch the holes.



Now you are ready to prepare the needles and threads for sewing. Count the number of signatures and 2 covers. Measure using the thread, the length of spine. Multiply this amount of thread times the number of signatures plus 2 covers. Add 4 more cover lengths.(Just in case! You don't want to run out of thread at the end!) Fold (do not cut) the length of thread in half and make a book binders not on the end of the thread. Repeat this so you have 2 long threads with a total of 4 needles, one on each end.



OK, now you a ready to sew your book together. Stack you signatures and covers near by. Set up the first signature (not starting with the cover yet) by threading one of your double needle threads from the inside of the signature.Do the other thread too. Four needles should be dangling on equal lengths of thread from the outside of the first signature. Now grab the cover and stitch each needle into the outside hole of the cover.


Sew back though the first section and crisscross the threads inside the signature fold and bring the needles outside again.
Kettle stitch all four threads.

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Continue crisscrossing and kettle stitching for each signature. Use the wooden spoon or bone folder to crease the spines of all signatures. This reduces swell.

Stitch through the inside hole of the remaining cover piece. Kettle stitch through the last section and sew back with the last signature. Tie off with a square knot.

And there you have a Coptic book bound with your own paper. If you make one, please leave me your link and I'll post everyone's book.

In Search Of Greens

Study 5" x 7"
I'm continuing my green studies and this time used the following colors:
Light Red
Cerulean Blue
Cad Yellow Light
White
Burnt Umber and because I was a chicken, a touch of
Thalo Blue

This was a difficult triad to work with. The tinting strength of the red was very weak and the blue was very transparent. If I want olive, there are easier, more potent pigments to work with.





Green Study 1
5" x 7"
oil on canvas

Painting in the summer requires lots of GREEN and I'm feeling like I need more practice making them. I'd like the painting to hold together through my use of color so I'm learning what each blue will do with the other colors on my pallet. Here I'm keeping it simple and wanted to see if I could tilt the greens to warm or cool depending on what other colors are blended with them.

Cadmium Red Light
Cadmium Yellow Light
Prussian Blue
Titanium White
Burnt Umber
All Windsor Newton Alkyds




Green Study 1
5" x 7"
oil on canvas


I'm also experimenting with grounds. The top one is a piece of Blick's pre primed canvas. I really enjoyed painting on this surface. The gesso is thin and the weave of the canvas is small. It has just the right amount of drag on the brush and I don't have to work aggressively to fill in the weave.

If I make something I like, I'm going to adhear the canvas to a board and frame it. This also mades for a light plein air surface. Less weight to carry ;>)


The bottom one is in my sketchbook with the usual 75lb paper.

Sketchbook Nerd

Same books, different background. I like both photos so I'm posting both

I also have instructions for making a Four Needle Coptic Journal on a different page. Not hard at all!




One of the wonderful parts of being an artist is keeping a sketchbook. I love mine and these are three of my favorite. I learned how to make books last spring and it gave me the power to have any paper I desire.
These books are bound with a Coptic stitch which requires no special tools. The travel journal has printmaking paper from Utrecht. I think it's their house brand "American Masters". I really like the tooth in the surface and it even takes a light watercolor wash. It's perfect for oil pastels.

The sturdy red journals are bound with Fabriano Watercolor paper and work for most media.

I'm very hard on my sketchbooks and as you can see, the binding has held up very well.

Last year, I posted a tutorial on how to make a concertina book that's pretty easy and allows you to use many different kinds of paper. You can read the post here if you'd like to check this out.

Seduced By Light And Color

Millennium Park's Lurie Garden

Tempted to think this would be fun to paint? I certainly was.

I arrived in downtown Chicago having successfully navigated the CTA with my bike set up for plein air painting. Check.


I located the security person to obtain permission and learned all the do's and don'ts. (Lots and lots and lots of these. If you go, bring many drop cloths.Must protect even the tiny pebbles.The gardeners reign supreme in this domain. Even security obeys them.) Check

I squeeze in with my set up on the narrow lime stone path,having been told not to block the path. Check.

Forgot bug spray again. Check and add note to self.

I make a nice sketch plan in the book, transfer it to the canvas and attack with brush and paint. Check

That was when several large summer camp groups arrived and also what felt like waves of tourists. Little children are really cute but they don't look where they are walking. Much bumping of both the easel and my tightly pulled in painting arm. Much adult inanities about so and so being a favorite artist. (:-*) I really don't want to even say his name here but his work belongs on sappy Hallmark cards.

My corner of the garden really heats up at this point. Rivers of sweat are dripping down my back. Not getting any benefit of the lake breezes in this location.

The painting is not going well. And I'm getting annoyed by the constant crunching sound of feet on the path. I've used too may colors and become confused. I've totally lost my original value pattern and I'm my ability to concentrate is slipping.

A garden tour guide stops with 30 people inches from my set up and block the view. Ok, time to regroup, have sip of water and figure out what to do. Trying not to feel annoyed.Feel breathing on my neck.

The overwhelming message arising from my soul is that it's time to go home.

You would be forgiven for believing that I'm giving up on plein air painting. However, you would be mistaken. That days lesson? I'm a nature girl. I like my peace and quiet and though I'm not shy about working among the masses, I appreciate having only the occasional passer by. Believe it or not, I even love the cool river mud too. I missed the sound of moving water and the grunting of the bull frogs.

Thatcher Pond-Raining Some More

Austin Gardens, downed tree branches from last nights storm
8" x 10"
oil


Three Trees at Thatcher Pond
9" x 12"

Well,I'm learning every time I go out. For the last 2 weeks I've wondered why it was so hard to get the value right in my skies. I decided to be "economical" and buy a huge tube of cheap white to use in my paintings and there is not enough pigment for the paint to do what I want. Buy cheap, by twice

I'm also playing around with color and figuring out what various triads will do. The bottom one is Thalo blue, cad yellow light and cad red light. I also use burnt umber, Naples Yellow and "that" white. The first one is burnt umber, alizerine crimson, and cad yellow light and medium, white too.


This month and next, Vivien is posting a tree challenge. Anyone can participate so check it out. (Notice the absense of water in the first sketch? Not often I'll give it up but seeing trees by themselves is really usful:>o Thanks Vivien.

Counting blessings helps me put things in perspective:

The quality of light in the morning rain
Our well worn hammock- now installed for the summer
My parents
The Beamish Boy is home for the summer
Kelsey's sense of humor
Canoing with Craig
Butter
Wild Ginger blooming in the garden,quietly and hidden
Interesting work in and out of the studio
My art supplies and the desire to use them
The color of everything
The wisdom to know I can't understand everyone
Avocados in the salad tonight

Waterways Project: Cloud Study

Cloud Study
On location Saturday at
Lake Michigan
12" x 4"


Fellow Watermark-er Jeanette Jobson also has been working in oils lately and you can see her lovely work depicting her idyllic neighborhood in the wilds of the Labrador Coast in Canada. I and only attribute her omission from my previous list of fellow Oily Watermark-ers to my advancing senility!


Here's one that really captured a sense of place. It's titled e The Chocolate Road.

Jeanette captured the watery motion of a scene along the road.


Here is another one of the rocks along the coast.

Here heracrylic sketch looks like oil and her approach is similar to her oils.


If you visit her Etsy shop shop you will see her varied and creative approach to media. Take a look at her lively and original fish prints too.

Can You Belive This Is Chicago?

9" x 4"
watercolor and ink

All up and down the river beautiful, yellow iris's were blooming. I'm sure Ralph Friese planted some of these over his years as a paddler advocate on the area waterways.



9" x 4"
watercolor and ink






Yup, this is the North Branch of the Chicago River! Craig and I both agreed this was one of the nicest paddles we have ever been on.

You can see by this map that it is very close to downtown
View Larger Map">Chicagoo!!! We had never been this far north on the river. The access point at Dempster is a bit challenging. We had to haul "Sherry" overland about 400 yards then down a steep embankment but the actual launch site next to the river was very convenient. It was worth every drop of sweat.

Some of you have expressed a desire for more videos and I hope I don't make you sorry you asked. These are a couple of clips from the paddle yesterday.



video clip of a turtle swimming by the canoe on the left hand side. Hard to see
Swimming muskrat that followed us down the river.

When we returned from our trip, this mess was just outside an storm sewer outlet. It looks like milk but sinks like a stone. We passed this spot a number of times and found it only at 5PM. We are reporting this to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency!

Waterways in Oils

Irving Park Canoe Launch June 09
9" x 12"
oil plein air



Thatcher trees
9" x 12"
oil en plein air




Thatcher Pond On A Rainy Morning June 09
Oil
9" x 12"
(Ugh, photos do not show the subtle colors)

My fellow Watermarks friends have become quiet oily lately.
Vivien,
Ronell,
Sarah,
andGesa

are all working in oils this summer.


I have been wanting to work in oils plein air for a long time. Last summer's experience in oil pastels really whetted my appetite for location work but I had became frustrated with the limits of color with oil pastels. I was inspired by my friends to try my had at oils outside. The work of these women also awoke the little green monster in me... So, after drying my tears, I went out and just did it!



When I awoke with my strengthened resolve, it was raining and cool :( but what else do plein air painters do but paint in all conditions! My painting "out" was really in the car (being a tad wimpy). This was really a nice way to ease my way into painting in oils plein air. It can be overwhelming dealing with the media, the weather, bugs,mud and the set up all at the same time. You can read all about Ronell's victory over the elements here and see her lovely paintings. This is why she persevered!

Here is Vivien's very generous and helpful post on tips for painting oils en plein air. I've been using her tip for alkyd paints and Liquin instead of terps. I developed a reaction to terps using them in the studio this spring. I've really been enjoying the Alkyd paints with their transparent quality and their smooth consistency.

I'd like to add a few tips of my own.

1) Wash your brushes promptly after you get home because the Aklyd's dry fast. (Don't ask how I know this one.)

2)In reading Landscape Painting Inside and Out by Kevin Macphperson, I learned about mother colors. I used this idea to create a Mother Gray by mixing ultramarine blue, burn umber and a tiny dot of Naples yellow. This helped me express the bright, diffused light of the day.

3)A box of tissues makes grabbing a sheet for wipe outs much easier than unrolling kitchen paper towels. A cloth rag is the best tool for wiping a dirty brush.

3) I covered the wooden pallet in a sheet of freezer paper to make clean up easier.


Here's my set up on a nice day.
(Note the absence of a painting at this location ;>). I have a steep learning curve!)

Sarah has outlined her studio process in oils start to finish here. Sarah too, works in many media plein air.

You can see more of Vivine's work here on her web site.


The bike all set up with a rolling cart. This folding cart is light weight and has wheels large enough to handle the trail at Thatcher Woods.


I've also joined two new on line groups.

One is the Sketchercise group started by Katherine. If you already incorporate sketching and physical activity, you might want to join group.

The other group I've joined is a Plein Air Painting Ning group that is open to anyone.

New Addition To The Fleet

The "floating studio" view of the newest member of our fleet.



The Leaky Cauldron has a new sister. We got a very nice deal on Ebay from a couple in our own town (unlike other canoes we've bid on that were HOURS away.) This canoe has intact ribs and is dry dry dry!!! So we are thinking of all sorts of dry names for her. Dry Bones
High and Dry
and my favorite
Dry Sherry

Any more suggestions?




Well, after owning my camrea for 4 years, I finally learned it has a tiny vidoe capacity. So here is a watery video! I don't have any soft wear for editing so it's the real (if raw) deal.

Niagara Falls Suite

Niagara Falls Suite # 2
22" x 30"
Ink, acrylic and watercolor on paper


Wondering if I've gone a little to far over the edge, so to speak.These are really abstracted drawings. What I'm looking to express is the head long rush of warter. The sheer volum of water was amazing and this is even after 1/2 the volum of water was cut to reduce erosion. If you'd like to see another short video of the falls and a map of the area, you can visit the Watermarks site here.

You can find a brief history of the falls and other interesting facts (like what happens to the falls in the dead of winter here.



Niagara Falls Suite # 3
22" x 30"
Ink, acrylic and watercolor on paper







Niagara Falls Suite # 1
22" x 30"
Ink, acrylic and watercolor on paper



Niagara Falls #4
22" x 30"
Ink, acrylic and watercolor on paper

Niagra Falls #1

Niagara Falls # 1
22" x 30"
Watercolor, ink and acrylic on paper

I wanted to capture the heady rush of water with my paint brush and the vivid experience of the excitement and danger of the falls. I'm accustomed to the rather sedate waters of the Des Plaines River and this was a totally different experience. I am working here to apply the paint in almost reckless washes and really juicy applications. Working on a full sheet of watercolor paper game me room to really let go and use my whole arm to apply the media.

With Waterways moving in this direction, I feel like I've found a way to reconcile this work with my other project. Feels a bit easier to shift gears and move from one project to another.

If you'd like to see more photos, clickhere.

Niagara Falls, Part One, American side

This video is my brother-in-law's. Thanks Richard and great photos!

Despite all the honky tonk and the fuss about crossing the Canadian border, the falls were magnificent. It is an amazing site and made a big visual impression on me. As we stood there, I planned out a series of paintings. I tried to quickly capture all the grandeur and power of the moving water and of course can only approximate the experience. Here are some of my sketches and the larger watercolor drawings are still not finished. I'll post some them this week as they are finished.






watercolor, ink and acyrlic





pen and ink