Altered Silver

This spread was drawn about two years ago but waited patiently until finally receiving color today. Looks like I never left off.

I draw these original angels directly into the book (which is titled "Angels and Aliens") with a Bic Smoothie. Many passes are made with the pen to define and thicken the lines. Color is accomplished using wax crayons and Prismacolors.

He's on display all alone, this poor little angel alien, or alien angel, but seems pretty happy, even so. This spread was drawn early last year, but only received color just before the year came to an end.



My original angels are drawn directly into the book (Angels and Aliens) with a Bic Smoothie ballpoint pen. Many passes are made with the pen to thicken and darken the lines to what I want. Color is added later with wax crayons and colored pencils.



Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, collage, mixed media, angels, crayons

These two spreads were drawn much earlier in the year, but needed to wait several months before receiving color. It was one heck of a busy summer, and 2006 seems to be in a real hurry to zip on through.

 

I draw these original angels directly into the book (which is titled Angels and Aliens) using a Bic Smoothie ballpoint pen. Many passes are made with the pen to thicken & darken the lines to my liking. Later, color is accomplished using crayons (Prang & Neocolor II) and colored pencils.




keywords: altered books, art journals, mixed media, angels, drawing, crayons

This Angels & Aliens spread is being posted out of order because of its relation to the current Illustration Friday topic. I've been subscribed to the IF list for at least a year, but this is my first time participating. The topic was revealed as "safe," and what could be safer than to be embraced by angel wings? So I decided to draw it in my A&A book.

Total time was about five hours, blissfully free of other tasks, obligations or interruptions. The humble media were ballpoint pen (black), wax crayons and watercolor pencils (but no water). It's the first time I've used watercolor pencils without water, as if they were normal pencils, and I liked it. They're a little drier in application (less waxy), but the color is nicely intense without requiring a lot of pressure to get there.

Be sure to drop by the Illustration Friday website to see how other artists are also illustrating "safe" this week.



Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, angels, illustration friday

Although I only work on this project sporadically, I really enjoy it. At my current speed, it'll be well over a year before the book is filled, but filling it isn't the actual goal, just a certain eventuality. Drawing the images — when the moment is right for drawing the images — playing with the colors and seeing what emerges, that's the whole point of it. :)




To learn about this project and view all the posted entries thus far, just follow the A&A project link category.

Originally, I had conceived that I would work on the Angels & Aliens project daily, but reality has spaced the work out considerably. Nonetheless, here are the latest spreads to have been completed.

I draw these original angels directly into the book (which is titled "Angels and Aliens") with a Bic Smoothie. Many passes are made with the pen to thicken the lines. Color is accomplished using wax crayons and Prismacolors.



Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, mixed media, angels, drawing, crayons

Less than a day after writing about my Angels & Aliens project, the Pentech GelGrip pen I was using for the sketching ran out of ink while on duty. To finish the drawing, I grabbed the Penstix micron pen that I'm using in my altered text book (which I haven't described here yet), but the micron gives an entirely different writing experience. It's more of a "final lines" kind of pen, not really for "sketching."

So, while I managed to finish this particular spread with the micron, it really is not at all suitable for drawing. With any luck, I'll find a suitable replacement soon, perhaps as early as tomorrow. I don't think Pentech makes this particular type anymore (I'd bought it many years ago), but maybe there'll be something similar.

It's just so sad to have the demise of a worthy pen. At least its final gasps went to a good cause: my art. ;)


[edit 10/30/05]: A new pen has come to my rescue. It's a Bic Smoothie retractable. They call it a "ball pen" (not a ballpoint), and it writes like a rollerball. Feels good to use and happily doesn't bleed through the A&A paper. :)




Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, pens

I now have seven images completed in this altered project, and I've begun an Angels & Aliens photo album to display them. Angels are a favored motif of mine, and when I saw the title of this book (which I purchased as a remainder for less than $2), I knew I had to fill it with angels. (Or aliens, depending on one's viewpoint.)

Essentially, I'm turning the novel into a sketchbook, covering the text with a sketch/drawing on each spread. For the drawing, I'm using a Pentech GelGrip, a rollerball type which has a very fine point, requiring many passes to thicken certain lines. The pen was chosen because it happened to be sitting around in the first place I looked for a pen, and happily, it proved to not bleed through the test page. Each drawing takes about an hour to complete.

Coloring also takes about an hour. I'm using crayons and colored pencils, aiming to keep the hues bright and airy, with no bulk added to the pages.

Because the media are very portable and clean to use, I can work on Angels & Aliens almost anywhere, whenever I have a few moments to give to it.


[edit 10/30/05]: I've decided to forego the photo album arrangement and will now include the images in with the entries, like below. This way, the images are larger and also fewer bytes to load.

This first Angels & Aliens drawing is the only page of this project that I haven't added color to yet. And, I might continue to leave it as it is.







Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, mixed media, angels, drawing, crayons