Mary's First mailing for Round 5

So wait, I'm confused.  Are we supposed to be posting our work HERE or THERE (at the group page.)  I just posted there and guess I'll post here, too. As always, click images to view larger.

I painted, with acrylics, the front cover and am calling it:  "A Marriage Blessed by Love."

"A Marriage Blessed by Love"

 Then I painted 3 watercolors of animals, a fox, an owl and a pika.

fox, watercolor

owl, watercolor

pika, watercolor

 Then I made a half of a painting for Steve.

Frida, watercolor

Then I made 3 cards for a pocket gift for Steve.

Last gasp in Mike's

Everyone cheered to watch racers run
"final?"
by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt

I am finally finished with Mike's Moleskine, and will mail it ASAP on hopefully Monday or Tuesday.
*The paper is getting progressively thicker!  Below is the prior version.  Since then I have repaired the head of the last wolf, opened Frankie's eyes, changed the color of the grass and added detail.  This was the hold-up. I kept fiddling with it, trying to get it right.

"Had Races and Won"

Acrylic on thin Moleskine paper*

4th coat

Because I had it so long, I did some additional pieces:

Biker Buddy
by Mary Taitt

At the end of a long day
By Mary Taitt
markers, Copic, Faber-Castell pigment artist pigment markers,

The Nature Conservancy wants to publish 20,000 elephant pictures, so I am trying to help them out.

Old Bull
collab for Mike

And a new pocket item--with elephants:

Dusk
card by Mary Taitt for Mike's pocket

More Mary in Mike's: Angry Man, Weird Keith, collab

"Angry Man"
Acrylic and oil pastels on Moleskine Paper
Mary Stebbins Taitt
Click any image to view larger

"Biker Buddy #20140218"

Acrylic and oil pastels on Moleskine Paper

Mary Stebbins Taitt

Click any image to view larger

This scan looks a little lighter on my screen than the actual painting.

Collab, first half, for Mike
Faber Castell artist pens (including dry one for dry brush)

Final Spoonbill/Duckbill Plus Envelope Plus in-the-pocket

Spoonbill, Hornbill and Duckbill
Acrylic, by Mary Stebbins Taitt
Click on this or any image to view all of them larger

Spoonbill and Duckbill
with their friend Hornbill
Rode a red wagon downhill
with glorious freewill
past the sawmill
and came to a standstill
at Frankie's doorsill.

 Frankie is my grandson.  One of four.

I can't find the paper with the "poem" on it, and I'm not sure I'm remembering it right.

I forgot to mention that my over-enthusiastic painting damaged the thin paper and I had to apply two patches.  If you click on the upper picture to make it bigger, you can see the patches at the top left on a smaller patch just left of center at the top--sorry about that.  :-(

I am working on removing the gutter between the pages
for my book for Frankie.
and tweaking it
(not quite done yet.)

Roseate Spoonbills envelope
acrylic, Mary Stebbins Taitt

Pumice Fish
Acrylic, Mary Stebbins Taitt

I never went to art school, so I have to learn everything by experimenting.  I bought some pumice medium and played with it on the envelope for the first time ever (dumb, I know).  It was so rough, like sandpaper,only worse, so, worried about the mail carriers and postal employees injuring their fingers, I put a couple layers of matte medium over it, but that made it look dull.   :-(  It has lots of texture!  But less than before. (I also used a tiny but of the pumice medium on the rocks and on the road in the Spoonbill hornbill duckbill painting.)

In the Pocket:

Twin Poppies
oil on Graham Cracker box treated with acrylics
Mary Stebbisn Taitt

Flute Practice
oil and Arches Oil Paper
Mary Stebbins Taitt

Flute practice, side view
showing topography of oils

Mike, take the oils out and let them dry some more.  I hope they survive the journey to your house!!!

Cassandra Elise Lapwing revisited yet again (I'm probably still working on this):

Cassandra Elise Lapwing: An Extra and a Collab in Mike's by Mary

I had a bout of fairly severe insomnia the night before last and was up for several hours between 2 and 6 AM, and spent my time painting. First, I covered the backside of the painting of Frankie and the spoonbill, hornbill and duckbill with a painting of Cassandra Elise Lapwing, in profile. I THINK she is played by Julianne Moore. This is acrylics, and it is an "extra" painting, to covered the bleed-through. Since there seem to be MANY pages in this Moleskine, I didn't think Mike or anyone would mind my doing an extra.  I used 3 "colors," black, Payne's grey and neutral #5 grey.

Cassandra Elise Lapwing profile
acrylic
Mary Stebbins Taitt
Click images to view larger.

Now I was really into Cassandra Elise Lapwing, so I did another HALF portrait of her for a collaboration with Mike.  This is entirely done with one black gel pen and some Faber-castel PITT artist pigment pens in 4 colors, black, sepia, sanguine and grey.

Cassandra Elise Lapwing collab
gel pen and Faber-Castelle PITT pigment artists pens

Mary Stebbins Taitt

Click images to view larger

Here is the two-page spread:

Two-page spread

Mary Stebbins Taitt

Click images to view larger

Here is the collab image doubled.  This is not what I expect from Mike; I'm sure he'll be much more creative.  Doubling it like this tells me there is something wrong with the original that I couldn't see (or didn;t notice) in the half-image.  That is one weird-looking chick, LOL!!!!  (I did not complete the process of doubling her because my main computer has died and the Cintique is still attached to the dead computer.)

 

Cassandra Elise Lapwing half doubled.

Cassandra Elise Lapwing half doubled
and slightly fiddled with

I really need to get the Cintique on the piece of junk I have to use for a computer now, since my Mac died.

I need to stop playing with this, pointlessly, and get back to the actual Moleskine. What remains to be done is finishing the paining of Frankie and the spoonbill, hornbill and duckbill and the collab with Andrea, which I have started on, but not completed.

Slow progress

I decided to post my slow progress on Mike's book because I'm afraid I won't be ready to mail on the 15th,

Session 1

First I searched for reference photos.  Then, because the paper is so thin, I sprayed it, then drew on it with a white "soufflé" pen. (I tried pencil and ballpoint, but they didn't show up.) I intentionally made Frankie and the animals proportionately a little extra big relative to the porch and door etc.

Session 2

I worked on the boy first.  He is my grandson,  Unfortunately, the ballpoint pen ink keeps coming through the paint, and unfortunately, I only used it on Frankie, on his face, legs and neck!!  :-(

Session 3

Frankie's face was too short in the beginning, but I overcompensated and made it too long.  This is a very slow process.  It will be a while before I finish it, and I have the two collaborations to do--I started on one, but not on the other yet.  I've had some health issues and family crises (including a kid in jail, a kid with a concussion, etc).  But I am plugging away.

Session 4

I worked on the mountains plus trying to get rid of the stupid white lines from my sketch.

Session 5, Monday Night, August 12

I worked on Frankie's Face, the trees on the hills, the logs, some of the clouds and fog in the mountains. I'm very slow--each session is a couple hours long.  You probably can;t even tell the difference.  None of the photos quite look like the actual painting.

Mary's Last piece(s) in the first half round of Round 4: Dino-Drag

Dino-Drag
2 half collabs
Mary Stebbins Taitt first halves

Dino-Drag
half collab for Ballookey
Mary Stebbins Taitt first half

Dino-Drag
half collab for Aya
Mary Stebbins Taitt first half

I did Two more half-collabs this morning, and I did them together so that Aya, Ballokey and I can to a three-way collaboration.

Feel free to draw, mark or paint OVER any portion of what I did to make the wings bigger, add a damsel in distress, add flying teradactyls, or hunters with nets or approaching vampires or whatever.  Add clouds, change the color of the sky, alter the articulation of the wing bones, whatever you want--fix any mistakes.

And the same goes for the collabs I left for Mike and Andrea--too bad I didn't put those together, too.  For another three way.

Make yourself at home.  Have fun!

This is my last piece and I am hoping to mail today, but I think the post office closes at 2 and if I don't make it,t hen it won't go out until Monday.  Seems unlikely I can make it by 2:00--DANG!

Well, anyway, hopefully it will be on it's way Monday to Mike, then.  WAHN--I'd hope to mail it today.

Round 4 first half Mary's pix

Half a collab for Andrea in back of Mole
Faber-Castell PITT Manga Kaoiro set pens
Click all images to enlarge

The Arctic Trek
Watercolor

Leaopard Lept
Sloth Slept
Reptile Crept*
(*see note)
acrylics

Thunderbird
half a collab for Mike Kline
Faber-Castell PITT

I've been busy working on the Mole.  I intend to leave a collab for each artist in the back, except for Mike's, which is in the normal place in the front.  This may mean fewer pieces in the next half-round.

*San Cassimally asked me to illustrate a kids book he's written with nonsense rhymes and this is my first attempt.  I will probably fiddle with it some more.

I hope to be ready to mail by April 15.

Sadly, I got blue acrylic paint from the leopard etc on the arctic trek and the poppies.  I will need to be much more careful--I had waxed paper taped over the other pages and still messed it up.

Round 3: Walking on Eggs (in Mary's Mole)

Walking on Eggs, acrylics and pencil

Walking on Eggs, Acrylics and pencil, Round 3--still have a lot of round 3 pages to complete.  I'm going to write more about this later.

Round 4 Moleskine Cover, SP with Biker Buddy

Self Portrait with Biker Buddy
"tentative final"
click this and all images to view larger

Yesterday, my new Round 4 Moleskine arrived in the mail!  YAY!  I'm so excited.  Biker Buddy and I went out and took a self portrait photograph from which I painted the cover of my new Moleskine. Acrylics on gessoed Moleskine cover.  OH--I took pix of the stages again.  I will post them below.

I need to get back to work on my Fellowship application.  No more art until I hear that this round has officially started.

gesso and pencil sketch

blocking

underpainting and first coat

adding highlights and first details

Round 2; outside back cover

I wanted to complete my Moleskines BEFORE I took a video of the finished Moleskine.  I'd intended all along to make a painting on the back of my Round 2 Moleskine, so I did that tonight and the book is now, finally complete.  I will attempt to make a video of it at my earliest convenience, BUT I am still working on the Fellowship application.

This is a self portrait.  I painted it from a photo my husband took of me at a restaurant in Slovenia.

I took some pictures of the steps, but I will post the scan first.  Acrylic on Gessoed Moleskine cover.

Click images to view larger.

"final" (maybe--I always like to fiddle)

(Step 2) Blocking in with pig markers
I forgot to photograph the pencil sketch

(Step 3) Underpainting
(first coat)

adding detail