Collage and pastel pages

It was late autumn and getting ready to turn to Christmas....I did autumn and Christmas holiday collage pages facing each other. The red maple was the last hurrah for this tree, right after I did this sketch, a rain/wind storm hit a few days later and there was nothing left on the tree.

Coffee Shop Counter, Pumpkins and Chloe

The sketch of the coffee shop is the local one we like to go to, the Roast Coffee and Tea Company.

I don't do many Still Lifes but here's one with pumpkins and a Chloe cameo.

Rainy days and Chloe pages

Two more Art House CoOp pages...the one on the left was done on a very dismal autumn evening...always a challenge to paint from the car, I prefer to be outside, I feel confined inside the car...and some Chloe pages....the odd shaped one is Chloe chewing her bone and she was on a weird angle and I decided to give it a shot. Bones keep her busy when I am in my studio.

Some more Art House pages

As I was saying in a previous post, I use ink to force me to make quick decisions and leave out the unimportant details....this boat is the perfect example. It was getting dark very fast and I didn't have much time left to see to sketch and I managed to get the information down that I wanted to capture in only a few minutes. It's a great exercise in saying what you want to say, as fast as you can say it, in a sketch. I like the sketch on the right and I think this would be so much better on better paper but I was dealing with a sketchbook with very thin paper.

More sketchbook pages

Here's some more pages....I haven't done much pencil anymore and I miss it. I switched to ink to force me to make decisions in my sketchbooks without dithering over unimportant details.

Some more pages....

Here's a few more pages...The page with Chloe was an interesting experiment that didn't quite go as expected. I gesso'd the page and used Absorbent Ground so that I could use a watercolor base, but what I didn't expect when I dropped splashes of yellow was when I tried to dab it with a paper towel, I lifted the color and those are the spots you see. It wasn't intentional but these are some of the happy accidents that happen in sketchbooks. I like using newspaper Ad pages for my borders, the newsprint isn't cranky about what I put over it. I sketched Chloe in a different sketchbook and cut her out to attach her on this page. Sometimes having fun in your sketchbook releases your mind when you need to be serious in your other work.

More Pages from My Art House Sketch Book

Here's some more sketchbook pages, the pen and ink side on the first was done in NYC...the second pen and ink was done on our sketch nights....the collages were more Elegant Lady pages. There is writing and embellishments but you can't see them very well in the photos.

More Pages from my Art House Book

Two pages with pan pastel, and a collage page where I was beginning to use the technique to tell as story. This Elegant Lady Page is the finished version, the original layout was discussed in an November post and you could read about it there and see the different between the original layout and the final embellished page.

Sketchbook Project - More Pages

By the time I got to the middle of the book, I was really getting the hang of the collage/mixed media techniques and I was learning how to deal with the thin weight paper, better.

Sketchbook Project - Birds and more Collage Technique

As I got warmed up to the collage and mixed media technique, I began to find methods for underpainting, piecing magazine clippings together to make a whole new subject, etc.

Sketchbook Project - Jersey Shore

The Pen and Ink pages were done over the summer at the Jersey Shore....Some of the mixed media pages bled through, which is why some pages have paint stains.

More Sketchbook Project Pages

These were some of my first ventures into collage and mixed media.

Some more Sketchbook Project pages

What's funny about these tomatoes is that I sketched them in gouache, then when I was done, cut one up and put it in the guacamole I made.

More Sketchbook Project Pages for your viewing pleasure

Because the paper in these sketchbooks was very flimsy, one side had my traditional sketches with ink and watercolor, but because it bled through, I tried different media to still be able to use that back page.

Getting out to Paint

Went out to paint over the weekend and I went down by the water. It was cold and windy. Makes you perform quick decisions to get as much info on the board before the fingers get numb. I tried gloves, they stick to the grit on the board so they went back into the pocket. Wind was a big issue, blowing things off the easel and making it colder.

Winter Plein Air Painting

Well, I am usually a plein air painter that likes the WARM weather, but I have always wanted to paint snow...I bundled up and ventured out to give a try and the only thing I can say is....

BRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

More Sketchbook Project Pages

Here are some more scans from the Sketchbook Project...

Sketchbook Project Pages

Well the book is complete, pages scanned and was mailed out. I will posting some of these pages here on the blog, or if you want to view them all at once, you can go to

http://web.me.com/gnmelento/Site/Welcome.html

This book took months to create but it was worth it....

My first handmade sketchbook

I attended a bookmaking workshop over the weekend and here is a photo of my very first hand made sketchbook! I am so proud to show it off, not bad for a first timer!!!