Guess what I discovered today! I was in my garden and I pulled a few marigold petals off the flower and rubbed it hard against some cardboard...voila, it made an orange mark! Then I got some dark orange/red colored nasturtiums, more orange marigolds, and golden rod (yellow) flowers and decided to try and draw with them.
I didn't use a pencil or a paint brush, I simply took the petals in my fingers and mushed them, then pressed them against the paper. The paper I used in these pictures is recycled paper, four sheets taped together. I set up a mirror and used my face as a quick guide... although the end result is a wee bit more haggard then I am in reality, psychically at least. ;)
I started with the golden rod yellow flowers for an outline of the drawing since they have the lightest pigment. When drawing with solid colors it's best to build the pigments up from lightest to darkest.
The marigolds gave a full on orange, bright and full of pigment, the golden rod was a lemon true yellow and the nasturtiums came out strangely reddish mauve.
I got really excited that I remembered there was CHARCOAL in the wood stove from last time wood burned. Funny how in art school it never dawned on me the charcoal was simply from wood, since all our art supplies were bought in stores rather then handmade. When I moved out into the woods and burned wood in a stove for the first time, a piece of charcoal fell out onto the floor and I stepped on it and slide across white tile, making a huge line across the floor. I was like OH My GAWd, this is charcoal!!! :)
Adding the blackness of charcoal to any drawing, any color makes everything very bold and intense. I am also not really one for subtle art though too.
This was a eco art quickie, that took less then 5 minutes for me to draw, but shows that there is a range of stuff we can make without relying on an art store, without spending money and without harming the earth in order to create good art. We don't need to be starving artists cause we've spent all our money on art supplies or because our art supplies are so toxic it's polluting soil and water.
BTW - Next time I will draw something more happy for ya'll, like a unicorn.
XoXoXoooooo
The snow storm here in western North Carolina didn't turn out so bad this time, although the pipes froze for the 2nd time and busted, we still have power, phone, internet... and the cold just doesnt seem as frigid as it once did. The sun shining on the snow however was SO bright it was burning my eyes and I had to put on some sunglasses to even be able to look around without teetering on the border of snow blindness with burnt retinas.
Feel free to put in requests, before the snow melts.
