Scary Santa

Santa paid his annual visit to our holiday party last month. The range of emotions from visiting kids was pure entertainment. ♥

(Click any image to enlarge)
Benjamin had a nice chat with the jolly man and was pleased with his gift.

This little one was not so sure.

And this one was simply terrified!

(5 x 3″ pen and watercolor on Moleskine®)
Displayed artwork © 2018 Kim Reading. All rights reserved.

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Cat

Good morning meow to you.

(3″ x 5″ pen with watercolor)
Displayed artwork © 2017 Kim Reading. All rights reserved.

It’s a Matter of Orientation

Ask any kid — things look different when you stand on your head or roll on your side. So, it is with artists. But, we’ve learned it’s much easier just to flip our subject (and a lot kinder on our bods).

Try it yourself. Study your subject matter (say, a reference photo). Now, rotate it and observe it again. Your eye will decipher the relative shapes and negative spaces very differently depending on orientation. This is true for more than art!

Here’s a recent example from my sketchbook: “Bunny strut” becomes “Fish arabesque.” No magic. Just a matter of orientation.

(Click  any to enlarge)

 

or, with a 90° rotation

(5.5 x 5.5″ ink and watercolor on std. sketchbook paper)
Displayed artwork © 2017 Kim Reading. All rights reserved.

20 Years Ago

Look what I found!

 

 

I was moving art papers around recently and discovered this collage sandwiched in the stack, created exactly 20 years ago. I had recently quit my full-time job and was taking time to decide my next step. Lot’s of uncertainty felt with a healthy dose of confusion…

I haven’t found all my answers since 1997, but I’ve survived another chunk of my life and had a lot of fun and love along the way. I just wish I could slow down the clock a little for the next twenty!  Tic-Toc.

(24″ x 36″ mixed media collage on Crescent art board)

Me

Just getting in my daily sketch! And testing out a mobile-device-uploaded post for the first time.(3″ x 5″ sketch with watercolor)

Sketching in Public

A favorite bonus (or downside, if you’re shy) to sketching in public is the curious visitor. Kids are the best because they just bound right up asking questions — no sideways glances, no quiet slow stepping to get just close enough for a peak (wouldn’t want to disturb the artist). This day, “Troy” came flying over in his awesome orange and blue monster shirt. I showed him what I was painting and what the names of the places were.

“You need blue there,” he blurted out. Well, yes indeed — I was just getting to that sky! And so he supervised my blue wash for all of 2 seconds and was off again — then back again (you know kids). I told him the best thing about sketching things is you remember that moment very clearly forever. “So every time I look at this painting, Troy, I will remember you and your monster shirt.”

Indeed I shall.

View north from Daybreak Star Cultural Center toward Golden Gardens park with Mount Baker’s peak in the distance.

(Click an image to enlarge)

These were my other visitors that day.

Triangular crabapple tree with mucho abundant fruit.

(3 x 5″ watercolors on paper)
Displayed artwork © 2016 Kim Reading. All rights reserved.

Happy Monday!

(click image to enlarge)

(5″ x 4″  water-soluble pen on paper and watercolor)
Displayed artwork © 2016 Kim Reading. All rights reserved.