Creating an Ever-Folding Book with La Scarlatte

I've enjoyed watching artist Pauline Teunissen, who calls herself La Scarlatte, on her Substack and YouTube, where she demonstrates a design for a multi-page illustration she calls an ever-folding book.  

Above is the front page of my ever-folding book.  I had some pumpkins leftover from a drawing class I taught, and added rose hips and chestnuts to the still life.  In the mornings at the breakfast table, I'd sketch as the light came in through the windows.

With three sheets of paper, each folded in quarters, there are a lot of different views in this one book.  Below is a page where I added a blue shadow behind the pumpkin stem, then decided I didn't like the look of it, and turned it into a blue bottle.

Mistakes can lead to "happy accidents" as Bob Ross would say, and I love the effect of the blue glass against the orange pumpkin.

Flipping another couple of pages, I added this turkey feather in a blue jar.

I found it tricky to make each page make sense in the context of the other pages, so I ended up repeating the large pumpkin in most of the pages.

But this gave me the opportunity to create variations, like using the blue from the bottle and jar to create shadows on the orange pumpkin in the bottom right panel.  I like the way using that blue in three places connects the pieces of the composition.

Another page flip, and I added an animal to the story to liven things up a bit.  I found a photo of a little Carolina Wren on Pixabay, and added her to the scene.

Pixabay is a source of copyright free photos you can use to make art from.

And a final flip shows my favorite drawing of the little pumpkin.  The light coming in the windows the morning I drew this was bright enough to make lovely shadows.  I had so much fun drawing this little pumpkin!

I enjoyed the challenge of creating a new composition with each flip of the page, and liked drawing on different colored papers.  I didn't plan the drawings out, really.  It was more like a puzzle to be solved the moment I turned to a fresh view.

You can find instructions for making an ever-folding book by joining La Scarlatte's Substack here:

https://lascarlatte.substack.com/

You can see her ever-folding book on her YouTube channel here: 

https://youtu.be/WS7lG5Qxnpk?si=MgE0kx2SEll32zM0

I hope you'll give this a try!

Happy Creating!

Using Color in Your Compositions

A fruit bowl is the classic still life study, something familiar and easy to begin drawing.  

I created this demonstration for my Pencil Drawing: Colors and Shading class the other day as I ate breakfast at the kitchen counter.

I used Strathmore Toned Tan Mixed Media paper, and started with a light sketch using colored pencil, slowly correcting mistakes and building up areas of color and tone.  You can still see the lines in blue on the bottom of the bowl where I tried to erase but couldn't quite lift the marks.

We've been talking about the color wheel in Pencil Drawing class, and about how boldly color opposites, or complimentary colors, contrast and catch your eye.  Violet and yellow, green and red, blue and orange all are color compliments, and they seem to brighten each other when placed side-by-side in your art.

For instance in this sketch, I find the contrast of yellow-green and pink invigorating. 

I used purple shadows in the bananas to contrast with the yellow. The purple shadows seem to make the bananas brighter and more vibrant.

We've also been playing with layering one color over top of another.  I laid in a warm red over the cool red of the apple in the center. 

 Color can seem daunting at first with so many options, but playing with complementary colors in your drawings can be a fun place to begin gaining experience and confidence in working in color, and a still life is a great place to play with color.

Happy Creating!

Watercolor Explorations Vermeer Still Life

In Friday's Osher class, I asked my students to set up a still life of household items.  I collected items that drew my artist's eye -- the colors and forms of the apples and mango, the pot-bellied, shiny copper pitcher, and the intensely cobalt blue wine bottle all spoke to me.

As I started painting, I enjoyed making shadows by mixing Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, and creating my own black for the backdrop by mixing Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber.  I prefer the liveliness of shadow colors you mix yourself, and varying the amounts of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber in the drape made the wash more varied, just as you see in real life.

The copper pitcher color felt tricky to create, but came about randomly as I mixed Cadmium Yellow and Burnt Sienna to make the bruised marks in the mango.  David looked at my palette and pointed out that I could use the resulting mango color to start my copper pitcher.  It worked beautifully.  As I built up layers and added shadows, I used brush strokes to match the marks the hammer had made as it shaped the copper. 

Every painting teaches you something, and this painting taught me that the still life I set up -- though a beautiful composition with rich colors -- was too complex for the hour and a half of class time I had budgeted for it. I finished the painting later, thinking that a much simpler still life would have been more manageable and inspiring.

I've included a photo of my still life.  It reminded me of something Vermeer would paint.  

Feel free to paint it yourself!

Watercolor Explorations: Still Life with Veggies

My Osher Zoom Watercolor Explorations class has begun.  Each week, we practice watercolor techniques & discuss background information, and then each person sets up their own still life. We paint together via Zoom.  You can see my students' work here.

This week, I selected fruits and vegetables as the subject for our still life.  

I placed the red pepper, onion and eggplant in a roughly triangular composition, then literally tossed the three yellow peppers into the scene to keep the layout looking lively.  

I was drawn to the lusciousness of the bright red pepper against the deep purple eggplant.  After class, I added a little fine Micron pen to define forms & shadows further. 

Why not set up a still life with delectable produce and paint or sketch it?  When you're done, you can always cook your subject up into a tasty stew!