Haiku Postcard

haiku postcardAn awesome friend of mine suggested doing a haiku postcard exchange. This is what I came up with. I have forgotten everything I learned about my watercolour paints, so come September (and the Wee Lass begins preschool), I have artsy plans for myself.

Here's a sketch I did as part of the series of motherhood inspired haikus:

motherhood
Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Whence came the monsters

Friendly kitchen monsters

Sitting on my desk is a cute monster gocco print and a business-card version of another monster print, both by Carrie Wagner. They inspired me to draw some monsters of my own. Originally I was envisioning a sort of monster totem-pole, but part way through, I recalled this cute painting, which I saw when reading some artsy blogs recently. It suddenly seemed just right that the reason for this tower of creatures was cookies! My family will recognize the cookie jar. My Mom had supersonic hearing when it came to detecting the slightest scrape of that lid. Accordingly, my older sister taught me the way of removing it silently. To this day, I suspect we are the only two people with the knack.


Friendly kitchen monsters before painting

I had a lot of fun dreaming up different monsters, so don't be surprised if more cute and creepy creatures show up soon. The careful observer will also note a reference to my purple-suited aliens.



Photographs and artwork by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Salutations from a purple-suited alien

"satellite"

This week's IF theme is "satellite", so perhaps it's no surprise that the purple-suited aliens have made another appearance. The story for this one: "The scientists assumed the strange satellite pictures were some kind of elaborate prank."

Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Desperate measures

"security"

I've started accompanying some of these paintings with little one sentence stories. This one allowed me to be exceptionally silly. So silly that I needed an extra sentence.

The nefarious baker had to resort to desperate measures to prevent the heroes from stealing his cake and eating it too. The Nefarious Baker was an Evil Ovenlord who ruled with a heart of Ice (Cream)!

For some reason, my pen wanted to run rather more than usual on this painting. I suspect it's just not that waterproof, so I may have to find a new pen for using with paints. Too bad since I really like the feel of drawing with this one. One gets very picky about art supplies. I noticed this when I was trying to replace my small sketchbook (it's full) and didn't like any of the options. I love that's it's square, since it feels less cramped than a rectangle, but it's still small. Also, while I like the look of bound sketchbooks, I prefer coils so that I can open it fully flat with no fuss.

Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

On one planet, it rained paisley.

"paisley"

I wasn't too enamoured of this week's IF topic of "paisley" at first. I prefer the very abstract themes. But after doing a little mind map brain-storming, it turned out that you just can't predict inspiration. I'm really rather loving my little alien, who seems to be turning up all over the universe. I have a sneaking suspicion that my subconscious produced this little purple-suited alien because I have some fellow-feeling for a being in strange new surroundings.

I think there must be several of them on that pink flying saucer and they're on rather a long holiday, adventuring round the universe. They stopped by Earth for some ice cream, and blew some bubbles as they left. Here, one of them is rather surprised by the form precipitation takes on an otherwise ordinary blue-green planet.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Some days are better than others

The owl and the pussycat

I struggled with this painting. It just didn't want to come out how I was picturing it. My sweetie was very helpful with some constructive criticism. At first my cat totally looked like a mouse. I did some fixing and now it sort of looks like a cross between a cat and a bunny. Oh well. In addition to the mouse-y cat, it was originally very flat-looking, so I added a defined horizon line and a bunch of shading to the boat. Later, I twiddled with the water, adding some more shading and a bit of green and pink around the boat. And I spontaneously added a fish to balance the composition. I decided that I was satisfied enough with it that I'd better quit before I futzed with it anymore. While I'm working on something is when I tend to feel most critical of it, since I'm focused on all the bits that aren't turning out how I wanted. Usually it grows on me later. And in any case, it's all good practice with my new paints.

Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A ripple in the ocean

"ripple"

This week's IF topic was "ripple". I did a cheerful interpretation first, but then I learned about the Ripple sketches project, which is raising money for helping the creatures affected by the Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill.

The idea is that artists create a small artwork on the subject and the works are available through the Ripple project for a mere $10 donation to The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies or The International Bird Rescue Research Center.

My art tends to come from a happy place, so I did not find a sad and depressing issue like the oil spill inherently inspirational. I wanted to contribute to the project, though, so I've done a watercolour and coloured pencil illustration of a brown pelican. The brown pelican is one of the creatures affected by the spill. If you want to help and get a piece of art in the mail, go see all the available works here.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

A new watercolour paint set

New paints!
Today I went for a little ride on my bicycle and bought myself a set of watercolour paints. This is my first "real" set ever! I didn't even have a "student" set before; I was still using my childhood watercolour set. I decided to go with a limited palette to start out. Hopefully this will help me learn a lot about mixing and not just drive me crazy. Rather than buy a pre-packaged set, I picked out 8 colours, which I will probably expand once I see where I'd like more range or convenience to avoid mixing. My box can fit up to 24 pans. I went with pans since I think they're easier to manage than tubes. The colours I have are: Chinese white, benzimidazolone yellow, pyrrole orange, quinacridone magenta, ultramarine blue, pthalo blue (GS), pthalo green (BS), and ivory black. I found the information on this excellent website very helpful in picking out a basic palette.


Photographs by Allison Gryski. © All rights reserved.

Rather a lot of cakes

pretty cakes
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

One of the strange things about engaging in a creative activity, is that sometimes, I feel inspired and compelled to make something without really knowing why or where it's going (if anywhere). Of late, I've found myself rather obsessed with drawing little fancy dessert spreads. I have NO idea why or what I'm meant to do with these drawings. Dear mysterious mind, please enlighten me as to what's going on in my subconscious!


more pretty cakes
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I tried painting one in watercolours instead of colouring it with pencil crayon. Still no answers. Maybe I should try painting one in oils? I'm feeling intimidated by my oil paints. Perhaps starting with something frivolous like a lot of fancy jellies and cakes is the way to go? So far, this inspiration is highly confusing.


fancy cakes and fruit
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Any other creative types reading this have any idea how to channel apparently random inspiration into something more directed? In the meantime, it's starting to make me crave a fancy afternoon tea...


fancy dessert buffet
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

Summer hols

dusk in the country
Originally uploaded by allisongryski

I recently had a short holiday in the country. It was glorious and relaxing.



I spent almost all of one day in various places on the dock reading decorating magazines, paddling my feet in the water, and eating fresh strawberries.


I did some painting.


I read three books (Gifts by Ursula K. LeGuin, Thornyhold by Mary Stewart, and Od Magic by Patricia McKillip). I saw my sister's new house and got bitten by the mosquitoes in her backyard. I walked along a beach and sat on the rocks by a lighthouse. I went to the farmer's market and flea market in town and even found some vintage sheet additions for my picnic quilt at a thrift shop.



I watched sunsets.