Black Is (And Isn't) A Color

James Gurney has just published the best explanation of the properties of black that I have ever seen. He has done a four part examination of its use as a pigment, in composition, and properties as a color...or not.  This last installment was my favorite.  As it turns out, it depends on the context of the discussion, and its relation to other colors.  This man is a heck of an educator!

If you don't read his blog yet, I highly recommend it.  GurneyJourney.blogspot.com

Summer Reading

I love reading, for entertainment or for knowledge.  I was the kid that was not at all troubled with summer reading assignments.  I was going to read something anyway.

You might have seen me mention that reading about art can give you almost as much knowledge as the process of actually making it.  Well I just found a pretty rad reading list on the portraitartist.com website.  It's not an enormous list, but it breaks things down by topic, and includes instruction books, historical, books by movement, there's even a section on the business side of art.  Check it out here.  All the usual places sell these books; Amazon, Barnes & Noble.  I'll be visiting my library with this list in hand soon.

Color Experiments in Screenprinting

I did it.  i finally listed some prints I've been hoarding for a while.  It was a fun series of silkscreen prints I did in my last quarter of college.  My teacher encouraged me to keep printing.  Silkscreen is one of the easiest print techniques to pull off at home, you know.

No two prints are exactly alike.  I printed something like 10 big squares of background color, just a couple of each.  Then I printed a couple of each face color on each color of background.  Each fire and brain color was printed on each colorm ariation after that.  The only color present on each is the black.  Looking at them now, I might have arranged my layers differently.  I probably should have found a way to print the black last, for example.  But hey, that's what these experiments are for!

Check them out on Etsy.  One is framed, and 5 of the remaining 6 are posted here.  

Etsy Overhaul!

I am in the process of giving my Etsy shop a MAJOR facelift!  I went ahead and listed a whole bunch of new things, including some folk style paintings, and a couple of prints.  I'm aiming to get back to my goal of one new item each week! 

Check it out here!

Logos and Free Programs

Designing logos is very specific work.  One must know exactly what to say with a single, iconic image.  I have been working on one for myself for a long time, and I think I've finally got it!  The idea blindsided me yesterday while I was at my day job, waiting for a meeting.  Funny how that happens, isn't it?  I did a nice clean drawing last night.  The only thing left to do is digitize!

My computer with Adobe CS on it happens to be 1,500 miles away at the moment, so I'm looking for free options that might do the trick.  I came across this list of 12 free design programs.  Has anyone tried any of these?  How do they compare to Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw?

DIY Studio: Screen Exposure Unit

Screen printing is not only amazingly fun and versatile, but one of the easiest print mediums to do from home. There are tons of videos on YouTube on making everything from your actual printing station to vacuum exposure units. Yes, let me repeat that. DIY vacuum exposure units! I think I found a new project for spring!

This one is my favorite so far, but a quick search will yield many versions!