I finally took the time to finish my portfolio. As I look at it now I ask myself what took so long. It was the cover. For some reason everything I painted was unsatisfactory, so I would put it aside. This cycle of repainting and quitting continued for weeks until I surrendered. Now it has grown on me and I'm actually happy with it.. I once read a statement by, Liz Lapious, an Atlanta art collector about collecting art, "I think it's important to challenge yourself. I've bought work I wasn't comfortable with, but now I'm in love with it. You need to have a collection you can grow with." I think she may be right. Better to grow than outgrow, which I have many times.
The portfolio is 17" x 24" and the cover is painted with acrylics on acid free mat board. I used acetate presentation envelopes for the inserts to hold my art. I have a supply of 32" x 40" and I cut them down to size with a Walnut Hollow Versa-Tool hot stencil-cutting tool. I used a metal ruler as my cutting guide and to seal the edges..
I have an antique double hole punch that belonged to my father. I love this old punch because it works so well, and I think of my father every time I use it. I chose brass brads because I could easily add or remove inserts. They were sprayed black to match the spine. I plan to make at least one more like this for some smaller work after I finish the artist book/portfolio patiently waiting on my mat-cutting table.
Here is a You Tube video showing how to do touch drawing. Deborah uses her technique for mediation and art therapy. It appears that Deborah is using a light weight drawing paper instead of tracing paper. She writes about the different recomended papers and paints in her handbook ‘Drawing Out Your Soul’ that you can purchase from her web site.
Below are a three of the many drawings I created. I used acid free tissue paper for the personal awareness drawing, which I will put in a journal. I switched to old newsprint for some abstract designs since archival paper was not important. My digital files are enough for any possible future use. The other limitation of the newsprint was not being able to see what you are doing as well as you can with tissue. I found myself pressing little harder with my nails. As a result, you can see the ridges in my aging, damaged nails. It made for some interesting lines. The paint I used was water-soluble oil paint. Deborah also writes about the pros and cons of the different inks. I really enjoyed this technique and being surprised when I flipped the paper over. I want to do more non-personal insight drawings and use differant tools besides my fingers. My ‘to-do’ list is really growing! The portfolio, that I wrote about earlier, is almost finished. Just a few touch ups left to do after I clear my table of the Touch Drawing materials.
Celebration tissue paper
Absract Design 1 newsprint
Absract Design newsprint
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This moving image created by Deborah Koff-Chapin came in my email today from The Center for Touch Drawing. The technique is a finger drawing on a piece of tissue placed on an inked surface. The ink transfers to the back of the tissue much like other monoprint making techniques. I played with this technique a few years ago and got many interesting results. It has inspired me to get my inks out and play again.
One of the reasons I was so move by Deborah’s painting is that for the last two weeks I have been dealing with a breast cancer scare. Yesterday, which was my birthday, I had the best present ever, my mammogram and sonogram showed no signs of a lump only a very tiny cyst near the questionable area. I feel very blessed, as it was an answer to many prayers. We celebrated with a lobster, and Red Velvet cake with vanilla Häagen-Dazs Ice cream!
