Letters: This time in color

Welcome dear viewer!

Here's a page with simple letters from my Big Old Sketchbook.

Big Old Sketchbook, page 40. Mixed media. Steve Franklin, 2014.

I enjoy working with color.  Layers and texture add dimension and depth.  I like how this page creates a sense of three dimensional movement.

There's an idea for a page.  Focus on layers.  Try overlapping transparent shapes & colors, adding texture.  You can make some shapes opaque by covering with white.

If I recall, I cut out a stack of bleeding art tissue into a simple cross shape. The green crosses, were, by the way, originally blue. I used rubber cement as a block out, all stringy and painterly between watercolor washes.  It looks like I used Daniel Smith watercolors: Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Nickel Azo Yellow, Quinacridone Rose, and perhaps New Gamboge or Hansa Yellow--back in 2014.  I'm pretty sure the blue is Phthalo Blue.  Oh, there's also green in there: uh, not sure which one.

Often times, when I'm in a creative mood, I become an "art animal" using instinct more than thinking.  

Then it takes awhile to figure out just how I did something by looking over it.

The most important thing you gotta do when you fill your journal pages? Have fun no matter the outcome.

Thanks for viewing.

-Steve

Letter Designs

Welcome, beautiful person!
Here are a couple of pages from my Big Old Sketchbook.

Big Old Sketchbook: Pages 137 & 138. Pencil. Steve Franklin, 2014

This is a sketchbook that I carried around for awhile, so sorry if the pencil looks a little smudged.  In the future, I may have to fix the pencil pages to avoid this happening.  I enjoyed designing these letters.  I hope this two page spread inspires you to design your own letters.  It may be fun to look at illuminated manuscripts to get ideas and realize just how beautiful letters can be.  I bet you could design your own beautiful letters.

I may just sit down and design some more letters.  It's quite fun.  Anyway, if you're not sure what to do in a sketchbook page, try this.

I recently showed someone the last painting I completed. It had the words "See Me" and was filled with abstract letter-like shapes as the subject.  That person considered it a graffiti painting, like there was something wrong with it.

I refuse to put such limitations upon myself.  Limitations are like a heavy weight you carry on your own shoulders.  I choose not to carry this weight.  Therefore, I am free to do what I want. After all, I know what I like.  If someone is not ready for viewing beautiful words and letters, then so be it.

Thanks for reading and I hope you appreciate this page.

Take care,

-Steve

See Me

See Me, page 135. Pencil. Steve Franklin 2014.

So here's a page in the Big Old sketchbook. I was doodling and drawing letters.

This weekend, I felt the need to just stop doing stuff and just relax.  I think I just needed to reset my mind.  I was kind of feeling down on myself and felt the need to watch a movie, just so I could let someone else's creation take me to another world for awhile.  Isn't that what movies do for us?  I just watched a movie on the television.  Then I watched some more, and took a nap.  That was Saturday.  Now, I can't even remember just what it is that I watched.  Oh, well.

Hey!  I had that shake today!  I had a veggie burger with an Oreo Pumpkin shake at Burger King. It was good.  I actually did the cooking this weekend.  Saturday, I made some cornbread; I cooked over easy eggs for breakfast. Sometimes I make sweet potato and egg tacos for breakfast.  This is how I make them: I peel a sweet potato with a sharp knife, dice it then place it in a pan; add real butter, some water and salt; cover it and simmer until the water evaporates, throw in eggs beaten with a drop of milk, cook that, grate some muenster cheese to throw on top, add chipotle salsa, then fold this into a flour tortilla I heated on a separate pan (comal?).  These are great.

Oh, I got off the subject.  Where was I?  Oh, yeah, I cooked.  I also made biscuits this morning with potatoes and scrambled eggs.  Since I wanted some sort of gravy to go with the biscuits, I opened a carton of split pea soup to dip my biscuits into, since I don't eat meat and had no mushrooms.  This weekend, I tried to cook with just what I could find around the house, because I didn't feel like going to the grocery store at all on Saturday.  Although, I did have to go to the store today.  I love getting a hot french bread loaf and eating some with tomato soup. I like to throw precooked chickpeas in the soup to add protein.

Often times, when I sketch lettering, I like to first draw a shape to fit letters or words into.

Take care for now.

-Steve