Category: thoughts behind the work

animals, Illustrations, interior design, Pen and Ink Drawing, step by step, how to, thoughts behind the work

Rabbit and company, still life, color and black and white illustrations

Michele B. Naquaiya

 

 

This process is really long and tedious.  I don’t understand why I am making so much work for myself….except, I started with this idea and I can’t break the mold now. When you have high resolution images, bottom line is that it is what you need to publish your work.

I first do a pen and ink with fine line nib on to bristol paper, which is great for detail.   If I am happy with that, then I transfer that drawing to a heavy watercolor paper.  I am using my 12″x16″ light table to make the transfer.  I am doing this with a thicker nib and heavy emphasis lines are darkened to balance the amount of black on the page.

Then I scan the b&w into a large scanner and upload the b&w to my online store.  When I have the new darker black and white on watercolor paper, I paint it.  The composition defines whether or not I leave a lot of background white in the image or paint it in.

I have been playing with gouache and my usual clear watercolors, which is either Winsor and Newton or Maimeri Blue.  Why do this complex process?  I have learned a lot by this process.  It is remarkable how if you discipline yourself, you can accomplish a lot.  These drawings are giving me a lot of pleasure.  I can’t wait to get to a place when I can assemble them into some kind of storyboard book.

I studied this book building and illustrating in 1988 with Uri
Schulevitz but here I am now, so many years later, actually stepping into scary waters with a style that is actually the first one I adopted such a long time ago.  I discipline myself to doing 3 things every day, studying Spanish, working on the treadmill and drawing and/or painting.  I actually am very satisfied doing these activities.

I hope people will enjoy what I have to say.  My story really never changes.  It’s only the way of telling it that is new.

You can find my art here.

Illustrations, Pen and Ink Drawing, thoughts behind the work

Fish Number 1, flying solo

Michele B. Naquaiya

fish-1-bw.-web

This is one of several fish that is hand drawn from my imagination.  The world is fun when you can create a place where “troubles melt like lemon drops”.

The process:  Once this little fellow gets plopped into a collection of black and white illustrations, then I transfer his image to watercolor paper and hand color it.  The two versions of my book (one black and white and one color), give me a great option for two audiences. All it takes is twice the work. ha ha I feel like a kid again, but with technical tools.

If you are interested, this artwork is for sale on my online store in both paper and textile and metal.

 

thoughts behind the work

When drawing freehand can be a strain

Michele B. Naquaiya

lady-oshkanwaska-thI have always drawn freehand.  This means no outside aides such as  projectors or outside electronic devices.  Now I’m on a venture to get bigger and bigger in my artworks and I need to at least make my photo and apply a grid to it so I can get my proportions correctly.  Yesterday I spent 3 hours drawing and erasing a medium sized layout on watercolor paper.  It was a nasty experience and I still don’t have it right, so I’m feeling frustrated.  The last time I used a projector was in 2004 when I painted a several big oil paintings.

This was a very large oil on linen that a good friend in Washington is holding for me.  It is rolled up in a tube with a few other big oils and someday I will arrange to get them back to me in Mexico.   At the time, I had an old projector and I remember that I hung the linen on the wall and did an outline of the composition in oil and the color I recall was burnt umber.  That’s all I can remember at the time.  But I think I worked on this painting a really long time…..maybe a few weeks.

lady ashkanazi

Once again I am toying with the idea of going back to oils but right now I have a major focus on watercolor as I feel I need much more attention to getting better and better at the elusive water media.

I know it’s a well documented idea but it’s important to never compare yourself to others.  One thing I am know is that I had classical artistic training that I am grateful for it every day.

thoughts behind the work

Painting Scissors: trials of life-art lesson

Michele B. Naquaiya
scissors.jpgThere is a story to these scissors.  It is about how I love tools and figured out a way to keep them, in spite of letting them go.  Loving tools can be a good thing or a bad thing.  When I left my home in Washington, I was determined to get rid of everything that was not absolutely essential.  My new chapter in life had to be bare bones.  I was successful.  My wonderful friends helped me de-stash.  If you have never done it, it is hard.  They did a big 2 day garage sale for me while I left the premises for those days.  That was a good plan.  I did not want to mess things up.  I know I would have cried and acted weird so they took over.

 

Here are just a few of the things they sold for me.

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So how does a painting evolve from this?  I took pictures before I left the house and even though they are not posted here, there were two photos that stood out.  One was where I laid out all my hammers, every kind of hammer you could think of.  The other was I laid out a shot of all the types of scissors that were in the sale.  I drew the hammers on my sketch pad with walnut ink. Then I drew the scissors with a black pen on white watercolor paper, thinking maybe it would be a good coloring book page.
So what I did was paint these 2 sketches: hammers and scissors became patterns for clothing. aka wall art.   I underpainted the scissors drawing  with inks and then painted several layers over that when it was very dry. First I used blues and purples for the background, (cobalt blue and violet) and then several layers of transparent yellows and golds for the scissors.  My favorite orange was the Maimeri “orange  lake” which is a gorgeous and very transparent color.  I layered a little Maimeri gouache white over the ribbon.
scissors-raw-dark-web
available scissors watercolor
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hammers wash watercolor in Walnut ink  available: hammers

So here’s the point to this story. …You never lose things in life.  They are in your memory, your heart.  That’s what this making art stuff is all about.  You make an effort to try to enjoy what’s in front of you before it disappears because you know you will disappear too. If you leave a little art behind, maybe somebody will get a chance to enjoy what you did too.  amen

 

dogs, horses, cats, thoughts behind the work

Friendly Dogs of Mexico

Michele B. Naquaiya
big dog
This big guy is on my “to do” list and I can’t wait to paint him.

Dogs can melt your heart.  There are a lot of dogs here–of all breeds and sizes.  Most of the time it’s easy to spot the dogs that are well cared for and have homes.  They are groomed, look healthy and well fed.  Most of these are usually found around their caretakers’ homes or businesses, as in the big dog in the photo above.  If my memory serves me, he belongs to a carpenter and hangs out in the front doorway of the shop every day.

I’ve never run into a dog that has been super hungry or dangerous.  They all sort of hang out in theirO given area with their designated people.  Some make their scheduled rounds to plazas and restaurants and visit the Malecon every day, just in case somebody did not finish their helado or ice cream.

When a dog is hanging around without a home you can tell because they look like they are seekers.   Often kind people temporarily adopt them and make sure they eventually get a permanent home.   Lots of x-pats make it their mission to do this.  They pay for their shots and neutering and move on.  I am impressed.  This kind of work is usually done by  retired couples who may have the property or the means  and the big hearts to do it.  Sometimes single old women  (watch out,  I’m in that bracket) share their time, dollars and compassion. They have clubs and groups and cafes that they go to just to keep the word going.  It’s a system that works.  They connect with public agencies that help.  Sometimes they find adoptees who take the dogs back to the states and keep them there. Their communication networking is astounding.

A local doggie phenomenon here seems to be two-fold:  Midnight wailing of dogs downtown and roof dogs joining in the chorus.  Roof dogs live on the roofs of the brick buildings behind the Ajijic walls.  Just look up and you will see them peering down at you.  This keeps them off the streets and in a friendly family culture.  They guard, sing, and watch from up above.  I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve grown to really love the “dog” culture here.  So far I’ve never seen a bad event.. That doesn’t mean it does not exist, I have just never witnessed one.

Somewhere in my “to do” list, I have a chihuahua roof dog looking down and me and growling fearlessly.  I need to find that photo as he is painting #2 to do.  So many dogs, so little time.