ink art – Carve & Draw

Magnolia

60 mph winds swooped through my area last night and knocked downed trees and power lines for over 600k residents. I am one of those residents. In an effort to finish this baby up, I had to go all 1820s, pulling out oil lamps, candles…and an old iPod Touch, which I used as a handheld light source to get a closer look at my work. It was a chilly, dark but beautifully moon lite productive night.

The power is still out and it may be so for a few days. Good thing the weather isn’t too cold to lose a couple of toes to frost or too warm to make all the meat in the freezer go bad. I’m currently wrapped up in two blankets, a fur hat, head scarf, Nike pulled over, a thermal shirt, tank top, sweat pants, two pairs of socks and slippers. I don’t think I’ll be getting much done today since the temperature is suppose to be dropping and we might get some snow. But I’m glad that I pushed through and got Magnolia done. This is my first 8×6 all botanical ink drawing, a departure from my usual ACEO drawings. During the process of creating it I started following the works of other botanical artists on Instagram in an interest to learn more about botanical art. Since the female form and flowers are a common theme in my work I figured I would explore the works of others who also like to draw flowers and other various plant life, to take a peek at their techniques, subject and materials they like to use. Being a former student of botany, I think botanical art is right up my alley.

Anyhoo, “Magnolia” is all finished and now available for a new home at my online store: www.qrumbley.com

Inking “Human”

We laid my grandfather to rest Monday, next to my grandmother. I’ve shed my tears and said my goodbyes. May their energy live on within me.
I’m back home now and back to inking my current ACEO, “Human”. I’m laying in the first layer of skin tone. Next will be the shadows and the third is what I call “blending”, which is smoothing out any hard line areas that don’t transition nicely from dark to light, otherwise the colors will have a more flat, comic book coloring look rather something more painterly. It takes a bit of build up in dots while trying to avoid “pooling” which can cause a blotchy look to the ink. Tedious work but also very meditative…and much needed after four days of an emotional roller coaster.

Gumballs

Well it’s been a week and I said I would probably finish this up by now before my creative interest ran out. So here it is, all finished for showing. This was something I did just for fun and practice since I haven’t worked in just black ink for a while. In the process of working on this, it got me a little more interested in still life art and wondering, what is it that appeals to people about still life? Are there particular objects that are more interesting than others? For example I often come across still life art of flowers and produce. Is it in the way that they are done or is it all just really subjective from one viewer to another? I’m interested in reading your thoughts on still life art so please feel free to share them in the comments.

If You Let Me (wip)

I hope all is going well with everyone this holiday season. I just wanted to do a quick work in progress update on my latest ACEO drawing, “If You Let Me”. I’ve been making some progress in between holiday activities and baby sitting a little Yorkie with an over active bladder and sensitive tummy. As a cat person, this is a change for me. My hubby likes dogs, so we’re looking at this as an opportunity to see if we can handle having one. This Yorkie is an adorable little fellow but so far…we’re becoming more convinced we should stick with cats.

…neither I or my carpet is digging this thing called “happy pee”. 😒

Have You Ever…

…fallen in love with a song? I mean, literally, fallen in love with a song in a way that the lyrics feel like a lover’s finger tips softly caressing your skin? Well, that’s how I’ve been feeling about Sinead Harnett’s song “If You Let Me”.

I first heard it in passing while cleaning my living room with Pandora playing in the background. It didn’t immediately catch my attention, I only happen to notice that its sound fit perfectly into the mood I wanted to create for the playlist I was building. So I gave it a thumbs up and booked marked it. But it wasn’t until the second time I heard it, a week later, that I fell head over heels, which in all honesty, is how I am when it comes to love. It’s always with the second or third look that I fall, it’s never been the first.

This song has been stuck in my musical mind loop for two weeks, I even wake up with it playing in the backdrop of my thoughts and now it has become the source of inspiration for my next piece of ACEO miniature art. There are so many verses in this song that touch me that it’s been difficult narrowing it down to just one but that’s the parameters I gave myself for this project so one verse it is.