Tag Archives: Paper

Gearing Up

After a hiatus of a year and a half, it looks as though our Life Drawing sessions will start up again in early September. Here’s hoping the rising variant numbers don’t interfere with that.

Supplies

In the meantime, I’ve been gearing up by getting back into practice mode and collecting supplies along the way. I’ve had plenty of time to experiment with new materials over the past 18 months, so my kit will be a little different from what it was when we last got together in March of 2020.

Scott

Scott ©2019 Elizabeth Fram, Graphite and colored pencil on paper, 18 x 24 inches.  Canson Edition paper

The biggest change will be paper. Be forewarned – this is a deep dive into options, probably best suited to those of you who draw.

Before the pandemic I had been using Canson Edition paper exclusively. It’s 100% cotton and acid-free with two deckle edges and two distinct sides, one smooth and the other slightly textured. It’s a good workhorse that accepts a variety of media. For my purposes, its greatest asset was in capturing the marks of my ultra fine (.03) graphite. The downside is it doesn’t show off colored pencil as richly as I might have hoped.

Scott Detail

Scott, detail

This past year, working smaller & mostly in sketchbooks, I discovered several new options as I began working more with watercolor in addition to ink and graphite.

Daisy Bates

Daisy Bates © 2021 Elizabeth Fram, Ink and colored pencil on paper, 8.5 x 5.5 inches.  Stillman & Birn Beta Series sketchbook

Old Man

Weathered ©2021 Elizabeth Fram, Ink on paper, 8.5 x 11 inches.   Stillman & Birn Beta Series Sketchbook – note that the page opens flat, making drawing across the gutter a snap.

Stillman & Birn makes sketchbooks with eight different types of paper. The Beta Series is my favorite. It has a lot of great qualities: acid-free, bright white paper that handles ink and watercolor beautifully and, despite being cold press, has a surface that my pen seems to glide across effortlessly. Each page has some real heft (180 lb) so there is no rippling and it stands up to erasing without damage. Plus, it’s a good weight for stitching if, as with my garden paintings, I choose to go that route. Happily, it’s also available in 22 x 30″ sheets, giving me lot of flexibility with size.

Thinking

Hmmm ©2021 Elizabeth Fram, Graphite, ink and watercolor on paper, 12 x 9 inches. Strathmore 400 Series Toned Mixed-media paper

I’ve also been experimenting with toned paper.
Strathmore 400 Series Toned Mixed-media paper (acid-free, 184lb, 9×12″ sheets) takes ink and other wet media well, while its smooth surface amplifies the marks of colored and pastel pencils the way I like.

Quinn and Stillman & Birn

Stillman & Birn Beige toned sketchbook, 8 x 10 inches

I also just bought, but haven’t yet tried, a Stillman & Birn Nova Series beige-toned mixed-media sketchbook. The 90lb paper will take ink and light washes, so I expect it will be good for general practice, as is my Global Hand Book sketchbook.

Global handbook

Bryan ©2021 Elizabeth Fram, Graphite, ink and watercolor on paper, 11 x 8.25 inches. Global Art Hand Book Artists Journal. This paper is also able to take a light wash, but note the rippling on the right, captured when I scanned the image.

Experimentation is half the fun, and it’s great to have a few new options. Whether or not we actually make it back to meeting in person – and I really hope we do – it’s exciting to think about as I get prepared.

If you aren’t one of my newsletter subscribers (you can sign up here), you will have missed my notice that next week I will be participating in a panel discussion with 3 other artists who also have work in the ongoing exhibition Hidden Messages: Old and New, on Wednesday, August 18th @ 7pm. I hope you will join us – the details and link to registration are below.

Artists Talk

Signify: A Conversation about Meaning and Technique

will be moderated by Leslie Roth, with a panel of
Jennifer Davey, Marya Lowe, and yours truly.
The presentation is free and open to the public; register here.

Instagram of the week:

©Peter Rush

© Peter Rush

It doesn’t have to be all about fancy, store-bought paper. Check out the work of @peter_rush_drawings. He often draws on the inside of cardboard packaging – a novel take on toned paper!

Back to School

It’s that time of year again.
And while not formally, in my own way I too have gone back to school in an effort to keep my drawing from getting too rusty while I wait for our life drawing sessions to start back up in September. The school I’m referring to is proko.com, a deep well of lessons, videos, demonstrations, and anatomy resources created by drawing instructor Stan Prokopenko. It’s a terrific source of solid information with the added advantage of bending to the convenience of my erratic schedule.

Pointer

©2019  Elizabeth Fram, 6 x 12 inches, Graphite on paper (Fabriano drawing)

My goal has been to concentrate on hands, which I find one of the most challenging elements to draw. But, as I methodically make my way through promo.com’s free library of lessons that span from rock-bottom basics through figure drawing, portrait/head drawing, and the anatomy of the human figure, it’s quickly become obvious that rather than just polishing up some rough edges, I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of the expanse of what I need to learn and the work I have ahead of me. It’s daunting, but it’s also very exciting and should keep me busy for a good long while if I stick with it.
For other resources on drawing hands, see this post.

Fist 1

©2019 Elizabeth Fram, 11 x 7.5 inches, Graphite on paper (Canson Edition)

Fist 2

©2019 Elizabeth Fram, 11 x 7.5 inches, Graphite on paper (Arches Satine)

The other thing I really wanted to accomplish during this time that our sessions are on hiatus is to experiment with different papers to see if there is one that stands out as most appealing to my sensibilities and style of drawing. The fact that the subject matter in these practice drawings is relatively repetitious has opened the door to discovering nuances of difference between the various papers I’ve selected. Key questions I’m keeping in mind are: is the paper hard or soft? can I lay down a very light line and still achieve a decent dark? how much will marks smudge? and is it possible to erase without damaging the surface of the paper? Another issue to address will be how each paper receives color, but I’m just going to worry about graphite for now.

Top

©2019 Elizabeth Fram, 7.5 x 11 inches, Graphite on paper (Legion Lennox 100)

Spread

©2019 Elizabeth Fram, 7.5 x 11 inches, Graphite on paper (Arches Cover)

If you’re interested, Prokopenko and fellow art instructor Marshall Vandruff have an amusing and enlightening podcast called Draftsmen that touches on a variety of drawing-related subjects.

I love when the stars seem to align.
We visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal last weekend and one of the first pieces I came across was Cuban artist Yoan Capote’s Abstinence (Freedom) from 2014. It was particularly resonate for obvious reasons.

Abstinence (Freedom), Yoan Capote ©2014, Bronze casts

The piece is quite moving for its meditation on questions of freedom and migration — bronze hand casts of anonymous migrant workers sequenced to spell in sign language the word “Libertad” (Liberty). It also drills home the inherent expressiveness of hands, and in turn their capability to stand in for us as individuals. Capote describes the work as a “metaphor about the absence of voice or the incapacity of decision of common people in front of different aspects of society”.

"L"

Abstinence (Freedom), detail, Yoan Capote

"T"

Abstinence (Freedom), detail, Yoan Capote

Quite a poignant statement, don’t you think?