Momigami experiments with hand cream

 

Momigami experiment - left is the momigami, right is the original inkjet print on architect's tracing paper. I was surprised the momigami got much lighter than the original.

Momigami paper on left after rubbing on some acrylic paint or hi-flow inks.

(All images will enlarge - just click on them.) My friend Eileen of the Good Junk Sanctuary came over and showed me how to make momigami. It's something I have been curious about for years. We made a couple of pages while we talked about art and life. She mentioned that you could use hand cream, cooking oil or a gel made from konnyaku powder that is intended for momigami. After Eileen left I experimented with hand cream. (There are lots of videos online for making momigami.) I'm using Vaseline Intensive Care but I think hand creams are pretty much all the same. I first made a number of pieces of momigami from different papers. I let them dry overnight, the hand cream seems to go away. Maybe it's absorbed? The next day I rubbed acrylic paint diluted with glazing medium or hi-flow paint on them. All the paints were very thin, I wanted a transparent layer that wouldn't obscure the original patterns. My goal is to have interesting collage papers. All the papers became softer, and heavily wrinkled of course. The more fragile papers developed little holes and tears along the edges which I love. Rubbing the papers with paint did smooth out most of the physical wrinkles but emphasized the visual texture. At times the backs are almost more beautiful than the fronts.

The section of a brown envelope on the right with the arrow head is the momigami. The paper had already been printed with some acrylic paints on a gelli plate. The light spots are titan buff, a fairly opaque paint.

The next day the momigami paper was rubbed with acrylic paint. Not much change, but the more opaque titan buff spots stand out beautifully from the ground. Hard to see the effect in the photo. 

The momigami piece is on the right, the original paper was printed on the gelli plate. I was surprised at how much lighter it became. This is also architect's tracing paper. It's very tough. 

I painted some thin blues and sepia toned paints over the momigami sample. 

These two pages came from a magazine. The small figure on the right looks particularly good for collage. 

The pages were then painted with blue and golden brown acrylic paints.

I like the network of lines caused by paint sinking into the wrinkles. These will make inspiring collage materials.

On the left - momigami on a gardening magazine pages. The ink came off the page and smeared  around some, making my hands inky and the page look dirty. 

This was another gardening magazine page that was fragile. To strengthen it I tried to coat it with mat medium on a gelli plate. The paper stuck to the plate so I let it dry then coated it with more mat medium and laid a piece of architect's tracing paper on top. When that was dry I was able to peel the whole sheet off. What I have is some beautifully grungy text and plants. 

Bits of a page that fell apart. I love the cracks and the subtle colors. 

The backs of the previous bits of paper. The visual textures and colors are lovely. 

Artist Book: Seeing and Seen

 

Seeing and Seen, front and back cover. 2.5 x 3 inches, artist book by Judith Hoffman

Seeing and Seen, pp 1 and 2

Before the book I want to tell you Feedburner is going away. If you are getting email notification when I post a new blog entry, that will end in July. I have downloaded the email addresses from Blogger and will send you an email when a new blog post is out. If you want me to email you directly, you can let me know at judithDOTzDOThoffmanATgmailDOTcom. Of course change the capital letters to the appropriate symbol. That is a "z" as in zebra. I will also announce new blog posts on my Facebook pages and my Instagram. I have two Facebook pages - I prefer to use the personal one but I will keep posting notifications on my "business" page also. Please note - you can't count on Facebook showing you my posts. It may help if you add my feed to your favorites. My Instagram gets more love than my Facebook page, but not many reposts. 

I made this book in 2020 and apparently never took photos or posted about it. Images should enlarge.

I am happy spending most of my time alone, but during the pandemic I realized how important it is for me to spend some time with my friends. I want to see them, to understand them in their complexity (or at least try) and to be seen by them.

Seeing and Seen artist book pp 5 and 6

My art energy was on pause last year, but one thing I did was look through old, unfinished projects.

2.5 x 3 inch old painting/collage tests, sanded to be glued back to back

Among many other things, I found a stack of small mixed media collage experiments on 300 pound watercolor paper. I love small! And because the paper was already used, I didn't feel bad making some experimental collages on the back sides. Above you see the old painting experiments, sanded before gluing them back to back with PVA. They did get interesting didn't they? Sanding turns out to be an awesome technique.

Seeing and Seen artist book by Judith Hoffman pp 7 and 8

I started the experiments by collaging found images that reflected my scattered mind. Then I added drawings of faces to the results. The drawings are on architect's tracing paper, which is fairly transparent.

Seeing and Seen artist book by Judith Hoffman pp 9 and 10

As some of the collages came together I spread them on my work table and made pairs of pages. I realized some of the people in the images were trying to connect with each other.

Seeing and Seen artist book by Judith Hoffman pp 3 and 4

Some looked away, connections were not made. But a few were able to see each other and make contact. 

Seeing and Seen artist book by Judith Hoffman pp 11 and 12

To assemble the pages I glued the collages back to back. I drilled small holes in each page and bound them with Keith Smith's singe sheet binding method. The original paintings are not seen, except for a small bit around the edges which you can see that most clearly in the first photo of the front and back cover.

Drumleaf Binding with Andrew Huot

I recently took a class with Andrew Huot called "Binding for photographers and printmakers." The title should have given me a clue - maybe work that isn't flat would not work so well in these bindings. But I wanted to learn drum leaf binding. My fantasy is to lay a group of two page spreads (a piece of paper folded in half) on my work table and work on them with collage and paint. Then choose the ones that work together, and glue them back to back. I don't want to have to make art on the back of any of these pages. If you enlarge this image you can see gaps between the pages in the overhead view. There is room for notes - I slipped a piece of paper with comments in between two pages. 

Drumleaf binding, mark making samples

The book above does not close completely. There is thin collage and a fair amount of paint on some of the pages. And all pages bow out a little. It's made with Stonehenge and does feel very nice in my hand. The content is mark making experiments I did in a class with Jane Davies. There is a video of this book on my Instagram account, judehoffperson

Double folio accord with one misplaced page.

Above is my sample for the Double Folio Accordion book. One of my pages is out of order, creating a page where there shouldn't be one. This format is also made with sheets folded in half, it satisfies my requirement of being able to work on a group of pages out flat, then gluing them together. It wouldn't close flat with collage or paint on the pages, but maybe I can accept that.

The other problem with both these books is that they are presented with straight cuts to make them look tidy. One reason I love coptic binding is that I can have torn page edges. Would a tidy straight edge look out of place with my books? Does it matter if they are wonky? Maybe not. Maybe wonky across the top and on the fore edge is okay. Maybe torn edges would be okay too. I'll have to try that. Except of course on the folds of the accordion. 

The blind contour drawing project surprise

Go By Bus. Non dominant sketch, collage, experiment by Judith Hoffman, 2020

I am about halfway through my 100 Blind Contour project. This one counts, although it's non-dominant. They are all experiments. I am working toward using more collage with the drawings, trying to keep everything loose and fast. Just to be clear - the basic initial sketch is non dominant or blind contour. But after that I use my dominant hand, looking at the drawing, to add hatching, little details, etc.

Blind contour with hatching, collage. Judith Hoffman, 2020

I am so much loving the weird distortions most of these drawings have. The appeal is that I am surprised. Normally I tend to draw carefully and these are not at all what I expect. In this group the backgrounds are 5 x 7 pieces of heavy watercolor paper. I collage on whatever I find on my work table. The faces are drawn on architect's tracing paper, then collaged over the drawings. Then I add more hatching, texture, etc.

Blind contour drawing, hatching, collage. Judith Hoffman, 2020

This one needed some white to brighten up areas, I used a Posca pen. There are more in my Flickr albums. There are albums for my friend Eileen, my husband Jim, and now for myself. More to come as I get more photos from friends.

Blind Contour Drawing Challenge

Blind contour drawing on paper, scanned
and completed in Procreate.

After looking at these art prompts, my friend Eileen and I decided to try a quick drawing exercise. The parameters we choose were to make six by six inch drawings using blind contour or non-dominant hands for 20 minutes a day for five days. The drawing above conveys Eileen's spirit better than a more detailed drawing could.

Blind contour drawing scanned into Procreate
where hatching was added.

We exchanged around seven selfies (I got photos of Eileen, she got mine.) I was concerned I didn't have enough time because I had just signed up for a Sktchy class that would probably take six hours a week.

The original blind contour drawing which was the
foundation of the two drawings above.

I started doing a few non-dominant hand drawings, but I love the unpredictable nature of blind contour, so that's what I focused on. On the first day I was hooked. I stopped watching the Sktchy videos (they are on YouTube, so I can watch later.) I spent my 20 minutes doing four or five blind contour drawings, then another hour amplifying one of the drawings. After a few days I started using Procreate, a drawing app I favor on my iPad. After another day or so I was struggling with keeping to the "blind" part. The photo and the canvas in Procreate are right next to each other so it wasn't hard to see what was going on in my peripheral vision.

Screen shot of Procreate canvas. Layers show the solid black layer
with a drawing layer above. When the black layer is turned off,
the blind contour drawing is revealed.

Then I realized I could create a solid color layer, then make another layer above that and draw with the same solid color. (see screen shot above) That way I couldn't possibly see what I was drawing. When I was done with the blind contour part, I turned off the solid layer to reveal the drawing. The best part of this is that I don't remember what I have drawn, so there are two right eyes and two left earrings. I also raised my pencil at times, which adds a lot more randomness. More layers could be added for things such as background textures as in the drawing below.

The developed screen shot blind contour above.

The background on this one is a scan of a copy machine error that Eileen gave me last year. I tend to over-do these, in a way I don't think they need a lot of detail. But I'm just going with what I enjoy. I love black and white and contrast, so filling in some areas adds to the interest for me. There are more drawings in this Flickr album.

Caran D'ache Neocolor II Lightfast ratings

Caran D'ache lightfast test in window with southern exposure approximately April to December 2019

I have been playing with the Neocolor II water soluble crayons a little bit. They are fun, and very nice to use. I find them fairly soft and they dissolve easily in water. You can use a wet brush to take some color off the tip of the stick for small bits of color, or scribble all over a page and then apply water in selected areas. Once they have been watered down they don't smear on the paper. A solid crayon mark does smear.

In 2015 the Wild Portrait Artist blog posted this lightfastness chart (scroll down for the chart, which comes from Caran D'ache) and an interesting bit of information. It's the only information I can find online. The chart from Caran D'ache is out of date - some of those colors have been discontinued. And there are some newer ones. I don't have them all, I think there are a total of 84 colors. I got most of mine at Artist's and Craftsman Supply. I can't find a web site for the Portland stores, but here is their Facebook page.

I prefer to do my own tests, using paper I like, in this case Strathmore Imperial watercolor paper. I decided to make a quick test to put in a window with full sun exposure. I scribbled in the top area of the box and used some clean water on a watercolor brush to pull the crayon into the lower part. The right side of each column was covered with a dense paper. The top three rows are colors that are listed as fugitive. Some of those turned out to be pretty lightfast. Unfortunately I forgot to date the test. I am guessing it was in a window with sun or bright light from April to the end of December. I scanned the test on January 1, 2020, a few days after taking it out of the window. I will tell you what I see on the actual test because computer colors are so varied. The image will enlarge if clicked.

Periwinkle Blue has a very slight change, mostly in the watered down area.
Light Olive changed a tiny bit, the watered down area is a tiny bit lighter.
Olive also a bit lighter in the watered down area. It seems to change in tone from a warmish olive to a cooler olive where it fades.
Carmine is very faded in the watered down area.
Pink may have slight fading but it's almost undetectable. I may just be expecting to see fading there.
Russet may have very slight fading.
Ochre is extremely different in both areas - it goes very much to greenish yellow.
Brown has no change.
Raw Umber fades slightly in both areas - mostly apparent in the watered down section. It's still a beautiful color.
Lemon Yellow is so light it's hard to say, but I think it faded a bit in the sun.
Yellow also may have faded a tiny bit in the sun exposed side.
Orange is noticeably faded in both areas.
Salmon is a tiny bit faded.
Vermillion may be a bit faded, it's hard to say, I may have not applied the color evenly.
Scarlet seems slightly faded in the watered down area, or maybe the color wasn't even.
Purple may have a very slight change.
Lilac may have faded a bit in both the solid and the watered down areas.
Violet I believe is a bit faded in the watered down area.
Ultramarine looks okay.
Light Blue may be a bit faded in the watered down area.
Cobalt seems okay.
Turquoise is okay.
Yellow green I'm not sure about.
Emerald Green seems okay.
Malachite Green maybe be a bit faded but I may not have applied the color evenly.
Prussian Blue seems fine.
Black may be faded in the watered down area or I may not have applied the color evenly.
Grey looks slightly faded to me.
Light Grey seems slightly faded in both areas.
White - I'm not sure why I tested white, maybe to fill in the last box. Can't see any change.

I would not hesitate to use any of the colors where I wasn't sure about the fading. I think in an artist's book they would be fine. The question remains how they would do in a gallery setting if displayed for a month under fluorescent lights, which can fade colors a lot. If you can accept a slight shift in darkness, where the color remains the same, I think all but the Olive, Carmine, Ochre and Orange might be okay. The question is - can you accept a slight shift over time? With collage I always feel things will change anyway. Papers can yellow, magazine colors will certainly fade. It's an inherently un-archival medium.

It was especially interesting to me that many of the supposedly fugitive colors are not bad. I always look at the grey to see what their range is. The Raw Umber is a beautiful brownish grey, the Black is very dark and dense where it's applied solid. The watered down part is pretty, a nice grey. And the Grey and Light Grey are on the cool side.

Do you make tests?

I think tests are important. These little booklets are where I store information about each paper. They can also lead to interesting discoveries. When I buy a new paper I like to make a little pamphlet bound book of eight or so pages. They are usually tied with a bow so I can easily take them apart later and add pages. I sometimes run a page through my printer, often paint on one to see how it holds up, then do some score and fold tests to see if the paper cracks. It's also good to draw, doodle, or test out things like rubber stamp inks, which go through a lot of papers.

An assortment of test booklets. The largest are 5.5 inches high. All images will enlarge.

Fabriano Artistico. I do like torn edges on my pages. I like the look and I prefer to not have waste if I can help it. When I tear the pages I test for grain and make a note of that. Not all web sites list the grain of paper they sell. I also make a little tearing diagram. Sometimes I note how many sheets I have although that hasn't worked so well because I forget to update that information.

Fabriano Artistico. Two layers of acrylic paint, fold tests with notes. This paper formed a few small cracks on the fold.

Fabriano Artistico. I chose this image to print because there are some very subtle areas that might not show up. There is a largish face in the lower right that is too hard to see. I could possibly increase the contrast but it might not work for low contrast images.

Fabriano Artistico. This is from a marker phase. I note the specific materials so I can see later which work and which don't.

Khadi Nepalese Tsasho Dark. I love this paper and I haven't made a book with it yet.

Khadi Nepalese Tsasho Dark. Which materials I test depend on what I'm working on at the moment, so it's a little random. I do leave extra blank pages so I can go back and try out other stuff.

Khadi Nepalese Tsasho Dark. Sometimes I just can't stop testing.

Favorite Drawing Books

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I have been playing with doing blind contour drawings and then filling in with cross hatching, as if I was happy with the proportions. I'm finding this very fun, the distortions I get with contour drawing are often interesting. Above is an example. This one was done on my iPad with Procreate.

I am working on my website this afternoon but I keep thinking I'd like to stop and draw some. (I try to work on the website when I feel fresh, and draw in the evening when I'm getting tired.) Why is drawing so distracting right now? I found a new book - Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson. It's reviewed by Teoh Yi Chie on youtube. The examples are very loose, Bert Dodson's approach is clear and easy to follow. There isn't much emphasis on perfection. In fact early on he says restating lines (when you make a mistake) can give the drawing more life. I find his approach very inspiring.

My other all time favorite drawing book is Sketch Book for the Artist by Sarah Simblet. She has written other books that are very good, but this is the best. The examples are very nice drawings, her descriptions are clear and inspiring. The link goes to Amazon, where there is a "look inside.

Snow Dance

As part of my experiments with intuitive drawing, I have been playing with a procedural drawing web page called Harmony. It works on my iPad and my Mac, I think it will work on any device or computer. Below is a screen I produced in Harmony.


It looks like, and is, a bunch of scribbles. But when I stare at it, I start to see interesting things.

I imported it into Procreate and started defining the shapes I liked. Above is an early stage - I selected the things I liked and moved them around to suit.

Above is the drawing, almost completed. I am posting it now because the title is "Snow Dance." It's a dance to attract the attention of the snow gods. We have a storm approaching that at first was forecast to give us around 6 inches of snow, but it has been downgraded to very little snow, interspersed with lots of rain. I do love snow and was hoping for one good storm this year.

IFJM hatching experiments

Here's a sketch I did in my "other" (not the one intended for IFJM) sketchbook, just fooling around one day. It grew and grew and I like it more and more. It isn't a finished product but it is going in the direction I want to go in. This is part of my International Fake Journal Month exploration of hatching. Comments are welcome of course. This is not intended to be a realistic portrait. It was done from a photo of my dad when he was a little boy, I neglected to include hair, so it's hard to tell the age. I am getting away from caring if I get a realistic image. Although a part of me still notices whether it's a likeness or not. Another part of me is bored with trying to achieve perfection and realism. The content matters more. Done on Mohawk Superfine text, with a Noodler Creaper pen and Lexington Grey ink. Also a grey squeeze brush pen. The paper isn't really strong enough. All in all I like the image very much.

Inktober drawings

I am participating in Inktober. More info here: Inktober
I am not using the suggested prompts, my goal is to work with scribbly lines until I see an interesting image. Or until I get tired of scribbling. The image is then refined, but I don't want to over-do it with details. My goal is to keep it loose and intuitive. I guess I'm also going to re-learn how to use blogger. More to follow. The tile is Haunted. Sqeezy grey pen, brush pen, felt tip pen. On watercolor paper.

#Inktober #Inktober2017

Primitive Wire Edge Binding

Another binding test. This one is 2.75 x 3 inches. I made it with black Arches Cover, steel wire and black waxed cord. The drawing was done with Dr. Ph. Martin's white Bombay India ink.


To make the cover I cut out a piece of paper 3 inches high and 5.5 inches wide. I folded it in half and punched two holes in the fold. I always make a template for the holes so they are spaced the same (more or less) on each page.

This book was fairly quick to make, but when I spread it out to stand, the pages tend to not pivot easily. I have to carefully place each one to make the page edges parallel. I don't know if that's a bad thing, but I am working on a book with metal hinges right now, so I do notice it.

There are larger photos and more views on flickr. Click on "all sizes" above the image to see it larger.

For more on wire edge binding see this post and this one.

My mother-in-law is having some problems, so posts will be sparse for awhile. I haven't quit blogging.

Wire Edge Binding Test

Wire edge binding test.
Aine Scannell asked about using single sheets for wire edge binding. Here's a test I did to see how lighter paper would work. I think the paper was Super Fine Text from Daniel Smith. There are larger photos and scans of my notes to myself in my flickr set, Tests, Tools, Tips.


You can see in this detail that I wasn't consistent about tying the knots.