Channel surfing at the gym, I came upon the man himself, armed with his palette of leaf greens and burnt siennas, brushing away in his shadowy lair somewhere in The Void.  Maybe it was the sheer joy of watching colors work together. Or the ‘fro. Or perhaps it was the fact that I would be stuck running in place for the next 28 and a half minutes.  Whatever the reason, Bob had me in his thrall.

I watched, spellbound and occasionally hydrated, as from the blank canvas sprouted forests, rocks, and mountain ranges.  As four strokes of blue and two of titanium white became a gushing waterfall.  As some well-placed stippling could bring a burst of spring to the land.  This wondrous transformation was punctuated by Bob entertaining the viewer with such monotone exclamations as, “Trees are beautiful.  They are our friends.”, or “Oops, I used too much Sap Green.  I got waaaay too excited there.”  Classic.

It doesn’t sound like much, but this man left his mark on many of us.  I spent entire afternoons of my young life watching PBS, starting with Sesame Street and 3-2-1 Contact (does anybody remember that one?), and eventually into Nova and all the great educational programming, which included Bob Ross and his immortal painting demonstrations.  I know, I was an odd kid.  But a smart one, too.

It was about this time that I got my first art lesson.  I don’t remember if it was Bob specifically, or another artist in the PBS stable.  Whoever it was, 1 and 2 point perspective was the theme of the day.

Mini art lesson:

1 point perspective has a single vanishing point on the horizon.  Imagine a road in the desert disappearing into the distance.

2 point perspective has 2 vanishing points.  Find a cube, place it on a table with a corner nearest to you.  There you go.

 Anyway, I’m about 7 years old, watching this on the little mini black and white TV in the back of my parents’ office.  The artist is using these perspectives to draw a lovely house.  I want to draw along and make a lovely house as well.  I scour the office for crayons or markers, but all I can come up with is a ketchup red ink pen and a mustard yellow highlighter.  Not lovely house colors at all.  But great for a hot dog stand.  It came out looking similar to this:

And I don’t even like hot dogs.  Which reminds me, time to get off the treadmill and go draw.

My apologies for the sparseness of posting.  Our glass art co-op, www.theglassartisans.com, is in full swing preparations for our debut at the Space Coast Home Show.  If you live anywhere near Brevard County, FL, come on out and see us!  (Feb. 29-March 2, Booth 45- www.spacecoasthomeshow.com for directions and such.)

Things will either be back to normal next week, or busier than ever.  If nothing else, I’ll have some new experiences to blog about later!

 Basic watercolors are a pain.  The tubes take it upon themselves to decide how much paint you get, and it’s always different from what you actually want. To little water, the color is all wrong.  Too much, and you just have slightly tinted soggy paper.  Although really, you get soggy paper no matter what you do. They’re watercolors.

My patience for watching paint dry being what it is, I took my teacher’s suggestion and came the next day armed with a hair dryer.  Sure, it helped, until I hit the high setting and blew a puddle of “Foreboding Tree Brown” straight across Catherine Earnshaw’s window.  Not what I was aiming for.  And don’t even get me started on color bleeding. Evil evil bleeding.  Although I did manage a halfway decent painting of a glass bottle.  Perhaps the Art Gods were trying to give me a clue.

Fast forward to now.  Thanks to countless nights at the Waffle House (we had 4 or 5 near my college to choose from), I have an established comfort and understanding with Prismacolor colored pencils, something which I will cover in a future post.  I was given a set of Faber-Castell watercolor pencils a couple years ago but, because of my timid approach to anything watercolors, I had yet to seriously use them.  That, and these are some nice pencils.  You want to do them justice.  So finally I think, “I’ll just pretend they’re regular colored pencils, and if I’m brave, dab a bit of water on.  But probably not”.

Well, happily enough, I got the courage to put slightly soggy brush to paper , and oh my the results!  Bold sharp lines co-existing with perfectly smooth and blended areas. Colors and shades flowing seamlessly into one another.  Softer expressions, better depth, and a sweet confection-like richness.  And not a soggy puddle or bleeding color to be seen. (The hair dryer remained firmly ensconced in the bathroom, where it rightly belongs.)

That lack of control and feelings of frustration and despair I had for so long associated with watercolors evaporated like…something that evaporates.  These pencils are awesome!  And I’ve only begun experimenting.  I got a lot make up for in art time.

  Watercolors are not so scary anymore, as long as they don’t come in tubes.  (Or those cakes that look like giant candy Smarties. They’re bad too.) 

Moral of the story:  Don’t be afraid of your supplies.  You might just surprise yourself.

* Wuthering Heights is still to this day my all time favorite!

We will NOT have this.
Worry not, for deliverance is at hand.  You might recognize his Royal Baldness from such beloved advertising scenes as “Mopping The Kitchen Floor” or “My Clean Bathroom Validates My Existance”  Yes, it is he.  Mr. Clean, and his Magic Eraser.

These things can take crayon off walls and tea stains out of countertops. Devastating oil spill or other environmental disaster? No problem.  And they can even clean stained glass.
I wouldn’t recommend Magic Eraser in place of polish, nor as your only cleaner.  But they will save a lot of rubbing and scrubbing and smelly chemicals that also obliterate your manicures.  Also, they are made of some sort of soft foam, so scratching the glass is not a concern.  Paint and marker comes off in just a couple wipes.
Cons:  Magic Erasers will pick up patina.  It won’t be terribly noticeable, unless you scrub very hard and, really, that is why they make patina remover.  But patina residue eats through Magic Erasers the same as any other sponge or cloth, resulting in faster deterioration and a short life span.  Fortunately, they are designed to be disposable, and so come in multipacks for fairly cheap.
Give it a try, and don’t be scared of the jolly large bald man reflected in your glass.  That’s just how you know it’s working.

Who I am:

I’m an artist in Florida, with a big imagination and a love of observational comedy.  Fortunately, Life frequently conspires to give me plenty of material to feed both.

I’m the owner and artist of Radiance Art and Design, the stained glass studio.(www.radianceart.com).   Since this is what has inspired me to start writing, you’ll be hearing a lot about it.

What I do:

This is a place where I share some of the things I have learned (and am still learning!) about glass and the highs and lows of being in the art business.  For fellow crafters and enthusiasts, I hope have something new to share.  Or at least make some entertaining mistakes to take some lessons from.  For those of you who enjoy my art, consider this a window into the person and the process behind it all.

In addition to glass, I also work in pencil, Prismacolors, and sometimes watercolors and pastels.  Also, pottery, sculpture, crochet, food, and, when I feeling masochistic, sewing.

All these things and more will likely find their way into my posts at some point.  I’ll try not to let it get too cluttered in here.