My name is Mary

Hi. My name is Mary. I am eight and a half years old. I want to be
famous. Today I decide to be a famous artist. My Mom lets me use her
paints. I paint a picture of myself. I am looking at a picture my
father took of me, and I am wearing the same green and red bathrobe
over my Pajamas. But you can't see the color in the photo. My
painting doesn't look exactly like me. Mom says it's called "artistic
license."

Quick sketch of BB in progress

#1)I get home from a walk ind find BB on the couch reading a motorcycle book.

#2)I grab my little sketchbook, water, a paintbrush, a pencil and a pen,

#3)and make a super quick pencil sketch. Even though I am quick, BB moves several times.

#4)I quickly ink the sketch with a pilot Precise (I change my mind about what pen to use).

#5)I brush plain clear water over the sketch. (I probably should not have brushed the pages of the book, but left them white.)

6)The nearly finished quick sketch. View a scan of the completed sketch here. (I will add the link tomorrow if I have time and maybe make these pictures bigger--I have to go now!)

process: Sketch with Marker and brush with water

Marie and several others asked how I made this sketch. It is very simple, but not "easy," LOL!

Maybe I will make another and show it step by step.

But for now, here is what to do:

1)find a marker or felt-tip pen that is water soluble. I used a Crayola marker (or pen).

2)TEST the pen with a small brush and clear water to see how it reacts to wetting. It must produce "ink" or "paint" when wetted or it will not work. Some pens work better than others.

I was testing various pens to see how they would work--it partly depends on how large a sketch you plan to make--the larger the sketch, the larger the pen!

This is my test page--I wouldn't have made it so messy if I'd know I was going to share it. The aqua-colored arrows mark the better pens for this project, the hot pink one marks the pen I chose to use.

3)Draw the sketch. To tell you the truth, this sketch was an experiment--I measured my husband's nose and the distance from his nose to his mouth and his "inter-oculary" distance (pupil to pupil) and so on. Draw the sketch with the pen. Do not color much except where you want it to be very dark.

(I drew the picture lightly in pencil first, then lightly sketched with the pen, in this case).

4)Carefully, with a small brush wetted with clean water, brush over the pen marks and use the ink or paint that is lifted for shading.

Note: it is not very forgiving or correctable, once you start with the "painting" part, so use care. You may want to make a few practice sketches first to get the hang of it. The first one I made, I used too much ink and it came out very dark--I didn't like it.

And here's one for Marie--a page from one of my small sketchbooks (click image to view larger):

One more IMPORTANT thing: water color paper or at least heavy duty sketch paper works better for this than plain paper, which tends to buckle.

Bird of Paradise plant, art and photgraphy

I took the photo at the Belle Isle conservatory and then "painted" the picture with pigment markers (Faber Castell PITT artist brush pens). Click images to view larger. (I also photographed some of the leaves in another photo.)

Skunk man

with pigment markers.

A Bridge in Sardina

A Bridge in Sardina, Gouache, from a lesson, by me of course, this iteration.

Distance in Process

Two stages midway through the painting of "Distance." See the completed version here.

Benthic

I painted "Benthic" first in Watercolors and then scanned and added a gradient. I did nothing else to it. Click to view larger.

Raven Spirit Guide yet again

Still unfinished, but I'm working on it.

Night Vapors

Here is a brand new poem still in process

Night Vapors

I noticed green light like in a dream,
and I thought, if this is a dream, then I can fly,
but I stuck to the ground like a bug
on gooey-paper, my body heavy as a Mack truck,
my iron feet clinging to the magnetic earth.
Obviously not a dream. I was at a bus stop
and it was dark, but faint green light
illuminated one side of the nearest building,
just the edges of the stones, and one side
of my face reflected in the big black store window
as if I were etched there in pale green acid
that glowed dimly as foxfire. I was naked.
You're not supposed to write the word naked
in a poem for some reason I guess because
if the reader stopped and imagined me naked
and threw up, if might slow the forward
motion of the poem that is heading for a collision
with that oncoming bus with its headlights
not really lighting up the dark street
but only floating before the bus like two
bobble-head baubles with three fireflies in each,
only I don't look like me anymore. I'd say skinner, but
I don't look like anything. No, that's not right, either—
I look like an empty glass shell
with nothing inside me but more of this darkness
and maybe the light missing from those bus headlights
shining from my breasts. Oh-oh, I think
I just said another word that is high in the lexicon
of forbidden words. Don't say naked or breast
because someone will think you're writing
an erotic poem and come to the table or to the bed
with a whole set of inappropriate expectations
and be disappointed and maybe even angry.
This is no dream because too many words
Nestle in the pit of its stomach, trapped like moths
spinning under the dimmest of streetlamps,
and, obviously, I am still not flying, even
though the sheer husk of this shell I call "me"
is filled only with night vapors which Milton
describes as lighter than helium
and my bones are more hollow
that the bones of a humming bird and my legs
are whistles of wind and the stars
are caught in my hair.


Mary Stebbins Taitt
091029-2306-1b(2) at The Rolandale Silk Creek Retreat House