#tindaisies
Gabrielle Nowicki - 2016 - More Work in Progress. Graphite drawing on paper
At the Table
I added another diner, and table detail
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Gabrielle Nowicki - 2016 - Graphite on Paper
Black Bear Portraits, 1 and 2
I’ve been thinking about how wildlife is becoming affected by mankind’s ever increasing encroachment of their natural habitats. There have been stories in my area of bear sightings that aren’t normal for the region I live in. So I thought of a series of drawings, showing wildlife and how their instincts seem to have been altered by human influence.
I did an image search of black bears and was amazed to see how different their faces are, and that their eyes show such intelligence, and a soul. I drew 6 quick bear portraits my sketchbook. Maybe it was presumptuous of me to “humanize” them because I saw intelligence and a soul. More likely though, they are smarter and have deeper souls than us.
These are the first two.
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Gabrielle Nowicki - 2016 - Graphite on paper
(Good Day Out): I’ve been AWOL from here again…
(Wistful Regrets): I miss being here, seeing all of your posts in my feed BUT…
(Has Important Business to Tend to): The reason I’ve not been here is because I got a job a few weeks ago. This is a GOOD thing. I’m working in 2 branches of a local library system. It was necessary to get a job, but this is a total win: I get to meet bookish types and talk about interesting things, help people find good things to read, and I get to use my creativity to think of programs for patrons.
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Gabrielle Nowicki 2016 - Graphite drawing on paper
My children are 20 and 17 years old. I think about their futures and how they will ever be able to own a house if they should choose to. Canadian housing prices continue to skyrocket. For the past few years, every now and then, Those-Who-Know-About-These-Things warn that the bubble will pop. So far it hasn’t.
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Gabrielle Nowicki - 2016 - Learning a new skill - Tin Boat
I’m moving the workshop out to the garage to build more automata and other Gubbinsy Type Stuff.
I’ve wanted to work with metal for quite some time now, so I began with what I have on hand (as usual), I have a stack of coffee cans that were stashed in the greenhouse… just because… you never know when you might need about 20 nice, shiny coffee cans… I used a Weller 240/325 watt soldering gun that I inherited from my Dad.
It was a painful process, due in part to the learning curve, but mostly because the gun is heavy to hold for long periods if you have tendinitis in your lower arms, as I have. Oh, and next time I’ll be patient and use a ruler…
I looked into brazing but our tanks are old and to replace them and get the new ones filled, and keeping them filled, would be dear.
I’m going to pick the brain of a welder friend of mine, this weekend, to see if mig welding something this small is possible. The boat is about 3″ long.
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Gabrielle Nowicki - 2016. Rock (2) - Graphite on 12″ x 9″ Paper
By my drawing table, I’ve got an old, wooden 6 quart basket filled with rocks from a walk on my local beach along Lake Erie. I chose a rock from the basket and used it as a starting point for this drawing. It’s incredible how the surface of the paper and different grades of graphite can be worked until it seems, magically, a rock like surface appears.
It’s not so much a realistic “rendering” as it is “drawing” in the verbal sense, using media that is well matched to the subject matter. Close up, the drawn surface even looks rock-like. I’ve included a detail image, to show the texture as well as how the graphite reacts to scratches and pits that I’ve inscribed into the paper’s surface
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Gabrielle Nowicki 2016 - Detail of work in progress. Houses 1-17 of 72
Neighbourhood, graphite on paper
Six more houses added to the neighbourhood.
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Gabrielle Nowicki 2016 - Detail of work in progress. Houses 1-11 of 72
Neighbourhood, graphite on paper
It’s been a very busy past little while. Today is Friday and I’m spending the day working on my own stuff. Here are some more neighbourhood houses. I have 11 of 72 houses drawn which I think is the equivalent to completing ½ an arm, in the realm of sweater knitting.
I’ve included the top image to give a sense of the size of these houses.
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The 3rd Annual Ting Comic and Graphic Arts Festival is coming up at The Arts Project, in London Ontario
I was a featured artist in the first Ting Fest, in April-May 2014. Every year, they invite former featured artists to include their work in the pop up shop. I’ve been redesigning the packaging of some of my paper toys. Here’s a sampling of what I am including in this year’s shop, as well as a peek at the mayhem leading up to the order
The festival includes special events and workshops. If you are in The London Ontario area, be sure to visit their website for a list of cool stuff coming up
The festival runs from April 26 – May 21, 2016
Opening Reception: April 30, 6-8pm
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Gabrielle Nowicki - 2016. Rock (1) - Graphite on 12″ x 9″ Paper
My house is a five minute drive from the north shore of Lake Erie. I go for walks there regularly and always find myself scouring the beach for sea glass and interesting stones. It occurred to me that they’d be nice to draw. The different grades of graphite that I use, from 6H to 6B can render surfaces that are from hard and smooth, to soft and porous. I layer these different grades of pencil on the paper to get different effects. I worked the surface until I was happy with the implied weight of the rock.
I used a rock about 4 inches across, with fossils embedded in it as a starting point for this drawing, but I let what was happening on the paper guide the drawing process so there is an intuitive aspect to this as well.
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Gabrielle Nowicki 2016 - Detail of work in progress. Houses 1-5 of 72
Neighbourhood, graphite on paper
More houses.
This will test my patience.
5 of 72 little houses with yards, the same size as the all others, roughly 2″ by 3″. Finishing this drawing will be like knitting a sweater, but seeing the finished product is my driving force. The final size will be 24″ x 18″
Heck, if I can make 365 collages in the space of a year, surely I can manage this
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Gabrielle Nowicki 2016: An acre in the country. 18″x24″ Graphite on paper
As farming operations become bigger, smaller, old fashioned farms are severed, the house is sold separately, and farmers buy the land surrounding them. The effect is much like little mirages or oases scattered throughout a vast landscape of corn, beans and wheat. During spring planting and harvest times, it suddenly gets very busy and noisy when crops are planted and harvested. The rest of the year is pretty quiet.
If you look at satellite imagery of farm land, you will often see lines that look very similar to the ones I’ve drawn here.
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Gabrielle Nowicki 2016 - Details of a drawing in progress part 4.
Graphite on paper
Drawing the planter marks
I taped together some 2mm pencil leads. They are 4B so I don’t have to press hard to make the lines, and they have a soft quality to them as the graphite catches on the tooth of the paper’s surface. The effect reminds me of warm, friable soil that’s ready to be planted.
Drawing the lines takes planning, If you have ever planted a field, this part would be familiar to you. You must plan your headlands, turnarounds and the direction of the rows. You must also plant as straight as you can, and space each pass so the row spacings are as equal as possible.
The lines I’m drawing are records of the movement of my hand pulling the pencil leads. You can look at them and get a sense of the action involved in drawing them. I think they look a bit like zen garden raking patterns.
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Gabrielle Nowicki 2016 - Details of a drawing in progress. Graphite on paper
A peek at building some little bitty houses on paper. The yards are roughly 4 to 2 inches in width and height. Sometimes, I use a magnifier that’s built into my lamp. The drawing is on 24X18 inch paper. Steady as she goes.
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