Meerkat in a top hat

Abram suggested this theme.

The 2013 Sue C. Boynton Award Poems Travel Whatcom County

The Sue C. Boynton contest gave awards to twenty-five poets on Thursday, May 16. Angela and I illustrated all but just a few of them in three or four weeks time. Three of them use public domain approved images, which has to do with the short deadline. We'll share our drawings over the next few weeks, and the broadsides they adorn. The latest award-winning poems will soon be on the buses in Bellingham and around Whatcom county, as well as making the rounds through libraries, senior centers, the hospital, and other public places. It's a fine thing to get poetry out where it does some good.

This hatched drawing of ivy was used for Malcolm Kenyon's poem "The Goat Island Battery." An excellent poem! This drawing was finished the morning of May 16, put into the broadside, colored, and printed—the same day as the awards reception. Down to the wire with that deadline.

As you can see, the drawing was flipped, and hangs off into the "framing" of the broadside. I also laid out each of the poems on the page, and colored the illustrations using InDesign. In the past, they were colored using CS2's InDesign, but this year the CS6 InDesign does the same job just as well.

-Anita

Octopus Eating Ice Cream

OK. That is cuter than I remember from a month ago when I originally drew it.

Okay. So I drew an octopus at the third monthly Drink and Draw in Bellingham. We just sip and stipple, or in this case, doodle. And then we go home. A perfect evening.

One octopus, one mouth, two eyes, eight arms and a gazillion suction cups.

If you ask me, there isn't enough time in the world to do what's necessary, even if one had the arms of an octopus. Though, if one had enough suction cups, then there might be some possibilities.

—Anita

Nadine - Gray Wash

For your ink-loving pleasure, here are some test inks of Nadine. This is the style I chose for the graphic novel.

COB inks

Some more inks for the COB graphic novel. Good times, yes?

Here's some of the characters. Martin the fencing and tactitian instructor. Angelique the history and writing and stuff instructor. The guards' uniforms. And some more outfits for Nadine.

 Here was some practice trying to figure out Julia and Margaret's outfits.

Uses of Ink in an Assemblage

This blog is about ink and the many ways an artist will use that medium. Here are a few of the assemblages that will be hanging at the Hanson Scott Gallery in Seattle, which has an exotic-sounding address: 121 Prefontaine Place South. Ink winds up in most of my assemblages one way or another, and so I thought I'd share a few examples. 

In this first assemblage, titled "Breaking Away," mainly yellow ink is used, and that use is obviously for the background on the wood behind the artwork. I used polyurethane to seal it. There is also some black sumi ink in the paper on the lower right and bottom of the piece, but more watercolor than ink can be seen. The watercolor is on a small crinkled masa paper that I tore asunder for use in this assemblage. 

Breaking Away

This assemblage, "Song of the Bone Crickets," also uses ink on the backing wood. But there are two other black inks in this piece, too. First, you can see small dotted lines, which are drawn using a nib pen. And then there is a line of thick, delicate black ink scraped from a glass plate and re-adhered to to the handmade paper. Three inks in this one.

Song of the Bone Crickets

In "Leaf Poem," a larger piece, I used scraped ink again on either side of the assemblage board. The ink strips are fragile and difficult to maneuver into place, but it can be done if you're careful enough. The scrapings add texture, line, and repetition. By the way, the ink I use from the glass plate is re-purposed from printmaking.

Leaf Poem

 In "Municipal Circuitry," ink is again used on the background. But there are also trace amounts of ink on the assorted letterpress type that has been inserted into the wasp nest cells. There is an additional detail, added to the piece since I took this photo, which you can see when you visit Hanson Scott Gallery in Seattle.

Municipal Circuitry

Finally, in "Shell Game," I use several colors of ink on the backing board. Then, on the embossed handmade paper, I used India ink in the squares at the top and, with an inky swoosh, mimicked the snake skin beside it. There is also white gouache next to the small monotype, which also has ink circles and lines on it. I sometimes make organic colors from vegetation. Mushrooms could probably make an ink, but I put a dried one into the assemblage instead.

Shell Game

Be sure to visit the Hanson Scott Gallery to see my nine small assemblages in February and March (plus a couple large ones). Then later, more of the larger assemblages will be joining them, as well as some new work.

--Anita K. Boyle

Nadine Reading

Nadine reading by ~lunavalse on deviantART
There's ink in there. Trust me. :)