Own Your Encore

My Encore Excursions

  • Art of Map Color

    Art of Map Color

    Color on maps has history ranging from aesthetic to symbolic, from decorative to the complex color theorems started in the 1800s to distinguish countries, states and bodies of water. In the 19th century before complexity set in and before maps were printed with color it was a popular hobby for society ladies to hand color […]

    MSRitzman

    August 8, 2022
    2022 Color
    color choices, Elizabeth Person, hand colored maps, John Muir Laws, map color, map color theorems
  • The Color of Maps

    The Color of Maps

    The next few posts are going to include how color was introduced to the genre of maps and charts. The earliest maps were used for storytelling and wayfinding on land and at sea. Military planning and plant hunting were specialized areas using early colored maps. In the 1780s the profession of ‘topographic artist’ was introduced. […]

    MSRitzman

    August 2, 2022
    2022 Color
    Color week, Jean Mackay, maps, watercolor maps, watercolor practice, Winslowartcenter.com
  • Too Brilliant Color

    Too Brilliant Color

    If you pause and look around the environment where you are right now, do you see much Orange? Orange, our color this week does not casually creep into our personal environment… possibly if we are outdoors in the fall foliage, or maybe if we work in an industrial site surrounded by safety messaging or drive […]

    MSRitzman

    July 20, 2022
    2022 Color
    color choices, Color week, orange, orange garden flowers, orange varnish, victoria finlay, watercolor practice
  • Yucca

    Yucca

    The Yucca has become a smart plant for urban gardens. The plant is low maintenance, copes well in sun or shade and brings an interesting heritage. Seeing the flowering Yucca on my daily walk route and a family members visit to the Fremont Indian State Park & Museum has inspired this post.

    MSRitzman

    July 13, 2022
    2022 Color
    color, color choices, Fremont culture, Pigment, sapoines, yucca
  • Getting Started

    Getting Started

    When starting the watercolor sketch for this post it was to explore the three watercolors that made it onto my palette when I first started watercolor. The plant I chose to sketch is – Akebia quinata or 5-Leaf Vine. Synchronicity set in … it was 5 years ago that I took my first ‘encore’ / […]

    MSRitzman

    July 8, 2022
    2022 Color
    color choices, Color week, Cynthia Armstrong, Ian de Hoog, jane barton, Jean Mackay, kathleen Mckeenan, lisa snow lady, Shari Blaukopf, watercolor practice, Winslowartcenter.com
  • The Perennial Daisy

    The Perennial Daisy

    A patch of daisies has started to bloom in my city garden, and I am prompted to make this cheery flower the subject of this week’s color exploration. The prompting came from a variety of angles. Jean Mackay posted an image done in negative painting technique on IG that encouraged slowing down to paint, I […]

    MSRitzman

    June 29, 2022
    2022 Color
    Brenda Swenson, color choices, color combination, Egyptian, History of the daisy, Jean Mackay, Negative painting, Quinacrodone colors, slow painting
  • Solstice

    Solstice

    On this day, the Sun rises farthest left on the horizon, and sets at its rightmost possible spot. Sunlight strikes places in your home that get illuminated at no other time Almanac.com The solstice on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 happens at the same instance for all of us, everywhere on Earth. In my time zone that is […]

    MSRitzman

    June 20, 2022
    2022 Color
    color choices, color green, Color week, color yellow, solstice, stonehedge, sun, watercolor practice
  • Mauve Madness

    Mauve Madness

    As I was researching a ‘food archaeology’ dive into cinchona bark for my Around the Table sketching class I ordered a copy of the book Just The Tonic. As I was reading this well researched and very interesting book about the birth of tonic water, I came across a color note regarding – Mauve.

    MSRitzman

    June 15, 2022
    2022 Color
    color choices, Just the tonic, Mauve, Quinacrodone colors, Quinine, Tonic water, Ultramarine
  • Around The Table

    Around The Table

    The Art of Painting Food is a class I recently completed with Jane Barton.  Barton took us through sketchbook exercises to examine our food likes/dislikes, a favorite memory of food and we took a dive into food archeology. Great class with fellow food sketchers!

    MSRitzman

    June 8, 2022
    2022 Color
    color choices, foodie art, jane barton, Winslowartcenter.com
  • Something Different

    Something Different

    Introducing a new way to look at getting an artistic idea on to the page is my message this week. My preference is watercolor and pen but occasionally I step boldly into trying new techniques and media to see what happens and what I can learn [and remember]. Two classes have helped me try Something […]

    MSRitzman

    June 1, 2022
    2022 Color
    foodie art, jane barton, mark making, tara will, torn paper, Winslowartcenter.com
  • WordPrompt May STRONG

    WordPrompt May STRONG

    This month ‘Strong’ is the WordPress monthly prompt and an opportunity for me to share how sketching makes ‘strong memories’. For those who are not WordPress publishers the monthly prompt challenge is to help writers with a creative topic, a ‘monthly word to inspire a new post whatever you publish’. So here is my May […]

    MSRitzman

    May 23, 2022
    Education, Sketching, Travel & Tours
    #WordPrompt, Strong, watercolor practice, wordpress
  • Lettering Lesson

    Lettering Lesson

    Adding words to a sketch is a good practice to understand so Jean Mackay provided us with a few tips for hand-lettering during the Nature Sketching workshop in Italy. I am not much for adding phrases into my work but some simple steps for making lettering look polished were welcome. We spent about 20 minutes […]

    MSRitzman

    May 22, 2022
    2022 Color
    color choices, hand-lettering, Jean Mackay, jeanmackayart.com, lettering basics, watercolor practice, Winslowartcenter.com
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