Lingerie Painting Process

January 18, 2017 Haley Aubuchon

Above is a short video of me working on one of my lingerie paintings. I thought it would be fun to share some of my process for how these paintings come together. The video is sped up to 20 times faster than I usually work (which means that I paint polka dots incredibly slowly) and I cut out some of the boring watching paint dry parts. I hope you enjoy seeing how a lingerie painting comes together. As you can tell from the video, I don't sketch out the shape in pencil and I paint the initial shapes pretty messily. I like the texture of the watercolor and different layers of paint to be visible - it gives me the feeling of the delicate, sheer fabrics that lingerie is made out of. Here is a full shot of the finished painting:

If you're wondering why I am so interested in making lingerie paintings (and pins, and collages), let me know and I'll make a post all about my fascination, because I have many reasons. But one thing I love about keeping lingerie paintings around is that they are great body positivity reminders. And they're just pretty. In my opinion, a lingerie painting would make a great Valentine's Day gift, (for a loved one or for yourself). There's plenty of time to get one by V-day if you order from my shop.

From Inspiration to Pattern (and Feminism)

September 28, 2016 Haley Aubuchon

In case you hadn't noticed, I've been making a lot of patterns lately. I've been participating in Anika Starmer's #BacktoPattern challenge and am just loving patterns in general. I plan on doing a separate post about my process for making patterns, but I wanted to share a little bit more in detail about the inspiration and meaning behind this pattern in particular.

I forgot to take a photo of the book before returning it to the library, so enjoy this Google image.

I recently read The Lie Tree by Fances Hardinge, which is a historical fiction novel about Faith, a 14 year-old girl in the late 1860s who wants to be a natural scientist. At the time science was not a career option for women and Faith is explicitly and implicitly told that she will never be a scientist, and that her interest in science is strange, laughable, and unseemly. She has to work to suppress her interests and pretend not to care.

Faith struggles with feelings of frustration, desperation, self-hatred because of her intellect and curiosity. She is made to think that there is something wrong with her, or evil about her because she is interested in science. Reading from Faith's point-of-view made me think about how we celebrate women in history who have been able to transcend these restrictions and do great things (which is incredibly important), but that there are so many more women whose potential was quashed, who were told that their brains were too small to follow their passion and weren't able to do anything about it. And it made me think about how even since Faith's time, women have continued to face this type of uphill battle as they are barred, discouraged, and turned away from their areas of interest in overt and subtle ways.

I was thinking about all of this when I read this passage in the book (after the men and women have separated for after-dinner socializing)

"Likewise, here in the drawing room, each lady quietly relaxed and became more real, expanding into the space left by men. Without visibly changing, they unfolded, like flowers, or knives."

I absolutely loved the image conjured by that passage. The idea of women being given the chance to expand as they wished. Comparing 1860s ladies to knives and switchblades. Flowers. And the idea for this pattern came into my head pretty much fully formed. Flowers and switchblades together, both in various stages of unfolding. Thin red linework on a pink background. I could pretty much see it all in my head, which doesn't happen to me often. Usually, I have a general idea for a pattern, but it becomes much clearer and more developed as I work on it. I usually play around with the colors quite a bit, but I knew exactly what I wanted for this pattern.

I immediately started drawing switchblades and peonies in various stages of "unfolidng." I chose peonies as the flowers in the design after some research because they looked closed to what I envisioned and they unfold in the way that I was thinking of. There are 7 switchblades and dozens of different peonies in this pattern so it took quite a while. One change that I did make from my original vision was to eliminate the extra leaves and vines that I thought to include. You can see the sketches of them here.

One of my favorite elements in the pattern

Then I scanned in all of the sketched images and digitally put the peony and switchblade elements together into individual pieces.

Then I put the individual pieces together into the final pattern. All of the digital work took about a day, but I was just so excited to be working on this pattern.

So there you have it, the finished product. It has a lot of meaning for me, about women being strong and sharp and beautiful and soft. About being all of those things out of necessity and desire. For women who didn't get to do what they would have loved and been good at.

I feel like this idea can be developed so much further, but I'm pretty head over heels for this pattern right now. This pattern is available on prints, pouches, mugs, and other products in my Society 6 store if you are too.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my thoughts on this print. It means a lot to me! And if this has interested you at all, definitely check out T he Lie Tree, there are a lot of feminist themes, a pretty interesting mystery, and obviously some beautiful writing going on there.

Make Tons of Stuff and Don't Worry - A Manifesto

September 15, 2016 Haley Aubuchon

Make Tons of Stuff and Don't Worry Print

Today I wanted to share my inspiration and hopes behind the newest addition to my Etsy shop - "Make Tons of Stuff and Don't Worry" letterpress prints. I'm beyond excited about these prints and I want to share a little bit about why.

I am a worrier. A huge worrier. I will always find something to worry about - from wondering if I locked my car to wondering if I'm making the right life choices. It traps me in my head. Making stuff helps me to stop worrying. When I'm drawing or collaging, my brain relaxes and focuses on the task at hand. My hands are moving instead of fidgeting. I can block out all of the other stuff and just make. And usually, when I'm done, whatever I was worried about before seems smaller. Creating something completely new seems to put things in perspective.

When I first moved to LA I was overwhelmed with worry about what I was going to do here, if I would like it, and if I had just made a huge mistake. I wrote a note to myself as a reminder to focus on what I care about doing - making. I wrote "make tons of stuff and don't worry" and stuck it to my wall.

As I was making stuff I realized that the message worked in another way too, and it became kind of a manifesto for me. It is easy to get bogged down in worry about if a piece is good, if other people will like it, if you should use one color or another.

But that kind of self doubt doesn't serve us. It is paralyzing. "Make tons of stuff and don't worry" is a reminder to do what you can and the flip the page. Start your next project before you have time to criticize the last one. Make another, but slightly different. Wait until later to decide which is better. Decide that everything you made is great, but because you kept making you have 10 instead of 1. Keep making until you are better at it. Make tons of stuff and don't worry. I promise to try and do the same.

Make Tons of Stuff and Don't Worry Print Blue

I made these prints (with the help of Caitlin Metz) because I felt like they should exist in the world. I hope people will put them up on inspiration boards, give them to friends, and tape them into journals, or sketchbooks as reminders. I hope that they inspire you to make more of whatever it is that you make without doubt or fear.

If you want one (or several, to put all over your house like I have), get them here.

Geometric Collage

August 30, 2016 Haley Aubuchon

Hey friends! A lot has been going on around here since I last posted, most excitingly, I opened an Etsy shop. Inside you'll find giclee prints of some of my favorite and most popular artwork, original paintings, pizza stickers, and several geometric paper collages.

I'm super excited about the collage work I've been doing lately (if you can't tell from all of the Instagramming). I loved creating a collection of 10 unique mini collages in a variety of color palettes, so I thought I would share a little bit about how the idea developed and my process for creating the collages changed over time.

The idea all started back in early June when I saw some images of Laura K Sayers's scrap books on Tumblr. Laura is an amazing artist who makes incredible illustrations from cut paper. Definitely check her out if you're looking for some fun art inspiration (she has no idea who I am, I just think she is rad). But I saw these books with her paper scraps and offcuts arranged on the pages so they almost fitted together and a lightbulb just went off in my head.

One of the gem collages I had been making.

I had already been experimenting with painting watercolor paper and cutting it up to create collages (like with my gemstones series), so put that concept together with the inspiration that came from Laura's notebooks. I decided to paint scraps of watercolor paper and cut them into geometric pieces and fit them together, almost like a puzzle with a white border around each piece, when adhering them to the page.

I went to my desk and started working right away, and created my first few collages using a palette of 9 colors on 4x6 pieces of paper that I had pre-cut. My intention was to fill the whole page, but I realized that I like the look quite a bit more with some negative space.

For the next few days I kept making collages in different color palettes and played around more with developing the technique. I became more precise and adept about the fit of each piece and started letting the pieces go off the edges of the page. I started cutting extremely tiny pieces to fit into the smallest possible gaps.

One of my first LA collages. I'm still in love with this color palette and the movement of this piece.

Over the next few weeks I packed up and moved from DC to LA, which didn't leave much time for making a huge mess with paper scraps, but once I got to LA I started up again. When I was homesick or stressed out, fitting pieces together was very meditative and calming to me, and the finished pieces made me incredibly happy.

Close up of "Galactic Unicorn," 4x6" collage on paper - available in my shop

I also improved my materials and techniques when making each collage. I started out using glue tape to adhere each piece, but didn't feel that it completely secured the heavy watercolor paper (I also wasn't a fan of the little glue globules that would sometimes stick out from the edges of the collage). Now, each piece is made archival liquid glue and sealed with a uv protectant so it is extra secure and ready for display.

"Lucky Charming," 4x6" collage on paper - available in my shop

As I started to make pieces for the shop, I played around with color, shape, and composition. I learned to balance the collage in the same way that I would a painting. I made many more pieces than the ones that are available, because i only selected the ones that I loved. I also started to work bigger than 4x6" and made collages out of abstract paintings, instead of only working with solid colored scraps.

Detail of "Electrokinesis," 9x7" collage on paper - available in my shop

The best part about this new work is that I have so many more ideas! I have only scratched the surface of what I want to do with this medium. I want to work in all different sizes, on backgrounds that aren't white, go back to the more chaotic style of the first collages that I made, and more.

"Got Your Back" 4x6 Collage on Paper - available in my shop

I hope you've enjoyed this peek into my process. If you're interested, you can purchase a collage here. I may be biased, but they are even cooler in person - the watercolor paper is thick and pops off the page in a way that photos don't quite capture.

100 Days of Watercolor Without Reference

April 23, 2016 Haley Aubuchon

Last year everyone on Instagram was all excited about the 100 Day Project (#the100dayproject), created by Elle Luna. It actually started right around the time that I was hitting the 100 day mark on my 365 day drawing project, so I didn't participate, but I loved following other people's projects - I found so many cool artists (notably Elena of Elena's Treehouse - her papercuts are incredible). My favorite part was that people's projects were specific, I was intrigued by having a bit more of a direction than making any drawing (although it might be harder to keep something like that up for a project more than 3.5 times the length of the 100 day project). When Elle announced that this year's 100 Day Project would be starting I decided to participate right away.

I'm calling my project 100 Day of Watercolor Without Reference (you can check it out at #100daysofwatercolorwithoutreference). I have no idea where the idea came from, I was on a plane home from LA on the day before the challenge started and the phrase just popped into my head. I think I chose it because I liked the sound of the alliteration. I knew that I wanted my project to involve watercolor, which is my favorite medium lately, but I didn't want to be limited to just abstract or just representative painting. I am drawn to abstracts lately, but I also want to practice representative watercolor painting, so I created a project that would let me do both. (I've also done collage with watercolored paper, because it is my project and I do what I want.) But I still wanted something to make the project a little bit more interesting and challenging than just painting in watercolor every day, so I decided to paint without a reference (a photo or real-life reference for representative work and a color reference for abstracts).

With this project I'm not really looking to build a creative habit. After my 2015 drawing project I feel like I have done that already. But there definitely are some things that I am looking to get out of the 100 Day Project this time.

1. To stop being so lazy about watercolor. As I mentioned, watercolor is my favorite medium of the moment, but it feels like a lot more effort than drawing does. I have to take out a bunch of supplies and then clean up more supplies when I'm done. I have to wash brushes and palettes. I can't do it with my sketchbook in my lap on the couch. You get the idea. It is much easier to just grab a few pens and draw, but watercolor really doesn't take THAT much effort. And the results are so magical - infinite colors, swooshy, unpredictable, watery goodness. Hopefully, having to bust out the watercolors every day will get me out of the mindset that they are too much effort to set up. Thus far I have been dealing with that by leaving my watercolor stuff out on the kitchen table, which I'm sure my roommate loves (Hi Hannah, if you're reading this, I'm sorry for leaving my art crap everywhere!). I also never watercolor while traveling, so I'm excited to be pushed do that, too.

2. To explore painting without references. If I am painting or drawing something that is supposed to look like something (as opposed to an abstract) then I typically always Google the thing to look at photos as I'm working, or I'm working from something I can see in front of me in real life. I'm starting to get to a place where I care more about what my work is trying to convey than how much it actually matches the thing I'm trying to represent. Wow, that sounds super pretentious. I just mean that if I want to include a house in a painting it maybe the shadowing and the scale and the detail of each windowpane doesn't have to be exactly like that of a real house for me to be happy with the overall piece. Also, drawing or painting objects around me, or photos from Instagram of Tumblr is my go-to way of practicing. I'm excited to see what subjects and ideas come out of my brain when I deny the impulse to look around my immediate (real-life and virtual) surroundings for something.

3. To experiment with sharing work on the internet. By the end of my 365 day project I was so ready to have my Instagram feed "back." I was so tired of being forced (by me) to share photos of work that I didn't love or that didn't do the work justice. Maybe the idea is to make work until I have something that I'm actually proud to share, but that just isn't going to happen for me. I have a job and a life (kind of) and some days it isn't in the cards to keep making until I get it right. In the months since the end of December 2015 I've been happy to make my Instagram feed look like the inside of my brain - carefully selecting the photos and work that make me happy and hopefully convey where I'm at. But I'm still really interested in the idea of posting art every day, sharing what I'm making in the moment, and maybe being less critical of what I post. So I'm taking this project as a way to dip my toe back into sharing daily art to see what I think of it this time around. I was talking to someone recently who said that I seem like I think a lot about my work (I think the length of this blog post alone shows that I do), so I'm also using the daily Instagram posts as kind of creative check ins that allow me to share some thoughts on my process and the challenge every day. Maybe that will be interesting to someone!

I might do some more posts reflecting on the 100 Day Project if I feel like I have things to say, but you can keep up with it on the daily on Instagram @haleyca. If you're participating let me know what your project is so I can check it out!

P.S. I haven't mentioned this here on the blog, but I recently did an interview with the wonderful Denise on her site, My Internet Girl Crush. If you're interested in thoughts on my process and the internet and how those two things relate (and what one of my college theses was on) check it out! While you're there definitely have a look at Deinse's other interviews because they feature awesome creative women from all over the world. So honored to be an Internet Girl Crush!