Drawing Acquisition

So I think I officially have “car lag.” I’ve coined the term myself, don’t you like it? Twenty hours in the car is a lot. Although, after the first 8 hours, it goes pretty fast. Haha. We got home around 4:30 yesterday afternoon and today I was definitely fuzzy brained at work even though I got myself into bed at a decent hour.

I really didn’t take any photos of the event we went to, because I forgot our camera. But I MUST show you the drawing we bought from Scott Gustafson! I flipped through his book and saw a few I was thinking about purchasing, but when I saw this I knew it was the one to get! Isn’t it fabulous! Made my day! Another addition to our pile of awesome unframed artwork. Man. I’m glad MS has connections to wholesale framing! I’m sure if you frequent my blog, you’ll understand why I like Scott Gustafson’s work so much.

Really too tired to post much more. I’ll be more fun next time, I promise. Night night! Have a great Memorial Day weekend and thanks to our veterans, right? Right!!!

Pig Cupid

Here’s a silly digital piece I’ve been working on. This is a close-up of it. I’ll reveal the rest of it over the next few weeks, tantalizing you, to see if you can figure out what cupid’s love interest is. Here’s part of the original black and white pencil sketch…

And the color…

I love doing digital paintings too. It’s a lot different than painting with real paint…and yet…not as different as you would think. The only down side is the lack of a finished product to hold when you’re done. And that’s part of the reason why returning to oils has appealed to me again.

Off we go to Spectrum Live this week in Kansas City, MO. It’s going to be quite a spectacle – so much imagination in one place! My eyeballs will surely overload! MS has a booth and I am along for the ride (literally even, since we are driving!) Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and getting to know some new ones. If anyone can recommend any restaurants, let me know! I have no idea what Kansas City is like. I was talking about it at lunch today and I said: “You know how, when a particular place comes up in conversation, some sort of image comes to mind? Well, all I see is a line.” I have absolutely zero knowledge of Missouri in general. But after this show, I shall have an image in my head to file away that will pop up if someone mentions it.

That’s all for now. See you next week!

Bear Portrait: Sketch Progress

She’s shaping up. I’m still working out the values and have mocked up a frame for it too. I didn’t draw the frame, but pieced it together from a neo-classical design book by Dover called “Neo-Classical Design And Ornament.” It’s a hodge-podge of a few different designs. I may experiment with another frame or two depending on my willingness to paint this one. If I do use this one, I’ll likely simplify it some. My tendency is to think that it’s too ornate, but as you know, design was very over the top in that time period, so it works for the piece historically speaking. We’ll see how I feel later. Maybe when I start to do color studies I’ll change my mind.

A detail of one of my favorite parts (a friend said she remembered I said there would be mice in this piece, but never dreamed they too would be in costume):

As I work this sketch out, I already know that when I start painting, I can’t obsess with this one and make it my sole focus. I’ll need breaks from it to keep my sanity. This is kind of ironic considering I feel I have too many breaks from my personal work, since I have a day job. But what happens is, because I can’t spend as much time as I like on it, it makes me very impatient to finish projects and I can get obsessive. Make sense? So I’ll be working on other projects here and there too. You’ll see one of those next time. There’s a pig involved.

Have a great weekend! Boy, do I need to cut the grass or my neighbors will send a posse to get us!

Bear Portrait: Photo Reference

So the photo shoot went better than I had hoped! The efforts to rent a costume were not wasted and worth every penny. I got a lot of great shots that will help me figure out this drawing.

One of the best things about taking really good photo reference using really good props are all the little details that pop up – things you would never think to add into a painting. Like this for example:

Never would I have thought to put a strap on the mandolin! And yet, it makes perfect sense. And I love the little tassel that this particular strap had. Great little detail AND it translates to the 18th century too.

The biggest deal in shooting reference even though this is going to be a bear is getting good hand reference. Often a hand will look awkward and unartistic, leading to a terrible drawing. Here’s a hand that would make for a bad outcome. And no matter how well you draw or paint it, it will still look weird. Boy, did I learned that the hard way in college once. I did a great portrait and the hand look like a stubby claw. Ruined the whole painting.

Turns out my model can play guitar, so she was able to do a variety of chords for me to shoot. Here’s an example of graceful hands that I will probably use (and even still, I’ll probably have to pull that pinky in a tad):

So now I’m equipped with lots of great information. Good photos of a model, a nice little maquette, and piles of pictures of birds and mice and dresses and hats and feathers and textiles and bears and bear noses and bear claws!!! Let the drawing commence!

See you next time!

Bear Portrait: Working out the Details

Spent part of last weekend sculpting a little maquette to help me figure out lighting. Looks more like a boy here than intended, but hey. It will serve the purpose, I think.

I like the little bit of light coming in from the left. Subtle. Nice shadow on the background.

On this one I like the glint of light on the nose.

This one’s pretty good. The darks are a little dark, but I can lighten them up.

As I continue gathering reference, I’ll be working more on the drawing to work out the idea. I’ll be able to squish this around and pose it differently if I have to. Love sculpey, but man is it greasy. (Say it with me: “greezy.”) Haha.

Some people leave work early to pick up their kids from school or pick up their mom at the airport. Today I left work a little early to go to Pierre’s Costumes in Philly. Awesome! I can’t believe I’ve never been there! MS went with me and helped me pick out a dress for my model to wear so I can shoot photos for further reference. She will be very pleased to be able to wear such a great costume. The rentals are very reasonably priced. (Although, as a student, I admit, I wouldn’t have been able to afford it). It’s a great alternative for certain projects. They have stylists who help you get your costume together since they have over a million costumes in stock. That’s right…million! I brought in my favorite photos of dresses I liked and he measured me (because my model is about my size), went back in the warehouse and brought out a few to choose from. I also picked out a hat and they’ll put feathers on it for me! Can’t wait to pick it up this weekend and shoot reference! Why, it’s like an adventure, this making art. And who said it was easy? Pfff. Fun maybe, but not easy.

Have a fabulous weekend! You know what I’ll be doing!

New Idea, Old Familiar Bear Face

Apparently I’m stuck on bears now. Here’s a rough sketch of what I intend to paint next. Still collecting reference and figuring things out. I like the idea of revisiting the bear as a portrait. It will give me the opportunity to do what I couldn’t do for the Gypsy Bear Painting, since the bears were small-ish. I’m happy that this time, before embarking upon a new painting, I have two other ideas in the works that I can go to if I get bored/annoyed with the current project. I must buy some pretty lace this weekend to make a model for the ruffle-y bodice and lace cuffs on her dress. It’s hard to see them, but there are birds and mice and other rodents lurking within the portrait too. Why––it’ll be a fur and feather paradise!

Speaking of portraits, has everyone seen this cool bit of news? Turns out they found a copy of the Mona Lisa that was painted by a student of Da Vinci’s. Intriguing. Cool to see how the famous painting might look if they dared to restore it. I’m a little perplexed on how the experts came to some of the conclusions they decided on, for they don’t go into detail about it. I’m a little skeptical when they say “this is what the famous model actually looked like.” How do we know that the student got it right and DaVinci got it wrong? Not that I think he’s infallible, mind you. I’m just saying that a statement like that should be backed up if one’s going to make that claim. I guess you can assume that perhaps knowing women, the model may have asked DaVinci to make her less round-faced or something. But that’s just supposition. Anyway, there are comments below the article talking about how expensive red pigment was at the time and there’s no way that DaVinci would have let a student use up his expensive paint. Yada yada. Insert eye roll here. Enjoy the article if you haven’t seen the story already!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Of Old Paintings and Master Illustrators

So I thought I’d pull something old out of the closet as I do from time to time. Here’s a piece I did a couple years after college. It’s about 15 years old it’s oil on stretched watercolor paper. After college I was putting together an illustration portfolio for pursuing book covers in the young adult market. (Generally, students don’t have solid portfolios right out of college. They take a few years to improve and do samples for the markets they’d like to work for). I did several of these and found that I was not enjoying myself at all. I figured if I wasn’t enjoying it when I was coming up with samples for myself, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it when faced with deadlines. So it was then that I turned my head toward the children’s market. It was actually a blessing in disguise, since the young adult market has been pretty much dead as far as illustration goes for quite some time. Photos are utilized much more often now than not. Anyway, I thought you might like to see that I can paint people, not just animals. I just don’t find people as interesting. I see people every day – bo-ring!

Last week MS and I had a rare opportunity to hear one of the greatest painters in the business lecture at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA – Kinuko Y. Craft. She’s been painting for over 4o years now, and one of my favorite quotes of hers from that day was: “…I hope to die while in the process of painting.” Sometimes I get hard on myself about how my work is in relation to others or where I think I ought to be in my abilities. Hearing this master talk reminded me of something. If I was focusing on the same thing for over 40 years, chances are I’d be much better at it than I am now. I never really thought about how long she’s been painting. And her work transformed tons over the years, from the early days of working for Playboy up until now. For many years, she had to copy a particular style/look to complete a project. It has only been fairly recently that she arrived at the beautiful work she has come to be known for. She worked damned hard to get where she’s at in her work/career. And the funny thing is, even SHE is still wanting to improve and sees flaws in her own work. Hard to imagine! She is so inspiring as both a painter and a person. It was an honor to speak with her and hear her thoughts about the creative process and a life dedicated to art. MS and I have been fortunate to see many originals of her works and let me tell you – totally different experience from seeing them online. You think this is good? Just see them in person! They are just unbelievable. She is truly an amazing artist. I only hope that I have a third of the passion she has for her work. Maybe I might achieve something after all. Be sure too look at her whole gallery of images.

I love hearing other artists speak about their work. It’s so beneficial. It makes you remember that you’re not so crazy after all to want to pursue a life in art. I think it’s good to listen to any successful person in whatever line of work you’re in. It can provide new insight and/or confirm any suspicions you already have. All valuable information.

Have a great weekend everyone! Get inspired! I know I am!

Gypsy Bear Painting: Finished

And here it is…click to enlarge to see it better. And yes–It’s dark. It’s night time.

Thoughts on Humorous Art and Cute Plates

Maybe I’m a little like Carol Burnett. If you’ve ever seen biographies about her, you’ll learn that she had a hard time singing without there being a character behind it. Meaning she rarely just sang as “herself.” There was always a story or joke behind a song performance that made her feel at ease. So maybe that’s kind of why I always gravitate toward humor in my work? For some reason, portraying humor has always been much more “me” than so called serious art. I don’t take myself too seriously, so it comes out in my art. I guess I just always wanted to make pictures that make people smile, because those were the ones that resonated the most with me all my life. But unfortunately, like comedy, those are the kinds of pictures that are never seen as important or as meaningful or skillful as “serious” work.

Anyway, speaking of pictures that make you smile, I’m finished with the gypsy bear painting. Although I can’t guarantee I won’t fuss a little with it again at some point. Time to move on and learn more with the next painting. So my friends, she is waiting to be varnished so I can get a decent scan of it. I had intended to show it this week, but my scan was picking up EVERY inconsistency in the surface, making it one big fight to get a nice image out of it. It took me a long time to be happy with the painting, so I want a digital image that will do it justice. Even if the painting isn’t perfect, I’d like a good scan of it. I even tried taking a nice photo outside, but you just can’t really get the same clarity as a scan.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on my plate wall in the kitchen. Finally put up some really cute square dish-like objects that people have given me. I had one, but I needed two. When I got the second one, I couldn’t find the first one. So I finally found the first one and hung them up. That inspired me to hang more things up. Here are two new plates I made for the wall. One for me, one for MS. Guess which one is for MS.

The eggs and bacon are new, but you might remember the cupcake from one of my textile designs I did last year…

Well, off to work on my sketch for me new painting and maybe figure out what else will look adorable in my kitchen.

See you next time!

Colorful Album Illustration

This was a recent illustration and design I did for a client at work. Her requests were pretty simple. She wanted the cover to be a portrait of herself and for me to incorporate, birds, bees and flowers. She mentioned she liked lavender and aqua and that her name means “water.” All requests within my means to deliver! This is one of the few illustrations I’ve done at work that I really like how it ended up. The client was very open and even gave suggestions during the process that made me like the design even more. Often when a client makes “corrections,” the suggestions don’t move the work in a better direction. So I was pleased when the changes improved the design. She simply told me that the inside and the CD label were a little plain and could I jazz them up a bit. And so I went “heck yeah!”

So that’s all for now. Off to work out some new ideas while I wait for the gypsy bear painting to dry before painting into it again. I’m not sure if this new idea is going to work out, but I’m thinking the new painting might contain an alligator…and…a cupcake. We’ll see how that progresses. All I know is, I’d love to make this idea work out, because it would require MS having cake squashed into his face for reference photos. Ha!

Have a great rest of the week!