It's All About The Art!!!

Another day here in the studio. I am fortunate that I have plenty of ideas rolling around in my head, enough to keep me artfully engaged for a long time. No artists block going on here!

  My hubby is now off work on Wednesdays. So, due to that, my work hours have changed too. I am now off on Wednesdays as well and,  I am working in the studio a half day on Saturdays, while hubby is at work. I love my hubby but he is a distraction.

  So yesterday, as he was home. We together,  attacked our pathetic, overgrown yard from all the rain we have had. We mowed, we clipped, we hedged, it all looks nice and groomed once again.

  I decided that I would re-paint just the top of our porch rail as it had become chippy from being weather beaten. I figured it would just take a few minutes to do that. Nope. You know once I got started, I realized how much better it looked and thought that it made the rest of the front porch look terrible so,  I ended up painting the whole thing, including the two rocking chairs and the table. It ended up taking half the day to do all that. But I did sit out there this morning, enjoying my coffee on my newly cleaned up and painted front porch space. Until the wasps forced me back into the house.

  As for today.............I am back in the studio and can't wait to get working on a new project. I, just this week, finished working on this drawing......

  Well, I decided to take this drawing one step further and paint it. But, I want to paint it with a totally different look. I took my original drawing and I manipulated it digitally. It will now have a more contemporary look to it as opposed to the realistic look of the original drawing. I'm excited about this one! Here is what I have so far........

  I took a 20X24 inch canvas, covered it with black gesso, and using a white charcoal pencil, sketched out the same tiger I had drawn, using my original drawing as my reference. So in essence, I copied my own work. Perfectly legit.

  Using a limited palette, I will paint this puppy in. For me, the most difficult part to this piece is the initial sketch. My drawing is 9X12 and so I had to enlarge this considerably and still keep it in perspective. There are a number of ways to do that. What I did is, I used or kinda used, a device called a proportional divider. This device looks like a giant compass. It does not do the drawing for you, you still have to be able to render the image but, it assists in getting proportions down correctly. Now the reason I said I "kinda" used it is because of the size of this canvas. It is large, a little too large for the divider to accommodate completely. So for the most part, I just had to eyeball spatial relationships like the distant between the eyes,  and the eyes and the snout, etc. It took some time but I think I nailed it, at least good enough to get it going. I can make adjustments and corrections as I go along.

  So I'm "jumping at the bit" to get started but I do have two commissions right now that take priority. But I do think I can start laying in some color today. I still have a watercolor to finish up as well. I always have more than one art project going on. Speaking of other art projects, I do have one I abandoned a while back that I just dug out of the recesses of my studio. There really isn't anything wrong with it, I'm guessing I just drifted onto something else at the time? With Halloween coming up, I would like to finish it...............

  Creepy....huh?........I gotta get started, I have a lot to do! I will keep y'all posted. I'll be back, I'm not going anywhere. I am a happy prisoner in my studio. Have a great weekend!!!

Digitally Speaking

It's Monday again!...........And back into the studio I go. I take weekends off from the studio. I need to have that balance or else I would never leave my studio.

  The weather is cooling down, finally! and the kids are all back in school this morning. Geez the summer flew by fast! This whole year is flying by. The stores are filling up with Halloween candy already! I must say though.....that I LOVE the fall. Here is my grandson, the first grader,  ready for his first day back in school..........

  As for me.............I have a lot going on. I have three commissions I'm working on plus my personal work, plus, I am in the process of getting ready for a show.

  I have been working on this drawing. I know  have mentioned this before but, I will mention it again, anyway,  I really like adding a pop of color to my graphite drawings but sometimes, I hesitate because I'm not sure I will like the color once I add it. There is no going back once I lay color into a drawing so, I remedy the situation by using my trusty Wacom tablet............

  Its just the mini Wacom tablet and it's all I really need. This is how it works.

  I will take a drawing I'm working on, upload it into my computer, and using digital software, I can alter the image, add elements to it, colorize it or any number of other manipulations without touching the original drawing. Works like a charm. In the case of this tiger drawing, I am considering whether or not to add some color to his eyes. I will do that with the tablet and see if I like it before I take the chance of ruining a drawing that I have spent countless hours creating.

  I can use the tablet to do actual drawings and paintings as well but mostly, I have it to enhance the work I do traditionally. There are some artists out there that feel digital art isn't "real" art. I can attest to the fact that it is indeed real art. It is not easy to use a tablet. There is a definite "learning curve" to it and I find it takes some really good coordination to achieve desired results. Not to mention, the software itself needs to be learned and it can be quite confusing at first. I am still trying to improve my skills using mine.

  This little mini tablet does everything I need so far. If I decide to take digital art any further, I can always upgrade later on to a fancier machine with all the bells and whistles if I so desire. This one is also portable so I can take it with me anywhere I go.

  It has started raining, again. It's been raining on and off for over a week now. I guess I wont be mowing the lawn today. That's okay by me. It means more time in my studio! Off to work I go, have a great week y'all!

The Light And Dark Of It

  I'm all out of coffee..........................And orange juice didn't help so, I may fall asleep while typing this post.

  Hello!..........What's up y'all? How's things? Is everyone watching the Olympic games? I confess, I have not watched a single minute of the games so I have no idea who's won what.

  But, I have been creating art!  I have a couple commissions as well as some personal work currently in progress. Today, I thought maybe I might discuss one of my mediums of choice. Graphite.

  It's a simple, clean and immediate medium and that is what attracted me to it in the first place. Not to mention the fact that it is relatively inexpensive. As a kid, It was the first and easiest medium to get my hands on as I had a trusty No. 2 yellow school pencil and some lined notebook paper on my person, at all times. I was constantly drawing something.

  To be honest, I didn't own any fancy art supplies till I was in my twenties which is also when I purchased my very first paints. You really don't need any special tools to make art. Just a strong desire to do so.

  A lead pencil is not made of lead. It is made of graphite and sometimes has a little bit of carbon thrown in as well. There are different degrees of lead which can be confusing to new artists.

  You may have seen letters and numbers such as H, HB, 2B and so on. this refers to the hardness or softness of the graphite. A typical N0.2 school pencil is an HB. H is going to stand for hard, meaning the lead is obviously going to be harder and also lighter in shade. So a 9H pencil for example will be very hard and create a very light colored line.

  B pencils on the other hand, are going to be softer and leave darker, richer lines. The B stands for black. A 9B pencil is going to be very dark. There is also an F pencil that lies right in between the H's and B's. F stands for fine. You don't have to use the full range of pencils. As for me, my go-to's are 5H through 6B but you can create a drawing using a single pencil if you want to.

  Drawings in graphite are generally done using many layers, gradually building up tones. It is time consuming but patience and perseverance will pay off in a beautiful piece of art. The important thing is to start off with a really accurate sketch. Yes, drawing skills are important with graphite. The more you draw, the better you become at it, just like anything else. There is no magic pill you can take or a shortcut to learning how to draw. You have to work at it. But, anyone CAN learn and at least it's enjoyable work!  Here is a new piece I started a couple days ago......

  As I am right handed, I keep my light source to my left which prevents the light from casting a shadow onto my work. Then,  I work from the top left, down to the bottom right which prevents me from dragging my hand through the graphite and making a mess.

  This is where Jarvis comes in handy. Jarvis is a mahlstick and my studio side-kick. A mahlstick acts like a rest for your hand, keeping it elevated slightly off your work. If you tend to be a little "shaky handed, it can help with that too. This is Jarvis..................Say "Hi" Jarvis!

  All he is , is a stick with a felt ball on one end. You can buy a mahlstick but Jarvis is a homemade version.

  Your paper choice is important with graphite too. I personally use bristol vellum or smooth bristol as well as hot press watercolor paper to create my drawings on. But there are other choices out there as well. it does become a personal preference you just have to try out a variety of papers to find which ones work best for you.

  Now there is also a medium in graphite that is water-soluble. Used pretty much like watercolor, I have recently dabbled in it and It is growing on me. Water soluble graphite comes in pencil form and looks like a regular graphite pencil and can be used just like a regular graphite pencil. But, when you add water, you get beautiful monochromatic washes. Water soluble graphite also comes in small tins such as this..............and you apply it with a brush just like paint................

  Keep in mind though, the dry pencil itself is erasable but, once you add water to it, you can no longer erase your mistakes so, use it carefully. There are also graphite sticks, powdered graphite and even a soft, flexable graphite that feels like silly putty!  That one is really messy however and will get all over your hands but it is a kick to work with.

  There are mechanical pencils, the smallest lead size I own is a .02, about the size of a human hair!, clutch pencils, drafting pencils, the list goes on and on. I have a quite large collection of all of them myself. I even have two brand new pencils coming tomorrow. I LOVE getting new pencils!!!There are pencils with engines, (yep), retractable pencils and pencils with large 5.6 sized leads.   Experiment to find what you like best.

  I'm sure I haven't mentioned all there is to know about the world of graphite. There is so much to it. but I hope I have given y'all a general idea about this great medium. If you have any questions, please ask. I won't bite.

  Today is a painting day for me. Maybe I will also do some more work on the tiger as well. I better go get busy....Happy drawing everyone!
 

Epic Failures

  Good morning!............So where is this year going? It's racing by at warp speed and taking me with it. It's August and everyone is already talking about Halloween. Before ya know it, Christmas will be here and I haven't put all my holiday decorations away from last Christmas yet.....I guess I won't bother to at this point.

  This has been a weird couple weeks here in my studio. So much is happening, some good, some not so good and I am bouncing off the walls trying to wrap my head around it all.

  I'm not going to go into detail about the not-so-good stuff. It's just family stuff. Isn't that what family is for anyway?, to drive ya nuts? Suffice it to say that it is "Survive-able" and everything will work out for the better in the long run. This is life folks and it too shall pass. It's precisely the bad stuff that tests our endurance and makes us stronger right.

  It's the good stuff that matters!......no one wants to dwell on the bad and thankfully,  there is a lot of good happening too.

  I have my grand-dog barking at me from the studio bed as I am trying to type this post because I'm not paying attention to him. This is one very spoiled dog..........He wants me to come get him because he is too lazy to walk five feet to get to me. I'm babysitting him today and  will probably spend most of it holding him. It's a good thing he's cute........I hope he likes the smell of paint.

  So anyway, I have had a couple of failures, art wise, this week. Yes.....I have failures, on a regular basis.

  Here is what I have to say about art failures.......

  At first, everything is going great. I arrive in the studio, I take time to relax and enjoy my coffee, get out all my supplies, prep the surface of what I am working on, pick up the pencil or brush or charcoal, get ready to make that first artistic, well thought out mark and I have all these pre-conceived ideas of award winning art that I am about to create, paintings and drawings that will gain world wide attention, I might even manage to get my own IMDB site not to mention a star on Hollywood blvd. I will be the "Who's-Who" of the art world ...............And then, this happens.....................

                                              I can't draw anything to save my life!..........

   My eraser ends up getting a workout, over and over..........Five attempts later, I finally have something that might pass for a drawing, despite the hole in it from the erasing, It just might pass.

   What is my issue!!.............This not only happened once, but twice in one week. I had the same problem with the next drawing too.

  You know what..............crap happens. just like family problems arise, so do creative ones. The worst thing you can do is give up.

  What do I do when crap happens? I walk away, take a break and then I come back to it. It's not the end of the world. The sky isn't falling, it's just a drawing. Yes, I know, it is annoying.

  Eventually.............I get to the point where everything falls into place beautifully, like in this great, amazingly accurate,  drawing rendition of the human form I created, the worlds best stick figure................

   See,  perseverance pays off. Everyone is going to have an off day, or in my case, an off week. You just gotta hold onto the safety bar and ride it out.

  Even with all this past weeks set backs, I did manage to get three ACEO's finished, which I can't post photos of at this time, but soon,  and my second drawing in the "Child's Play" series is moving along nicely........

  Maybe one day, I will be the "Who's Who of the art world. Right now, I won't hold my breathe.I will just hang out, here, in my humble little studio and continue to buy erasers in bulk.