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Well, sometimes life just does not treat us quite so kindly as we would hope and I seem to be going through a bit of a rough patch lately. Not only am I still sick as a dog with this damn fever-headache-cough-that-just-keeps-getting-worse-and-feels-like-it-might-be-turning-into-pneumonia-flu-thing, but I think my RA must have been feeling left out, so has decided to crash my pity party with a knee that screams in protest every time it tries to straighten and a right index finger that stubbornly refuses to bend (probably due to the fact that it’s swollen to half again its size). And on top of that, I found out last week that none of the three pieces I submitted made it in to the CPSC Exhibit coming up this July!
~sigh~ Oh, woe is me!
Of course, it goes without saying that I am disappointed not to have had my work selected for the exhibit………..but I am just absolutely thrilled to bits for all the artists that did have their work selected and I am looking so very forward to seeing it all in person and especially to meeting everyone face to face at last My sincere congratulations go out to all who made it in to the exhibit And to all of us who did not make it this year….if at first you don’t succeed, try again! The CPSC is here to stay and there will be many, many more exhibition opportunities for all cp artists in the future
cp sketch in Moleskine
So, because of how rotten I’ve been feeling, I have not been working too much on anything very major, but I did manage to complete the little charcoal drawing I had started on a piece of gesso’d masonite and am very pleased with how it turned out. Once I finished it, I sprayed it with Krylon UV Archival Varnish (satin finish), which gave it a beautiful soft overall sheen and emphasized some of the texture from the gesso brush strokes. I quite like the effect. This was originally an experiment simply to see how well the pencil/charcoal would take to a gesso’d surface, so I just used a thin sheet of masonite that I had lying around for the experiment. As such, it’s not really suitable to hang as it is, but would look very nice in a glassless frame I think. Now that I know how well pencil and charcoal work on gesso, I will use gallery style cradled wood panels for such future experimentation. I am anxious now to try out coloured pencil on such a surface.
I’ve also been fooling a bit with a sketch that I started in my Moleskine using only coloured pencil. I just love how the Moleskine paper takes the cp. Not sure if I will bother to finish this sketch or not. Likely I won’t. I was just kinda fooling with an idea I had and wanted to explore drawing cracks in a wall, so not really any need to take it further….it is just a sketch afterall (haha, I sound like I am trying to convince myself!)
Anyway, I may be a bit scarce for a bit til I can get this flu bug and my flare-up under control…not feeling much in the mood to write or draw feeling as I do, but hopefully will be back to it soon!
In 2007, Tom Shadyac, successful Hollywood director of such blockbuster comdies as Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, The Nutty Professor and Liar, Liar, suffered a traumatic accident which left him on a long road to not just physical, but also mental and emotional recovery. When he finally did recover, he felt the need to make a different sort of film. The sort of film that is both thought-provoking and inspiring. The sort of film that starts out asking the very simple question: What’s wrong with our world and what can we do about it? and that ends by asking a subtly, yet profoundly different question. The film is in three parts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Something a little bit different is on my drawing table this week.
Ever since I started investigating mounting cp work on paper to cradled wood panels, I have been thinking about skipping that whole step altogether and just drawing directly on the panel itself. Again, having done more research, I discovered that clayboard is supposed to be an extremely nice surface for both graphite and cp work. Only problem is, none of my local art stores carry it. So I decided to try gesso-ing a wood panel instead and using that as a surface for my pencil work.
The only problem thus far is that I applied the gesso to my wood panel (7″x9″ sheet of thin masonite) using a brush and, though I applied several coats of gesso and then sanded it very well, the brush marks still faintly show and add a certain undesirable texture. I decided to test out drawing on the surface anyway and, after quite a bit of experimentation with my graphite pencils, came to the following conclusions:
1. Applying gesso with a roller would work much better and should eliminate the faint, uneven texture of the surface.
2. It’s difficult to get very soft shades using pencil alone. Even very lightly using a 4H pencil still gave me fairly dark tone which I had to lift with Blue Tac to lighten.
3. It’s almost impossible to get evenly blended shading using pencils alone, so I was forced to use stumps and tortillons to achieve nicely blended tones. I am sure this was because of the subtly uneven texture of the gesso’d surface.
4. The sheen of the graphite seemed very noticeable, much moreso than it seems to be on paper. Again, perhaps this was due to the uneven surface, which caused the light to reflect more noticeably.
5. Charcoal works beautifully on a gesso’d wood panel and leaves no sheen like graphite does.
After working for some time with graphite on this, I decided I really hated the way the graphite was reflecting, so I erased the whole thing and started over with charcoal. I have very little experience using charcoal, but so far am loving how this is turning out. I have no idea if this is the way most charcoal artists work, but I am having a lot of fun building the textures, shadows and lights using assorted belnding tools and various types of erasers.
I need to get myself a small roller and more gesso and some more wood panels, so I can do more experimenting with cp.
I had such wild and wonderful plans for this past weekend! I was going to spend a few hours downtown in the area of the gorgeous Notre Dame Basilica for Worldwide SketchCrawl on Saturday. I was going to visit grandbaby Paige and have lunch with son and daughter-in-law on Sunday. I was going to somehow squeeze in not just one, but two visits to the cinema, first to see The Hunger Games and again to see Mirror, Mirror. I was going to finish up my Sunflower, along with my laundry.
Instead, I spent much of the weekend in my jammies in bed catching up on Snow’s adventures in Storybrook while nursing a persistent headache and wicked sore throat I hate being sick….it’s such a time waster!
So, given how miserable I am feeling, I am making this week’s Roadmap a pretty simple one to follow:
Write 834 words as Morning Pages every morning this week.
Watch more episodes of How To Look At and Understand Great Art (interesting though this series is, it is taking me forever to finish and I forget now where I left off so need to get back into it).
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle and/or watercolour sketch.
Treat myself to an Artist Date on Friday.
What does your upcoming week look like? Do you also keep a list (either mental or physical) of the artistic things you hope to get done over the coming week? Or do you wish to start keeping such a list? If so, I invite you to share it with me here in a comment or on my Facebook page
One of my 2012 Artistic Resolutions was to start doing Morning Pages again, but up until now, I’ve made excuse after excuse and haven’t even attempted to do them.
Morning Pages are defined as three pages of longhand writing (which equates to approximately 750 words, typed), done every single morning, preferably before your brain is fully engaged in life’s daily grind. The purpose? To get all the “junk” out so that your creativity may be more readily unleashed. I have kept MPs off and on through the years (waaaaay more off than on!) and I admit that I have a definite dislike for doing them….yet….yet…when I have forced myself to do them, I HAVE found them to make a difference in my creative output.
I have been giving a lot of thought lately and have been starting to get excited about Nanwrimo. I know, I know…it’s waaaay too early to even start thinking about that! Or is it? Considering that, aside from my fairly undependable and inconsequential blog posts, I don’t write much anymore, fiction or otherwise, I thought that maybe it was time for me to start at least thinking about writing more regularly to get my flabby writerly muscles in shape for Nanowrimo in November. Afterall, marathon runners don’t decide the week before the big race to start running! No, they start training months, and even years, before the big day!
And so I gave myself a nice little pep talk and a hard kick this morning and managed to get down 888 words. I have decided to do my MPs electronically this time ’round, as I want to keep a word count rather than a page count. You see, in order to “succeed” at Nanowrimo, you have to write at least 1667 words/day (or end up with a huge chunk to write on another day if you fall behind). So I am forcing myself to write at least 834 words/day, which is half of the daily Nanowrimo output required to end up writing a 50k word novel in 30 days. If I can manage to do 834 words/day ’til the end of May, then maybe I’ll bump it up to 1667 words/day through the summer.
Yes, that’s right. I have a dream. I wannabe a writer…so I guess I better write! What’s your wannabe dream? Do you work at it so that someday it might become a reality?
I’ve actually got a couple of little drawings I am working on at the same time, though one is all but done.
I managed to spend quite some time last weekend, during quiet moments at the Aylmer Spring Show, working on this little 4″x6″ sunflower. Just need to deepen the values in the bottom two petals and I think it will be done.
As for the leaf, well, this one is rather slow going, despite its tiny size. Getting the correct greens is a challenge, and I don’t even want to talk about the water droplets, except to say, they ain’t easy! I’m just sort of working here and there on the leaf, so hopefully will be able to finish it up by then end of the month.
I was up bright and early Friday morning and after triple checking that I wasn’t forgetting anything, hubby and I made the 40-ish minute drive to Aylmer to arrive at the Centre Aydelu at about 11 am. The AAC had everything well organized and were very helpful, so my individual booth setup went smoothly. We were completely done with my setup (including plenty of “let’s try that here instead” rearrangement time) by 2:00 pm, so decided to head home for a little rest before the Vernissage (Opening Reception) later that evening.
The Vernissage was very well attended and was actually so crowded at times that people had to turn sideways to squeeze by others. The AAC had recruited white-shirted, black-trousered, white-gloved volunteers to pass around the lovely selection of canapés provided by the exhibitors, and a wonderful acoustic guitarist played quietly in the background throughout the evening, so the affair was not only enjoyable but was really quite elegant.
The weather on Saturday was beautiful and it was, unfortunately, reflected in the attendance at the show. Though certainly not poorly attended, there were many quiet times on Saturday, enough so that I was able to get quite a lot of work done on a little still life of a sunflower I had brought with me as just such a time filler. However, Sunday was a cloudy day and the crowds picked up again. Altogether, I believe there were about a thousand people through the doors over the course of the weekend.
Me at the AAC Spring Exhibit
Many of the artists did make sales (I think there was a total of about 50 sales altogether over the weekend), and the artist directly across from me made five sales! All to previous customers/collectors of hers. I didn’t make any sales, but had not expected to as this was only my first big show and I am not yet known; however, I did receive a lot of sincere interest in my work and many genuine compliments. I also received probably at least ten inquiries as to whether or not I teach. It definitely has given me some food for thought in that area.
The one thing that I found quite interesting was the amazing diversity in people’s artistic taste. For example, probably most people who looked at my work expressed that their favourite piece was Not A Muse(d). Almost everyone just loved her expression. One woman even called it “profound”! I must say, this made me look at that piece much differently than I had before. I admit, she is still not my favourite piece, but perhaps I can say that I do appreciate her a little more now! LOL The other pieces that drew the most comments and attention were Mermaid’s Secret, Bounty, Carousel and Silk. Many people also liked Scheherazade and Mary’s Journey. I was really very surprised that Simple Pleasures didn’t get more attention, but although some people definitely did like it best, I cannot say that it was the overwhelming favourite in my booth. That honour belonged to Not A Muse(d). The one comment I kept hearing over and over again was that the eyes in all my works were penetrating and really seemed to follow the viewer, and that my skin tones were amazing. Needless to say, I was terribly pleased and flattered to hear this from so many people.
Although I didn’t sell anything, I certainly learned a lot from this experience, not only about what potential collectors like generally and specifically about my work, but also about big art shows/festivals in general. I was also given a lot of food for thought re: subject matter (out of the 40 or so artists there, I was the only one who was selling anything that even remotely resembled the fantasy genre and one of the few who portrayed people, specifically faces of women, in my work). My fantasy subject matter was actually better received than I thought it would be. Until now I had been thinking that I might have to abandon the subject I love so much in favour of landscapes or still life just so that I could “fit in” and maybe make some sales, but the level of interest in my subject matter by so many people who stopped at my booth has encouraged me to persevere with it. I think that I may also give some serious thought to teaching as a result of the interest shown by so many.
I’d like to thank everyone who stopped by to offer their support and congratulations during the weekend and especially would like to thank hubby, without whose patience, muscle and support none of this past weekend would have been possible. All in all, I would count this show as a very successful one for me and I look forward to the next such venture.
Yesterday was a holiday here, so hubby was home and I completely forgot about my Roadmap Monday post. Doesn’t really matter I suppose, as not much has changed and many of the same items are still on my to-do list for this week. I’ve been busybusy trying to get ready for my festival-show coming up next weekend and still have a lot left to do. But all work and no play makes me a very boring blogger, so I decided to spend a couple of hours this morning working on the CPSC’s Colour Challenge for April — draw something green without using any green pencils!
I’ve fallen way behind on the CPSC Colour Challenges, as well as my own “Artistic Resolution” to complete a series of small format still lifes this year. So this little rain-wet leaf is my attempt to work on both goals. The ref photo was taken by hubby and the drawing size is only 4″x6″ so I’m hoping to have it finished fairly soon. Paper is Arches 140lb Hotpress and the colours used so far are: (Prismacolors) Black, Indigo Blue, Copenhagen Blue, Mediterranean Blue, Electric Blue, Terra Cotta, Dark Brown, Lemon Yellow, Spanish Orange and in the Coloursoft line, Ochre and Deep Cadmium.
It’s been quite a challenge to get varying greens using only these colours and particularly difficult to get greens that are not tinged with too much blue, so I’m not promising that I won’t use some green pencils on the focal subject, but will do my best not to.
What an incredible relief to have the deadline for the 1st CPSC Exhibition finally past! I feel as though the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders LOL I always thought I worked relatively well under pressure, but not this time ’round. For some reason, the stress of working to this particular deadline took a real toll on me. Maybe age is finally catching up, I dunno. But just as with anything that I ever struggle with, I’ve taken away a wonderful lesson from it all, and you can be sure that I will NOT be leaving my entries for 2013′s CPSC Exhibition — or any other exhibition for that matter — ’til the last minute! In the end, I didn’t get the one drawing I especially wanted to submit finished, but now I will be able to work on it without the associated pressure of a looming deadline and should have it ready for next year. So ultimately, last week’s Roadmap ended up looking like this:
Finish my third entry for the CPSC Juried Exhibition coming up (deadline March 31). I didn’t manage to get the third drawing I was working on even 1/4 finished, so instead decided to enter an older drawing as my third submission.
Photograph my submissions and send in my entries for the CPSC Juried Exhibition. Managed to get my three entries photographed and submitted on the very day of the deadline! Phew! Talk about last minute!
Make the time to watch episodes 11 & 12 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art. Dunno how I fit this in, but somehow I did. Was a nice little break from all that worrying about getting my CPSC entries completed.
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle and/or watercolour sketch. Accomplished nada in the sketching department again last week
Treat myself to an Artist Date on Friday. I’d planned to spend a relaxing afternoon catching up with Snow White et al in Storeybrooke and spend some time doing some 5 minute sketches from paused scenes (one of my very favourite ways to sketch, but one that I too rarely make the time to do)…but then I got distracted and spent my day on other frivolities. Ah well…there’s always this week.
So, this week’s Roadmap is at last clear of CPSC Exhibition stuff and will now be filled with things I need to do to get ready for my first big Art Festival, which is coming up in two weeks:
Matt and frame (or mount to gallery style cradled wood panels) 8 of the 14 drawings I will be offering for sale at the Festival.
Buy lights for art display.
Get business cards printed.
Get logo banner printed.
Make the time to watch episodes 13 & 14 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art.
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle and/or watercolour sketch.
Treat myself to an Artist Date on Friday.
What does your upcoming week look like? Do you also keep a list (either mental or physical) of the artistic things you hope to get done over the coming week? Or do you wish to start keeping such a list? If so, I invite you to share it with me here in a comment or on my Facebook page
Although I am not a huge fan of Impressionism, I do admire the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I respect the man himself and have such a deep admiration for how he continued to create during his later years despite living with the very obviously debilitating effects of Rheumatoid Arthritis.
When I begin to fear that I may have to quit my art due to my own RA, I think of Renoir and what he was able to accomplish whilst in a far worse condition than I am…and I feel myself encouraged and inspired by his example. If he could overcome his obstacles, then I can surely overcome mine. Perhaps he will help to inspire you to overcome whatever your own personal obstacles to your art are
Looking back over last week, my mind is in a kind of blank. I cannot for the life of me recall what I spent so much of my time on, but much of it definitely was NOT spent on the things on my Roadmap! LOL Ah well, everyone deserves a lazy week now and again!
Do my best to try and work on a third entry for the CPSC Juried Exhibition coming up (deadline March 31). It won’t be the original “Entry #3″ that I’d planned and hoped to complete because I am finding the pressure of working to such a close deadline is just not working at all well for me with that particular piece, and since I really want it to turn out especially well, I have decided to set it aside for now and work on it more at my leisure. However, I do have another piece I’ve started that I am going to try to finish for the Exhibit deadline if possible. Talk about procrastination! I don’t think I sat down at my drawing table til the very end of last week!
Make the time to watch episodes 11 & 12 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art. Simply did not make time for this.
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle and/or watercolour sketch. Not a single line did I sketch or doodle!
Spend some time this week exploring watercolour by working on “Can You Hear Me?”, a pure watercolour painting I started yesterday and with which I am really having fun, despite the fact that I have NO clue what I am doing LOL. Am keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t totally destroy it in my ignorance. Didn’t even touch my watercolour painting last week.
Treat myself to an Artist Date on Friday. Well, despite my best intentions to have an AD (even prepared ahead of time for it), the guilt finally got to me and I ended up spending most of Friday finishing up Entry #2 and working a bit on Entry #3. I was so focussed on that that I even forgot to make a “Friday’s Food for Thought” post!
So, I have much to make up for this week! We’re getting down to the wire and I really need to buckle down if I hope to have three new drawings ready to enter the CPSC show! So saying, here’s my Roadmap for this week:
Finish my third entry for the CPSC Juried Exhibition coming up (deadline March 31).
Photograph my submissions and send in my entry for the CPSC Juried Exhibition.
Make the time to watch episodes 11 & 12 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art.
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle and/or watercolour sketch.
Treat myself to an Artist Date on Friday.
What does your upcoming week look like? Do you also keep a list (either mental or physical) of the artistic things you hope to get done over the coming week? Or do you wish to start keeping such a list? If so, I invite you to share it with me here in a comment or on my Facebook page
I’ve been fooling around a bit with my new watercolour paints these past few days and am having a blast with them. They’re sooo easy on the hands compared to coloured pencil!
It is definitely a difficult medium to get the hang of. Yet it’s also a very interesting and such a loose, fluid medium (pun intended LOL).
I essentially have next to no experience using watercolours for “serious” work, and so it took me a while to realise that it’s best to deepen your values through a build up of layers, much the same way you do with cp (but without all that pressure! hehe). I also fluked into a skin tone that I am very happy with by mixing New Gamboge with Napthol Red in various strengths. I have no idea if these are typical colours used for skin tones by most WC artists, but they’re working well for me. At this point though I am trying to gather my courage to lay in some much bolder, much stronger shadows on the skin.
I’m also having a bit of a tough time at this point resisting using cp on her. I can see why so many artists use cp with watercolour…I think they would work beautifully together and really enhance each other. But tempting as it is, I am resisting — for now. I want to see how far I can get using only watercolour paint for my deepest values and finest details. I think I will probably reach a point where I will succumb to the temptation to add cp, but am resisting as hard as I can for now.
Well, even when I don’t get to everything on my Roadmap (as was the case last week), I am finding that publishing my weekly intentions here on my blog is very useful in helping me to feel that I must stay accountable, which is something that works well for me — even when I don’t think anyone else is reading this! LOL
I definitely over-extended myself last week in the things-to-do department and didn’t get nearly as much done as I’d hoped I would. Still battling the lingering fatigue from my flare-up, so last week’s list ended up like this:
Try hard to finish “Entry #2″ for the CPSC Juried Exhibition coming up (deadline March 31). I’m actually almost finished it! Can hardly believe it! What an incredible relief to have that almost out of the way. Just needs another few hours and it should be done!
Watch episodes 11 & 12 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art. Simply didn’t get around to doing this last week, so will have to add it back on my list for this week.
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle and/or watercolour sketch. I did manage to fit in some zentangling last night. I keep a sketchbook just for that by my chair in the livingroom, so doodled a bit last night while waiting for hubby to be ready to watch the movie we’d rented.
“Frame” another cp work using the “Glassless Framing Technique”. Again, simply no time and no energy for this last week
Treat myself to an Artist Date on Friday. I kinda skipped my AD last week to work on Entry #2…..though I did sort of fill the well of creativity a bit by spending some time in the fantasy world of Aden killing cartoon monsters with my (grown) son and hubby later on Friday night (that’s right, we play MMORPGs together — currently Lineage 2 – LOL)
I had a dream last night that sparked a scene idea for a story. Write it down and flesh it out a bit as a possible plot for my Nanowrimo in November. Wrote only the bare bones of the scene out, but have been revisiting it often in my head trying to work the scene into a plot.
Not too sure what it is, but am finding that I don’t have much of an urge lately to do coloured pencil. I wouldn’t exactly say I’m in a slump, because I still have a desire to work in other media, but I think I just kinda burned myself out with cp these past months and especially these last few weeks trying to meet the Exhibit deadline, so I feel ready for a little bit of a break from it. Am definitely not abandoning it! But, well, I think I just really would like to take some time to play with some other things for the next little while. This urge I’m feeling to play with other media is reflected in the image accompanying today’s post, and is also included on my Roadmap for this week:
Do my best to try and work on a third entry for the CPSC Juried Exhibition coming up (deadline March 31). It won’t be the original “Entry #3″ that I’d planned and hoped to complete because I am finding the pressure of working to such a close deadline is just not working at all well for me with that particular piece, and since I really want it to turn out especially well, I have decided to set it aside for now and work on it more at my leisure. However, I do have another piece I’ve started that I am going to try to finish for the Exhibit deadline if possible.
Make the time to watch episodes 11 & 12 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art.
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle and/or watercolour sketch.
Spend some time this week exploring watercolour by working on “Can You Hear Me?”, a pure watercolour painting I started yesterday and with which I am really having fun, despite the fact that I have NO clue what I am doing LOL. Am keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t totally destroy it in my ignorance.
Treat myself to an Artist Date on Friday.
What does your upcoming week look like? Do you also keep a list (either mental or physical) of the artistic things you hope to get done over the coming week? Or do you wish to start keeping such a list? If so, I invite you to share it with me here in a comment or on my Facebook page
In one of my former lives, I raised purebred dogs – Miniature Longhaired Dachshunds. However, breeding and showing dogs is a fairly physical venture and when my RA began to take its toll and interfere too much in my ability to pursue the art with the same degree of proficiency and pleasure I’d enjoyed in the past (and yes, dog breeding and showing IS an art! ), I finally regretfully retired from the “doggy game”, though I never lost my passion for dogs.
When the last of my dear old Dachsies and our old pet Collie finally left us to cross the Rainbow Bridge, we decided to get a Toy Poodle. I needed a dog that was small and light enough for me to carry even if I was in a flare, but I also really wanted one that was smart enough for some really advanced obedience because I’d been incredibly inspired by Caroline Scott (who has a mild physical handicap) and her beautiful Golden Retriever, Rookie (a rescue dog), doing the very creative and, at that time, new sport of Canine Freestyle….aka Doggy Dancing. I still watch the original video that I found so inspiring a few times a year, as it always renews my determination to turn my little Flirt into a dancer and makes me smile again at the deep, loving and enduring bond that these types of fun training and games can help to build between our pets and ourselves. I hope it makes you smile too.
Not sure if it’s the lingering flareup and associated pain and fatigue or if it’s the pressure of that looming deadline, or if I am just feeling a bit blah about this artwork in general, but whatever the reason, I have been finding it terribly difficult to sit myself down at my drawing table this week to actually work on my exhibition pieces.
I still have way more left to do than I’d hoped I’d have left at this point before I’ll be able to call this one finished and I am starting to get rather discouraged.
Well, this flare-up is putting a real cramp in my style and I am not able to accomplish nearly as much as I’d like to. It’s constantly in the back of my mind now that I am running out of time and may not be able to finish my entries for the CPSC deadline. Nevertheless I am very glad that I was gentle on myself with my Roadmap for last week, as I was at least able to cross everything off my list this morning:
I started a severe flare-up of my RA late last night……so at this point I would say my major goal for the week is mainly to rest and to survive it I find it really difficult to “take it easy”, but forced myself to rest as much as possible this past week. Still exhausted and in a lot of pain, but at least able to move now, albeit slowly and rather ungracefully. Am hoping I’ll see a big improvement over the coming week, especially with the warmer weather coming our way.
If at all possible, continue working on and hopefully finish “Entry #2″ for the CPSC Juried Exhibition. I did manage to get a wee bit more done on Entry #2 and would say that it’s about 3/4 done now, but it’s very difficult to apply the pressure with my pencils that I need to with this flareup in my arms making me so weak. And so, rather than stress myself out with the frustration of trying to do something I was finding it very difficult to do, I spent much of my usual drawing time last week just fooling around with and trying to become more familiar with my new watercolour paints. So much easier to wield a brush with no pressure as opposed to burnishing with a pencil when your hands are in an uncooperative mood! I am counting the results of my WC dabbling as a sketch, even though I hadn’t included sketching on my Roadmap last week.
Watch episodes 11 & 12 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art. I fit this in as part of my very enjoyable resting time.
Extra: This wasn’t on my list last week, but I spent several hours on one of my better days experimenting with varnishing one of my coloured pencil works. It turned out even better than I expected and I am very excited about this “glassless framing technique” as an alternative to traditionally matting and framing my work in future. I plan to make a tutorial about it once I’ve experimented a bit more and perfected the process to my complete satisfaction.
Extra: Treated myself to an Artist Date on Friday. Have been doing this pretty consistently for the past few weeks but forgot to mention it. Last Friday I filled the well with all the wonderful visuals and intriguing twists that are happening in Storeybrooke and the Enchanted Forest (in other words I spent my afternoon catching up on “Once Upon A Time” hehe).
Having no choice but to keep things relatively simple again this week, here is this Monday’s Roadmap:
Try hard to finish “Entry #2″ for the CPSC Juried Exhibition coming up (deadline March 31).
Watch episodes 11 & 12 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art.
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle and/or watercolour sketch.
“Frame” another cp work using the “Glassless Framing Technique”.
Treat myself to an Artist Date on Friday.
I had a dream last night that sparked a scene idea for a story. Write it down and flesh it out a bit as a possible plot for my Nanowrimo in November.
What does your upcoming week look like? Do you also keep a list (either mental or physical) of the artistic things you hope to get done over the coming week? Or do you wish to start keeping such a list? If so, I invite you to share it with me here in a comment or on my Facebook page
One of my Artistic Resolutions for 2012 was to treat myself to an Artist Date every other week. This resolution has been a little tough for me to keep, mainly because I constantly battle the “But I CAN’T go indulge myself with play! I have way too much work to get done!” syndrome. I find that I am having to constantly remind myself that not only do I deserve to play on a regular basis, but I need to! We all need to.
As artists, we draw from the well of our own creativity on a regular and frequent basis. Our wells run deep but the creativity that flows from the fountainhead does not trickle from emptyiness, but rather, it floods forth from a wellspring of inspiration. If we don’t regularly minister and tend to our wellspring by infusing it with inspiration, the well is sure to eventually dry up. Hence the necessity for Artist Dates, to keep the deep well of our own creativity unclogged and flowing generously.
Because I struggle so much to allow myself this play time, I have decided to make it more frequent, and for the last couple of weeks am having an Artist Date every Friday rather than every 2nd week. I am now starting to really look forward to them, no matter what other “work” I may have to do. Because I don’t usually have the car during the week, my Artist Dates are most often spent at home, which can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to finding something to inspire myself with. Then last week I remembered a TV show I had started to watch back in October. I am not generally much of a TV watcher, but being so into fantasy, I was immediately fascinated by the new TV series, Once Upon A Time. I started to watch it back in October, and loved it, but then Christmas rolled around, things got really busy, and TV shows got put on the back burner. So now, I am using my Artist Date time to watch all the episodes from the very beginning again (soooo enjoyable to curl up with a cup of tea, my two doggies on my lap and be able to watch them one after another like a movie with no commercials!) and will use my AD today to hopefully get all caught up with what is happening in the Enchanted Forest and the little town of Storybrooke.
As for the inspirational part of all this? What could be more inspirational than fairytales retold with intriguing and unexpected twists, with characters that wear such authentic looking costumes and who play their parts in such magnificent settings? If you enjoy fantasy, I would highly recommend that you inspire yourself with Once Upon A Time
We’re getting closer and closer to the deadline for the upcoming CPSC Juried Exhibition this summer and, though I have completed one drawing for entry, the other two that I hope to enter still have lots left to be done on them….and now with this flareup of my RA affecting my arms (shoulders right down to fingers) –and consequently my drawing ability — I am starting to panic that I won’t have enough time to complete them!
I was able to spend a bit of time interspersed with many “rest” breaks yesterday working on Entry #2. It’s a piece that was originally inspired by my Harry Potter portrait, and that I took the reference photos for early last spring with the intention of doing the drawing in graphite. For some reason though, while procrastinating about starting to work on Entry #3, I just suddenly remembered those photos I took and got the idea to try something completely different than the original idea I’d had for them, and to execute this new idea in cp rather than in graphite. Isn’t it amazing where procrastination can lead you?
Still haven’t completely decided on a title for this — have several floating around in my head that I am trying to decide between. Will have a better idea which fits best once the piece is done, I think.
So last night I sat for a few moments with last Monday’s Roadmap in hand and reflected on what I’d managed to get done through the week and, with a satisfied feeling of accomplishment, took my pen and diligently crossed each completed task off my list, so that it ended up looking like this:
Finish “Entry #1″ for the CPSC Juried Exhibition coming up (deadline March 31)……just a tiny bit left to be done, then I can cross this one from my list! What a relief to have at least one done. Now I can rest easier knowing that if I screw up the others I will still have at least one to enter!
Continue working on “Entry #2″ and on “Entry #3″……yes, I have three entries I HOPE to have completed by the deadline for the CPSC Juried Exhibition and am working on all of them simultaneously (when I get bored or frustrated with one, I work on the other LOL). I managed to get much of Entry #2 done and should hopefully finish it soon. Didn’t work at all on #3 last week.
Watch episodes 9 & 10 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art. Am enjoying this series very much and learning a lot.
Try to complete at least one simple sketch and/or zendoodle. Spent an hour or so one evening fiddling with an idea I had for one of my dragon series drawings (the image posted here to the right).
Frame Zen Tastes. Well, I went looking for a frame, but instead I came home with a large plastic palette, several good quality watercolour brushes in different sizes and some artist grade watercolours in tubes. Previously anything I’d done in WC was done either with WC pencils or from an old student grade pan set I have. I decided to treat myself to the real deal and see what I could make with them. I confess, there is definitely a possibility that WC could become my favourite medium if I ever manage to master it. I also picked up a gallery style cradleboard, some soft gel medium and some spray varnish so I can attempt to mount a drawing without a frame. Needless to say, after splurging on all that, I couldn’t quite fit the frame into my budget last week, so will have to get it another time.
Decided to enter the New Art Festival (deadline March 15) and gather together everything I need for my application. I filled out the online application and (snail) mailed in my CD with samples of my work, my image list, my Artist Statement and CV, and my entry fee. So now I must sit here on pins and needles for the next six weeks anxiously waiting to hear whether or not I have been accepted It’s going to be a very long, nerve wracking six weeks.
So, having spent a bit of time last night reflecting on what I managed to get done last week and the various things I will have going on in my life this coming week, this Monday’s Roadmap looks like this:
I started a severe flare-up of my RA late last night……so at this point I would say my major goal for the week is mainly to rest and to survive it
If at all possible, continue working on and hopefully finish “Entry #2″ for the CPSC Juried Exhibition.
Watch episodes 11 & 12 of How To Look At and Understand Great Art.
What does your upcoming week look like? Do you also keep a list (either mental or physical) of the artistic things you hope to get done over the coming week? Or do you wish to start keeping such a list? If so, I invite you to share it with me here in a comment or on my Facebook page
I often find the work that is done by other artists – even those who work in a completely different medium or style – to be extremely inspiring.
Thijme Termaat, an incredibly talented young man from Holland, has made a powerful short film to express his belief that the creative process is just as beautiful as the finished work.
May we all enjoy the creative process as much as he does!
Well, as you can see with my “Roadmap Monday”, “Food For Thought Friday” and now my “WIP Wednesday” posts, I am attempting to blog much more frequently and consistently. Again, partly to keep myself accountable, I thought I would use Wednesdays to post the drawing or (as in today’s case) a portion of the drawing that I am actually working on. The intent is to show not only my actual work in progress, but also some of Roadmap Monday in progress as well (should that be called a RIP? )
So this week’s WIP is a small portion of one of the drawings I plan to enter in the CPSC’s 1st National Exhibition, coming up this July. I am showing just a sneak peek of the work because, should I be so fortunate as to have it be accepted into the exhibit, I’d like it to be fresh and new for everyone (of course if it’s not accepted then I’ll go ahead and plaster it all over the interwebz ….after I have myself a good, long, hard cry that is! LOL)
Anyway, I am calling this piece Dawn’s Herald. It is done in 100% coloured pencil on 140lb Arches Hotpress Watercolour paper and the framed size will be 16″x20″. I have just a tiny little portion, about 2 inches square, left to finish on it, so hope to have it off my drawing table by the end of today. Wish me luck!
As I intimated last Friday, I am the kinda gal that does best when I have somewhat of a routine to follow, and part of a successful routine, for me, includes list making. I make lists for everything – for shopping, for housework, for what I need to do for the art societies I volunteer my time in. I even make lists of which tricks to teach the dog next! I confess, almost nothing feels better than to be able to reward myself for getting something done by slashing it off my list with a thick black pen line!
Of course, it goes without saying that I also keep a list of what I want to get done every week in regards to my own artwork, and I usually revise and update this list every Monday. So I thought, in the interest of sharing a bit of my own artistic process, as well as to give myself a greater incentive to accomplish everything on my list (because publicizing my intentions forces me to be more accountable than I might otherwise choose to be), I have decided to start posting my weekly intentions regarding my art here on my blog every Monday. So saying, the Roadmap I hope to follow this week is as follows:
Finish “Entry #1″ for the CPSC Juried Exhibition coming up (deadline March 31)……just a tiny bit left to be done, then I can cross this one from my list!
Continue working on “Entry #2″ and on “Entry #3″……yes, I have three entries I HOPE to have completed by the deadline for the CPSC Juried Exhibition and am working on all of them simultaneously (when I get bored or frustrated with one, I work on the other LOL).
I finally made the decision to enter the New Art Festival (deadline March 15) and not the Orleans Festival (deadline March 30). Unfortunately, I can’t try for both, as they both take place on the same weekend in June. I decided to enter the New Art one because I think it attracts more of an “art collector” type of crowd than the Orleans Festival does and, provided the weather is decent, likely also attracts a lot more people. However, the NA entry process is rather complex, so will spend some time this week gathering together everything I need for my application.
Do you also keep a list (either mental or physical) of the artistic things you hope to get done over the coming week? Or do you wish to start keeping such a list? If so, I invite you to share it with me here in a comment or on my Facebook page
Because I am the type of person that works best when I have a plan to follow, I usually make myself a list of goals for the week. Without such a list I tend to get overly distracted and find myself flittering all over the place, and so a list of things I hope to accomplish through the week generally helps me to, well, get things accomplished.
However, even with such a handy-dandy list in hand, I still find myself spending many moments during my week in unplanned relaxation which, for me, often involves casually surfing the web for various types of “inspiration”. It is rare for me to come away disappointed at having “wasted” my time in such meanderings, as what I often stumble upon is usually so inspirational and/or thought-provoking to me that is was well worth whatever time I may have “wasted” on things not on my “to do” list.
So, I thought I would start sharing some of my inspirational findings here on my website every Friday, with the hope that my readers will find the things that fascinate me to be equally as fascinating. Enjoy…and Happy Friday!
I discovered Zentangles some time ago and over the past several months have been playing a bit with them as I have time and when the mood strikes.
In short, a Zentangle is more or less a form of “structured doodling”, which is a fun, creative and, due to its repeating patterns, almost meditative art form and therefore is quite relaxing. An “official” Zentangle (yes there are “rules” for zentangling!) is supposed to be done on a 3.5″x3.5″ paper tile and many of mine have been done on such regulation sized paper tiles, but then they end up lost or trashed, and so I have decided to start keeping a Zendoodle sketchbook (my understanding is that if you’re not going to follow the “rules”, then you are Zendoodling, not Zentangling! LOL). Still, whether you follow the rules or not, Zentangledoodling is an enjoyable expression of art and one that I hope to make time to explore more thoroughly over the coming months.
I have not done too much work with ink in the past, but it is a medium that, when I have worked with it, I have truly enjoyed, and so, inspired by Zentangles, I’ve spent some time this past week creating Zentangle Inspired Art (ZIA) and relaxing with the lady pictured here. She would have been finished within a couple of days except that I got the brilliant idea to stipple her fan, which was an annoying reminder of why I don’t often work seriously in pen–NOT for the impatient is Pointillism!
Anyway, the lady’s pose is very loosely based on an old photo of the beautiful 1940s/50s actress, Ava Gardner. Her face is done in graphite, as is the shading in her hair and the rock wall behind her. The rest is done in ink (micron pens). I’ve decided to call her Isabella, since her crown and fan remind me of the Spanish queen. This was definitely a fun, interesting process and is one I plan to repeat in future, perhaps with colour.
I am one of the founding members of the Coloured Pencil Society of Canada, and I am getting soooo excited about our first Juried Annual Exhibition coming up this summer in July. The deadline for entries for the show is March 31, and as yet, I still have really no idea what I shall be submitting. Well, that’s not quite true. There is one particular idea that I’ve had in mind for well over a year and that I have been planning to do specifically for this exhibit, and I was relieved to finally be able to take my reference photos for it last month. But I have been procrastinating starting the drawing because I am terrified I’ll mess it up! LOL And so, I’ve been working a bit here and a bit there on various other drawings as “back-ups” …just in case I am unable to fully realise the idea I really want to do, to translate the vision in my head properly to the paper.
Besides this main idea I am so fearful of being unable to translate properly, I am hoping that I will have another one or two completed drawings that I feel are worthy of entering, but I want to wait til the last possible moment to choose my entries from whatever I manage to get done between now and the entry deadline. Of course, I would love my submissions (should I be so fortunate as to actually be juried in!!) to be a surprise, and so I am reluctant now to post any of my new “serious” work before the end of March in case I should decide to enter any of it into the exhibit.
And so, for those of you sweet enough to be following me/my work, I have recently developed an interest in experimenting with ink and graphite, so shall do my best to keep you amused with slightly less cp focussed work, though hopefully equally…uhhh…”enchanting” work over the coming couple of months
On another note, I’ve long been fascinated by watercolour and have dabbled with it a bit here and a bit there (not terribly successfully I must say!), so for my brthday my son and daughter-in-law were kind enough to give me two lovely sketch pads of Canson Cold Press Watercolour paper (5.5″x8.5″ and 9″x12″), as well as a beautiful mini Moleskine Watercolour sketchbook to keep in my purse. The image I’ve included today is a watercolour pencil “copy” of the cp still life drawing, Zen Tastes, which I did for our CPSC December Colour Challenge (okay so it’s not an exact copy since I left out the garlic! hehe). It was a fun — and fast!! (compared to cp!) little experiement and helped give me a taste of what the Canson Cold Press is like, which I had never used before. Lovely, lovely paper for watercolour pencils.
You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:
For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
Which means, in a nutshell, that any images one posts on Facebook could potentially be used by Facebook in their promotional or advertising campaigns (or for any other purpose they care to dream up) without the image owner’s permission and without any credit or compensation whatsoever to said image owner! Not exactly warm and fuzzy news for artists who post their work on Facebook!
“Well, no biggie”, I thought, “I’ll just start using Google Plus instead, because from everything I’ve heard they respect an artist’s rights”. But just to be absolutely sure I thought I better have a peek at their (new!) Terms of Agreement. Good thing I did, because here is G+’s position on the same issue:
11. Content license from you
11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.
My love affair with FB has come to an end...waahhh
So, it seems that no matter which of the two giant social media platforms an artist chooses to go with, FB or G+, we are taking a risk that our work could potentially not only be LEGALLY used in ways we do not approve of, but also in ways we likely would not be credited nor compensated for! If you weren’t feeling warm and fuzzy before,I’ll bet you’re feeling a tad chilly by now! At least I certainly am!
Which is why I have been thinking long and hard about moving away from posting my work directly on my Facebook “Artist Fan Page” and in future, will instead post it directly here on my blog with a link from my FB page that leads here.
This is a hard decision to make for a few important reasons:
Facebook is just plain convenient! I am already on there using it for personal communications (which I admit, I am seriously considering stopping mainly because I am generally very critical of how FB works, and becoming more so every day).
I am very comfortable using the Facebook format to post my art work and/or related artistic thoughts, mainly because the format promotes short blurbs and running conversations (comments) rather than the longer editorial type articles encouraged by a blogging format.
I have built up a much valued group of followers on FB whose support and encouragement I really treasure and whom I fear will lose interest in my work if they have to go to the extra trouble of clicking a link to my blog in order to see my work.
Nevertheless, I have decided to bite the bullet and start blogging a lot more and FB’ing a lot less. Yes, I will still use my FB Artist page, but will use it mainly to link here and definitely won’t be posting any more of my work there. Here’s hoping that this will prove to be a good thing for me as an artist. I guess time will tell
Once again it’s that time of year when it just seems to be ingrained in our very nature to want to resolve to better ourselves in some way over the coming year. In keeping with that natural inclination, I’ve spent some time these past few weeks mulling over my own hopes, dreams, goals and intentions as an artist for the coming year and, with only the smallest hint of paranoia that I may have chosen incorrectly, I’ve settled on the following ten Artistic Resolutions for myself for 2012:
I resolve to draw daily, even if all I have time for is a five minute doodle. I have set this as the first and most important resolution for myself for three years in a row now. There are still definitely many days that I don’t do any drawing at all, but I find that having this as a resolution helps me to keep my art always in mind and also helps me to see it as a much more earnest venture than I have in the past. Making this a “formal resolution” has really helped me to raise the status of my art from mere pastime to serious passion, and for me this is a good thing.
I resolve to finish every serious drawing that I start. Even though I have been drawing off and on for some 40 odd years, I have very, very few completed works to show for all that time. I really don’t know why, but regardless of the reasons, I developed the terrible habit of abandoning most of my drawings at incomplete stages. And so, for the third year running now, I will make this resolution once again, as I feel that resolving to finish all drawings has had a major impact on my level of “production” these past two years, and has resulted in a slowly growing body of work that I am able to take great pleasure and some small pride in.
I resolve to sketch frequently and regularly. When I say that have drawn most of my life, what I really mean is that I have sketched. Until about 10 years ago, I took very few of my drawings beyond the sketch stage. However, once I decided to start drawing in pursuit of greater realism, I stopped sketching as frequently as I had, and I find this has been a great loss for me. For me, sketching is fun, playful, creative and most importantly, imperfect, whereas I define drawing for myself as realistic and it is therefore much more detailed, precise, controlled and “perfect”. It’s difficult to be playful when you must be perfect! And so I find myself missing sketching and all the imperfections I allow myself when I sketch, and feel a need to recapture some of that more frequently than I currently do.
I resolve to grow and expand creatively by playing in a visual journal. As I mentioned above, when I draw, my pencil strokes are usually so tightly controlled, so precise and so dang “perfect” that most of the time there is a real lack of playfulness to the whole process for me. Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the process, for I absolutely do, tremendously so! I find the slow, tightly controlled pace to be very calming and extremely meditative and it really appeals to my perfectionist nature. But sometimes I just wanna play and, well, allow myself to lose control and make a total “imperfectly creative mess”. Hopefully keeping a visual journal will provide such an outlet for me.
I resolve to produce a cohesive body of work that consists of at least 12 new drawings that are confined to a figurative/fantasy theme. I’m also feeling drawn toward still life lately and so, I resolve to explore that as well, with the intention of producing a second body of work that consists of at least 12 still life drawings. I’ve had a bit of trouble finding my “niche” these past couple of years as far as theme goes and so have been doing a bit of this, that and the other thing, with the result that my drawings cover a rather wide variety of themes and subject matter. I’m glad I took that time to explore, but I feel now that I have a much stronger connection to the themes and subjects I want to explore in greater depth and am more comfortable developing my art in those directions now.
I resolve to enter ten juried art exhibitions and/or festivals/fairs. There are at least that many large/important events locally that I know of that I hope to be accepted into. It will take a lot of time and work to get the drawings ready on time, and will also take quite some bit of money (for matting and framing and other equipment and supplies I’ll need, such as a tent, lighting, etc,), not to mention the ton of energy it will take to be ready for all of them (assuming of course, that I am accepted to them all). I know I can make the time I need and am sure I can dig up the money from somewhere, and I definitely have the heart and will to do the work, but I am very concerned that I simply won’t have the energy and strength for it all, especially as I am presently battling another bad flare-up of my RA. Nevertheless, I’m going to do my best to do as many shows this year as I can.
I resolve to treat myself to an Artist Date twice monthly. I think ADs are the ultimate kindness to yourself and everyone (artist or not) deserves to have regular ADs! My difficulty lies in the fact that I rarely have access to a car through the week, so getting places can be awkward, which means I will just have to be more creative about finding ways to indulge my senses if I can’t get out of the house to do so.
I resolve to make writing Morning Pages a habit. I’ve debated and debated about adding this to my list of resolutions. I’ve kept MPs off and on over the years, though rarely for longer than about 4 months at a stretch. I both loved and hated them LOL Of all my resolutions, this would be the one I think I may be least likely to keep. Yet, I know from experience that if I force myself to do them, I will feel so much more in tune with my creative side, so I am going to try and give them another go.
I resolve to learn to paint. I just love the look of watercolour paintings and have been wanting to learn to paint well with watercolor for ages. I’m also interested in learning to paint with acrylics. Painting is much less physically stressful on the hands and so I would love to have some painting know-how to fall back on if my hands give out on me again.
I resolve to participate in the 2012 Nanowrimo – even if it means I can’t draw for a whole month! I love to draw, but I also enjoy writing fiction (fantasy, of course LOL). Nanowrimo is an international writing event that challenges writers to write a novella/part of a novel (50,000 words) in 30 days during the month of November. I entered the challenge in 2009 and managed to do around 25k words before the deadline. I convinced myself that I was too busy to participate in 2010 and 2011, and I regret not having made the time to participate in those years. It’s a fun, and extremely challenging event that I really want to try again, so much so that I am willing to give up all my drawing days for the month of November this year if that’s what it takes (there ARE only so many hours in the day after all hehe).
How about you? Have you made any Artistic Resolutions for 2012?
Wishing everyone a beautiful Christmas and a year filled with good health, true happiness, plentiful abundance, creative growth, fulfilled intentions, successful endeavours, passionate connections, deep and loving relationships, and enough courage and strength to see you through whatever challenges and lessons Spirit sees fit to throw your way
I am an Artist.
I am a wife.
I am a mother.
I am a grandmother.
I am a self-seeker.
I have RA but am not defined by it and
I believe that anything worth doing,
is worth doing with passion!
1. Draw daily. 2. Finish all drawings. 3. Sketch more. 4. Keep a Visual Journal. 5. Produce two bodies of work. 6. Enter 10 exhibits/festivals. 7. Artist's Dates twice monthly. 8. Daily Morning Pages. 9. Learn to paint. 10. Do Nanowrimo.
My sincere congratulations go out to all who made it in to the exhibit 
), I finally regretfully retired from the “doggy game”, though I never lost my passion for dogs.
….after I have myself a good, long, hard cry that is! LOL)
I am an Artist.
