Posted in Goals on August 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s the end of August already!
Looking back – I met most of the art goals I set for July and August combined:
Study
Composition study
Artist study – Alex Colville
Continue investigating seeing colours and values accurately.
Artwork
At least one painting, incorporating my research on composition -
Those ducks… post the finished work no later than August 26
Linda Blondheim’s brushstroke exercise - in progress. (I’ve [...]
Posted in Drawing, Motivation on August 31, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Posts I’ve learned from this week:
Katherine Tyrrell had a thought-provoking post about achieving success, Gold medal art – lessons from the Olympics for Artists.
Colour charts have turned up a couple of times this week. I think I need to dig out the charts I started a while back and get going on them again!
Charley Parker’s post (on lines and [...]
Posted in Drawing, Motivation on August 30, 2008 | 14 Comments »
Here are my entries for the August Virtual Sketch Date. Thanks to Rose Welty, both for the original idea of the VSD and for taking on the big job of administering it, and to Sherrie for the wonderful photo!
I challenged myself to sketch this reference photo in as many different ways as possible in whatever [...]
Posted in Classes, Colour, Oil painting on August 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Scary, isn’t she? Even more so in person, because at 16 x 20″ she’s larger than life!
I was digging through some old files, and came across this exercise from the first oil painting class I took. We sketched the face from a magazine ad, then our instructor added the “cracked mirror” lines to [...]
Posted in Composition, Ducks, Glazing, Oil painting on August 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The normal gestational period for ducks is apparently about 28 – 30 days. Which means that these ducks are way overdue, since my plan for this composition project began back on July 14! But here it is:
The photo isn’t perfect – it’s a bit too dark, but it’s close. I spent most of my time on this painting [...]
Posted in Drawing on August 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The incredible complexity of Celtic knotwork has always fascinated me. So this summer I set myself a “just for fun” goal to learn a bit about how to draw it. There are a number of websites that give instructions on drawing knots, but the method that worked best for me was Christian Mercat’s Celtic Knotwork: the ultimate [...]
Posted in Light & Shadow, Oil painting, Sunday Study Notes on August 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s been such a busy week that I haven’t had much time for reading blogs, but here are a couple of posts I’ve learned from this week:
Dianne Mize had another notan article on Empty Easel this week, Using Notan as a Painting Strategy: A Step-by-step Painting Tutorial. Her steps sound so simple but create a very [...]
Posted in Drawing, Motivation on August 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This month I’m going to participate in the Virtual Sketch Date, a great idea which was started by Rose Welty. I wasn’t going to. The next couple of weeks are incredibly busy, as we are getting all three kids organized and off to university – one for the first time, one starting grad school (which involves [...]
Posted in Drawing, Learning from Failure on August 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t really enjoy drawing in ink, because you can’t erase it! Which is why it’s so good for me. I tend to draw quite tentatively, erasing and correcting until I get the line I need. Pen forces me to look more closely and try to get it right the first time.
What worked: I’m happy [...]
Posted in Drawing on August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Buddha sits meditating in a quiet corner of our yard. Since we don’t have a Bodhi tree, he sits under a purple sandcherry bush. On his right, just above the fishpond, the Green Man keeps an eye on things. On Buddha’s left, tucked into a hidden little corner between the bush and a small hedge, [...]
