Pencil Shavings

Your Vote Please

I've narrowed down my contest entry for the Daniel Smith Customer Art Contest to three works...

Now I'm asking you which of the three you like the best.

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The first is "Harvest", the second is "So Comes Sorrow" and the third is "Like Stained Glass"

You can leave your vote in the comments section, or go to my Facebook Fan Page and vote there.

Thanks!

Mid Day Slump

I have, at my right hand, a cup of coffee, sweetened with honey.  I have, at my left hand, a bag of M & M's peanuts.

I have the dishwasher running, the washer and dryer spinning.

I have a sleeping cat on my art table.

I have seven windows open on my computer.

I have used up every excuse I have not to get creative today, aside from writing a blog that doesn't really need to be written.

I have lost two wisps of ideas in the last two days.  Little fleeting thoughts of ideas that I felt would be great paintings, or at least drawings, and by the time I managed to finish making the kids lunches, or putting away the dishes, the idea was gone.  I couldn't even trace the ghost image of the idea, there was nothing there except the memory of my thought "Oh that's good, I need to remember that."

Experience tells me that those "great ideas" will never return.  They have gone off in search of a better, more receptive, better scheduled artist than I.  They will flit into that artists thought patterns and be turned into the painting they were meant to be.

So I'm sitting here, at my computer, paging through my reference image files, eating M & M's  and hoping for something that will make me think.... "ah-ha... That's good, I need to do that." and actually get started on it!

365 Days of Art - Day 166 - Not all Fun and Games

But it's not all boring either.  Day 166 after I did some sketching I did some experimenting that I wanted to show you.

I got out my Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks and did some paint squares to see how certain colours look next to each other.

Sometimes it's not only the colours we mix, but the colours that they hang out with that set the tone of a painting.  I have a lot of new colours in the Watercolor Sticks that I have not used in my regular palette, so I wanted to see how they behaved when they were together.  I also found out some interesting things about how they mix when they are laid side by side.  Some colours are quite pushy and shove themselves into the space  previously occupied by another colour (like Pthalo Green on my test that pushed it's way into the Aureolin and the Cerulean blue.)

My sketchbooks are full of geeky exercises like this.  And the result is that I am rarely surprised when I am making a full scale painting because I have a pretty good idea already about what will happen.

365 Days of Art - Day 165 - Pretty in Pink

Oh what a nice piece this turned out to be.  I did the background a few days before then decided on my subject just before I got out the paints.

I did the whole thing with Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks in the Quinacridone reds and violet then went back over with Lunar Black.

I'm so pleased with it, the texture is light, the lines have a nice graphical quality to them and the whole thing just made me feel happy.  Day 165 was a success for me.

Social Media and The Artist

I was just featured in a class about using social media taught by Cathy Downey. Who knew that being a nerd/artist would gain me such academic presence?

Yes I do use Social Media to help market myself as an artist.  I have sold paintings through Twitter, through Facebook (a fan page... go figure!), as well as the other online marketing venues like eBay, Etsy and Artfire.  I have my website(that I am well aware needs some dusting off) and I use Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with fellow artists, collectors, friends and potential buyers.

Here is my one and really only tip for using social media to connect with your prospective customer.

Be Sincere.

People know when you just want money out of them, treat your followers and your facebook friends like real, live people.  Treat them like friends.

Don't spam them with buy, buy, buy, buy (even if that's what you want them to do) but let them into a little piece of your life.  This is especially important to artists.  People love to know a little about the piece, what inspired it, how it moved you, why you were compelled to create it.  Share that with them, share a little piece of yourself with them.  Once they know you, they will be more likely to collect your work, because they are invested in you, your story and eventually your success.

Another tip that I have for the Twitter novice, let people find you organically.  Don't waste time with those auto-follow web-bots.  The people who you really want to follow you are people who will find you through their friends or because they are interested in you.  I don't automatically follow everyone who follows me.  I don't block people who I don't follow, but I also only follow people who interest me because their tweets are more than just the weather or what's for dinner. 

Finally.  Have something interesting to say.  You don't always have to be the soul of wit, but try to keep the conversation going between you and your followers.

So... there you go... my social media tips in a nut shell.  I have lots of opinions on this, so if you want more just ask, but I won't bore you unless you really want to know.

Now... for an even more riveting quesiton - can someone explain to me why my blog post about drawing my cat has had a half zillion hits over the last 24 hours?  I can't explain it...

365 Days of Art - Day 164 - Play Time

Day 164 was another late night up playing in my sketchbook.

I made another abstract background in watercolour with plastic wrap .  then when it dried I picked some odd rock shapes out of the background and worked to define them a little, leaving them unfinished on purpose. 

then I came back in with a purple/umber mix and added shadows.

I am thinking now about other things that I could do with this to add more stuff, maybe a nice frog, or lizard, or dragonfly?

This was fun because I had no preconceived ideas about what I wanted to create so what ever came up was a surprise, and since it is in my sketchbook the it could turn out however it would and there was no pressure to make something that would sell or even be good.

365 Days of Art - Day 163 - At the Library

I have a sketchbook, now, with me everywhere.  Mostly it's in my purse with a pen, brush pen, and some pencils.

Sometimes, especially if I know I'll be someplace I can settle in AND spread out, I take my watercolour sketch book and my Daniel Smith Watercolor Sticks and a waterbrush so I can sketch in colour.

On day 163 I found myself in the library.  Our local library has a big four sided fireplace surrounded by overstuffed chairs and couches that is in a spot with great light and a good view of a lot of the areas around the stacks.

It is a great place to settle in and do some sketching without people taking much notice.  I can fill pages and pages of my book with quick gesture work before finally having to rouse myself and leave my comfy spot and get back to the business of the day.

365 Days of Art - Day 162 - Late Into the Night

Well... I got another new toy.

I picked up a set of French Curves (about which my husband has been making ceaseless tasteless jokes about ever since) and sat down to play with them on the night of Day 162.  

Just tracing the curves and making a design then wetting some areas with a small brush to bleed the ink took me late into the night.  It was so much fun just playing with no goal in mind other than to see where I would end up.

Like taking a walk with no destination in mind.

It's a shame that the scanner didn't pick up all the gray washes from the ink bleeding, it turned out really nice.

This is clearly not the kind of work that I usually do, it much more like doodling than drawing and it was like taking a little vacation.

365 Days of Art - Day 161 - At The Pool

On Day 161 the kids had swimming lessons.  I can do a lot of sketching while I'm in the observation area of the pool, but it is crowded and sometimes I get more notice for my drawings than I would like,

I had my Pentel brush pen with me this day and I did some ink sketches.  Ink is a lot trickier than pencil, you need to be bolder (something that I'm still working on) and I'm learning how to make marks with the pen as you can see with the variety that I show on this page.

I'm still shy about people coming up to see what I'm doing while I'm drawing or painting in public.  I'm afraid they will recognize themselves (or not!) and be upset with what I am doing.  I'm not sure why I have that fear, I have never had it happen, but the worry is there never the less.  It is not as strong as it was a year ago, so I guess I'm working through it, I just wish I didn't feel so furtive (and I guess guilty) when I'm out in the public.

365 Days of Art - Day 160 - Hello Sunshine

Another abstract background created with watercolour and plastic wrap.  I love this technique for forcing me to think about working from the back to the front, and also to push me out of my comfort zone.

This one I did with Derwent Inktense water-soluble pencils over the watercolour background.  It's not the best sunflower I have ever created.  I did it mostly out of my head (sunflowers being scarce in Alberta this time of year) but I should have dug up some of my reference photos for a more accurate depiction.

On the other hand I like it's more relaxed quality.  This isn't an attempt at photo-realism and I'm glad about that. After all this is my hour of art, not my whole day (I have to eat some time!)