Sketches

ducking it
I'm working on the actual ducks of the duck painting & they are unexpectedly giving me lots of trouble. I've painted mallards before, so I'm not sure what the problem is, but the colors are just not working. I quail when I think of doing the hen's complicated back feathers, seeing how difficult the simpler drake plumage has been. Part of the ducklings' bold brown & yellow fuzz has mushed together & that's not good. Is it the pressure that the focal point MUST be good that's causing me to mess up? I don't do well under pressure. Can you tell?
The deer mouse in the background is partly done & I'm still debating the addition of a turtle. When I go to the library within the next week, I'll get some books to find the correct butterflies & dragonfly, as I'm really deficient in knowledge about insects. Hopefully, I can find some blue and yellow butterflies to add some sparks of bright color and whimsy.

Current Mood: determined

silhouettes
A few months ago, & had the idea of drawing my own silhouettes & then making them into notecards. My original idea was to enlarge a crow drawing I had done & then other subjects emerged, such as a squirrel, dove etc. Then complicated pictures, such as a lion head with wavy lines for his mane or a 2 stencil composition of pine tree & rabbit. The images have been coming thick & fast.
There is tons of info out there on how best to make stencils, what paints & papers to use, all sorts of helpful hints. I was planning on cutting my designs with scissors & an x-acto knife out of Bristol board. But there are tutorials on using mylar sheets or even x-ray film & gadgets called "hot pens" with thin, heated styluses that professionals use. I think I'll keep it low tech until I see how I like the process. It would be nice if this would pan out, as I think people see too many printed & painted notecards, that something different might catch their eye. Card sales of all kinds are down with the popularity of the internet, so one needs something unique to appeal to customers.
And now I'm seeing silhouettes everywhere! The latest was on the cover of a poetry book called "Meeting the Jet Man", a volume of pieces inspired by David Knowles RAF service in Iraq. It's the outline of him in his flight suit, holding his helmet, done in dark grey on a lighter, scumbled grey background. Very spare, bold & evocative.
While I can sketch out some of my ideas, my plan will have to wait a few months, as I'll continue to concentrate on the duck painting. The bank on top half is done, as is the water itself, so I'm working on the items in the water, the tree root hanging over the left edge, and the pickerelweed plants. I've never painted the latter, so was a bit nervous about them, but s far they are working Ok and they really lighten up the foreground. Their purple flowers will contrast nicely with all the green & the yellow irises. Plus, their arrow shaped leaves are kinda fun to do.

Current Mood: rejuvenated

Cinco de Mayo
Had the flu last week (though I don't think it was the swine flu), so I couldn't take my paintings to Avon Library for their biennial Community Exhibit. But the lady in charge said I could still bring them in this week, so yesterday I coughed my way out to Avon with my 3 paintings to drop them off. I was really disappointed when I thought I'd have to miss being in it, so I was pleased with the extension.The show is on till May 31st, so there's plenty of time left.
There's also been progress with the duck painting. I laid the base coat on the water & finally started the willow branches. I could not seem to be able to arrange the branches, for some reason I felt intimidated or confused, which is unusual. The back branches need done first, but I could only see where I wanted the front ones. Finally, over the weekend, I just sketched in where the front ones went, in attempt to remove the mental block and it worked! I immediately laid in the rear branches & began painting them. The leaves are being detailed now & within a day or two, i can start the front branches. Last week I also did a couple dead tree roots on the left, where I'll put the frog. So the background is taking it's final shape with these items.

Current Mood: groggy

Nature Fest 09
The 2 day Nature Fest is over for this year. The weather was hot, the first nice weekend of the year & probably what kept fewer folks from visiting, but there was still thousands of people there. My badly made signs lured more to the auditorium, where most of the arts tables were & there was lots of dogs, most notably, daschunds, for some reasons.
My sister helped me set up & take down, though she'd forgotten the routine for setting up and didn't refer to the charts, so I ended up redoing much of it, plus she kept rearranging the pictures. It actually took longer than when I do it myself. Saturday I was out of it, upset because of my guinea pig Rufus dying, but Sunday I had managed to lock away my grief for the day & was somewhat more normal.
There was more serious shoppers on Sunday, as it was last year, but for most crafters, it wasn't a very profitable weekend. I made my table fee, plus a $2 profit. My magnets were really popular and what I sold the most of, along with some greeting cards. Some people didn't sell anything at all, which made me feel bad for them. There was at least 2 people who did really well, including the guy next to me, a retired used car salesman from his actions. His wares, while nice, were overpriced & he used a high pressure sales technique that was overdone. An older man, he acted as if none of the women knew as much about crafts shows as he did & his false friendliness was annoying. But he still made a couple hundred dollars at the show. Grrr!
Some of the other people were much nicer & I hope I see them at future shows. Though the economy will make it rough for crafts shows for a couple years, the atmosphere at Nature Fest & the experience and interactions still make it worthwhile.

Current Mood: tired

copy cat
A few months ago I got an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier, but when I tried to hook it up in late March, the scanner wouldn't work. The printer did, but at that point I really needed the scanner & nothing I tried would fix it, so I uninstalled it. I got a couple helpful processes to try, but haven't had time or courage to attempt. But now that I need price tags & name labels, it would be helpful if I could get the printer part to operate, even if the rest didn't. So this evening, I boldly plugged it in & the driver installation auto started, much to my surprise. In a few minutes, the entire list of newly activated parts said "Ready to Go". And it did! The printer works! Yay!
I got the idea awhile ago of printing out some of my paintings in a small format & putting them inside those round magnets from craft stores & selling them for about $3. With the economy in this state, framed stuff hasn't been selling, but small matted works & note cards are. The magnets will cost even less & can appeal to anyone with a refrigerator.
So I printed out several pages of the pictures that people have liked best & will be turning them into magnets. The printer produces very nice pages, crisp & bright, which I'm happy about. But what had even more of an effect is the sight of pages with 9 of my pictures in a row in small format. I felt like Andy Warhol doing soup cans! It was a novel feeling, but fun.

Current Mood: excited

busy bee
The Nature Fest is next weekend, a 2 day event that focuses on nature awakening in springtime, with an art show, wildflower walks, bird hikes, a salamander hunt & live animal programs. It's a lot of fun, whether presenting one of the activities or as a visitor. I was in the show last year & am doing it again.
But with both myself & Rufus(my guinea pig) being sick, I'm way behind in preparations. While I haven't done any new mini paintings, I do need to frame the 2 larger ones, print out new labels, gather supplies & load the car. I'm still coughing some & am constantly tired, so I'm pushing myself. I got the mats & frames this week & have been getting things together and piling them in a corner of the living room. Preventing seizures in Rufus has really stressed me out & is dividing my concentration and I'm already worried about how he will fare when I'm at the show. Hopefully he will be improved by then.

Current Mood: worried

transfer
Transferred the duck prelims to the canvas, after putting them on tracing paper & playing around with the arrangement of them. I'm going to have one of the ducklings looking up at a dragonfly on a flowering pickerel weed. They have tiny star shaped purple flowers, so that will add more color. I'm thinking of having a branch or tree root on the left side, near the bank, with a frog perched on it. At first I was planning lily pads, but that seems too cliched & I'm afraid of cluttering up the water. As it is, I'll have bunches of pickerel weed here & there in the stream.
I'm also debating a turtle on the right side, either on the bank or coming out of the water, which would be different. Once I get all the plants figured out, I can go back to actually painting the picture, but right now, I've got to get the composition right before going further.

Current Mood: okay

nautilus notice
Finished the chambered nautilus painting on Thursday & added it to the EBSQ Deep Sea Creatures show yesterday, barely sneaking under the deadline. Many of the other works are mermaids, so I added a bit of realism to the show. Some of the mermaids are well done, but the theme is supposed to be more scientific, which they obviously aren't. I left the background plain on my picture, the fibers of the purple mulberry paper adds texture & it's intended to resemble ocean depths. I'm not sure if it's too blah. At that depth, there isn't coral or sponges, just rocky cliffs in some areas, too dark to really add anything to the composition. So I hope the nautilus doesn't look pasted on. People have reacted favorably to seeing it, so maybe it's better than I think?
I've returned to the duck painting. I've been sketching the prelims for the actual ducks, which has gone better than expected. The female will be turned toward the ducklings & the drake will be almost dipping his bill in the water. I need to get them drawn onto the canvas so I can arrange the water plants & willow branches around them, before continuing the painting. Hopefully I can get the sketches done this week & then progress will resume.

Current Mood: mellow

logo win!
The winners of the logo contest was announced last night and mine won 2nd place! Yay! My squirrel pushing a shopping cart will appear towards the bottom of every page next to "Add to Cart". It's embedded in a green band & looks very nice. I'm so excited!!! Plus, I get a $50 shopping spree at the Squirrel Store ( www.squirrelstore.com ). It's all rather thrilling.
The winner of the contest did a really nice one with Photoshop of a squirrel holding a bag within a circle. It looks very professional & definitely deserved to win.
I am completely happy with the results! Yay!

Current Mood: ecstatic

logo launch
Finished the logos yesterday. Did 3 because there didn't seem to be many other entries, plus the owner said she didn't want cartoons, but my best idea was a bit cartoony(squirrel pushing a shopping cart).
I got a new all-in-one printer & scanner a couple months ago & spent last evening trying to get it hooked up, then retried everything today. The printer works great, but nothing happens when I try to scan. Finally I hit upon the idea of taking pics of my drawings with the digicam. That worked better than expected, you can actually see all the details. Yay! Bless my camera!
All designs are sent to one of the other members of the group, who forwards them without names to the owner of the squirrel store. She will decide which she likes best. I'm not sure when the winner will be announced. I forgot there was a prize, I was just enjoying exploring the idea.

Current Mood: pleased

flag waving
The yellow flag irises are almost done. After some initial trepidation, I started them & had fun with the petals. iris are my favorite flowers, though I prefer the purple ones, but being so familiar to me feel less mathematical than many flowers. The yellow petals are lightening up the whole picture, which felt dark with all the greens. I've planned where I'll place some little animals & butterflies on the shore & will begin sketching the ducks themselves soon.
I'll be putting the duck painting aside for a couple days to complete the logos I'm designing for the logo contest that the squirrel store is having.The deadline is next Saturday, the 21st. The sketches are almost ready to go.
There's also the nautalist painting that I'm considering for the Deep Sea Creatures show on EBSQ. Don't know if it's too much to take on, but we'll see.

Current Mood: productive

wiggles in the willow
Cattails are done & I'm working on the willow tree trunk. I like painting tree trunks for some reason, all the squiggles of multi-colors. This one is looking a bit van Gogh-y with the writhing bark. Perfect for that storybook flavor i was aiming for, but not sure how botanically accurate it is. lol Next, will be the yellow flag flowers, which I'm looking forward to. I'm trying to figure out when to do the willow leaves & branches, as some of them will be dipping in the water. Will i need to do some of the water before the branches? Hmmm...
I've always wanted to take step-by-step photos of a painting as I worked on it, but always forgot until I was partly done. This time I remembered & am surprised at how un-dramatic it is. I paint so slowly that it's a long time before there's a new section ready to photograph. Or maybe it's just because it looks more impressive when there's a bunch of pictures & I have too few? Eventually, I'll put them on Photobucket so that others can see them, especially the customer. I need at least several more photos so that it makes sense.
Not sure if that will please or disappoint the customer, any customer. There's the "Ta-Da!" effect when the painting is completely done, but seeing it in progress will give them a clue how it will look, so there won't be a conflict with the image in their head & the reality. But will it take some of the magic away? Let's face it, a painting in the messy disorganized stages is not pretty, so it might alarm people. Or it could be educational to see how a work comes together. I guess I'll see what happens.

Current Mood: working

new project
At the beginning of this month I started one of the overdue commissions, the duck family. I had been trying to get the background color right & eventually went with a dark viridian green, so that all the plants would stand out against it. There's a stream bank with cattails, yellow flag irises, a willow tree & possibly some other stuff. the duck family will be swimming along the shore & there will be water plants, butterflies, a dragonfly & maybe a frog around them. I'm trying to create a storybook feeling or at least one of a cozy spring day.
The cattail leaves had to be redone, the first color combo wasn't right, but now it's going better. I hope I don't have to redo everything or it will take twice as long. lol

Current Mood: bouncy

productive month
Not only did I get the catbird drawing done & entered into the State Flowers show at EBSQ, but I also finished another picture as well. The armadillo in pen & ink, which I started last year, actually the prelim was done in Dec. '07. Doing the tiny circles of the armadillo armor grew tedious and I could only take it so long at a time, so I kept laying it aside & getting it out again, which made progress very slow. But when I got it out for another bout, there wasn't much left to do, so it's finally, finally done. YAY!!!
I'm pleased with the way it came out & the expression on the little critter's face. There's cactus behind him & strong shadows on the ground, all done with a variety of lines on yellowish calligraphy paper.
The year is off to a great start!

Current Mood: happy

Juiced in January
One of the monthly shows at EBSQ is state flowers & I decided to do one specially for it. I entered 2 older pics which had sagebrush in, which is Nevada's flower, but I've had an idea of a catbird in apple blossoms for a year or two & thought this would be a good time to do it, as apple blossoms are Michigan's & Alabama's flowers. last Monday, I started it, the prelim went fast, so I had it transferred to Bristol board in a day or so. It's mixed media, the leaves & pink on the flowers are in acrylic wash, then outlined in ink, along with the bird. Grey catbirds are a soft grey with black cap, so it & the shading on the blossoms will be done in graphite pencil.
The picture is 2/3 done now and will probably be finished within the next week or so, in plenty of time to enter the show by end of January. It's great start to the year & encourages my optimism.

Current Mood: energetic

new year, new beginning
Time for a fresh page in the sketchbook, as a new year begins. I'm full of plans and feel energized by them. I have 5 shows already on the calendar for 2009 and potentially another if they have the event, which they are still debating. I would like a small exhibit here in the winter months and another in the early fall, as there seems to be too much time between certain shows. But though I've put feelers out, nothing is definite yet. With the economy producing slow sales, it almost seems an empty exercise, but a few small sales is better than nothing. And at least my work is out there.
And now for this year's arty resolutions.
The main one is to finish the 2 commissions which are long overdue. One is a spotted turtle for one of my regular customers and the other is a duck family for a friend in California. The turtle is sketched out & the ducks has the background blocked in on the large canvas. These both need to be completed at some point during the year.
My second resolution is also a continuation of last year's, in that I need to do more autumn paintings. I have several ideas/prelims that will allow me to expand on this, so I'm not worried.
Third is a less clear plan to present my work in a slightly different medium. Either using a new method like monoprints or stencils for notecards or to print out small versions of my paintings and turn them into magnets. Something different, but not drastically so.
There we have it, my artistic goals, modest as they are, for 2009.

Current Mood: cheerful

year in review
I'm shying away from looking at this past year, because I accomplished so little, being sick much of the year. I only got a few paintings done, mostly 5x7's for the low cost matted works at craft shows. There's a few pictures partly done, but finished works are few.
Two out of 3 of my 2008 resolutions were met, however. I did do an autumn painting and there was definitely more new venues. I had more exhibits than in the past couple years, which was a positive experience. Disappointing sales at the shows, but at least people got to see my work. I had better sales online, selling 4 paintings this summer, one of which was a large coral reef. They went to various homes in the Southern U.S. I was happy about the unexpected demand.
The one resolution I didn't meet was completing commissions. Those fell completely by the wayside as I struggled to do anything at all after months of various ailments. I did sketch out the ideas for the turtle commission, it's now quite clear in my head. This resolution will be carried over into next year, where I'll focus more on it.
So low scores on production, but higher on showing and sales. Not a great year, but there's plenty of room for improvement.

Current Mood: thoughtful

craft show round-up
My display from last Saturday's "Christmas in the Barn" in a nearby suburb(Avon) was an 8 foot table & I used every inch, even scattering pine cones around to make it more woodsy. I had the same spot as last year, but my table was arranged better this time.
There was 56 crafters in the show, more than ever, but the crowd was not as big as last year, nor were sales as good, though most of us got our table fee back. A couple people did really well; the lady to one side of me selling sewn towels & sweatshirts and the one across from me selling doll clothes. I think they were for the American Girl dolls, since they were much larger than Barbies. Her stuff was priced at $10-$20 per outfit & she must've sold a couple hundred dollars worth. I keep reading that people are only buying the essentials, but doll costumes certainly don't fall into that category.
The last hour of the show was dead, because a big snowstorm was moving in & driving home in it was a challenge. There was no traction at all. My sister had arrived to help take down and pack my car & was supposed to come back with me to carry stuff up to my apartment, but she began sliding on the road & so went straight home.
Though I barely made more than my table cost, the people who run the show are nice & it's a festive atmosphere, so it wasn't a wasted day at all.

Current Mood: relieved

owl finished
The owl painting is finally done. I've been working on it off & on since Feb. I'm not entirely pleased with it, but the autumn colors makes a different note in my usual array of blues and greens. If I was doing it over, I'd change the leaves, both their placement and execution. The maple leaves were obliterated by the oak leaves, when they were supposed to alternate in the background. All that work on the maples for nothing. One leaf even resembled a bat, which I was tickled about, but was subsequently covered up.I planned badly. At the end, i discovered a better way of shading the oak leaves, which I wish I'd found earlier. I tried to do it on the earlier leaves, but it didn't have as strong of an effect as doing it from the first. The owl came out pretty well, especially the face, the eyes are very direct, which I think will appeal to people. I'm putting it in a gold metal frame to keep the autumn hues going.
Now I need to add it to my EBSQ page, but it's always hard to figure out how to rearrange the pictures to slip a new one in. I'd like it on the first page, so something must be moved to the next one. But which?

Current Mood: pleased

apprehensions
Been visiting crafts shows every weekend for the past few weeks, usually hit 2 per weekend and have a batch left to visit for the remaining month. Not only do I like to see what people have made, but I'm also looking for another one of two to be in myself. I would like to have one in Oct. or early November, as well as the Barn which is in December.
By not seeing well enough to drive after dark, I'm restricted by locations and hours. If it's some distance, the show must end by 3 pm, so I can get everything down & be home by 5 pm when it gets dark. Closer shows I could do till 4 pm. I can't seem to get these qualities to match. There are 2 shows 5 minutes from me that have told me paintings don't sell at their shows, yet when I go to them, there's a couple tables selling just that. If I could talk them into letting me try the shows to make my own decision on whether it's good business, I would feel that things were being handled fairly. As it is, I'm getting paranoid.
Aside from that, I've yet to visit a show where the vendors don't tell me sales are slow this year. Some crafters have said they got their table fee back, but not gained much profit and others have taken a loss. Whe the weather is cold & rainy, everyone blames that, but when it's sunny, people blame the economy. Whatever it is, craft shows are not as profitable as they have been in years past. It has me worried about what it's going to be like on Dec. 6th, when I'm in Christmas in the Barn. Last year it was my best show. But I'm lowering my expectations this year & just hoping to get back my entry fee, which is quite modest. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised, but just in case , that's my main goal.

Current Mood: anxious

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