Monthly Archives: November 2012

You are important too!

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As a super Mom there comes a time when you must take time for yourself and what makes you happy. If your happy and content with yourself it will make it easier to deal with all the stresses and responsibilities in your life. It isn’t easy to take a step back from everyone’s needs and wants to count yourself important. When your children are smaller it is understandable the children need you more. Don’t be afraid to pass on responsibilities to growing children; chores are good and teach responsibility.  I learned and am still learning or going through the process of readjusting the way I live my life and counting myself important.  You can not give away something you don’t have; for example love. If you don’t love yourself you can not give love or offer healthy love to somebody else. You can’t give respect if you don’t respect yourself. I also know God won’t give you the next step, more responsiblity or promotion in your life if you can’t even put the grocery cart back; not leaving the cart in the parking lot to hit another car.

It is important to take time for yourself and enjoy your life.  It doesn’t make you a bad parent, just a healthy happy one.  If drawing or art is important to you, then start with an hour or two a week for yourself to draw. I know time is hard to come by in certain stages of raising kids so use the time wisely to prepare for the future; take pictures of things you would like to draw or paint in the future and keep a file. Remember you were somebody before the kids came and you still will be somebody when they grow up and leave to live their own lives. As hard as that fact is it is true. So, count yourself deserving and valuable now!

God gives each and every one of us a gift for life, now it is our job to bless Him with that gift and bless others with that gift as well.  Don’t think you are “Just” a anything…….be a light and shine in your environment. A friendly hello to someone, a caring smile or action towards someone can mean the world to someone else. You may not even realize how much you really mean to somebody and a difference you are making.

Acrylic painting

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When you are working with acrylic paint remember to add a Slow-dry blending medium to keep the paint from drying too quickly. There is not a lot of time between blending and shading objects. Before you have a chance to re-work a section the paint will dry. In comparison acrylic paint has a faster drying time compared to craft paint.

Another important fact is metallic colors are either transparent or semi-transparent. For example; if you are painting metal, chrome and want a shine paint the object first in gray and gray tones and then once dry coat the object with the metallic silver. metallic do not usually mix well with opaque colors.

[Opaque is solid color or can’t see through. Transparent is being able to see through the color; almost feels watered down].

The following pictures are Rose’s motorcycle painting in process. I will add more pictures as we work on it.

So far the painting looks good. Most details were added and can be finished in a few days. I will show Rose how to finish up.009

It is much easier to work on the driveway before completing the rest of the bike for the simple reason it will be easier to paint in the bike’s edges with a background already in. Adding colors such as the reflection orange in the headlights can be added in a dry brush technique; not a lot of wet paint on the brush and very controlled.

Artistic Desire comes from within.

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Creating any type of artwork you must have a desire to be…….any one thing; an artist painter, an artist drawer,  crafters, a photographer and so on. The desire really can’t be given to you from a teacher to say, a teacher or an artist can inspire and motivate  you.  The artistic desire must come from within yourself first. There are no magic graphite pencils nor brushes to avoid hard work to achieve a successful gratifying piece of artwork.  Always go to class prepared and ready to work and learn valuable tools to improve your skills. Practice drawing exercises, learn the value scales, practice drawing and rendering spheres then other shapes. Keep a positive attitude and do not give up, eventually your efforts will start to pay off in great results.

I can teach you on the basis you have artwork to work from. How much effort you apply to learning is how much more I can teach you new skills. Do not work from or have the practice of looking at other artist artwork/pictures to copy. You may be inspired by another artist, just take from their work an idea and recreate the idea to make it your own. Take your own pictures and work from those. It’s good work ethic and good respect standards amongst fellow artist.

Life goes so quickly and nobody is promised tomorrow. Enjoy your life the best you can in any given moment. Every moment or group of moments are a season and shall pass.

Time never stays the same for anyone.

Enjoy your life and produce art from emotion. I suggest doing something that you enjoy and like spending time doing and start there. There are seasons of life that change continually and we can not do one blessed thing to change that. So instead of going against the tide……. try to swim with the waves [events and everyday life]. Believe me I understand about stress in life; from major health issues and not knowing I would make it through the illness. I raised three kids that all live at home yet! I understand. The point is if there is no desire to create or time is a huge issue then decide if art is what you want to do. If so, use the time you have to either store-up reference photos or sketches for future use. The time will come before you know it. When we are going through situations the time passes what seems to be slow and the situations just seem to take forever to pass. Then when we look back and reflect on the seasons or passed situations we ask ourself where did the time go? The time just simply went so fast and we over reacted when we should have embraced all the moments good or bad.

I am trying to understand and questioning life I suppose in my art, especially my photography. I have been challenging myself in a series of self portraits which have been forcing me not only to push past ordinary portraiture, but compositions with the lighting telling my story. Trying to find what my life means to me now and pictures to portray my life to this point in time. It has not been an easy journey to arrive here, what I am seeing in my photography. I guess I would say soul searching for meaning and direction.

When there seems to be no direction in your artwork photograph yourself in film. You need a hard copy to look at in a group, not a click on the computer. You can hold art and the impact will be greater vs. digital work where there is no hard copy or proof of creation. Hit the wrong button and your artwork is gone. In film you have negatives as proof of hard-working creativity. Shoot at least three rolls of yourself; keep two rolls for onetime usage in one or two environments and then another roll for shooting at random. The first two rolls will force you to look at yourself past the normal composition and force you to see what you want to portray. It may take ten rolls before you start to see what you are looking for, but a few will speak to you. There you will see new direction in your artwork.

I hope to enter a few shows once I have this series somewhat mastered. I’d post but there are too many people copy and pasting my artwork. I don’t have the time to inject my name in bold letters across the pictures. I’d really would like to post so then you could see what I am stating…..Before we get to the promise land we all must go through first. As artist we use all moments to produce our work.

Watercolor study.

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This watercolor study by Joan is fruit and learning watercolor 101. In watercolor there are layers of color in a building process to produce realism. Depending how many layers you add and how controlled the layers are depend on how far you want the painting to be realistic. Here are several steps to reach this point of realism 101. I will add more pictures as this painting develops. Once the background is painted in the colors of the fruit take on a different appearance in hues; look at previous pictures and notice how the fruit colors change in appearance. Adding shadows will ground the work so the fruit don’t look floating in space. The box is a deep purple which plays nicely with the fruits.

Watercolor will usually stay and follow a wet surface, if you wet a section of paper the watercolor should stay in the wet areas as a rule.  Painting on damp paper will give you a bleed mark or the new color will blend into the other. It is important to play around with paint to see how the control works for you. If you stop in mid stroke the color will build in that area and will not be a solid line or stroke. If you want a solid section then keep pulling a one stroke move.

In this final watercolor 101 Joan did a nice job painting. In watercolor 101 there are about four layers of color to build an object. Next watercolor is on the way being drawn and I will post updates.

So far the table grain was made by painting the a warm sepia brown over a damp surface painted in the same color. First paint the common color with a wide brush. If you look in the upper left section in the above picture you can see how Joan was painting from the box, apple and pear  stopping when painting in the sepia on the first layer. If you stop and don’t pull the color all the way through you get a line/band or heaviness of paint. If you don’t want a band of color make sure to pull the strokes all the way to the edge or off the edge of paper.

Now notice the brush in the bottom picture the brush is older and has stiff bristles. Making the paint a bit thicker or same stronger richer hue drag the stiff brush across the surface to make the grain lines . Follow the pattern the first main layer that has been put down.

The grain lines are not in the picture below.  Fuzzing the shadows of the grapes working wet on damp paper will help the shadow blend the edges. The shadows from the objects should ground or start to ground the objects.

************Look at the next two pictures and notice how the color of the grapes change in the following picture compared to the picture after this one. Just adding a background color changes the entire appearance. Think about how and what color will change the environment.

COMPARE THE NEXT TWO PICTURES AND HOW THE BACKGROUND CHANGES THE APPEARANCE  OF COLORS. HOW THE BACKGROUND COLOR WILL AFFECT THE HUES OF COLORS OF THE OTHER OBJECTS. NOTICE HOW THE GRAPES CHANGE IN APPEARANCE AND THE PEAR IS BRIGHTER JUST FROM THE BACKGROUND BEING ADDED. THERE WASN’T ANY COLORS ADDED TO THE FRUIT AND NOTICE HOW THE BROWN WOOD SURFACE EFFECTED THE COMPOSITION. THINK ABOUT AND PLAN A PAINTING AND THE COLORS YOU ARE USING. THE BRUSH IN THE FOLLOWING PICTURE IS #6 DRAG OR LINER. I LOVE THIS BRUSH AND HOW MUCH WATER/COLOR IT CAN HOLD AND THE DISTANCE YOU CAN GET USING IT. IF I HAD TO PICK ONE BRUSH TO PAINT AN ENTIRE PAINTING THIS WOULD BE THE BRUSH!

When starting grapes remember to look at the shapes and placement of each grape. How they are attached to the vine. Actually get grapes and examine how they really look. Paint them as spheres in values as you drawn in graphite. Remember to keep highlights in place to relationship to the light source. This watercolor will end up being wc 101, the next study will be 102 level with much more detail and realism. Each added layer of watercolor usually demands more controlled strokes, even dry brush techniques.

Entitlement.

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I must say thank you for the sincere comments, but the others are simply spam.  I don’t care if you discovered my website while suffering zoo; which isn’t a search anyway. Time is valuable and I don’t have the time to read through lame comments that do not refer to my website. You’ve been blocked anyway. I should have found that button sooner.

Getting back to important art related subjects. In the last post I stated how our own artwork is an extension of ourself and as artist we need to express emotion, create the other part of us that is needed to come out on paper. What makes us an artist and how good we are at it is how much time we spend learning to improve our skills in which ever mediums. There is no magic brush or graphite pencil that will record what we envisioned to represent us. You must do the time and practice value scales, spheres, shapes and pay close attention to light and shadows. The only way you will improve your skills which will improve your artwork is to work at them. Think of the exercises in comparison to learning to play the piano, you must practice and practice some more. If you want it bad enough than you will do what it takes to improve your skills.

Assignment #1: Life drawing is key for a strong foundation in drawing and painting. You can’t paint well until you know how to draw. sketch family members, friends and co-workers in simple clothed three-five minute poses. One newsprint tablet a month!

Being an artist is a gift and we must be thankful and not take our God-given talent for granted. Use our talent to bless others in which they can connect and relate to what we are conveying through paint. Artwork will give you a chance to work through life and it’s issues if your approach is raw and honest.

Assignment #2:  I suggested before of photographing yourself at least 48 times or two rolls of film [film is better, a raw pure actual product in your hand] no touched-up pictures neither. If you want an honest approach for answers on what your pictures are saying to you then they need to be pure and raw…..no easy out method of pictures. I want you to have an actual piece of work in your hand. Learn to see the art elements through the lens of the camera. The way you capture yourself on film will speak to you. You will understand what they are conveying and how they are connected to emotion. They might even say more than you are willing to look at in your life. It will certainly give you a direction to follow in your artwork.

Like I also stated before creating a self-portrait is the hardest art assignment I could give you. It truly forces you to look at yourself on paper, before you know it the emotion and creativity will flow. It may just open up the avenue or new direction you need. It is not necessary to share with anyone unless you want. Start with an artist friend or teacher first, someone who understands art and knows you.

I have started on my fourth roll today already, spent many hours in the darkroom figuring out what was these pictures saying to me. Not surprised they speak volume and gave me clarity. The understanding will come when you lie them out in front of you on a table, there you will see the connection. Because of what I was seeing in the mirror was only a reflection and I thought I looked good with my life and emotions in control.  What I saw on paper was my true soul speaking to me and it looked like another person, someone I couldn’t hide from any longer. If we are to create pure, honest heart-felt artwork then we need to be true in who we are if we will affect other people with our work. I would post my recent work but I have trouble with people feeling they can help themselves to it! I need to put my name across it first, then I may post some of the photography.

Your artwork is your best friend.

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Your artwork can be your best indication reader of your emotions. Have you ever looked at your work and relate it too your life at one particular emotion? Your artwork will reflect what your life is about or what you need to deal with in your life. I find when I am going through something life changing my artwork is a carbon copy of my emotional state. It has been very interesting to me what my work in photography has spoken to me these past two months or so. It is all inter-woven, our life and what our artwork says about us.

In another post I wrote about how important it is to work on a self-portrait. It doesn’t mean you need to share with anyone else, it can be just for your eyes only. The work will speak volume to you on so many levels. Sometimes when artwork seems to be steal or you are not sure where to go in an artwork direction ……working on a self-portrait will give you a direction and even clarify useful information to build upon.  One important factor is you need to take at least 48 pictures or two rolls of film of yourself. The first ten shots will be normal everyday poses; but I want you to push beyond the normal pose. Keep photographing yourself in a similar environment.  Go beyond the norm and think outside the box. Look for natural lighting in the room or a light source outside to use to help or portray what you want to say about the portrait. Set a tripod up with camera inside and just put it in place where you’d like to take the photographs or background you think you’d like. You don’t need to take all the pictures at one time. Nor do you need makeup on and look all perfect. You want to learn to see soul through exposure and pureness of truth. Let  the camera take pictures of you that are “real” and simple in character.

I like complex reflections or shadows in my work. I love black and white film photography and that is what I usually work in. I enjoy full value range, but then sometimes a pose will require more contrast. Let the pictures speak to you, look at your expressions and compare how you are feeling when they were taken. Learn to read how you perceive yourself and how certain poses echo emotion. This is not an easy process, but you will learn to see yourself and how your emotions reflect and represent  in your artwork.  I will add a few of the photos I have been working on in the next day or so.