Not from Belgium

This is not a picture from Belgium. Just to clarify. It is a picture of a study I did in what my husband and I fondly call "the art cabin." Maybe sometime I'll post a picture of the beautifully wood-paneled walls that make "the art cabin" feel quite literally like a shack in the woods.

Anyway. This is my sister who kindly sat for me for two hours. Currently I'm practicing my oil painting skillz and working on a body of work to submit to galleries. During this particular session I was focusing on getting the "big squint" down, or in other words, getting the correct values while creating pathways for the lights and darks. It's not perfect, but I'm happy enough with it to post on the inter-webs.

And then I went to Belgium

Prepare yourself for a tragic story.

I spent the month of June in Belgium. (No, this is not the tragedy.)

I spent my days drawing and painting. I took lots of pictures of my drawings and paintings. I visited incredible museums. I took pictures of the incredible artwork there. I ate incredible food. I took pictures of the incredible food. Get the picture? (excuse the pun)

Then I came home. I procrastinated organizing my pictures and inviting my dearest friends to a slide-show event. A month or two past, and still those photos were left untouched. Unseen. And then, my computer was stolen as well as both, yes BOTH, of the hard drives which contained the backups on these lovely pictures.

And yes. Belgium was all but forgotten in the midst of the police reports, insurance adjustors, calls from  the detective and never-ending gathering of information. (Wait, that's all still happening...) UNTIL I acquired a new computer from a new company that I'm working for and now, finally, I have the courage and means to post what few pictures that remain from my month-long Belgian adventure. (Fortunately I'm paranoid -- for good reason, apparently -- about completely deleting my SLR's memory card, which means I have a handful of pictures left.)

So for the next several days I will be posting a few images here and there. (To be honest, I haven't even uploaded all of the pictures to this computer yet...) Today's post is a bit meager, but important none-the-less.

This is the still-life I spent the month painting. It is the unfinished version, but I wanted to post a picture of the painting actually in Belgium simply on principle (those damn thieves may steal my life/computer/hard-drives but they won't steal my spirit). I had just finished glazing the apple and was really loving the brilliant color it achieved. I still love it, and will post the finished version later. For now, glory in one of the only pictures that remains of my stay in Flanders. More to come.

Why yes I am a color enthusiast

Earlier I mentioned going to a 3-day intensive color theory workshop with Bill Perkins and it was AWESOME. Bill talked about color and value and edges and all sorts of other nerdy goodness.  The workshop was based on situations with live models, NOT color chips (oh man those things are boring). We painted for 8 hours each day and by the end of the 3 days, we had over 20 paintings to show for it -- needless to say my feet were super sore by the end of Saturday (being the practical person I am, I most definitely wore cute flats each day isn't of shoes that had more, um, foot support; can you blame me?). 

So here is a smattering of what I did. Each image was meant as "color sketch" instead of a "painting," so there wasn't much stress placed on the drawing. As I painted I tried to match blocks of color/value, as well as paying attention to my edges. 

Just a note, those scratch marks on the paintings aren't intentional. I thought they were dry and stacked them....and well, they weren't completely dry. Sad day, but still happy color sketches.

Brandon, this one is for you

Here are a few oldish/recentish/this semesterish head paintings. The first two are of my friend Brandon, who ever so kindly took the time to pose a couple of hours for me, and who has been waiting patiently to see these, and who doesn't actually have a lazy eye...I just painted it that way...I don't know what happened.

The third painting was done in-class. Usually I see my colors too hot, so this time I decided to help my colors come out cooler by thinking of really cold thoughts while painting--like Antartica, streaking during a blizzard and pistachio ice cream...mmmmm, pistachio ice cream. Apparently I should think colder thoughts more often, because it worked.

All You Need is Love, and Art

Today was one of those days that made me love being an artist. I was painting a piece for my senior show when I suddenly got this crazy-excited feeling inside about art; about experimenting, and developing, and peddling my art skills to publishers, and new inks, and the smell of watercolors, and the blinding hue of cadmium orange, and the feeling of my quill pen on illustration board, and the sound of my palette knife against my board, and the way paint covers my hands and cements itself underneath my fingernails (which is why I painted my nails today...), and the progress I see in my work, and the possibilities I see for it to progress even more. Basically, I absolutely love being an artist.

Here are a few recent pieces. Most are from my head painting class (wait, they all are...). I'd put up some work for my BFA show, but I want that to be a surprise come December.

My friend Brandon, who entertained me for 2 hours while I drew him.

Usually I don't draw people smiling, so I gave it a try.

In-class drawing

You know a true friend when they model for you at least 5 times; Amy has surpassed that number by at least 50. What a pal. One day I'll make it up to her in Sour Patch Kids.

Yet Another Awkward Stage of Life...

Well here I am a senior, and halfway through fall semester already. It's a rather surreal feeling. In less than a year and a half I will be graduating. The student life I have known since kindergarten will abruptly end, throwing me into the cold, heartless world with only my skills and wee portfolio as weapons. Sounds like an incredible adventure if you ask me.

In my very first class my professor told us that we would each be adapting the class assignments to fit our individual market direction. Not a bad idea eh? The only problem is that I want to do everything from books to set design to editorial to gallery work. Each market has a different feel to it, meaning that your style should as well. The trick is adapting to these markets without losing your personal identity. This leads to another problem: I haven't settled into my style niche yet. Not having found my "artistic niche" kind of makes me feel like I'm going through another awkward stage, only this time I'm 21, I have straight teeth and I can talk to boys without feeling nauseated.

That being said, here is a sampling of work from the semester thus far:

Big Bad Wolf as Grandma for my "portfolio development" class

Four hour head study



Landscape from my plein aire painting class

Two hour head study

Four hour head study

Two hour head study.

Two hour head study