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Above: a commission for a girl in Oklahoma City.
It was a “very” fairly productive week. I got a lot done in the end but it seems like it was all done TODAY. I’m not sure what I did with myself earlier the week.
Sometimes I can spend a whole day painting and actually be FURTHER BEHIND than I was when I started. I know it’s the same for writers… I guess you have to just keep working through it, relying on experience that things WILL get done (eventually), and the backwards days are just part of the this type of career… it’s not necessarily bad, it can just play tricks with your head sometimes. You know??!
I am SOOOO excited to be teaching at Carol Parks’ studio in Los Angeles in just two months! We just finalized the details of the three-day workshop and they are posted on Carol’s website here.
It’s a 3-day drawing, painting and “wrapping” workshop with animals as our main subject matter. Here’s the intro paragraph:
Animals enrich our lives on so many levels… the facial expression of an irritated house-cat or the sheer bulk of a hippo inspire and nurture our souls. For me, creating my own menagerie of animals has a similar soul-healing effect….
Please, please join us!!!
I want to do 100 of these in one day as a “piece.” Maybe Wednesday.
This drawing assignment relates to this one, where I had you draw giraffes “blind,” without looking at your paper. Here’s today’s assignment:
- Find references of a chosen subject (in books, internet photos, live models) and do 4-8 blind contour drawings, layered on top of each other. Don’t worry, it will look like a big mess, believe me! (I used an ultra fine point Sharpie and white cover stock paper.)
- Now, while looking at your paper make the drawing into “something.” In the example above, I had drawn my cat while she was cleaning herself. Then I “saw” a man’s face in the lines, and so finished that drawing. It’s now a man holding a fox.
Here’s Step 1 from a second piece, using elephants as my original reference:
And here’s the finish (Step 2):
Since I had been drawing elephant trunks, heads and feet, it seemed natural to make an elephant. You can see that I made the start of an elephant face into the ear, and I added to the existing trunk, then towards the end felt I needed to add the shape even again, but bigger (the part I colored yellow).
Even though I was doing this drawing with this assignment in mind, I tried to reserve judgment and just have FUN! You should try to do the same (reserve judgment, have fun).
If you try this, I would love to see them!!
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What are “Assignments”? They are mini tutorials of drawing exercises I do myself. I hope you will try some of them… Drawing is a Blast!!! Here are some past “Assignments”:
This photo was taken in Arizona and is of me (on the left, for those of you who are new or don’t yet know my face, and no, I’m not really very old at all, only 45 — though I realize it’s old for some of you — it’s just all that gray that makes you think so, but I refuse to start the “dying merry-go-round” because I know I would suck at keeping it up!) and Jeanne, a friend I’ve traveled to Artfest with many times (we met there in 2003). We were both so surprised to see each other at Art Unraveled… it’s such a small circle!
Truly, these mixed media art events (such as Artfest, Art & Soul, The Art Nest and Art Unraveled) have changed my life. I’ve met so many wonderful women. They “get” me. I “get” them. I’m very blessed!!
Wes starts school tomorrow and we are about to watch a movie at 4:00 in the afternoon! A back-to-school treat for all of us.
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“Without an unflinching sense of self, the work will ring hollow and will remain unconvincing.”
— Peter London, from “No More Secondhand Art: Awakening the Artist Within.”
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Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about things like the above excerpt… As I begin to teach more often I’m finding that the concept of self-acceptance is a common theme that I keep coming back to with students: We are all unique, precious and DIFFERENT… accepting ourselves and understanding ourselves is so key to producing authentic work…
Writers often give the advice to “write like you talk.” I think it ties in well with the above in that how we talk is something we AUTOMATICALLY do, we don’t usually over think how we talk, and so it can be one fairly authentic window into who we are as individuals. And I realized with a jolt recently that my artwork is “how I talk” … Betsy (who I was speaking with at the time) laughed and agreed…
In conversations I tend to laugh a lot, make fun of myself, tease a bit, flit from one thought to another without transition (think roller coaster), delight in silliness, be outraged at things that waste my time (like TV-news, which I got a big dose of last week…oh my), suddenly feel the deeper emotion and/or spiritual concerns, etc.
These conversational characteristics come out in the form of fabric elephants and ponies, weirdish painted animals and sea monsters, sad faces, sweet girls, icon art like the one above, and the occasional snarky piece that I don’t usually share with you-all (but plan to more often, I promise!).
So… do YOU make art like you talk? If so or if not, tell!
. . . Waaahhh!!!!”
(Journal entry from 2004…)
Last week I went to the wonderful Phoenix Public Library and spent a few hours pouring over stacks of books, drawing and taking notes with my Sharpie and cover stock paper. It was the best afternoon I have spent in awhile… so peaceful and inspiring!
So here’s the assignment: Go to your local library and spend about 5 minutes tops grabbing books that catch your eye. For me, they tend to be any type of art book… that day I had books on Egyption painting, Indian Contemporary art, art by Jerry Garcia, and an American Indian history book.
Then, draw! (Click to enlarge my samples.)
I didn’t necessarily have an “on” day with my drawing, but I tried not to stress about it. They were just practice drawings, after all, nothing to get upset over! Here are a few more:
I also took lots of notes…
After a few hours I started to get hungry and needed to stop. You might find that you are “done” after 20 minutes. Or five hours. Everyone is different, so you need to listen to your own heart about how long you do this.
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What are “Assignments”? They are mini tutorials of drawing exercises I do myself. I hope you will try some of them… drawing is a blast!!! Here are some past “Assignments”:
Assignment #31: Modified Blind Contours
Assignment #16: Blind Contour Giraffes
On Sunday I drove home to Colorado from Phoenix. These photos are taken just outside of Santa Fe, NM.
I promise I didn’t take my eyes off of the road as I snapped these…
… however, I did miss a turn and ended up going an hour and a half out of my way. Since it was already a 13-hour drive you can imagine how unhappy I was to have to backtrack!
Other news:
- Hurray, the Artfest 2009 Workshop schedule is up!
- Wes starts 8th grade next week… OMG!
- I’ve realized that I LOVE teaching… thank you to all who took my classes!
- I can’t wait to get back into studio mode… this will come after getting Wes back to school and a huge studio clean and garage sale. I need to CLEAR OUT in order to move forward! Do you?
- I’m glad to be back with my boys. And Natalie.
- Steve wondered aloud yesterday if cats are angry at us for trying to copy their fur by wearing clothing.
- This is the wonderful world I inhabit.
- New drawing assignment tomorrow!
Taken from my car on my way to Phoenix on Monday…
These cuties were done by Amanda, who was in the Voice Lessons class on Tuesday… she says she doesn’t draw, but LOOK AT HOW CUTE THESE ARE!!! I’m notoriously bad at taking photos during classes, so I only snapped a few more pics…
A charcoal drawing by Shelly (I think, I hope it’s Shelly… please correct me if I’m wrong!)
Some wrong-handed portraits of each other…
And finally, an elephantie I made yesterday for the sale tomorrow… I’m going right now to the hotel to set up for the event and also hang out in the restaurant with friends… see ya later!
