Day #8 • Book Release Blog Celebration • Artist Feature, Book Giveaway, and Radio Interview Today

Tags

animal paintings, Artistically Speaking, Artistically Speaking Talk Show site, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals, elephant painting, fox painting, Malathip Kriheli, painting animals, penguin painting

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Radio Interview Today! If you have time today (Sunday, Sept. 30), go on over to the Artistically Speaking Talk Show site and listen to my interview (live) with Rebecca E. Parsons. It airs at 6:30pm Eastern Time (3:30pm Pacific Time).

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Today I’d like to introduce you to the work of NYC-based Malathip Kriheli. I found her wonderful series of animals at her etsy store and was delighted that she agreed to allow me to reproduce one of her images in “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals.”

(Images reprinted with permission from Malathip’s website).

“Slip and Slide on the Slope,” © 2011 Malathip
Malathip writes: “I like to create things. I am an interior architect from Bangkok, Thailand who moved to New York City in 2004 to expand my growing appetite for creativity. And trust me, I have a BIG appetite.” 

“Sharing Good News,” © Malathip
“I am also the principal and creative lead for EcoPatterns, a company I founded in 2008 with the goal to raise awareness and conservation efforts globally for endangered animals through art.”

I just love her sophisticated design, composition, and use of color! Do check out more of her work at her etsy shop!

Book Giveaway
Malathip doesn’t currently have a blog, but I’m giving a copy of “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals” away here on her behalf. Just leave a comment and I’ll pick a random winner on Wednesday, October 3, 2012. Update: Today’s winner was Shena M.

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This post is part of a Two-Week Book Release Celebration for my new book, “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim.” For the schedule, which includes book and art giveaways, contributing artists features, tutorials, and assignments, click here

Day #7 • Book Release blog Celebration • Shading Tutorial

Tags

Animals in Tape, drawing animals, drawing tutorial, flying tape bird, paiinting animals, shading tutorial

SHADING IMAGINARY ANIMALS

How do you SHADE an animal that you’ve created from your imagination? There are two things I think about when shading imaginary creatures.

First, I imagine a light source, such as a sun, shining down on the object from either the right or the left. So in my example above, I have decided that the light source is in the upper right hand corner. So everything “close” to the light will be brighter and everything “far away” from the light would be shaded. (Shading done using a mechanical pencil.)

The second thing I think about is the areas where things (such as ears, eyes, paws) are overlapping, joined, or protruding. So, for example, I’ve added shading underneath the neck, between the legs, and at at the bottom of the bear (where it’s paws and body meets the ground). I also added shading under the eyes.

Sometimes, if I want to double-check my shading, I’ll find an image in my stash of pet books or online that is similar to the drawing I’ve made. (This is an optional step.) Here is a polar bear image that works well, and by looking at the photograph I realized that no matter what, the area around the bear’s mouth would probably be dark due to staining, so I darkened that area. The photograph also showed that the left half of the body was in a bit more shadow than I thought, so I added a little more shading there. The photograph also reminded me to add shading on the ground.

Finally, don’t stress too much if you go overboard with your shading and put it in “wrong” places. With Imaginary Animals, you can quickly adjust your thinking so that your ill-shaded areas are dark patches of fur, instead!

Art Giveaway!
Today I’m giving away this 7″ x 7″ flying tape bird, inspired by the “Animals in Tape: Instant Collage” chapter from “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals.”

Leave a comment below for a chance to win this little original. I’ll pick the winner randomly on Tuesday, October 2nd.

And the winner is “Linda,” who wrote: “Hi Carla, congratulations on your new book. I appreciate the shadow/light source tutorial, too. Thank you.”

Thanks, everyone, for all the kind comments!

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This post is part of a Two-Week Book Release Celebration for my new book, “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim.” For the schedule, which includes book and art giveaways, contributing artists features, tutorials, and assignments, click here.

Day #6 • Book Release Blog Celebration • Artist Karen O’Brien, and Book Giveaway

Tags

Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals, drawing animals, imaginary animals, Karen O'Brien, Oaxacan Dotted Elephant, painting animals

Today I’d like to introduce you to Oregon-based Karen O’Brien, a very talented artist and a very nice person to boot! UPDATE: Karen’s winner was Gill W.

(Photos used by permission from Karen’s website and blog.)

A retired nurse, Karen is very prolific and paints richly layered mixed-media paintings, mostly with unique figures, “often with oddly distorted features and eyes that mirror their soulful, quirky nature.”

When I took a class from Karen last fall, I was able to take a peek inside some of her sketchbooks. There was one in particular that I just loved; she had limited her supplies to just black ink, red conte crayon, and pencil (I think!).

Karen has three pieces in “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals,” including this wonderful drawing of her dog, “Max,” somewhat inspired (I’m pretty sure) by the Oaxacan Dotted Elephant Tutorial:

Thank you, Karen, for agreeing to be in Imaginary Animals!

Book Giveaway!
Today Karen is hosting a book giveaway over at her blog, so head on over and leave a comment (at HER blog) for a chance to win a signed copy!

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This post is part of a Two-Week Book Release Celebration for my new book, “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim.” For the schedule, which includes book and art giveaways, contributing artists features, tutorials, and assignments, click here.

Day #5 • Book Release Blog Celebration • Drawing Assignment and Giveaway

Tags

Animals, art, BLIND CONTOUR DRAWING, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Creatures, drawing animals, elephants, imaginary animals, mixed media, Mixed-Media Workshop, painting animals, stylized animals

Hello! I have one more elephant for you!

One of my Facebook friends, Debbie Denton, posted this cute elephant to my fb page the other day and I thought it would make a GREAT drawing prompt for today’s assignment!

Even though the book is about drawing imaginary and stylized animals, there is a whole section on drawing from life or photo references. Why? Because I know that, for me, the more I look at, study, and draw “real” animals, the more authentic my stylized critters are.

One non-threatening way to draw from life is to do a BLIND CONTOUR DRAWING. This is a classic exercise (found in most drawing books) that is meant to start training your hands and eyes to work together. Also, since you are not allowed to look at your paper at all, you can just throw out from the beginning any stress about the outcome. (In fact, if it doesn’t look weird when you’re done, you probably peeked by accident!)

Here’s how to do it:

BLIND CONTOUR ELEPHANT DRAWING

1. Get a ballpoint pen or other permanent marker and a piece of letter-sized paper.  Scroll the blog post down so the photograph of the elephant is in sight.

2. Now, put pen to paper, take a breath, and pick a point (any point) of the elephant’s outside edge (I started mine at the top of the ear on the left). Then, very slowly, start moving your pen and your eyes at the same speed along the edge of the elephant. Keep your eyes fixed to your reference 100% of the time. Don’t forget to breathe!

3. Draw every curve and bump, and continue drawing both the contour edges and interior lines that define the main elephant parts — legs, ears, trunk, etc. — until you have drawn the entire elephant (again, without peeking!).

3. It will be so tempting to look at your paper when you finish drawing a leg, for example, but make it a game for yourself to NOT look. Just make your best guess as to where to begin again, put pen to paper, and continue.

4. When done, look at your “elephant.” Is it weird and wonky? Perfect! Here’s mine:

So what do you do with drawings like this? Well, nothing! Just set them aside, knowing that the NEXT time you try to draw an elephant from your imagination, you will have a much clearer idea of how an elephant’s foot curves, for example. Try it!

Art Giveaway!
I’m giving away these two little “Blobimals on Clouds,” below. It’s about 4″ x 5″ and created using steps from Chapter 3. Just leave a comment below for a chance to win (BONUS: If you do the above assignment, go ahead and comment twice!) I’ll pick the winner randomly on Sunday, September 30th.

And the winner was commenter #7, Carla Dixon!

Have fun drawing today! And, if you like, you can upload your elephants to the Drawing and Painting Imaginary Creatures flickr group!

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This post is part of a Two-Week Book Release Celebration for my new book, “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim.” For the schedule, which includes book and art giveaways, contributing artists features, tutorials, and assignments, click here.

Day #4 • Book Release Blog Celebration • Artist Feature and Book Giveaway!

Tags

bunny sketch, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals, drawing animals, drawing bunnies, drawing rabbits, Karine Swenson, Karine's Blog, painting animals, painting bunnies, painting rabbits, rabbit painting, rabbit sketch, sketching animals

Today I’d like to introduce you to my friend Karine Swenson. I met Karine about 8 years ago when I lived in Salida, Colorado, and was fortunate to show my artwork in her gallery for several years before she closed up shop and moved to Joshua Tree, CA.

(All images are shown here with permission from Karine’s Blog.)

Karine is a wonderful painter and person, and she’s great at everything — figurative work, abstraction, animals…. Since moving to the desert, she has started a series of wild animals — and in particular, rabbits — that I just LOVE.

Regarding her animal work, she wrote recently:

Why are we so infatuated with animals? I suppose we see ourselves in them, in a way. We project onto them our own emotions. Sometimes, their struggles become our own. I often ask myself why I like painting animals so much. The answer is fleeting, at best. I know that I am much more interested in painting wild animals than I am in painting domestic animals or pets. I think it’s because our encounters with wild animals are so much more fleeting. I want to capture that moment and preserve it. Remember it. How special it seemed. As though, just for one moment, God was looking right at me and saying, “here is a gift.” Whatever it is that keeps me painting the creatures of the desert, I know I am not done yet.

And just look at these quick sketches she made recently with ink and a feather!

One of Karine’s jackrabbit paintings is featured in “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals” (not one of the above, I want to preserve the surprise!), and I’m so glad she agreed to be in the book.

Book Giveaway!
Today Karine has a book to give away over at Karine’s blog, so head on over and leave a comment (at HER blog) for a chance to win! Update: Karine’s winner was Claudia K.

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This post is part of a Two-Week Book Release Celebration for my new book, “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim.” For the schedule, which includes book and art giveaways, contributing artists features, tutorials, and assignments, click here.

Day #3 • Book Release Blog Celebration • Book Giveaway!

Tags

Animals, book, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals, drawing book, drawing elephants, elephants, painting book, The Sketchbook Challenge

If you head on over to The Sketchbook Challenge Blog today, you’ll see the Oaxacan Dotted Elephant tutorial that makes up Chapter 4 of Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals.

And HERE you can leave a comment to WIN both a copy of the book and a mini elephant original drawing:

Just leave a comment telling me why you would like to win the book. I will pick two winners on Sunday, September 30th: one “randomly,” and one based on your comment (I’ll pick the one that “speaks” to me the most).

I look forward to reading your comments!

P.S. There’s another book giveaway and book review over at Quinn Creative today. Click HERE for another chance to win. Thanks, Quinn, for the very nice review!

P.S.S. Thank you so much for all the blog love! I had meant to have you say “why” you would like the book so I could better understand where YOU are coming from… and not to ask for compliments. (But THANK YOU so much for all the nice comments!)

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AND THE WINNERS ARE…

— Random winner of book and artwork: #44, Valerie Brown. She wrote

I would like to win this book because I have taken tentative steps in my sketchbook with drawing imaginary animals. I think your book would help me get over my need to have them look realistic and my subsequent disappointment when they don’t look that way! Plus, what’s not to love about imaginary animals!! 

— “Comment” winner of a book: Trudi Inglis. She wrote:

As much as I would love this book to be all for me, I think my 10-year old daughter is the perfect recipient for the book! She has always been artistic, and this past year she has really been exploring her creative ideas. In fact, this past summer she won the Jim Pittman Award in Lunenburg Nova Scotia … a contest open to kids grade 4 – 12, and she won first over all! Meanwhile she has friends and teachers trying to tell how to make art … How things “should look”. There is nobody but me and my artist sister encouraging her to let herself go. She loves looking at your work, and I really think having your book would help her learn that real people agree … Not just her totally uncool mum … That making art doesn’t mean following set rules!

AND… this was amazing…

— Former Silly student “Savannah Silly-Dawn O’Brien” asked if she could GIFT some of you copies of the book (I know, so generous!). She chose four recipients: Abigail, Jeannievh, Serena Mira Asta, and Birthe Lindhardt! I’ll be emailing the winners separately (and Savannah’s contact info is: savvangogh@earthlink.net). THANK YOU, Savannah!

And thank you to everyone who commented… I was really touched by ALL of the comments… thank you.

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This post is part of a Two-Week Book Release Celebration for my new book, “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim.” For the schedule, which includes book and art giveaways, contributing artists features, tutorials, and assignments, click here.

Day #2 • Book Release Blog Celebration • Red Bull Tutorial

Tags

Animals, bull, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals, drawing animals, painting animals, red bull, tutorial

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Hello! Today’s tutorial is sort of a Take It Further option of Chapter 5: Imaginary Animals: Abstract Watercolor Starts. (Regular readers will recognize this piece!)

I will be showing you how I made the above drawing/painting (kind of interchangeable in my mind). However, this only outlines how I happened to finish this particular piece, and it could have gone many different ways and still have been successful (or not). If you choose to try the steps outlined below, remember that the result will — and should — turn out differently… your own unique hand will enter the process, a very good thing!

(Click to enlarge images.)

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SUPPLIES NEEDED
One piece of hot press 140# watercolor paper, about 7″x10″
watecolors, brushes (I like a #12 round)
white gesso
mechanical pencil
spray fixative

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STEP 1

(This first step is really two steps combined, as i hadn’t originally planned to make this a tutorial and didn’t scan the very first step.)

Step 1a. Using red watercolor and a #12 round brush, mix up a very watery amount and make a mark. I started with the tail in this case. Once I had a shape I liked, I picked up the paper and added more watercolor to the base of the tail, and then tipped my paper so that the pigment would slide across the page. I had a dog in mind, and just kept repeating the mark/dripping process until I had a recognizable animal (head, body, four legs). Also, load your brush with pigment and then “splatter” it onto the page randomly by hitting the brush against your hand.

While the paint was still wet, I went in to some of the areas and pulled out little lines (fur!) from some of the areas with a sharp stylus (though you can also use a mechanical pencil or even a shish kabab skewer). Here’s a detail:

Step 1b. Once your red watercolor is dry, mix up another color of your choice and color in your animal, leaving the areas where you want the eyes, white.

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STEP 2

Step 2. Here I added some blue watercolor on the body, and some pencil iines as fur once that dried. In addition, I decided to “take a risk” and turn the head a bit, as I was feeling the original was a little boring. (At this point the “dog” became a bull.) I also decided to pencil in the eyes, and changed their shape a bit at this step as well. Let dry.

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STEP 3

Step 3. After changing the head direction, I felt it would be too difficult to hide the original lines without the help of the big guns — gesso. Using a small, round, dry brush I added the fur on the body. Then, I wet the brush a little when i applied it on the face. I also added a white layer to the eyes with a very small brush. Let dry completely.

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STEP 4

Step 4. All the shading and details were then pulled out using a regular, cheap mechanical pencil (2B). When applying your pencil lines for fur especially, keep your hand very loose and apply more pressure at the beginning of the stroke than at the end of the stroke. Work fairly quickly so you don’t over-think it — fur is usually scraggly!

Here’s a detail:

Spray with fixative. Done!

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This post is part of a Two-Week Book Release Celebration for my new book, “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals: A Mixed-Media Workshop with Carla Sonheim.” For the schedule, which includes book and art giveaways, contributing artists features, tutorials, and assignments, click here.

Day #1 • Book Release Blog Celebration • Two-Week Schedule

Tags

Animals, book, Carla Sonheim, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals, drawing animals, drawing book, painting animals

Here it is, my new book!

This book features 9 “messing around” exercises and 10 “mixed-media” projects (which, together, touch on almost all of my painting and drawing tricks and techniques that I’ve used the past 20 years — whether drawing animals, people, flowers, or playing around with abstraction — so even if you’re not an animal nut like me, I hope you will find something helpful in “Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals” [Quarry Books]!)

Why did I create this book? Drawing animals has been kind of an obsession the past three or four years, and I was anxious to share the fun!

Also, about ten years ago I ran across an article highlighting animals in contemporary artwork. There were some wonderful things going on, and it served as an inspiration for me these past years to just “go for it” with regards to focusing on animals in my artwork. When I looked for books on the subject, however, I was surprised at the scarcity of books on drawing contemporary, stylized animals.

So I wrote one! (My own version.)

Here’s the Table of Contents:

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SECTION 1: Just Messing Around
1. Blobs & Sidewalk Cracks (3 exercises related to “Finding Animals Around You”)
2. Photos & Life (3 exercises for “Drawing Animals Around You”)
3. Memory and Imagination (3 exercises for “Drawing Animals Within You”)

SECTION 2: Mixed-Media Projects
4. Oaxacan Dotted Elephant: More is More
5. Imaginary Animals: Abstract Watercolor Starts
6. Junk Mail Creatures Book: Gesso and Watercolor
7. Watercolor Transfer Animals: Iron-Ons
8. Doggone It! Messy Collage
9. Animals in Tape: Instant Collage
10. Creatures on Wood, Part I: Puzzle Paintings
11. Creatures on Wood, Part II: Embracing Serendipity
12. Go Fish! Installation
13. Wrapped and Tied: 3-D Fabric Animals

Section 3: 12 Featured Artists

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Today is the first day of a two-week blog celebration, and I wanted to give you an idea of what’s ahead the next two weeks:

WEEK 1
Sunday, 9/23: Intro to Book, Schedule
Monday, 9/24: Art Tutorial
Tuesday, 9/25: Book Giveaway!
Wednesday, 9/26: Book Giveaway, Artist Karine Swenson
Thursday, 9/27: Drawing Assignment, Art Giveaway
Friday, 9/28: Book Giveaway, Artist Karen O’Brien
Saturday, 9/29: Shading Tutorial, Art Giveaway

WEEK 2
Sunday, 9/30: Book Giveaway, Artist Malathip Kriheli
…………… Also: Book Giveaways in tandem with today’s Radio Interview with Artistically Speaking Talk Show, 3:30pm PST
Monday, 10/1: Book Giveaway, Assignment, Artist Dar Hosta
Tuesday, 10/2: Book Giveaway, Artist Lisa Firke
Wednesday, 10/3: Drawing Assignment: “Go Blob Hunting”
Thursday, 10/4: Book Giveaway, Artist Petra Overbeek Bloem
Friday, 10/5: Eraser Drawing Tutorial, Art Giveaway
Saturday, 10/6: Book Giveaway, Artist Julie LaPointe
Sunday, 10/7: Wrap-Up!

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Thank you so much for checking in and we’ll see you tomorrow!

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To purchase a copy of the book directly:

from amazon.com
from Barnes & Noble
from QBookshop
from Independent Bookstores

“Imaginary Animals” Blog Celebration

Tags

book, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals, drawing animals, drawing book, imaginary animals, painting animals

Hello! I’ve gotten word from my publisher that my new book is being shipped out this week… yay!

I’m planning a two-week long Blog Celebration… the first day is this coming Sunday, September 23, 2012. Be sure to check here daily for chances to win a copy of the book, some original animal artwork, animal-related tutorials and assignments, and more!

I’ll be busy this week getting everything together… see you on Sunday!

P.S. Note to new readers: You can get the two weeks of blog posts directly in your inbox by subscribing to the blog at the top left column. (You can then unsubscribe after the blog celebration is over if you wish!)

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If you’d like to help me spread the word, here is a little blog button (150×270 pixels):

Link the above back to

https://carlasonheim.wordpress.com/

and email me with your snail address [carla@carlasonheim.com] so I can send you a thank-you note!

Self Portrait After David Hockney

Tags

"Evil Man", art, David Hockney's site, SchoolArts Magazine, self portrait

One thing leads to another:

1. Yesterday I was looking at some digital back issues of SchoolArts Magazine (great ideas, highly recommended!).

2. In one of the articles, somewhere, I found the link to David Hockney’s site.

3. Then I found this wonderful drawing, “Evil Man” from 1963.

4. I decided I wanted to copy it so spent a lot of time looking all over the web for a bigger image.

5. No luck, though, so I decided to draw from the small thumbnail nevertheless. (This, ironically, freed me up because I couldn’t see that much detail anyway, so, well, whatever!).

6. Since it wasn’t going to be a true copy anyway (I couldn’t really see it very well),  I decided to do a self-portrait in the style instead. Why not?

7. Drew myself lightly in pencil first, using the computer monitor as my “mirror”; also not ideal, but ironically, freeing (if it doesn’t really look like me, THAT’s why!).

8. In pencil, tried to replicate Hockney’s expressive line work on the outline of the face and shoulders. Erased most of the very light lines I had drawn in step 7.

9. Added colored pencil (after “Evil Man“).

10. Done!