Uh-Oh

Tags

Artwork, bird painting, drawing animals, painting birds, yellow bird

Minnesota Art Retreat • August 15-18

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animal drawings, art of silliness, Artwork, figure drawing, Midwest Art & Lettering Retreat, Minnesota Art Retreat, rabbit drawing

I was happy to receive an email last week from the organizer of the Midwest Art & Lettering Retreat that the four-day workshop in August is nearly filled (there’s three spots left).

Here’s the class description:

The class is four days long. In the mornings we’ll draw, doing a series of serious and silly drawings (mostly silly) from life, from photos, and from imagination:

We’ll even draw from the live figure on the fourth morning!

In the afternoons we’ll add color and collage and turn those drawings into a multi-layered, mixed-media book (or series of books): 

I think it will be so fun! I’ve never taught a four-day workshop before, and look forward to the more leisurely pace.

Have a great week!

Thoughts on a Wednesday

Tags

Artwork, Girls, girls design, painting of girl, redhead at the beach

• Sometimes it’s best to keep your mouth shut, so your foot doesn’t fly in and kick you on the roof of your mouth. This thought crossed my mind today AFTER I had made a comment to the art gallery lady about a certain show (the work, by the way, I loved, but whatever I said came out kind of wrong because it was met with a tight, “Looking at art is subjective.”) I gave a mumbled apology and fled, but now feel completely stupid; this is a gallery that is near my office and I go in often, and had even hoped to strike a friendship with this woman.

Now what? (Rhetorical question, btw, I’m not looking for an answer. 😀 )

• Someone ordered the above “Redhead at the Beach” print recently and I remembered how much I liked this particular one. I think I did it in 2005, when I was just beginning the Girls series that really helped solidify my art-making “career.” Around 2009 I moved on to other things, but the girls still pop up every once in awhile (kind of thinking they’ll be in a children’s book before it’s all over).

Anyway, recently I’ve come to think of drawings and paintings to be like “conversations.” Some are fun, some not so fun, but they all help us learn about ourselves and others. Some conversations end up morphing into larger projects; some perhaps are springboards for other conversations; others, most perhaps, end up stored in the back of our minds as “memories.”

The art I create is similar. Some works end up being shown; some are springboards for other art ideas; others, most perhaps, end up in a stack in my studio. (“Memories.”)

It’s helpful for me to think of it this way, that the DOING of the art is the most valuable part, just as the actual talking part of a conversation is the most valuable.

What do you think?

Abstracted Minutia

Tags

art, Artwork, draw, drawing class, Drawing Lab, online drawing class

These two drawings are “testers” when I was working on this lesson in the DRAW! workshop (it’s also Lab 42 in Drawing Lab). I had so much fun doing these, and it got me all pumped up to do a series.

This one is even “giraffe-like.”

It’s hard to believe January is almost over already. It’s been a super busy month for me, but I think that’s how I like it.

Have a great day!

Charcoal Owls

Tags

art, Artwork, charcoal owl, owl, owl drawing, side-only charcoal, side-only technique

I really love the “side-only charcoal” technique. This owl was drawn from a little knick-knack found at a thrift store. Here’s another from the same reference:

Have a great day!

More Elephants

Tags

Artwork, drawing animals, elephant, painting animals, painting elephants

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sketchy Dog

Tags

animal, Artwork, dog sketch, drawing animals, pencil on tissue paper, sketchy dog

Pencil on tissue paper (click image for full size). 

* * * * * * *

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Standing Male Figure

Tags

Artwork, drawing models, drawing nudes, figure drawing, life-drawing

Yesterday I spent three hours drawing a model from one pose (the model would take a break every 20 minutes, but would then go back into the same pose).

My favorite life-drawing combination is a female model in a reclining back pose. So, a male model in a standing frontal pose would be OPPOSITE of what I would normally want.

But no matter! I enjoyed myself tremendously even so, spending most of my time doing modified blind contours using the side of a graphite stick, experimenting using both my right and left hands. These were done right at the end of the class in about three minutes total.

(I know this one doesn’t really look like a man, but it’s still one of my favorites from the day.)

13 Little Animals

Tags

13 animals, 13 little animals, art, Artwork, drawing animals, Drawing Lab, painting animals

Still trying to clean my studio! I found these 13 critters that were part of my Drawing Lab book (Lab 38: Sidewalk Crack Drawings).

I realized they have never been seen “large,” so here you go!

Sharpie and Copic markers, colored pencil, and vine charcoal on paper.

Odds and Ends

Tags

Artwork, cat, flower, flowers, painting, Paintings

Just checking in on a rainy Monday. A bit slow getting it together this morning afternoon. You?