This Week in a Nutshell - or Bean

Wanted to work on my art so this week I have been drawing beans. Twenty-six beans yesterday, 17 beans today, and many more to come - I am sure. I am trying to get better at figure drawing, which helps with drawing anything in space. So beans it is. I also went back through my photos and worked on picking photos that I want to consider for paintings. And, I keep walking past that acrylic painting that I did right before going on vacation. I am trying to decide if that needs to go into a file folder marked "Fix It Later." I am certain that I will eventually figure out what to do with it even if it is gesso and repaint. I wanted texture, but am wondering if the bubbles from the Acrylic Flow Improver, combined with the smooth panel, may have given a little too much texture. It does work well for the bricks or rocks on the bridge and ground. I'm going to have to experiment some more. It should eventually morph into something.

I am trying to keep up with both painting and drawing so that I don't lose ground in either. I am going to temporarily switch from drawing beans to gesture drawings. I still need to practice that, and I still need to wrap my head around the combination of twisting and bending put together that you have to think about with the beans.

At any rate, just so that you have something to look at, here is a photo from video footage that I took on July 4, when we visited California.

Cabrillo National Monument

And, by the way, I am still working on this.

San Antonio Japanese Garden Bridge - revised

It Was Tough Duty - But Someone Had To Do It

Just got back from vacation and as the title shows, it was tough duty, but somebody just had to do it. As you can see from these 2 last blogs, the food and beach were regimens that just had to be done. I mainly kicked back and absorbed the sights, sounds and smells, but also used my handy camera to capture scenes that I would like to paint. Probably the most "work" I did was in trying to keep up with my gesture drawing. It was fun to just relax. I will try to post some scenes later (either painted or photos).

In the meantime, I had started a painting with my new supplies from Jerry's Artarama that I had ordered. I had gotten some new acrylic medium that I wanted to try out, along with Ampersand's "The artist PANEL" primed smooth. As usual, it was an experiment. I had to stop and go on vacation (sigh) and now I am at that stage of "What do I do next?"

So here is the latest and, no I don't think that it is quite finished yet.

San Antonio Japanese Garden Bridge

Working Really Hard On My Art

Working really hard on my artwork. More to follow next week!

I Got It!

YES! I finally got it! Remember, I told you that I would let you know more when I finally got my new faucet? Well, I got it. It arrived today. Yep, right on my porch! Am I a little excited? I would say so. Took a picture of it already. It is still in the box and not looking very glamorous -- yet. But, I promise that you will get to see the "glam" shot later when my new Lita faucet is installed. I'm so excited, I could do the "Snoopy" dance right now. Do you all remember that? The way Snoopy would do his little dance when he was happy? You know, the Charles Schulz comic strip? Sorry, I just had to give a little blurb for artistic endeavors and bring in a little nostalgia.

So, be sure to tune in later for the elegant debut of Lita in upcoming months. In the meantime here is a glimpse of Lita.

My Amazing Lita Faucet That I Won From Pfister 

A Little Art in the Family

Hello everyone. I hope you don't mind the shorter posts. It takes you and me both less time. I spend less time writing them, and you spend less time reading them. That way, maybe you will actually have the time to check in and read my blog.

So, what to explore this week? Thought I would share some artwork by our grand kids. You realize that I have very carefully written up one lesson plan after another and given very intricate lessons. Hmmm. Actually, I walk in the door, my grand kids beg for my Asus Slate, I hand it to them and the rest is history. They do ask me to save their work for them because they are not sure where to find the file to save it to -- for the time being that is. They will probably learn that on their own the next time that I visit.

I have to laugh; I promise you that they are better at using the digital art software than I am. Give me a brush. Don't get me wrong. I like the digital art programs and have fun with them, but there is just something about a brush, real paint, and real paper or canvas. And I see that with them, too. They love the digital, but they like to go back and forth between the two.

Sorry, that I didn't get a picture of their artwork on paper (my excuse is that my battery on my camera was dead). But here is a peak at their digital work. Enjoy!

 

 

Introducing Something New From Proko

I have been sitting here wondering what I should say in this weeks post, and I have to tell you that procrastination has paid off. While I have been wondering what to say, I received an email from Proko (Stan Prokopenko), a young artist who is getting ready to introduce an online drawing course. This will be figure drawing so it will be for those who are serious about drawing people. Proko gets into gesture drawing right away, so you won't be drawing any static stick figures. Those are probably good for learning about proportion, but you will learn that from his course as well. I have been watching some of Proko's free videos, and I am impressed. Getting gesture is so important to being able to capture emotion and energy in a drawing or painting. Three things that have impressed me about his presentation:

• Proko is very respectful in his presentation of the human body.
• Proko is so funny and entertaining.
• Proko is either a natural when it comes to teaching, or has had training in ways to help people remember key points.

Proko will begin his online classes on June 17th, at:

http://www.proko.com/figure (for Premium)

http://www.proko.com/videos/ (for free, limited videos)

He is offering both free classes (this will probably be listed under videos), or Premium classes (for a fee). Be sure to check his site out!

Happy Memorial Day

Hope that today is a lovely day for everyone who has served, or had loved ones and/or friends who have served to keep our country safe and free.

This won't be a long post, but I wanted to share something that I had a chance to test out this past week. I bought my grand kids some of the Crayola Brand watercolor paints. I just happened to purchase them from Target, and no, neither Target, nor Crayola are paying me to say this. This is strictly my personal opinion, but I was so delighted with the results. The colors of the pigments are terrific and judging by working with these pigments everyday for a week, they mean what they say when they claim that they are washable. (They do cover themselves with a disclaimer that there could be something that might stain under the "right" circumstances). However, we didn't end up with stains on anything. Now these may not be archival quality paints, but with toddlers, you are looking for safe use and easy clean-up - not archival. If we really wanted archival, we would probably hire our kids/grand kids to paint our houses - but that is not very likely to happen.

At any rate, we had so much fun and with none of the stress and worry of ruining clothing or carpet. I was even amazed at how well we could "lift" the color off of the paper if we didn't like what we had applied. So, if your kids are bored today, you might want to wander over to any store selling the Crayola Brand of watercolor paints and give them a try. Each palette had its own self contained brush and the price couldn't be beat.