What's a Good Artist?

What does it take to be an artist? 
Well, it takes a desire to create art, and the initiative to act on that desire. If you've ever drawn a picture, molded clay into a form you've imagined, glued paper scraps into a collage, or in some other way have designed and assembled a creative work, then you ARE an artist. 

What does it take to be a good artist?

 Some would say it requires a Bachelors or a Master's degree in art, and yet one of the world's most well-known and best-loved artist, Van Gogh, attended several different art schools with sporadic attendance, and didn't actually graduate from any of them. He also disagreed with much of what he was taught. In spite of that, he produced a great number of treasured, works such as the two below... Click HERE to read the rest of this post

Trial, Error, Error, Repeat

Yesterday was another day of website building.  There are some things with WordPress that drives me crazy, such as when I post the link to my website on Facebook, it doesn't have a thumbnail image on it, and I've tried all the tutorials to fix the problem, but it persists.

Inspite of that, my website is coming along, I am making progress with it.  I've imported past blog posts there, and for a while I'll be posting on both, but soon I'll be moving.  I hope that those who have followed me on blogger will come over to my wordpress site and follow me there as well.  It can be found at http://ArdentReflections.com.

In addition to the website work, I've been adding up the cost of doing business as an artist over the past year, comparing that to what I've made in sales, just to find out how much money I've made lost as an artist, I won't share details, but I will say that I can see where the term starving artist comes from.  I didn't expect profit over this year, but I did expect a smaller deficit than I saw.  Oh well, there were a lot of expenses that I won't have to repeat any time soon, like buying a canopy for art shows, tables for the canopy, a cart to move supplies with at art shows, etc.

Last but not least, I actually got a little painting done, I'm still not happy with the clouds in my sky, but I'm getting closer to what I want.  One thing I am figuring out with this sunset though, is that I have to stop in between colors and let things dry, otherwise my oranges, and purples mix into brown, and my yellows and blues mix into green.  Here are two photos, neither one seems to really be right in color, the first one comes closer but is brighter than the painting really is I think...oh well,  what can you expect from a cell phone?

During my next session I will bring the purple and then blue up further in up in the sky, and cover those strange finger like projections I called clouds, then I will try puttin in some less finger like clouds, I can see it in my mind now, when before I couldn't, so hopefully I'll be able to translate that onto the canvas.    Then I'll bring more color into the darker blue water, the lighter blue area is actually going to be covered with land, as is the horizon line, so that the bay comes between where the viewer "stands" and the other side of the bay.  I'm not really concerned about how much experimentation this is taking, I mean after all, this is how I've learned EVERYTHING I know about painting so far, by trying, messing up, and trying again, until I get I get it right.

Thank you for reading! If you liked what you see, please consider following this blog with Google Friend connect, or follow me on Google+, or if you prefer, you can follow by email and get notified each time the blog is updated. See the right hand column to follow in any of these ways! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Fine Art America is the place to go for Prints of all my Paintings.

 

My etsy shop is the place to go to buy my originals and request commissioned work. A few select prints are available here as well!

Teaching a SLOW Student!

Have you ever tried to teach anyone something?  It can be difficult!  Its even more difficult if the student you are teaching is just NOT getting it, now imagine you are doing all that, WHILE you are trying to teach something you don't know!

That is the struggle of the self taught artist, trial, and error, and more error.

Lots of error.  I am trying to get the sky in a painting just right, that is how I am seeing it in my mind, it is taking a lot of error.

Here are some of my practice sheets where I practiced different techniques to try to get the results I wanted:

Real quality art there, right?

But its all part of learning without a teacher.

Eventually I moved back onto my canvas, and its not perfect yet, but I feel like I know what needs happen now, its just that the paint I already put down needs to dry before I can do more, otherwise my colors will mix and I will end up with a green sky.  I also keep reminding myself that it won't just be a sky, there will be land and a bridge, and water, the sky will end up being only a backdrop for everything else.  I keep telling myself that, but I want to get the sky perfect anyway. It is getting close to what I see in my head, and I think I'll be able to bring it around to that point in t the next painting session.

Thank you for reading! If you liked what you see, please consider following this blog with Google Friend connect, or follow me on Google+, or if you prefer, you can follow by email and get notified each time the blog is updated. See the right hand column to follow in any of these ways! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Fine Art America is the place to go for Prints of all my Paintings.

 

My etsy shop is the place to go to buy my originals and request commissioned work. A few select prints are available here as well!

Word for the Year

Have you noticed the trend on blogs of selecting a word for the year?  I have been debating what word I want for my year, it could be "create", it could be "vibrancy", both of those struck me as worthy of being selected... but instead, I am choosing a word that might come as surprise to many.

That's right, my word is discipline.  Why? Because its what I need in so many parts of my life.  I need it in the area of health and nutrition, I need it in the area of housekeeping, I need it in the area of spirituality, and I desperately need it in the areas of art.

If I am going to improve my art and see my life as an artist grow, I simply must discipline myself to work on it regularly.  I love doing it, but so often I put it off, and don't start.  I need to at least sketch four or five times a week, but preferably be working on more than just simple sketches and putting in time on my paintings, try new mediums, and learn new techniques.

So my word for 2015 is Discipline.

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Stretching Myself

One of my Index cards from the ICAD challenge.

Before I first started painting in June of 2012, on those index cards that seemed so innocuous but proved to be carriers of the deadly "art attack" virus, I had no idea how much I had missed art in my life.  You see, way back when, years ago, in Junior High School and some in High School, I took great joy in creating.  Drawing, using oil pastels, markers, colored pencils.  I didn't paint much back then, though I'm sure at some point I must have used paint a little, I really don't remember, but it certainly wasn't a medium that I used regularly... at any rate, at that time I really loved art.  For some reason, shortly after high school, I stopped. Perhaps it was because the responsibilities of adult life left little time for it, and little money for supplies.  Perhaps it was because of other issues I was dealing with that caused me to feel unworthy of something that would bring me joy.  Perhaps I just didn't get around to it.  For whatever reason though, art was no longer a part of my life.  Occasionally I would do crafts, make Christmas ornaments, crochet baby clothes, something like that, but drawing, or "painting" with colored pencils or pastels, was completely forgotten.

After starting the ICAD challenge though, I quickly realized I was hooked, not just on art, but in particular on painting.  It wasn't long before I wanted to move beyond the index cards and onto a canvas.  Since then, I've painted and painted and painted.  Having had no formal training, I have learned most of what I know by trial and error, often with many errors repeated again and again (when will I finally automatically paint background objects BEFORE foreground objects???).  I've watched a few how-to videos, and read a few books, but mostly I'm self taught... I've been learning to paint by PAINTING.  Eventually I might like to go for my BFA, but in the meantime I just continue to paint.


Recently, the gallery owner where my work is sometimes displayed suggested that I take part in a local juried show.  He felt that it would give me more exposure, and also give me a chance to see how my work compares with other local artists and to get feedback from more people.  I looked over the work I had, and felt that there were many things I had learned recently that didn't show in those pieces, so I decided to create three pieces specifically for the show, being mindful to apply everything I've learned up until now.  In other words, I wanted to really stretch myself to the limits of my current skills and abilities, so that I would be submitting the very best work I am currently capable of producing.

Here is the first piece as it took shape:

This first photo shows the work after my first painting session, I have no idea how much time I spent up until this point on it, but it was all one painting session.  I used three reference photos I had taken, but didn't copy directly from any of them, just used them to spark ideas and give a general outline of what was happening.

I decided to block in some general darks and lights in the background, so that when I added background trees gaps in them wouldn't show stark blue sky, because I've noticed in some of earlier paintings that sky showing through like that often makes the landscape look flat, or fake.

Then, here is the second in progress photo, a little more has changed at this point, one back ground tree has been added, and one more foreground tree.

Then I added the other background trees.  Notice that I made them lighter and less distinct than the ones in the foreground, I've been trying to learn to implement atmospheric perspective.

On to progress picture number 4, here I have lightened the trees in the background more, plus added some more foreground elements. I know that the picture looks very different in color here, but it hasn't changed.  All but the final two photos were taken with my phone, and it is very sensitive to changes in lighting.  The slightest difference in available light causes a whole different color cast over everything.

Next I simply added more detail in the foreground, such as some flowers on the bush in the lower right hand corner, and some more reflected light on the pond.

Then I thought I was done, so I took a good picture with my good camera, but afterward, I noticed that the sky above the background trees looked "dirty" because of all the times I'd painted over to obscure the trees a little more in trying to achieve the atmospheric perspective:

So I fixed the sky, and then took another picture with my good camera.  I printed several samples to compare the color to the original, and edited until it matched.  And here is the final result:

So there is the painting that will be my first entry into the juried show.  Because I am keeping it for the show, I can't offer it for sale yet, however prints of it are available on my Fine Art America page, and if the original doesn't sell during the show, it will be offered for sale afterward either in my local gallery, or in my Etsy shop.

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

Hmmm... Still Learning!

Since I've begun painting, I've always felt that landscapes were my weakness.  I've just never been very satisfied with them.  I was okay with it if I did an obviously abstracted landscape... one that was clearly not meant to look exactly real... but when it came to traditional landscapes... I just wasn't happy with my results.

Well, I think I may finally be breaking through that barrier.  I've been working on a landscape and I think I am quite happy with the results so far, so I thought I'd share the work-in-progress.  I think the real difference in this one is that I went through my photography and found reference photos to use, when before I just tried to "make up" a landscape in my mind.  I didn't try to copy any of my photos exactly, but I did use them to plan the general shape of the shoreline, hills beyond the water, and the color of sky and water.

Just goes to show you, I still have lots learn and never want to stop learning!

Here is what I have so far:

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The Chrome Monster gets a New Name.

Once upon a time there was, living in the mind of an artist, an idea to paint a picture of one of the coolest cars in the history of American cars.  So this artist, although she had never attempted to paint anything shiny or reflective before, decided to paint a Chevy Bel Air from the mid 1950's, she ended up deciding on a 1956 since she had reference photos of that year available to her.

So this artist started off, and kept telling herself that she could figure out a way to paint all of that shiny red metal, and silvery, reflective chrome.  She had no idea how she was going to do it, but just started painting what she saw, carefully matching values and colors, though she changed a few things like the photographer's reflection in the bumper of the reference photo.

It was a difficult painting, and while working on it the artist bestowed on it the name of "Chrome Monster" as she realized just how much of that challenging, shiny surface the 1956 Chevy had.  In her head, as she painted, she kept reminding herself, "don't worry, paint what you see, the printer didn't have any metalic ink, and it managed to produce a picture of chrome, so can you.".

Finally, after many days, she stepped back and looked at the painting and realized that it was done.  She was so happy with the result that she no longer saw it as monster, and instead decided to name it the "Chrome King".

And here it is:

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Chrome Monster Progress! Taking Shape!

The Chrome Monster is starting to take shape, I think for my first effort at shiny metal, and my first effort at a car, its coming along pretty good.  What do you think?

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The "Chrome Monster" in progress.

I just thought I'd share a picture of my latest piece in-progress.  I'm jokingly calling it the "Chrome Monster" because it is so absolutely loaded with shiny, reflective chrome, which is a challenge for me to paint realistically.  I think the real name of the piece will be "When Cars Were Cool" or something like that.

Anyway, all I've done so far is outline everything, paint some lines to indicate main value areas, and start blocking in some of the darkest value areas.  I went a little furter than that with the hub cap though, and blocked in all of the main value areas except for the brightest highlights, which I will save for last.

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A Great Painting Tutorial!

Well, in preparation for painting the "Chrome Monster" I mentioned in my last post, I started looking for instructional videos for painting metal objects.  I found this great one, and noted that the YouTube channel has lots of other interesting looking tutorials as well.

Embedding has been disabled on this almost hour long free art lesson, but I am posting it here anyway so that anyone who wishes may go watch it on YouTube:

So, click here to watch it!

And Click Here to Check Out More on the Channel!

Thank you for reading! I welcome your suggestions on how to make this blog more interesting to you!

I Really Should Wake Up before Uploading

Last night, right before I crawled into bed exhausted, I realized that the paintings that I uploaded of Biz Biz were really not finished.  I didn't paint in her whiskers!  You can still see the pencil marks I made to guide the placement of the whiskers, but no white whiskers!  So, now I have to finish the whiskers, retake the picture of the painting, and upload the new version to Fine Art America. Then I'll be able to work a little more on my new painting, which will be the front end of a 1956 Chevy Bel Air.
The Bel Air painting will be my first attempt at making something look like shiny metal... since its my first time doing that, you'd think I'd pick something easy like a small metal bell, or utensil or something.... no... not me... naturally I picked a car loaded with chrome!  Oh well, hopefully I'll pull it off, otherwise I'll just waste a canvas!

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Working, working, working....

So, I've been continuing to work on my art pieces.  I finished an abstract yesterday VERY late at night, and I finished another pet portrait today.

The pet portrait was of a cat named Biz Biz, I got the photo, which was taken from a cell phone, so it wasn't the highest quality picture.  I made due though, I started with this:

Well, right away I decided to crop the image, and focus more on Biz Biz's face.  Here is the cropped picture:

Then to help me see the subtle nuances of the colors, I cranked up the saturation on the photo:

Then I was ready to sketch and paint, and the result was this:

The title doesn't show all the way on that preview, it is "Biz Biz Another Green Eyed Tiger".

As I mentioned before, I also completed an abstract last night.  I had been looking at lots of Kandinksy's work earlier in the day, because of seeing a friend's work that reminded me of Kandinsky.  So I combined the bright colors that I had been seeing in Kandinsky's work, with the the type of abstract pattern designs I use in a lot of my abstracts.  The result was "Tranquility", named such because that is how I felt while creating it... tranquil.

 

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Homeschool Co-op Parent Room Sketches

Today was homeschool co-op for my kids, and in my down time before my first TA assignment, and in my down time after my last Teaching assignment, I sketched things I saw around me. A pedestal in the chapel area, a fire sprinkler, my pencil sharpener, and other items.  Later at home I continued sketching.  A lamp, my shoe, my hand...

Anyway, I've been wanting to draw from life more, and today I got in lots of sketches, all from real objects in front of me. Some of the objects had very straight lines, and I could have benefited from a straightedge or ruler, but all were just done free hand.
Here are today's sketches:

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Some Eagle Studies

Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I want to really do some studies on Eagles, so I've been sketching them and making observations about their proportions and such. Here are the first of my sketches. I will probably sketch something else in the empty corner of the paper.

 

Here is my sketch book page with notes about my observations, I think the eagle at the top right looks better, and I think my notes about the eye and beak explain why, however, the heads are at slightly different angles and that could also be the main reason. Or maybe the one on the right is just a more handsome bird. If you can't read the notes, just click on the picture, you should be able to see a larger version. If its still too small to read, this might help: Basically they are just observations about the proportions. from the end of the beak the base is about the same distance as from the base of the beak to the eye. Then from the end of the beak to the pupil, about the same as from the pupil to the back of the head at eye level. I also noted that the beak opening lines up with the front of the eye, and that I didn't do that on the sketch to the left, which is whey the eagle on the left looks like he has too big a mouth.
Below I noted that the eagle from shoulder to where his tail begins, is about the length of three head-and-neck lengths.