New (old) Additions!

I've been combing through my jpeg files, looking for digital versions of paintings and photographs that are fine-art-print-worthy but haven't yet been posted to my website.  I have been a photographer for a long time, so its going to take a while to go through everything.  Today I added four new images three were photographs I took some time ago, and one was jpeg of one of my paintings that I just didn't get around to posting yet.
Now I want everyone who reads this to know that while I do try to sell my art, by no means do I want this blog to be just an extension of my selling website.  Rather, I am hoping to make it a more general art blog, with suggestions, perhaps tutorials, pictures of the process of creating, and thoughts in general.
I hope this blog will be of interest to people who like art, even if they don't plan to purchase any.
So here the newest additions to the website, enjoy browsing even if you don't wish to purchase!  And share your favorite images with your friends!

 

  

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

A Sell!

As a still emerging artist, each and every sell is exciting to me.  Well, yesterday I sold one of my original paintings!  It was "Green Eyed Tiger", you can see it below.  I will still be showing this work at my art walk exhibit, but it will be marked "sold" and will be given to the purchaser right after.  Prints of course are still available for purchase!

In the Spotlight, and some more Eagle Studies

Several days ago I signed up for a virtual interview with the website "Artpromotivate" hoping to be featured in their "Artist Spotlight" column.  Now, this isn't really a competition sort of thing, if you follow the rules as far answering their questions, and giving them all the information they ask for, the feature you, so I wasn't surprised to be featured, I made sure to follow all of their guidelines, every single one.  What did surprise me was how quickly they featured me.  They say there is often a wait of several weeks, but I was featured only days after submitting my interview.  Maybe it was a slow month for them as far as submissions, or maybe they liked my work or my answers.  Either way, it is good publicity for me as an artist!

You can find my article HERE.

In other news... I've been working on more Eagle Studies, and they can be seen below.

This is the same sketchbook page that I posted earlier, but I added another eagle at the bottom right.

Here is the start of another sketchbook page.  The  open beak and unusual head angle was a challenge!

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.

 

First Public Event

Well, I am super excited!  I've been creating lots of artwork and posting it online for a while now, focusing on improving my skill, and technique, and not really trying too hard to actually sell any art.  I mean, I've offered it for sale on Etsy, and on Fine Art America, but I haven't really tried hard to market it.

I have often wondered how my paintings would do in comparison with other artists work.  If I put mine into a gallery would it sell as well as the other art?  Would people like it?  In short, is it really any good?

I mean sure, all of my friends and family say nice things about it... but would strangers also appreciate it?

Well soon, I will get the chance to find out.  The second Saturday of every month the town next to mine has an art walk, where different artist get to show their work.  Much of the businesses that participate are galleries, but a few other businesses open their doors to artists too.  One of those businesses is a Dance Studio, and on the second Saturday in April I will get to show my work and offer it for sale at the art walk.

Will it sell?  I don't know... but that isn't the main point.  I would keep creating art if I never sold another piece...  for me main point is going to be sitting back and observing other people's reactions to my work.  The economy is bad right now, and art is something people often choose to go without in tough times.  So I'll be happy if I sell any at all, but mostly I just want to see what people think.

More information about the Art Walk can be found HERE.


And While selling isn't my MAIN focus right now, it would be nice to sell a little, for one thing, my walls are getting quite full of paintings, and I am running our of room to hang them!  Also there is the matter that good quality art supplies cost money... a 2 oz tube of artist quality acrylic paint typically runs anywhere from around $5.00 to $16.00 depending on the exact pigment (color), and brand (for those non-artist types, even within the same brand and type of paint the price varies from one color to the next).  Canvases, brushes, mediums, varnishes.... all cost money.  In fact, for extremely fine line work a low cost brush costs $10.00, that's for ONE brush, and that is one of the cheaper brands, some brushes cost around $80 (I don't have any of those!), not to mention equipment like easels.  So, to make a long story short, while I would continue to paint even if I NEVER sold another painting, it would certainly be NICE to sell them at least often enough to pay for the supplies I use.  However, right now, I'm not getting my hopes up too high, I just want people to enjoy my art.

Back to the Drawing Board... Or Sketch Book in this Case

Since I began getting back into art in June of 2012 thanks to the ICAD blog challange, my rusty skills have sped forward by leaps and bounds.  I went from being thrilled that I could paint a flat looking pansy on an index card to painting quite realistic looking animals, fruits, and flowers.  However, I still have a lot of room for improvement.  

For example, most of the animals I draw and taken from a single reference photo, and thus are basically copies of a photograph, though I do usually change up the background.  Now, they are, in my opinion, good, hand drawn copies, but they are still copies.  I have to always be sure to get royalty free, creative commons licensed photos so that I'm not violating someone's copyright.  

What I'd like to do is to be able to look at several different photos of, say a wolf, and using them as reference ONLY draw my own wolf that is not an exact copy of any of the photos.  So, I've decided to make myself start keeping a sketch book again.  In this I will study whatever it is I plan to paint next.  Right now I already have two drawings of eagles on my stretched canvas, both of which are the aforementioned "copy-type" drawings.  I will finish these, but in the mean time I think I will also begin really STUDYING eagles so that maybe I can do a third painting after that is truly, completely,  my own creation.  

I began my sketch book today, but today I didn't study any particular thing for a painting, rather, I studied the hardness scale of my graphite drawing pencils.  In the large squares, I first took the pencil and drew its number, then I began scribbling very lightly and pressed harder as I scribbled to the right, I did this with each of my pencils from 4H to 8B.

Then along the bottom of the page I alternated each pencil, but kept the pressure that I applied to it the same, I also labeled the scribble line on the bottom of the page to show what kind of pencil.  On the bottom of the page, I pushed down at a normal "writing" pressure for me all way across  so any change in darkness is from the pencils themselves.

God bless you!

 

Lots of New Art, Nicer Images, Prints Available!

Since the last time I wrote on this blog I've created a lot of new art.  I've also gotten better digital images of my work, images that are print-worthy.  You can check it all out and purchase art prints here:

Some samples can be seen in this slide show: