Objectives for 2014

Happy New Year my friends!

2013 was a very positive year for my development as an artist.  I started this blog, I created a website, I created 2 drawings and about 4 paintings.  I joined KWSA (Kitchener-Waterloo Society of Artists).  I've learned a lot about different painting and drawing techniques and the business of doing art.

December is always a horrible month for me, but this last one seemed particularly rough.  It seemed that I spent most of the month getting over one illness or another, in between bouts of holiday festivities and planning.  The positive to this is that I spent the month reading.  I found some valuable books on working the business-side of being an artist as well as several blogs by artists with helpful hints and tips.

1) How to Make Money as an Artist: the 7 Winning Strategies of Successful Fine Artists, by Sean Moore

2) Artists Survival Skills: How to Make a Living as a Canadian Visual Artist, by Chris Tyrell

3) Start and Run an Art Teaching Business, by Tanya Freedman

From these books I have learned the importance of structure and written objectives for success in a business, even for an artist.  One tool for determining/creating successful objectives is to follow the SMART model.  SMART stands for:

S: Specific - the objective must detail exactly what needs to be done
M: Measurable - progress or achievement of the objective can be measured
A: Attainable - of course the objective needs to be something you can achieve
R: Realistic - the objective is possible to attain
T: Time - a time period for achievement is clearly stated

With this model in mind, I have drawn up my objectives for 2014.  In order to break down my objectives effectively, I've laid out my plans and goals, some of them specific (S), others more vague.  I've tried to write them so that each has a measure to know when it's complete (M).   I believe I am capable of achieving all the objectives in that I have the necessary skills to make them attainable (A).  I think they are all realistic (R), especially if I can keep towards the habits I wish to develop for time management. Then I've broken down the year into month segments and assigned one of my objectives (or a part of an objective if it was a large one) into each month so each has a time period for completion (T).

I also created a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in spreadsheet format.  It's basically a spreadsheet with the months and weeks of the year at the top, and all the tasks I want to accomplish along the left-side.  Then I went through the dates, assigning the tasks and spreading them out through the year.  I also put in any "home" projects that might interfere like March break or our vacation time so that I could schedule around these "known" obstacles ahead of time. (Incidentally, my original objectives were much bigger, but when I tried to assign them in my WBS I realized I couldn't possibly get them all done, so I pared them down to a more manageable scale.  I can always do more than my objectives state if I find the time)

I will be using this specific post regularly to check on my progress and/or spur myself forward toward the assigned deadline.  You, my friends, will be my accountable contact as I am sure you will be anxiously waiting to hear how things are progressing (or not as the case may be, but let's not get negative)!

Objectives for 2014

References/Books to read in 2014:
1) Start and Run a Creative Services Business, by Susan Kirkland
2) The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People
3) Guides to collecting art (not a book per se, but several websites have the information I'm looking for)
4) How to increase traffic to your website (again, many websites cover this)

My plans to help develop as an artist are as follows:
- visit/attend 5 art galleries/museums/exhibitions
- enter at least 2 art exhibitions/juried shows
- create 6 paintings on the following: landscape, portrait, still life, floral
- create 3 drawings on the following: portrait, floral, still life
- set up and sell at least one print from my website

In order to do the above, I will need to:
- join at least one more art group
- develop the website to incorporate shop potential
- find a good artist printshop in my area
- improve website following
- research on best materials for prints

The habits I plan to develop include:
- working while my family is home (i.e. in the house)
- reducing the amount of time I spend on distractions (tv, email, Facebook, etc)
- regular/daily sketching (10 min or so total time for each session)

January
I've signed up for a botanical art workshop at the Toronto Botanical Gardens this month with Nellie Sue Potter that I'm hoping will make up one of the 6 paintings for the year.  The workshop ends Jan 25.  I plan to visit the art gallery at the University of Waterloo this month.  I also plan to make notes on the books I read last month.  To help reduce my distraction time, I will use a timer and set it for 30min or so for email, etc each day.

February
If I have any extra time in January, I'm hoping to start work on another floral piece - a poinsettia, that I intend to finish by the end of this month.  I will move my website from my host/domain to the Weebly page proper as I've noticed it offers more usability and features in the free version.  Read and make notes on one of the 4 books listed above.  Do at least 10 (10 min) sketches while my family is in the house by month's end.

March
Time to tackle a drawing.  I'd like to do a self portrait (because I've never really done one).  Find another gallery/museum to visit in the area.  Join SONSI. Begin planning my next painting for April.  Do at least 10 sketches while my family is in the house by month's end.  Begin research on best materials for prints.  Review my progress to date.

April
Complete planned painting.  The 10 sketches.  See if there is an upcoming exhibition in the groups I'm in that I can enter some work.    Look into registering for another workshop with the Button Factory on urban drawing that looked interesting.

May
Look up a good artist printshop in my area.  Make contact with them and ask questions.  10 sketches.  Read another from my assigned reading list and make notes.  Setup the store on my website to sell prints, etc.  Start painting #4.

June
Finish painting #4.  10 sketches.  Research and implement methods to increase traffic to my website.  Review my progress to date.

July
The next two months have lighter expectations to make room for vacations over the summer.  I will try to do the 10 sketches, but I'm only committing to 5 as I expect to be very busy.  Find another gallery/museum to visit.  Start drawing #2.

August
At least 5 sketches.  Finish drawing #2.  Look for another exhibition to enter.

September
Create painting #5.  Back to 10 sketches.  One more gallery/museum visit.  Start my final reading and write up from the assigned list. Review my progress to date and check on website traffic.

October
Create painting #6.  Finish final reading.  10 sketches.  Start drawing #3.

November
Finish drawing #3.  I've left the remainder of the year open for 2 reasons: 1) this allows some extra room if I get behind for any reason, 2) I really like to make things for the Christmas season and gifts so I've given myself plenty of time for that.

December
Review my progress for the year, including website traffic and sales.  Write year end summary and determine objectives for 2015.

I plan to print out both this post and my WBS and post them in my studio so I can refer to them throughout the year.  I also plan to post 2x per week - one at the beginning to state my goals for the week, and one at the end to report on my progress on the week's goals.

Preparing a Composition - in 8 steps

In continuance with my earlier post regarding Ian Roberts' book "Mastering Composition", I wanted to lay out the steps of creating a finished composition both to formalize it in my mind and to share it with others.  You may want to grab a coffee or something, this may take a bit of time.

1) So, let's say you want to do a painting/drawing/etc.  What's the first thing you do?  I'm pretty sure it will be to choose your subjects.  Will it be a still-life/portrait/landscape?  Will it be from a reference photo or from life?  etc, etc...  Okay, you've answered these questions and prepared your subject.  Now what?

For an example, I'm going to use this frog clip art image.  Isn't he cute?!

2) The very next thing that should happen is deciding what size the final piece will be.  This is important because when you start your thumbnail sketch, you will need to know the proportions for each side of the thumbnail.  Otherwise you get a great thumbnail that you can't transfer properly to your final medium because the proportions are all wrong (trust me people this is very frustrating!).  So, taking the final piece dimensions, determine the dimensions required of the thumbnail sketch.

Now, there are going to be about 3 stages of drawing here, so stay with me.

3) Lay out the dimensions of the thumbnail sketch on a piece of paper or sketchbook.  It shouldn't be too large, but also it shouldn't be too small.  Start at around 2:3 to begin at first, adjust these dimensions accordingly for your finished piece.

4) Using a light touch with the pencil, divide the square/rectangle into 9 even squares (think tic-tac-toe board).  This "grid of thirds" is an important component for composition.  It allows a natural and pleasing arrangement of your subject to the final work and provides 36 reference points.  It also helps to align things up vertically and horizontally, as well as providing a simple means for finding angles easily.




When laying out your drawing, try to think in terms of composition.  What shape armature will you be using?  How will the focal point stand out?  How will you draw the viewer's eye to the focal point?

5) Now it's time to lay in your subjects onto the grid.  Try not to be  too detailed at this stage.  Just rough in the shapes, proportions, and angles.  Now, work in the values - keeping in mind that your primary subject/focal point should have the most dramatic contrast (lightest lights and darkest darks), while the surroundings should have less contrast.

                                                                                     

                   
                                                 

                                                                                                           
6) Take a step back and look at your thumbnail sketch.  Is the image appealing?  Do the shapes draw your eye?  If not, it's just a thumbnail, try again but change some element.  If your first attempt was a landscape/horizontal orientation, try again in a portrait/vertical orientation.  Try placing the focal point somewhere on or very close to the innermost square/rectangle on your grid of thirds.  Zoom in.  Zoom out.  Simplify.  I think you get the idea.

7) When you have a successful thumbnail sketch, it's time to translate that into a drawing with details.  Get yourself a piece of sketch paper (it doesn't have to be fancy, even computer paper will do).  Enlarge the dimensions of the thumbnail sketch appropriately to the sketch paper.  Copy your image, this time adding any of the minor details you left out of the thumbnail sketch.  Use your grid of thirds to help transfer the image accurately.  Be sure to keep the values from the thumbnail sketch for your drawing.

                            



You may find this step more challenging than the thumbnail sketch.  I find that sometimes it takes me a few tries to get the dimensions right with a bigger picture.  Pencil lightly so you can erase easily, start over if you have to (I know I have).  Okay, great - you now have a map for your finished piece!  The majority of the hard work is done, it's time now to play in your favourite medium to create your piece.

8) By whatever means you are most comfortable, transfer your image to the canvas/paper/etc.  If you need to enlarge it from your sketch, try another grid of thirds, or if it's the exact right size, use a lightbox/window to transfer it directly.  Block in your large colours/values first (obviously this would go a little differently if you're working in water-colour, so adjust this accordingly).  Slowly build up your colour/value layers to the detail point, all the time following your map.


                                              
                                                                                           
It's important to stay alert and focused in this step.  It can be very easy to let the mind relax and just go through the motions, but that's when mistakes happen and you can't always correct them easily.  Pause every so often to step back and check your progress against your map.  Hopefully though, everything has gone very well and you have a finished piece that you can be proud of!
  




I know that this is a lot of steps.  And I'm sure you shook your head at me a few times and said "But I just want to paint!".  Believe me, I'm with you.  This is a LOT of work, and there are times when you can just go play with your paints and see what comes out.  Experiment, have fun.  But there are also times when you'd like to do something a little more formal.  Something that reflects your skill and talent for any viewer to see.  That's when these steps become important.  And the good news is, if you like the final result, you can easily try another painting of the same subjects with different colours, or colour relationships because you already have a map laid out and ready to go!

If you're having difficulty working with these steps, I highly recommend Ian Roberts' idea of "A Composition A Day".  I've been doing it for a week or so now and it's really helped me see the steps more clearly and better understand my options (which seem infinite) and how to use them.

If you have any questions or comments about these steps I'd love to hear from you :)

Guilt, stress, and getting back into art

What emotionally fragile creatures we artist’s can be.

I have spent the last week suffering from stress and guilt - all studio related.  For almost a week I have not been able to get my foot in the door of my studio (which is quite a feat since it’s the spare bedroom right across from the master bedroom).  I have struggled with myself trying to discover the whys and potential workarounds: taking a sketchbook out of the room, reading up on getting back into art, trying to figure out why I can‘t get back in there.

The sketchbook thing didn’t really work.  For one day it worked just fine.  I managed a bit of sketching, laying out some future painting/drawing ideas and trying out some thoughts in general.  But after that hour or so, the sketchbook pretty much didn’t move from the coffee table.  Even though I had everything I needed in the room, I just couldn’t go any further.

I went to the internet for some much needed advice.  I hit on a few sites that basically said the same thing:

     1)    Buy a new (fun/pleasing) sketchbook

     2)   Spend 15 min everyday doing something creative  

     3)   Find inspiration (visit galleries, read books, watch DVDs)

None of these options really worked for me.  First, I have WAYYY too many supplies to justify buying one more sketchbook.  My sense of fiscal responsibility completely rebelled at the idea.  So that was out.

As I noted above, spending 15 minutes everyday drawing/sketching/painting won’t work either.  I can’t even put myself in my studio for 5 minutes and bringing my sketchbook out didn’t work either.

Examples for finding inspiration I have actually done.  I spent a lot of time watching DVDs, reading books and checking out finished work on the internet.  I did get a stirring of inspiration for techniques and supply, but nothing lasting or strong enough to get me working.

So.  When all else fails, what do you do?  Time to think back to my last full attempt in my studio.  What happened then?  If I remember correctly my last real attempt in the studio was when I tried out that new technique using charcoal to make a painting plan.  My first try was a fantastic success of an image of my daughter playing at the creek. 

My second attempt was disasterous!   What felt like a wonderfully successful portrait turned into the biggest horror story I’ve had in a long time.   In fact, the drawing is still in there, mounted on the drawing board and turned away so I won’t have to look at it every time I pass the studio….I may have figured out my problem…

Okay, so step one, get rid of that horrendous drawing!  Done.  A bit of tidying up and the room looks ready to come into.  With a big sigh of relief, I pulled out an old line drawing idea of a farm I did many years ago, a sheet of newsprint, and the charcoal stick.  Even though my last attempt with charcoal turned out so badly, I was still impressed enough with the technique to want to try again.  I didn’t go as dark this time, and I only put down enough to get the general idea in.

With that done, I had a brief inspiration to do a floral in the same manner.  I was really drawn to doing a sunflower image, but since I don’t have an sunflower to work from I pulled out some fakes to try.  I set up a container and some light and started sketching.

I think I worked in the room for about 45 minutes, with about 35 minutes of total drawing time.  I decided to quit when I was starting to feel tired and frustrated with the sunflowers.  Best to end on a high note :)

Only time will tell if I fixed the problem and can once again live guilt free and productive in my studio, but hopefully I’ve found the solution, at least until the next disaster :)

Ammonites - Complete!!

I had a bit of a vacation from doing anything art-related last week.  I was finding it too stressful to do anything in my studio, so I took that as a sign to work on other things for a while.

I'm really glad I did, because it took almost no time at all to finish the ammonite piece!

I have to apologize for the quality of the image - my cell phone isn't doing the best job right now and there's too much glare to see it properly.  

If you read my last post, you'll know that I was toying with background ideas.  I decided to leave the smooth/graded background for best effect.  I ended up using conte at the very end as the charcoal just wasn't staying on the fixative anymore.

And now on to my next project :)  I have been hoping to get to this piece before the summer was over and now I will equally hope to complete it before the summer ends!  My red poppies!!  I've already got it sketched out on the paper and I've started assembling my colours (I did mention this would be a watercolour piece, yes?  Oh.  Well it is).  

After all that drawing, I'm looking forward to some painting!

Skull Part II

Today I worked on adding shading to my skull image.  Pencil is a lovely medium for adding shading.  With all the different hardnesses, it's fun to move from a harder pencil to a softer one and vice versa.  That's really the secret to creating depth in a pencil drawing.  No amount of pressing down with one pencil will create the same amount of rich darks as using even a few different pencils.  Darrel Tank uses 5 pencils (5 Pencil Method) to create depth and realism in his portraits.  Lee Hammond uses up to 12.  So far I manage to work through with as few as possible.

For this image today I only used 2 pencils (2B and 4B).  I tend to start with the softer pencils first (4B) to get a good idea of where I ultimately want the darks and lights to be.  Unfortunately you can't stay with just the one pencil without pressing really hard on the paper.  Because 4B is so soft, it tends to stay on the top of the "bumps" of the texture of the paper, leaving all the "valleys" white.  This makes an overall "grey" value.  If you press on the paper, some of the valleys will get darker, but you have now made it impossible to completely remove any of the graphite for highlights or gradation, and it creates a mark that you will see in the finished piece as "wrong".  By switching to a harder pencil (2B) you are better able to fill in the valleys without damaging the paper.

Another important tip is the "tip".  Keep the pencils as sharp as you can.  The sharper the pencil the better it can fill in the valleys.  Gradation is key to making things look 3D in any image and any medium.  To help show the roundness of a shape, it's important to have a gradual tonal shift from dark to purest white.  It's also very important to keep a light touch with the pencil.  Not so light as to leave no mark, but not so heavy as to damage the paper.  You will of course want to "lift" the pencil when grading to white and "drop" the pencil when grading to dark, but if you find you really want to press hard it's probably time to switch to a softer pencil.

You can see that I have a lot of gradation going on in my skull image.  There's also a lot of shading - even in the areas most exposed to direct light.  I find that I need this shading to help show character in the object (small bumps or grooves in the shape), so shading the entire object and then "lifting" tone with a kneaded eraser to create highlights works best for me.

I apologize for the darkened bottom right of the picture - my shadow got in the way of the shading :P, but I think you can see what's happened so far.  I'm going to move down even further in hardness of pencil next time - probably a 2H to further define and sharpen the dark areas.  I haven't decided if I want to add highlights to the eyeballs just yet.  I'm kinda liking how he's looking so far.

Kitty Complete!

I took a vacation day today as my 5 year old was home (PD day).  So I took the extra time to push things further along and finally finished the kitty image.  Well, I think it's done anyway.  I can't come up with any more damage I can do to it - so I declare it DONE!

To finish things off, I worked on the darks and lights of the fur to make it seem silky and shiny.  I was trying for very healthy and luxurious fur.  Then I sprayed the entire drawing with a workable fixative.  This allows me to work on the topmost highlights and whiskers without smudging up the work so far. (Warning about workable fixative - be sure that you are not going to want to do any more erasing on the original work as you can only add to the pic after "fixing" it.  You can erase anything you add, but nothing below that.)

So, I sprayed it thoroughly (it really sucks to think you've "fixed" a picture and then find out otherwise after the fact) and then applied the whiskers and some extra white to some of the highlights.  I haven't done the final spray to protect the image yet, but here's the finished piece:

If you'd like to see the steps it took to get to this final image, check out my past blog postings with "Kitty" titles.

Do you know anyone with a black cat that would like a drawing like this?  Or perhaps someone who really likes black cats?  Send me a message and we can talk ;)

I had some time left over so I thought I'd start tackling the skull image again.  As I said before, I was having trouble with some of the shading aspects.  I've been reading James Gurney's book "Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist" and he said that one of the best ways to deal with this type of problem is to make a maquette.  Essentially this is a model of your subject, usually made from clay or some other sculpting medium.  Since I didn't have any clay, I used some of my kids' play dough (home made):

One of the disadvantages of using play dough is that it's very soft and squishy so it doesn't hold the shape well or for long while you're holding it.  The advantage to doing a maquette, I found, was that I could see how the image should be in 3D.  It helped me make the image more accurate around the eyes and cheek bones.  I still have a bit of work to do on this one, mostly shading, but hopefully not too much more. This is what the drawing looks like now (can you see the name in the skull?):

Spring is definitely in the air in Kitchener!  I took some very nice pics of the crocuses growing in my garden and I may do a painting of one of them next.

James Gurney is the creator/author/illustrator of the Dinotopia books.  I've added Gurney's books to my recommended booklist.  If you're interested in checking out his blog, you can find it here: www.gurneyjourney.blogspot.ca/

Kitty Part IV

We might actually finish this piece soon!  It can be difficult when there is so much detail to decide when you are "done".  We aren't there yet (as you will see), but I think we're in the home stretch!

I had a horrible flu this weekend so I didn't get to do any work on kitty here, but this morning went very well.  I have found in the past that if you aren't able to focus (even a little) on what you are doing then you will likely do more harm than good and you should leave it for now.  Today was a different story however, and I was able to make good progress.

So first of all, I tried the kneaded eraser to remove the offending arm.  Remember what I said about the green paper?  Ya, I noticed pretty quick that this wasn't the way to do it.  All I had was a green arm over a black body - not very realistic!  So instead, I went over the area with black conte (much better result) and used an eraser to re-shape the arm.  I had to go back to my reference photo for this.  And then I started applying the lights and darks.

I think the arm looks much more appropriate to the rest of the body shape now and even comes forward toward the viewer better.  Since I still had some time left over, I started putting in the lights and darks and shadows on the grass and leaves (right side of pic).  Instead of using a stump to blend the grey tones, I used an acrylic paint brush (natural hair) to sweep in the direction of the leaves.  The brush creates a much softer blending than the stump and I will be using it in my final application of fur on kitty (you can see that I've actually already done some on the new arm).

I'm not too happy with the leaves in the top left and I still have to do the shading, etc on the left side grass area, but we are in the home stretch now.  If I hold my breath and think it very quietly, I might even finish this week - but don't tell anyone ;)

Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

I had to take a break from the skull image for a bit.  There are some details with it that I'm trying to work out.  But in the meantime, I had this guy in my head suddenly for the last few days and thought I'd try to see what comes of it.

As you can see, I'm using a reference photo for the inspiration of this one.  It's still in the preliminary stages, but you can see that I've got the shape defined as well as the major lights and darks.  This piece is being done in conte on green canson paper. 

There's still a lot to do on it, but I'm pretty much done with the reference photo at this point.

What I will be focusing on next are the eyes.  In my opinion the eyes can make or break an image.  If you get the eyes right, viewers will forgive other minor deviations, but get them wrong and the whole image is wrong!  Unfortunately my understanding of cat eye biology is limited so I'm going to have to do some research to get them just right.  Because I like to work in a "realistic" manner, I will also double check my shape placements before continuing with the midtones, lights and darks. 

I plan to better define the grass and clover leaves so they are thick and lush-looking.  I also have to better define the light source (from the right).

Blog Update!

I have added new pics to the "Drawings" page if you are interested.  I've also added some details on what they were made with.