Ahh Painting...

Today was a day of painting.  I spent hours working with the brush and honing my brushstrokes to perfection.  I prepared the surface in an exacting manner - sanding and washing.  Then I meticulously taped the edges to prevent transfer of the paint and keep things "contained" in the wanted space only.  The paint I picked up a few days ago, though this project had been in the working for months.

My daughters helped choose the exact "tone" of the project.  My eldest even added her own touch with the brush.  I have to admit that this particular medium is new to me.  I've had it explained to me several times in the past, how to go about doing it and I always listened in awe and amazement.  I watched videos.  I read books.  Now it was time to finally act.

Success is mine!  My girls' room now has 2 purple-pink walls.  It's very girly and they both LOVE it!  It was both easier and harder than I had expected.  I have done this once before, but the room was much smaller and I had help.  I noticed that after finishing the first wall that I was EXHAUSTED!  Who knew that wall painting took that much out of you?!  But I was able to cross off a major project from my list and I can go to bed satisfied in a job well done.

I didn't completely slack off in the art department though.  I have done some research on cat eyes (thank you internet) and to my surprise I have found that cat eyes are very diverse in shape.  Not the eyeball of course, but the lids and the way they sit in the face.  Now I get to try to narrow down what I'd like.  However, I am also thinking that the picture itself might best be able to tell me what eyes it should have, so maybe we'll have a heart-to-heart instead.

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.  

Another update to the blog

I've added 2 new pages to the blog, "Drawings" and "Paintings" (see the tabs above).  As you may have guessed, these each showcase various drawings and paintings that I have done.  Right now I only have a few because they were readily available.  I have to collect a few more to round out the displays (some are on my old computer which isn't in the best shape).

So keep an eye on these pages for updates.  Also, let me know if there's anything you'd like to see or would like to know about the images!

Rain (sigh)

It's a very rainy day in Kitchener today.  Rainy days tend to make me feel more sleepy than usual.  I should be excited because the weather is warming up and this means spring is around the corner.  And I am happy about that.  It just doesn't add any energy to my efforts :P Plus it doesn't help that I am working on a tonal, monochromatic picture.  Bleak all around.

My 5 year old is home this week - March break.  She spent the morning drawing with me in my studio. Her self-portrait is a much better effort than my work today!

I wonder what other artists do to keep up their energy on days like this.  It sure didn't stop my daughter from creating something she clearly loved.  Maybe the next rainy day I should try following her example and work on something with a lot of colour!

Updating the Blog

Hello!

As you can see, I have been hard at work updating the usefulness of this blog.  I have a list of cool sites that I recommend anyone checking out.  Quite a few with *FREE* lessons for drawing and painting (I LOVE the internet!).

There is a listing of books I have used and am currently using.  I highly recommend all of them if you want to learn how to draw or paint.

I also have a new page with information on what materials I am currently working with.  I will be updating this page with pictures soon.

I hope you like the new template and organization!  Please check out the links and feel free to comment on anything you like, don't like, or recommend!

Diversity!

I am very surprised at how a creative hobby such as drawing can be so diverse.  Last month, I was working on images of a cute baby lamb for my sister.

This week I am working on a sinister, evil skull with my nephew's name hidden in it for my other sister.
 

I've gotta say that I am very much enjoying the diversity and challenge!!

Keeping Focus...or trying to anyway

I am not a full-time working artist, though I would love to be.  I have an alternate full-time job as a food chemist during the off-shift.  I also have two small children and a husband.  I have a house and multiple projects (not art related) that also make demands on my time.  Not to mention eating, sleeping, grocery shopping, and all the other things necessary to life.

I've read the odd book here and there about commitment to one's work (which I think I have) and scheduling it into your day.  Some of them warn against the "distractors" like laundry and paying bills.  I laughed and to an extent agreed with them.  These are necessary things but they will take all your time if you let them.  But how do you manage to find time to be creative when you have millions of other demands on your time?  Do other mommy artists suffer from the same problem?  I  don't feel I have enough time for the important things in my life (this blog being a new addition to that list :) ), and my time machine has broken down again.

Prioritizing helps.  I have committed 2-3 hours, 3 days a week to what I call "art time".  This is the time I can lock myself in my "studio" and solely focus on being artistically creative.  I also spend a lot of the free time I do have (bathroom breaks, waiting in lines, etc) to come up with ideas for my "art time".  I almost always have multiple ideas to take into my studio, which I then have to break down into something I'd really like to do.  More often than not though I have multiple projects on the go.

The other thing that I find gets a lot of focus is learning about art.  In my case drawing in pencil, conte, and ink, watercolour painting, etc.  There are just too many resources out there to read from and I keep coming across more basic skills to learn.  I'm always worried that I'm missing some important skill that I should be developing.  I think it might be developing into a bad habit (who knew learning could be a bad habit?) that is distracting me from actually doing and practicing and creating.

I am always looking for new ideas and tips (another distractor I expect).  But I'd love to know that I'm not alone in this.  If you're a full or part-time artist, what do you do to keep your focus in a world of distractions?