Author: Toadsongs

Toadsongs https://toadsongs.wordpress.com I am an artist, writer, mom and wife.

State Fair Time

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Monday was the deadline for signing up for the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Competition. It is a highly competitive show with artists from all across the state. Hundreds enter, but only a fraction of us get in each year. I have decided to enter my newest drawing “Lipstick” which isn’t quite finished yet. Here it is as it stands tonight:

I need to straighten the horizon line, crop the entire piece, deepen the shadows on the left, lighten the toad in the mirror and blend the toad in front better. I am not sure about the blue background or the black background in the mirror. I might make the handkerchief on the right more cream than white. I need to alter the shadows around the lipstick base. So, in other words, I am close to finishing it! :p

I have entered the State Fair four or five times and only made it in once. The first time I tried, “Nesting Snapper” made it in. “Nesting Snapper” was my first large colored pencil piece and she took me over a year to complete.

Making it into the fair really validated my use of colored pencil as a serious medium, so lets hope one of these years I will get in again! Good luck everyone, and I can’t wait to see the show at the fair.

LoLa Art Crawl

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This year I am participating in the League of Longfellow Artists’ 2011 art crawl. It is happening August 27th and 28th and I am very excited to be a part of it. The LoLa Art Crawl takes place in the greater Longfellow neighborhood in South Minneapolis. We have a lot of talented people in the neighborhood and I look forward to seeing everyone’s art! A listing of the participating artists can be found by clicking here.

I hope you can come out and see us!

Art I Like

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I spend a lot of time looking at artwork, for my day job and even at home. Sometimes all that art can blend together, and so I feel that it is important for me to pause and think about the artwork that I really like. Here are a few of the artists that have impressed me lately.

Beth Cavener Stitcher’s work is breathtaking. The scale of her ceramic animals is mind boggling, and that is only the beginning. I hope to see some of her work in person some day, because as powerful as they are in photographs, the real thing has to be even more incredible.

Ranjini Venkatachari is one of my favorite colored pencil artists. I especially like her brightly colored works. Her art really illustrates the luminance one can achieve with colored pencil.

Then there is Doug Bloodworth. I love everything about his “pop” body of work; the colors, the subjects (especially the Oreos), and of course how ridiculously real they are. His paintings are so vibrant and fun; I would love to be able to achieve his level of detail in oil paint some day. Not only that, but many of his works are huge, which only magnifies the awesomeness.

Making of “Waiting for His Kiss”

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One of the forums I like to visit has a lot of “work in progress” posts where you can watch as the artist updates the thread with different stages of their art piece. I am much too impatient for them and usually wait until there are a few pages of posts and skip to the end.

The process is fun to watch, I just like it condensed. So beginning after the very first stage of “Waiting for His Kiss” I began snapping photos of my progress with my phone. Here is the resulting .gif.

Waiting for His Kiss Progression

I don’t know if anyone can learn much from the progression, but it is cool to watch the drawing come to life. Next time I’ll try to use more consistent lighting!

“Waiting for his Kiss”

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Drawing Copyright Janie Mork2011

Next week, my colored pencil drawing “Waiting for His Kiss” will be shipped to Texas for the Colored Pencil Society of America’s 19th annual International Exhibition. I am very excited. This was my first year joining the CPSA. I was first attracted by their guide that lists the most lightfast colored pencils and their work to bring more recognition to the medium. What made me really want to join is the ridiculous quality of the work of its members. Colored pencil is not often thought of as a high art medium, but the results you can achieve with them are amazing. It is an honor to be accepted in to the Exhibition, and I look forward to seeing the award winners!