Artwork

Finished!

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After two months of drawing, I think I’m finally finished with my latest colored pencil piece. “Reflection.” Thank God! I still want to do a mixed media piece to enter into the CPSA‘s Explore This expo, and the deadline is November 15th! The Colored Pencil Society has been a great motivator form e this year. This will be the fifth finished piece I have done in 2011. I usually finish one or two at the most. Here’s “Reflection.” I may enter it into next year’s International Expo, but because it is 100% colored pencil it doesn’t qualify for the CPSA’s upcoming show.

I can already see more things I’d like to change.  We’re close, though.  I took good photos along the way and hope to have an animated gif of the process put together soon. This is the same toad who posed for me in “Lipstick.” I liked the reflection idea and whipped up a three way mirror with some tiles from Micheal’s.

My next piece will feature a new fabulous amphibian model (although to be fair, all of my models look pretty much alike.) It will be colored pencil with some acrylic paint to qualify it for “Explore This.” It is also more in the vein of “Lipstick.” I can’t wait to get started.

A different kind of art

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I have been working on my colored pencil drawing of a toad looking into a three-way mirror for almost two months now and am very excited to finish. It’s a delicate balance between hurrying and concentrating at this point. This is what my drawing board looks like; 3/4 of the way done:

There is a lot to be done with it, but the colors are really beginning to come together, at least on the main toad. I should be working on it now, but I am becoming overwhelmed by a different kind of art. National Novel Writing Month is November, which is coming up super fast. Something about the fall makes me need to write; it may be the memory of  high school. I did more writing in class than listening, taking tests, and daydreaming about David Duchovny combined. The dead leaves and early sunset just beg for an all-nighter just between me and Word.

As a person with a real  job, a kid, a house, and a desire to do art, I have little time or motivation for writing much at all anymore. “NaNo” brings millions of terrible writers together to pen their  50,000 word novel in a month’s time and share in the glory (or horror) of putting pen to paper. Last year I decided to try it for the first time.

I “won” last year with a “novel” about snake people. I liked the story, but realized after finishing I need to work on it A LOT. Writing is so unlike colored pencil drawing in that nothing is set in stone. You can always erase words; ten layers of Prismacolor not so much. Of course, my last year’s novel still needs serious help and I didn’t get very far in the revision process. It is the third “novel” I have a first draft of, and so I feel that maybe all of this is a waste. My instincts will not rest, however. The minute autumn arrives my body and brain NEED to write. So here we are. I am planning on a brand new “novel” stemming from an idea I had on a road trip in September 2008 about being on maternity leave with the devil. Drawing will no doubt fall by the wayside as I squeeze in 1000+ words of writing each day for 30 days. Join me!

Why toads?

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I had a very good experience at the LoLa Art Crawl this past weekend. I was at Glacier’s Cafe on Minnehaha across from the Hub. We had great weather, good traffic, and really good frozen custard and sandwiches. Thanks to Ben and everyone at Glacier’s for a great time! My only complaint would be that I wished I could have gone out to crawl some of the other spaces myself.

I had a lot of interesting conversations with people about many different topics. Some wildlife rehab volunteers told me about rehabbing snapping turtles. I directed a young artist to Wet Paint in St. Paul for the best selection of truly artist quality colored pencils. The question I got most was “why toads?”

I know I gave a different answer every time. Sometimes I talked about the wonder of frogs and toads in fairy tales, other times I just said that they make me smile. I do  think there is more to it than that ; I identify with their ugliness and their ordinariness.  Their individuality is lost on the people they come in contact with. They are defined instead by the odd place where they were found or how close they got to your lawn mower blades. Instead of the princess, I feel like the toad. Perhaps there is some magic behind this toad skin; perhaps not. I just know that this really does make me smile.

 

 

 

 

Busy August!

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Great news; “Lipstick” made it into the Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts show. Last year 413 pieces were shown out of 2330 entries, so it is a huge honor! I am excited to see the show and the other entries and eat a few cheese curds and Australian potatoes!

I decided to straighten the horizon and crop in on the drawing from all sides. Here it is in it’s final state:
Lipstick colored pencil drawing I was going to exhibit it at the LoLa Art Crawl if it didn’t make it, but since it did, I am making a few prints of it. At work I have access to an Epson 11880, a great giclee printer. I plan on listing a couple prints up in my Etsy Shop.

In addition to the Fair and the LoLa Art Crawl, this month brings us the Cold Blood Creations Art Show held in conjunction with the National Reptile Breeder’s Expo in Daytona, Florida. I have been participating in this show for years, and it is a great time. The art is right on the expo floor with hundreds of beautiful reptiles and amphibians for sale at the largest reptile expo in the U.S. This year I am sending my colored pencil drawing “Shiraz” down to be a part of the show.

Shiraz Colored Penci Drawing

It’s going to be a busy August!

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.