Flat Coat Comfy

Drawing a living animal-not a still life. I'm not a fan of those...

Good thing Keeper is such a good dog. He knows hes handsome. I sometimes call him Loverboy and sing the song from Dirty Dancing to him. He always obliges me with a dance of course! The gentleman he is!

I took advantage of him curled up on my Mom's bed one night and he stayed just long enough for me to illustrate him. This was my 3rd attempt at drawing him with oil pastel. I find the dark dogs especially challenging. Flat Coated Retrievers have such shiny thick coats. Its a skill I'm mastering.

Keeper in real life enjoying his pool.

I did snap a few pictures of him on the bed but I didn't necessarily want this drawing to look super realistic. Before he had come from my fingers as cartoony so this drawing was a step up from that. The Flat Coat Retriever lovers know they can be cartoony with their personalities though!

My artistic translation:

I don't typically like to use black for detail because it is such a flat color. I introduced grays, white, blue and purple in his coat with some texture. I then went into the background and used the rich colors of olive green, gold, browns, and the cranberry red.

 I can't tell you how much I like the lime green/olive and deep cranberry color combo. I love it; can be rustic and fresh at the same time. 

There will be more of Keeper in the future, he is a celebrity in my family! 

Print Test Results

They are in!

I ordered prints of my work praying they would come out the way I have wanted them to.

Before I got to the point of my artwork I had spent months trying to figure out if I should use a local print shop or go online. My husband and I have revisited the idea of moving out of state so I chose to go the online route.

I found a really awesome website: www.finerworks.com
It was really refreshing to find a website for prints that give information to artists trying the printing route. I have already learned a lot. I appreciated that you can order a paper sample book before prints and they credit back the amount towards your prints at a future date. To be honest, all the paper samples were impressive and this decision was not easy for my test prints. I figured I would do one painting and one oil pastel for texture and color. They didn't take long at all to come in; I think maybe a week.

Whir Away (hummingbird) and The Kind King (lion) were my choices for this test.

I have had trouble scanning and printing The Kind King before due to the white and yellows. I did a 11x14 on UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper for the lion (the original size is 11x14).

I am so thrilled!

For prints we had deepened some of the brown hues in anticipation of a wash out. This was a good decision.

Next up is Whir Away which is an oil painting on canvas. I did a 11x14 print of that on Matte Canvas (not mounted). This is why there is such a wide border around the image-its meant to wrap. I probably won't order a loose canvas print again. I wanted as close as possible to the original texture of the work but I think on paper is fine too. This site offers prints on mounted canvas. For my distribution needs I wouldn't go that route.

Again, I am very happy!

The original work is on 16x20 canvas. Sorry about the glare off the gloss of the painting. The print and original work are dead on with each other in this case. The vivid green held well.

Now that I finally have a print source I'm moving on to how to master the online shop. Finerworks has an option to sell your work on their site the the print goes directly the the customer and that can cut down on shipping costs. (Can I say crazy?)

If only I could stock an inventory! I may have to go the print to order route in the beginning.

I have quite the learning curve ahead of me and I am so thankful for all the support I have gotten so far.

In the Deep

This is the one that started the passion for oil pastel in me.

I was trying to think of a good gift to get my best friend, Kim, for her birthday. I'm really bad at keeping track of birthdays so it was late but the look on her face was awesome anyway. She loves anything nautical. Stories of sea monsters and krackens delight my Caribbean history fan of a friend. (Shes a professor in the subject now at SU) Gifts you make for a friend out of love are always best.

I was at work (Wilson Tuscarora State Park) in the front booth. Bored. I always brought things to do so I had my pastels with me just in case inspiration should hit and man did it!!!

I didn't have a picture in front of me. I just drew from the image in my head. My creepy fantastical purple/pink octopus came to me. Its tentacles curling around and and stretching out and if you could be prey it was too late because your staring into its eye! I really enjoyed varying the textures in this work and playing with the colors. I'm a huge fan of the combo of fuchsia/purples and orange.

The "white" has its own texture in this work and for printing the purple was made darker. The original is on display in my other home away from home with Kim and her family. It still commands my attention when I visit. I can't tell you how much I loved drawing this octopus. So he may reappear in future work...

Maybe even in a short story/children's book? Hmm...

This is the work from farther away in a vignette shot by my favorite photographer Carolyn McAfee. Visit her blog at http://www.ccmcafeephotographytheblog.com/

Cardinal in the Rough

When I got my hands on oil pastels I drew for hours.

Cardinals are one of my favorite birds. So vibrant! I see them all year round. They are the bright cherry flutter of feathers that you see out of the corner of your eye while walking out the door. I can't help but smile when I see them. One of my favorite images of winter. They can move so fast you might miss them and all you see are the echoes of color behind their motion.

My cardinal is small and round, perched just so. I wanted the texture to describe the blur of movement; the pine branch bending so slightly before the cardinal releases it. He sits so proud and sure.

This was the piece that I recognized the potential of texture with oil pastel.

I hope you enjoy him as much as I do, my diamond/cardinal in the rough!

Charcoal of Choice

My husband's favorite!

Charcoal is a great drawing medium for realism. I find it to be soft enough for expression but workable enough for proper presentation. When I was in school I really appreciated charcoal. Vine charcoal for quick sketching and learning that your fingers can be herculean in strength, a little too much so. I can't tell you how many pieces I broke. My fingers were black a lot. I decided then that manicures would never be my thing. So here is some of my older work:

I will be doing a cowboy boot one at some point in the future. I love that the shoe still conveys texture. 

My favorite fall item! 

Our lovely lady model in life drawing class. I find portraits to be exhausting. I don't enjoy them. I would need 6-8 hours of completely uninterrupted time to give a portrait a real effort. I have met people that can draw a fascinating one in less than a half hour and I'm always blown away!

Skeletal fingers with hip and spine. I enjoy this subject matter because it is more abstract and you can create negative space. This one I'm particularly fond of and I'm not sure I could ever let go of. I just need to find a room that it isn't too creepy to live in for my future house. 

Tim asks me all the time if I would ever get back into charcoal. While I was visiting in Arizona a few years back I found my self drawn to more artwork that was charcoal and gave it a serious thought. There is just something about it that can really capture someone so perfectly:

I don't know the artist but there was an entire Western themed art collection that was free to the public to view. 

I will leave the black fingers and dust off my rental walls and space for now.