Sweet Chalk Fest 2016

The Sweet Chalk Fest 2016 in Lockport, NY was another success. It was another learning experience. It was another event in which I made friends.

Per my previous post, poison dart frogs made their way to my piece. I had a final size of 8x10 ft. I approached this years subject in a different way. Using the edges to create dimension. I wanted to break into the 3D frame of mind and think I did all right for the first time. I chose to show the frog and a hidden buddy hanging out on a ginger flower. Ginger flowers come in a variety of colors. I took artistic liberty with mine. I went for pink.

We enjoyed my friend's wedding the night before. I arrived with hubby in tow to set up by 11am and began my prep work a little behind schedule.

I started by gridding out the 8x10 space. Then drew the outlines of the piece leaving bare blacktop for contrast. This was my first year using Tempera paint and it really did help with the chalk and fingers. I painted it on and then regridded inside the drawing space. At the end of day one I had most of the base color down and the overall shape defined.

The finished result! I was happy with the look of it and regret not getting a ladder shot. It took 14 hours of chalk time. My family helped with set up, take down, sunscreen/burn monitoring, hydration, blood sugar, and moral support. My sister, Grace was a trooper and kept me on track. When I get in work mode I tend to obsess and forget to take care of myself. Ellen and her volunteers were fantastic as
always in addition to my support team.




I learned some new techniques this year and met some really cool artists!

One of which, took this working shot of me in the finishing stages. Thank you Alex for all your wisdom and awesomeness!

I used synthetic suede fabric cut into strips for blending like I have done in years past. My friend from Florida, Alex told me about using cuts of indoor/outdoor carpet for blending. This doesn't waste as much pigment and can cover a large area with no risk to your finger tips. Also, packing foam sheets wrapped around finger tips are good for areas of detail. I used a lot of hair spray to get the black chalk to stick on the frog's spots when tempera paint could have helped with detail in hindsight. I also saw that some artists would tape off edges with painters tape for cleaner lines when finished. I will end up doing the same the future. Thanks, Debbie. 

Alex and I at the end of the festival. 

Ellen Martin, the mastermind behind this event and our community champion. 

I know there are more photos out there with other artists that will soon get to me. For now enjoy other artist's work. Thank you for your enthusiastic support for chalk art. Our festival goers make it all worth it, even when it rains the very next day. 

All names and festival information can be found here:
http://sweetsweetsummer.com/sweetsweetsummer.com/Pics_of_2016.html

Sweet Chalk Prep 2016

The Lockport Sweet Chalk Festival is July 16th and 17th this year. 

July is the month of celebrations. My dear friend, Laura, is getting married July 15th! Yup, the Friday before the festival. That means I miss out on the reception and chance to prep my grid ahead of time. I will be dancing the night away, and lets be honest, drinking too much wine. 

I started the prep work for the festival this past week. For the past two months I have agonized over my subject choice. I bounced from one idea to another. I had my selections narrowed down to a bald eagle, sea turtle, or tree frogs. I was set on the bald eagle until I realized that anything with feathers would take too long to draw and shade. I will already be late Saturday morning and have to set up my grid hungover. The basic drawing can't have too much detail to transfer from paper to pavement. I have been obsessed with sea turtles. I enjoyed my sea horses last year so decided to not do a sea themed subject again this year. So no ocean or sky critters. The release of the live action Jungle Book set me on track for a rainforest theme for my piece. 

I wised up and got graph paper for the quick sketches. I love efficiency these days. 

I sketched tucans, again, this is me refusing to let go of the bird idea. I sketched tree frogs-the poison dart variety are my favorite. I also sketched some jaguars. My husband gave helped me reign in my over-eager tendencies and voted for tree frogs. I did a lion the first year so the jaguar was too similar. Capturing more than one animal would be too adventurous as well.

The sketch on the bottom left is the winner. Three poison dart frogs in various positions on a ginger flower. Colors to be determined. Frogs are great-smooth, spotted, and bright. I will be taking advantage of black tempura on the pavement before chalking. The use of the tempura will help with shading and preserving my precious pastels. Due to the leggy nature of my amphibians, I will be adding height to the asphalt canvas-making this my largest piece to date. 

I will be getting the grid measurements set and then the final detail drawing on the small scale. After the drawing is completed I then try to make it to scale. This process involves me turning into a giant child and drawing with sidewalk chalk in my drive way. I will make paper templates of the more detailed parts. When its time to go to the driveway I will document and blog about it in more detail . I did something similar last year and it worked out splendidly. 

I'm so excited!!! This is the fourth year as a featured artist and it gets better each year. I can't wait to share it again with you. Stay tuned. 

Molly the Bull Dog

We have a couple near and dear to our hearts that I wanted to thank for being such amazing friends. Chris and Mandy have celebrated a lot with us in the past year as we prepared and welcomed Jackie into the world. They have a special baby of their own, a bull dog named Molly.

Whenever I had a free and art driven moment I worked on the portrait of Molly. I had a couple pictures to reference but this is the one I liked the most. She is such a sweetie!!!

I have been working on some watercolor and other oil pastel pieces and finally getting back into the swing of things! The Sweet Chalk Festival in Lockport is coming up so soon already, still trying to pick a subject for it to begin pre-work. Stay tuned!

Hello 2016-Clearing Out!

It has been awhile! So much is new and exciting these days.

This past November, we welcomed our first born child! My daughter, Jacqueline Rose Tomaino!

Since then life has moved at such a pace it became a blur. I'm bringing art back into focus in 2016 with some help from family. However, the amount of baby gear in my house is taking over and some of my art that I have been holding needs to find homes.

So I have updated prices on this blog. I will be posting through Facebook first, then soon through Etsy. I am letting go of my originals, I do not have prints at this time.

Please feel free to take a look through my pages, they are organized by medium. A quick list for those who follow and are familiar:

Ink Study-Nature: $15
Ink Study-Flower: $10
Shoe: $80
Pumpkin: $80
Hand Over Hip: $100 with frame
Cardinal in the Rough: $10
Mountain Bird: $15
The Kind King: $30
Sunset Red: $25
Blink of Blue: $15
Pebbles and parrot Fish: $15
Daydream Road: $10
Myrtle Beach: $15
Whir Away: $30
Charge!: $30
The River Driver: $80
Handsome the Reindeer: $100
Lady of the Leaf: $10.00
The Murrel Magnolia: $50

You can look forward to more pet portraits, horses, abstract nature studies, and some watercolor pieces in the next year.

The Sweet Chalk Festival is July 16th and 17th this year. I have yet to pick a subject, but can't wait to see everyone again. If you have not been, you are missing out! Pencil the dates in your planners if you are planner obsessed like me.

Introducing Wyatt

In Fall of 2014 we decided that our 2 year old Springer Spaniel, Ruby, would benefit from having a friend. We knew we wanted another English Springer Spaniel for sure, the debate was to rescue or buy from a breeder. With Ruby's history we decided to get a pup from a breeder. We contacted Springville Springers, in Ontario, Canada. We made arrangements to go meet the parents of our pup and place a deposit. We found our Springville Wild Wyatt; a black and white male field type English Springer Spaniel. We made arrangements to bring him over the border and brought him home in January of 2015.

    

Wyatt is my barking alarm clock who is always eager for breakfast. He likes to stand between my legs and the kitchen counters and has done so since he was a baby. He likes to shred paper goods and dig holes outside in the yard. He is eager to please. Wyatt likes to cuddle after 7pm. He makes the "derpiest" of faces and makes me laugh all the time. He loves to chase assorted toys, cotton wood puffs on the wind, Ruby, and butterflies.

Ruby became nurturing, shared her toys, and eventually let him sleep near her in the month after bringing him home. He is now taller than her and soon will be heavier. This is typical of field Springers. Ruby is a mix between the show and field variety. They are buddies and I can't even explain the love I have for them.

 

When ruby was about 7 months old I did a portrait of her for our home. Puppies rarely stop moving except for when they are sleeping. This is when the are angelic! So I snapped a snoozing picture and used it as reference for the oil pastel portrait. 

To see Ruby's portrait, click the link:

http://wildatheartillustration.blogspot.com/2013/10/introducing-ruby.html

This is the picture I used for reference of Wyatt:

Normally, a black dog is a tricky subject. Lucky for me, Wyatt's coat is shiny and I had a good picture for reference. I started with a line drawing on an 11x14 inch mixed media paper. 

(This is the half way point.)

I used a variety of colors for all shading. For black I typically use blues and purples. I clean up edges and lines with colored pencil. I have to say the yellow background was a nice change for me. The shadwos are once again a combination of blues, purples, and browns, but there is even some green and maroon in there!

"Wyatt" The finished piece. 

Both of my furbaby portraits are on the wall now. They are one of the first things you see when you walk through the door besides the models themselves who rush to greet you.

My handsome goofball in more recent photos. 

Thank you for stopping in. Stay tuned for future works.