The Start of my First Painting for 2016

I know the month is half over and I'm just now starting my first painting of 2016.  Seems a bit out of character for me but things have been very hectic.  I started out the year with some sort of respitory virus that really caused me to slow down and then last week I have the start of an ongoing family medical emergency that is requiring daily trips to the hospital.  I also know that the more hours you spend in the hospital your chances of catching some sort of sickness goes up exponentially and so for a second time this month I found myself once again on the sick bed.  So even with the best laid plans to make 2016 my ART YEAR, I'm here on January 21st and not having much to show creatively for the past few weeks.

I was able to add one sketch in my artistic journal while waiting in the hospital surgery waiting room.  I drew a jersey calf because I plan to start a painting.  Sketching details that you plan to add as components in your composition help you to understand the subject and also help you paint it with more accuracy.  This little sketch is only with graphite pencils and a little black ink but my other recent cow sketches are done using Prismacolor colored pencils.

After completing these two renderings, I decided that I really liked how the soft brown of the Jersey calf rather than the little holster looked against the blue of the morning glories.  So a Jersey cow it is with his big brown eyes and soft brown fur.  Now that I have actually started the painting on a 24x36 canvas and am painting it vertically for the emphasis on height, I have decided to add the mother cow to the composition.  I only have her roughly sketched in with a white pastel pencil but I think there was just going to be way too much blank space without her.  This piece is just roughly blocked in at this point and if I can stay healthy long enough I hope to make real progress on it this weekend.  I will share some progress photos of the work in my future blog posts so please keep check back.

If you like my work and would like to see more, check out my website at JulieTownsendStudio.com.  Also consider leaving a comment below.  I would love to hear from you.

The Start of Something Big....

So as part of my Year Of Art in 2016, I want to create a portfolio of sketches.  Don't worry, I will continue to paint on canvases and cowbells,  but I want to develop my skills in the illustration arena.  I've been reading a number of articles about getting your art licensed and this thought excites me. The one e-book suggests that you take 3-6 months and develop a portfolio of ideas so that you can share them with potential companies that buy art for licensing.  I will make a little confession here that a secret dream of mine for years has been to have my art published on a Leaning Tree card so art licensing has been a goal of mine long time.

The last several days I have been a bit under the weather, so yesterday I brought all my drawing supplies out of the studio and arranged them near the sofa and the warmth of the wood stove.  I spent a good portion of the day drinking hot tea, watching movies, drawing and trying to stay warm.  The result of these efforts is a little 5x7 sketch that I'm calling "Take the Time to Enjoy a Good Book".  I think this idea has potential to make a cute card.

"Take Time to Enjoy a Good Book"- 

So my first sketch for my portfolio is almost finished.  I need to decide if I should do something to the background at this point.  I don't want to distract from the book but if I put a light color for the background then the book might actually stand out more.  It a lot of light colors so I can see a beige watercolor wash perhaps.

Here are some other recent drawings I have done for my darling grandchildren for their birthdays. I'm trying to create a unique piece of art for each grandchild as part of their birthday gift from me.  I never liked buy cards from the rack and so I thought it would be much better if I tried to create them something special.  These are the three 3 year old grandchildren and I had so much fun turning them each into little cartoon characters.

JoJoda....The Force is Strong With This One!

Katherine- and her "Lovely Lime Green Tutu"

"It's a Bird, It's a Plane...no It's Super Noah"

2016- The Art Year

I have several times spoken about the influence that artist Tim Gagnon had on me in regards to starting my art journey. I thought, on this last day of 2015,  I would just remind everyone of his contribution and how his online lessons helped restore my confidence and enabled me to pick up a paint brush after nearly 30 years.

It was back in 2010 and I had just taken a drawing 101 course at the local community college with my youngest son.  I wanted to keep that momentum going by taking a painting course.  I stumbled upon Tim's 12-week online painting lesson while searching for alternative options to taking a painting class at the college.  My interest has always been with landscape painting and I figured that in a traditional college setting I might not be able to learn techniques needed to paint in the style I was interested in.  Not to mention the travel and time involved with attending classes.  Tim's online landscape lessons were perfect and I have been a fan of his work ever since.

Today, I saw that he was declaring 2016 The Art Year and was starting a new blog just for that purpose. He was saying exactly what I have been thinking in my own pursuit of art.  I have been doing a lot of questioning about where I want to be and how am I going to get there.  I've been doing a great of thinking about co-op galleries, art licensing and self-promotion.  What is been effective in advancing my art and what are actually distracting me from pushing myself towards my goals?

 I believe that I too am going to take up Tim's challenge to make this year MY ART YEAR and spend more time pursuing creativity and personal change in my life.  This blog that I have been contributing to since early 2011 will also be getting a complete makeover.  I encourage you comment about what 2016 is going to bring for you and to follow this blog.  Be sure to check out Tim's new blog at Tim Gagnon.