Designated Drawing Spaces

Just in these past few weeks, I discovered a new artist friend that I have found to be very inspiring.  It is Katherine Thomas and her whimsical drawings immediately caught my attention.  She is also an successful blogger and uses a number of social media platforms to promote her art.  I find that combination very cool and something I want to work to improve in my own quest for self-promotion.

Last week I saw a picture that she posted on Facebook of her sitting at her drawing table and that was when I decided I needed to reorganize my studio and make a designated drawing area along side of my easel. Drawing has always been my first love in art and I passionately believe that you are a better painter if you spend time actively drawing on a regular basis.  

So, I spent a good portion of my day on Sunday organizing and cleaning the studio and  I am pretty happy with the ending results.  Even though it was getting late in the day when I finally finished and I was a bit worn out, I just had to try out my drawing table and do some sketching.

Here are the results of those efforts. My subject for my sketch was a little selfie of my husband and I.  Portraits are always a challenge and drawing a self portrait compounds that challenge.  I drew this on Canson 96lb Bristol paper with my Prismacolor Fine Line Markers and Prismacolor Colored Pencils. 

Looking at my little sketch makes me smile.

I guess you could say I'm a Prismacolor girl since obviously  I own so many of their products.  

FOR WHOM THE COWBELL TOLLS?

Perhaps a commissioned cowbell tolls for you!  


I know it may sound like I'm bragging here this morning, but think it takes some skill as an artist to do a commission piece from a small photograph.  I've heard horror stories about artists trying to use a tiny, faded, wrinkled black and white photo of grandma to capture everything that the family remembers of her years after she has passed away.  I can only imaging how very hard it would be to make a realistic portrait on a canvas under these circumstances.  My commission experience wasn't anything so drastic but I was asked to paint a commission bell of of a beloved pet, in this case a horse and transfer that likeness to the small 4"x 6" metal surface of a cowbell. This morning I decided to share with you my experience.

Painting so many of these cowbells have given me some valuable practice and I think, just like consistently drawing in my sketchbook, these small artworks are also giving me valuable practice as an artist.  Painting small can be a real challenge because I naturally prefer to paint much larger. Today, I can report that I'm feeling much more confident at painting in general and I can almost paint chickens in my sleep. 

Up to this point, my cowbell commissions have been pretty non-specific and rather more a general theme such as "Can you paint me a rooster, a cow or a sandhill crane?"  I also get request for certain flowers such as the Texas blue bonnets, lavenders or sunflowers.  This particular commission request was much more stressful because this is not just any horse but the clients horse "Lady" and I had to get it right.  

I was a bit nervous during that time that I sent the initial photo of the finished bell to her Facebook message thread to the time that I received the "I LOVE IT!" reply.  Let me just say I gave a huge sigh of relief because this bell probably took me as long to paint as it would have taken to paint maybe 2 or 3 bells of a different subject.  

I am happy to report that this bell is today packed up and waiting for the scheduled postal pickup, soon to be a fixture in it's new home in Ponca City, Oklahoma.  As an artist, there is a great deal of satisfaction to take a project, even if it is as small a cowbell, from start to completion.  

Please contact me at Julie Townsend Studio Contact Page if you might be interested having me do a commission cowbell for you.  They make GREAT gifts!

Practice Makes Perfect

 I have blogged on several occasions about how drawing consistently will make you a better painter and for sure a better pencil artist.  This morning I was looking at some of my early sketches and it is so obvious how my frequent drawing has come to improve my skills.

Here are a couple of examples of early sketches that I did of my son, his wife and my grandson in 2009 and 2010.  I'm pretty embarrassed at those SCARY teeth.  Thankfully my daughter-in-law is still talking to me.

These were done at the very beginning of my artistic journey and as you can see,  I needed a lot of improvement.  That is the thing about being an artist, your journey is never over and you never stop improving your skills.  As long as you have your eyesight and the ability and strength to hold a paintbrush or pencil steady, you are always honing your skills and techniques.  You are always thinking of the next painting or looking for inspiration at every turn in the road.  In my case, this past year I have been sketching a great deal.  Mostly portraits but there are wildlife and some still life thrown in there too.  My sketchpad and my pencil box are with me usually wherever I go.  I have recently started an artistic journal and am very excited about that.  I have plans of filling it with lots of small sketches as I enjoy my summer travels.  

Now if you will just humor me and allow me to show you some recent sketches so you can see that my ability with a pencil and pen have improved over the past few years and this is all a result of my dedication to drawing regularly.  I do need to interject here that I by no means think I am accomplished as a graphite or pen and ink artist.  I have SO MUCH more to learn but I am simply trying to encourage you to grab that sketchpad or doodle just a little bit more because as your mom would always say, " PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!"

Graphite 8x10 of my favorite actor- Tom Selleck

A granddaughter of a good friend- I'm really having fun with this stippling technique

"Through Sad Eyes"- another ink sketch using stippling and colored with pastel pencil

Here are some pages from my artistic journal that I have recently started.  I have plans to start branching out into watercolors soon but right now I have only been using my colored pencils to enhance the pages.  This is really fun because the pressure of creating something that I feel I have to frame and show isn't there.  I also think this will be something that perhaps my grandchildren will treasure and enjoy looking at as I am sure there will be plenty of drawings in the future that include them.  I'm going to embellish the cover and make it something really fun and colorful rather than leaving it with it's boring sketchbook cover.

I would love for you to leave me a comment, share your experiences or follow my blog posts.  You can also check out all my work at my website at julietownsendstudio.com.

DEVELOPING MY STYLE- OLD DUSTY PROSPECTOR TO MARILYN MONROE

I have recently had the great pleasure of going through a free e-course offered by Jason Horejs, owner of Xanadu Gallery and author of the book “Starving to Success”.  I know the information I am learning in this series of emails, reading his book and joining the free webinars is going to be key to me reaching my long-term goals as an artist.  

One of the take away points that I wrote down this week in my notes is:  "The most important thing you can do for your art career is develop a consistent style."  At first when I read this I thought that referred mostly to subject matter. For example when I think of successful artist Nancy Medina, I can't help but think of flowers.  She paints flowers of every shape and color with consistency and passion from her studio in Flower Mound, Texas.  Her work seems to sell before the paint even dries or her brushes are washed.  On occasion I see her paint a garden scene, a chicken or even her latest romantic dress series but her colorful and loose style is still present.  Check out her work and you will see exactly what I mean.   I have her website link listed below under my favorite artist links.

Another artist that I admire his work greatly and give all the credit to for my return to painting is landscape Tim Gagnon.  His basic landscape painting course was amazing and lit the fire in me to pick up my brushes and get to work.  He is a master at painting landscapes that contain amazing trees and clouds.  I can instantly pick out his pieces amongst a page of landscape images.  His method of painting dictates his style and even if he paints a portrait I can still see Tim Gagnon all over it.  His website link is also found below.

  

I have for a number of months now been sketching portraits when I wasn't able to paint.  I have a stack of what I think are pretty nice sketches and so you shouldn't be surprised that a number of my paintings this past year have included human subjects.  Granted they are usually old dusty prospectors, but human never the less.  They have also been getting larger and with more detail until lately they subject has become the portrait and not just a human form added to a landscape. 

Portraits are challenging indeed, but I find myself excited about the challenge. This week I had the amazing experience of painting a piece in a few hours that was wildly received on my social media network.  It actually sold within 10 minutes of me posting the picture.  That is a definite first for me and something I hope to repeat.  

So here she is.... 11x14 Acrylic called "Marilyn-A Vision in Pink".  I used my Alizarin Crimson for her skin tone, Pthalo Blue for her hair and even highlighted her hair with Iridescent Gold.  She really pops on the black background.  For fun I also painted Audrey Hepburn in Blue just before my attempt at Marilyn and while many commented how much they liked her and how ARTSY she was,  I couldn't help but think she looked like a smurf...A cute smurf but a smurf none the less.  So am I still going to be painting Nevada landscapes and dusty prospectors?  YES....but this week I gave into my desire to loosen up and get wild with color and I'm having a blast!

"Marilyn-A Vision in Pink"  11x14 Acrylic

Drawing regularly really does make you a better painter.

I know I've read that from other artists and figure it is valid but just last week I was told by a very seasoned artist that my current painting that I'm working on was so improved and she ended by saying it must be because of all the drawing that I have been doing.  WOW!  It actually has worked!

These past few months I have been consistantly drawing when I find I don't have time to paint and so I thought I would just share some of the better sketches with you.

 

  

  
    

From Whiskers to Hair Bows

Don't ask me why in the past few weeks I've decided that my painting was to take such opposites but I have been focused on two portraits that couldn't be further apart.  I usually paint landscapes and have little experience with portrait painting.  Actually, truth be told this pretty much sums up my portrait experience so you can imagine the struggles I have faced with these. 

I wanted the toothless old prospector to be holding his gold bag tightly in his hand.  A twinkle in his eye and a smile across his lips showing his excitement for his good fortune.  As I researched old photos for inspiration, I noticed a number of prospectors actually had a dog as a companion and that is when I decided that this composition needed a furry friend to make it complete.  For the past week I thought I was going to call this piece "The Big Payout" but today I changed my mind and decided this one was going to be called "The Big Reward".  Not only was this old guy one of the lucky ones to actually succeed in making a fortune but he also has the rewards of sharing his excitement with his faithful companion.  You can just see the excitement on this dogs face as he showers this his master with wet kisses.  

"Big Rewards"- 12x16 Original Oil Painting

I started this piece about 2 weeks ago and have been working on it of and on.  My inspiration is my beautiful granddaughter Katherine.  She now has enough light blonde hair that you can pretend to put it in piggy tails and huge hazel eyes but at this age you couldn't tell for sure what color her eyes were going to be and her hair was really more about the lack of.  Her mother compensated by always having her wear giant hair bows. This composition grabbed me because of her little hand outstretched and so large in proportion to her face.  This piece had special challenges because trying to reach that smoothness and brightness of skin tone that infants have was a real stretch for my skill level. 

"Katherine all in Pink"- 11x14 Original Oil Painting

Both of these pieces will be available soon on my website and will be hanging at City of the World Gallery at 1229 S. Casino Center Blvd, Las Vegas, NV  89104 for the month of December.  I hope you enjoyed them and will check back as I've already started my next painting adventure.

Turning a Photo into a Portrait

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of painting with my friend Jan Arduini.  Jan calls herself an "eclectic artists" and paints a wide range of subjects, all of which could be described as colorful.  Her ability to paint portraits is amazing and so I wanted to paint with her and learn more about the beginning steps taken to paint a portrait.  What is the approach needed to start and a good mixing recipe for the skin tone.  You can see Jan's artwork by visiting her Facebook page at Jan Harris Arduini

What I learned during my painting session was that it is better to pick a photo or subject that has a nice contrast of light and shadow across the face.  Straight on face shots sometimes lack that depth because of the lack of shadows.  In the picture I chose of granddaughter Katherine there are shadows cast by both her little arm and her very large and ornate hair bow.  The fact that she is reaching up with her little hand gives really good movement to the composition but boy did it play tricks on me as I was trying to sketch it out.  In relation to the size of her face the hand felt huge but that is because it is closer to you.  I decided rather than trying to draw in fingers that were not in the present in the photo I would try to paint a portion of the hand just like in the photo.

After a couple of hours of painting I am very happy with my results so far.  There are many more layers needed and tweaking of the facial features that have to be done.  I plan on painting the background in a nice rich brown so that all that pink just pops.  I plan to blog my progress in the next few days and talk about things I learn so check back for my following posts. 

Packing up after finishing an afternoon of painting and sitting at the gallery

Sweet Katherine- The reference photo I am using for my painting