My Apologies

I'm sorry for my absence yesterday, dear reader, as I'm sure you were just itching to find out more about my ACEO WIP. I'll save you the excuses and we'll just get right to looking at the art. Here's stage four...where my odd occurence happened:


Now I know it doesn't look overly odd (or maybe it does and some of you are saying : "What the heck have you done Rita!?") Let me explain...
First I've gone and layered in more colour on the horse, pushing my darks, fiddling around with my lights and throwing colour willy nilly in between. It was after the willy nilly part that an odd thing happened. I got up from the piece to go get my lunch. When I came back, I realized that I had no idea what I was going to do for the background. Normally this wouldn't be a big problem and I'd continue on my merry way and worry about the background after the subject was done. What happened this time was that I realized that I couldn't finish the piece without the background...which, for me, is quite an odd quandry to be in.
So, I mulled my dilema over a peanut butter and jam sandwich and decided that I would start on the background and finish the both the background and horse at the same time! I know, I'm such a wild card...
Anyway, I followed through with my plan and, after a few moments of indecision over what colours to use in the background, I finished it and came up with a final ACEO that looks like this:


So that's it for this ACEO. I can't see any tweaking that I need to do and I got to work the entire piece which is something I normally only do with larger works. It was fun, I like this one and while it's always tempting to keep these for myself this one will be up for auction on my eBay tomorrow night.

I hope you enjoyed following me along with these two ACEO's. I'll be back next month, dear reader...you know, Monday! ;)

Curious?

So I'm back and this time it's with a WIP of a horse doing what it does best: look good. This ACEO will feature a dark horse (dark bay to be exact) and will have more of a fantasy feel to it, which is always fitting for an animal as gorgeous as the horse. Enough of my babble, onto stage one:


I'm hoping, dear reader, that this first part is obvious. I've put in my oh-so intricate initial drawing and I've plunked in the eyes, nostril and ears. Not much more to comment on at this point and that means it's time to go onto stage two:


So now I've gone and marked in more of the darkest darks. There aren't many light spots on a dark bay horse and the only "light" areas I've marked are around the nostril and on the point of the shoulder. For my darks I've added in some indigo blue (the neck, cheek and part of the forelock) because 1- cool colours recede and 2- I feel it adds a nice richness that you simply can't get just by laying down plain ol' black. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is my ACEO so I'll do what I darn tootin' well please.
Country bumpkin mouthing off aside, time to have a look at stage three:


Now I've gone and added in the mane and focused more on getting his face in and emphasizing the highlights and bone structure. I've laid down some black over top of my indigo blue (remember, I'm not a heavy-handed wielder of the coloured pencil) and I've also put some black cherry into my shadows. Richness is the name of the game for this one because, really, what's a fantasy horse without some colourful decadence?

I'll finish this one off tomorrow as something interesting happened (for me, anyway) with this one as I was closing in on the finish line. Want to know what it was? Check back tomorrow and I'll tell you...

Indulgences

"Working For It (Study)" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Welcome to my day of babble, dear reader. Today, as you may have gleaned from the title, is about indulgences. I'm not talking about Lindsay Lohan type indulgences that involve drinking a mickey of whatever happens to be handy, dancing on a tabletop, drinking another mickey of whatever happens to be handy and then making out with whichever male star happens to be handy. No, I'm talking about simple indulgences. Sleeping in, sitting outside on a sunny day, eating a tube of cookie dough (you know who you are), taking a drive in the country, playing with a puppy or kitten, eating an entire tub of ice cream (again, you know who you are) or splashing in a mud puddle. For me, one of my indulgences is watching mindless television and my latest treat is, and I loathe to admit it, watching Pros vs. Joes.

For those that are unfamiliar with the show it breaks down like this: get 3 guys who think they're hot sh*# and have them take on 4 pro level athletes in various sports activities. What it really boils down to is 3 guys that think they're hot sh*# getting their hineys wiped by folks that do these sports in their sleep. Something about the sight and sound of an overly-inflated ego getting shmooshed into the ground is, well...entertaining.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm horrible at sports. I can't run to save my life (well, maybe to save my life), I can't throw, I can't jump, I can't kick, I can't skate (I know, a Canadian that can't skate...THE HORROR!) and I can't trash talk very well. That's why I'm an artist.
That said, every time I watch this show some thing in me becomes very mean-spirited and I want to see these "Joes" fail, especially when they're matched up against a female athlete. The thought in my head goes something like this:
"Kick his a$$ gargantuan volleyball girl! KICK IT!!"

Now that's not like me at all...well, maybe a little.

So there you have it folks. I'm not a completely cultured "artiste" like some would believe. I have weaknesses and those weaknesses apparently include watching others humiliate themselves horribly on National television.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go prepare myself for more civilized television viewing. Something to help me return to my senses, culture myself and become more in touch with having a sense of propriety. Yes, I must go because America's Next Top Model will be starting shortly.

Canter, don't trot

Good afternoon, dear reader, and welcome back to the second installment of "Horses: Yes, They Are More Than Lawn Ornaments". In this case, they're the subject for my ACEO WIP (mmm, acronyms...)

Here you can take a gander at stage four:


I've gone and pushed more colour into the shadows to try and give it that "well groomed horse in the shadows" kind of look. More blue, violet, pink and a smidgen of cream thrown in for good measure. I do apologize, dear reader, but I can't recall what grey it was I used but I'll venture to say that it was most likely Warm Grey 50% and possibly 70%...that's Prisma Colour talk for all you non-coloured pencil users out there.

Before I post the final piece I'll remind you again of how I waffle over backgrounds. With this particular ACEO, due to the subject matter and the use of the blue paper it was very tempting for me to simply do up a graded blue background to give the impression of a sunny day. I love doing those types of background not only because they're easy to do but because I really feel it lends a nice atmosphere to the final image... and I'm infatuated with doing colour blending. A blue sky for something like this makes the final work feel bright, energetic, warm, and so on. That wasn't what I ultimately decided to do for this one and instead opted for this:

copyright Rita Woodburne

Although I had to go through those initial pangs of regret/ hesitation when laying down the greens (because my gut told me to go with a blue sky), this background works for me. Canter, don't trot, past that abstracted forested background. It's also been some time since I've had the opportunity to really play around with my greens and I was itching to use them. This can also be attributed the my eagerness to get planting things again and to see leaves on trees, but that's for another post altogether.

This ACEO won't be going up for auction on eBay and instead will be coming with me and some other ACEO's to the art fairs this summer. That said, if you'd like to purchase this one ($18.00 in Canuck dollars+ $2.00 for shipping) just e-mail me with the subject line reading: "Canter, don't trot" so I know that you're not someone trying to spam me. I hate spam, it's almost as disgusting as the canned stuff.

Hopefully this one has been of some use to someone out there in art and computer land. Until tomorrow!

Properly Equestrian

Welcome back, dear reader. I'm pleased to report that I ate way too much cake on my birthday and I even got to sleep in, it doesn't get much better than that does it?

So I decided for the first WIP (work in progress) this week I'm going to show you a "proper" equestrian ACEO...that is to say, the horse is actually doing something other than looking stunning. Let's get right to it, shall we?


So here's the first step. What I failed to show you the last time was my initial drawing in all it's glory. Not much to look at is it? I like to keep it simple because I find overly detailed initial drawings a huge buzz kill. I've marked out certain things like eyes, nostrils, the bridle and reins as well as the shadow. It's enough to get me started and enough of a guideline so the final image will look like a horse as opposed to a three-toed sloth. Onto step two:


In this one I've marked out where my lightest lights are going to be and left the shadowed areas alone for now (for the most part, I almost got ahead of myself on the nose there). With smaller pieces I tend to mark in my lightest and darkest areas first because I want to establish those right away so I know where I'm going with the rest of work.
I find grey horses interesting to do not just because I'm partial to them but because you can get so many interesting colours on them if the lighting is just right. Blue, purple, peach, yellow and so on, and that's not counting the colours that might be reflecting onto them off of other surfaces! Some of this can be seen in the final step for today:


Now it's time to start fiddling with shadows and colour. I've thrown in a good bit of blue as well as some violet, peach and clay rose. To dull down some of the spots I've used grey although I can't remember which one, if it comes back to me I'll let you know.
One thing that's worth noting with equestrian pieces (and many an equine artist will tell you this) is that you must pay attention to horse anatomy. If anything is "off" with your drawing, painting, sculpture, whatever, you will hear about it. Not just from other equine artists but folks that work with horses, ride horses, sell horses, groom horses, tack-up horses, look at horses from the side of the road...well, you get the idea. You can toss all that out the window if you like but if you're going for realism it would be ill advised to do so. Horse people are a finicky bunch.

So that's where I'm going to leave it for today. Tomorrow I'll go through the rest of this ACEO and once again you'll get to read how I waffle over backgrounds, it's exciting stuff so try and contain yourselves until then!

Another year older...

...okay, so really it's tomorrow that I turn another year older but I figure there's no harm in throwing in an extra day of celebration, it is Friday after all. Tomorrow I turn 28 which I really look at as just being 2 years away from 30 and how I managed to last this long is beyond me.
I don't really have any special plans for tomorrow but I do intend to eat whatever decadent foods I can get my hands on and goofing off at any opportunity. Maybe I'll have a nap too.

So there's not much to post today because I have lots of art stuff that I need to get done before this afternoon and I'm already behind schedule so I really must get to work. Be sure to check back on Monday when I'll have the first WIP of an ACEO, exciting stuff!

Since it is the week-end I'll leave you with these corny jokes:

Q- Did you hear about the vertically challenged psychic that robbed a bank?
A- Now there's a small medium at large.

and...

If a tree falls on a mime in the forest...who cares?

Happy Birthday to me!

T.G.I.V.E.

"A Warm Draft (Study)" ACEO can be bid on here.

That's right, T.G.I.V.E.: Thank Goodness It's Vernal Equinox. Spring, dear reader, is finally here. To ring in the new season it's sunny and mild outside and tomorrow (actually starting tonight) we get our first Spring shower.

What's more, I saw two Robins today...a sure sign that Spring is upon us. Another sure sign is that they were what I like to call "Kamikaze Robins". This always happens in Spring, the birds show up but leave their brains back in Winter. Without fail they'll hop out on the road as you're speeding along, usually when you're coming up to a bend in the road, and stand there mindlessly watching the other birds. For some this isn't a problem but I'm one of those people that will slam on the brakes to save a squirrel, screw the folks behind me that might not be paying attention. Why can't they just hop back onto the shoulder? No, no, that would be too easy. When they're not hopping out into oncoming traffic they're flying down from hydro wires to dive-bomb your vehicle. Nothing is quite so disconcerting as a bird bouncing off your windshield.
Some other birds display this behaviour as well: Cardinals, Blue Jays, Crows (which I find odd) and Orioles. The only birds I've found to be consistently stupid, regardless of season, are Grouse and Sparrows...very dumb birds.

On an art related note you should be pleased to know, dear reader, that I will probably have two WIP's next week. I don't want to make any promises but it sure is looking that way. I'm also awaiting on some other art stuff...but I'll wait to tell you more about that when everything is a bit more in place.

All Hail the Vernal Equinox!! (I just like saying Equinox)

Bord Silly

"Thanks For Looking" ACEO can be bid on here.

Welcome back, dear reader. No, my spelling capabilities haven't abandoned me. In the title I'm making reference to Ampersand Pastelbord (their typo, not mine), a surface that I suspect I'm going to love just as much as Colourfix.
I got my hands on some about two weeks ago and it wasn't until last week that I decided to try it out. The piece I have below is 5x7", was done on the "Sand" coloured board and all in all I have to say that for a first attempt on a new support I'm pretty tickled about how it came out. It's quite toothy like Colourfix but not as gritty and, being a board, when I go to frame it I won't need glass over top. This will be a great boon for when art fair/show season starts up people visiting my booth won't have to do the "bob and weave" to avoid the glare that is inevitable with glass. Anyway, there's the piece below:


I'm also throwing in a close up:


Hey, when I said close up I meant close up. It's a bit fuzzy but you can see how smoothly the pencil went down which was a bit of a problem with Colourfix, for me anyway.
I have several more boards so I plan to find suitable subjects for them (I've already started on another one). A lot of my eagerness is coming from the prospect of being able to frame these without glass. I know, artists get excited over the oddest things...

Anyway, I have quite a few commissions to get done so I should really stop goofing around on the interweb and get down to work. I'll be doing another WIP (of an ACEO) next week when I find a super duper horsey subject to use. It's a toss up between a proper equestrian piece (ie- the horse is actually working) or something a bit more fantasy like. I'm so indecisive...

Is It Time For A Storm?

"Liddledoggie", 4x5 coloured pencil on Colourfix.
Copyright Rita Woodburne.

Happy Friday dear reader! The above picture is a small study I did of my dog Rosebud's favorite toy: Liddledoggie. This squeaky stuffed animal (maybe about 3 inches tall and wide) has attained valued status with Rosebud as she will hunt high and low to find this toy and if she can't find it, ie-we hid it on her, she becomes quite upset. Perhaps it's because Liddledoggie only has one ear as a result of her ripping the other one off a few years ago...how VanGogh-ish. Anyway, Liddledoggie made a fine model and I loved using that green.

I must move onto more pressing matters, that being the weather and time. Later today, after having a very Spring-like week, we folks here in Southern Ontario are getting ready for one last fart in the face from Old Man Winter. I woke up this morning and checked the weather forecast only to find out that there's a snowfall warning. Approximately 15-25 centimeters worth of snow is getting ready to be dumped on us. March can be so tempermental, can't it? On the flip side of this is that by early next week the temps will be right back up there and, as per Spring protocol, the ground will return to it's ridiculously sloppy state.
As for the second topic, time. Never before has "springing forward" caused me so much frustration. Normally what happens is that my eating habits get buggered up for about 2 days and then I settle in nicely to the newly attained daylight hour. Quite the contrary this year. Not only are my eating habits still screwed up but I'm just behind on everything in general and I'm having trouble waking up in the morning! Considering that I'm a morning person this is causing me quite a bit of grief. All I can say is that I want my hour back.

At any rate both the time and weather are out of my hands so I'm just going to have to live with it...but that doesn't mean I can't complain about it.

Also, being half-Irish I must wish you all a fond St.Patrick's Day with much merriment and consumption of green food and beverage...and maybe some corned beef just for colour. To my brother, who may or may not be reading this (maybe he's drunk already), have a Happy Birthday tomorrow!!

Thanks For Looking

Welcome back to the second portion of the making of an ACEO. I should note, before I begin my artsy babble, that I find it odd that I chose to do a cat ACEO as a WIP because if you've been reading my posts for awhile you'll know that cats are not my strong point. In fact, I really only started doing them because I committed myself do completing the Big Cat Challenge that was started in the Coloured Pencil forum over at WetCanvas. Anyhoo, I'm sure you're more interested in seeing more on the ACEO so on that note, let's begin:

In the above picture you'll notice that I've pushed my values more and added more punchy colour overall. I've also done more with the eyes by brightening the catchlights and adding more value to them. I have yet to add in any background and I'm not even concerned with it at this point.
In mentioning that I should note that I waffle over backgrounds. Sometimes I don't like to include any bg (background) and choose to leave it as is, and sometimes I like to include one. Sometimes they're intricate and sometimes they're not. Also, with larger works I will almost always start adding in the bg about half-way through. With ACEO's I'm a little more flexible because they're often a quick piece to get done or they're a study for a larger work.

At this point in the piece I'm also paying more attention to the colours and details that make a subject unique. In Bill's case there are a few things such as the fact that his eyes actually do point off in different directions ever so slightly. He has a scar on his nose from my barn cat, Sushi, beating the snot out of him. I'm also trying to get his correct colouring down and at the same time, punching it up a bit to make him pop.

Below I've included a detail of the eye/ nose area:


Hopefully this close-up can show you a few things about my work. You'll notice that there are many colours in this. Layering, and layering well, are the keys to getting good depth and interest in a coloured pencil piece. This doesn't mean you have to slap on 15 layers of pencil every time work in coloured pencil. That's time consuming and why do more work than you have to? That said, if you need 15+ layers to get the look you're going for then that's what you do. For my style and technique though that just doesn't jive.
You'll also notice that you can see bits of the paper showing through. I am not a heavy handed coloured penciller (is that even a word??). I like light, even strokes and I let the paper do some of the work for me which is why I'm quite deliberate in my paper, and paper colour, selection. Another reason I'm light is that I like the appearance of the paper showing through and the texture it lends to a piece. Again, this is personal preference and you have to do what feels/ looks right to you.


Now we come to the end. Bill's done and a bg is in place:


I decided on a green bg so his eyes would come out more since this is a close up of Bill's mug. I've also gone over and darkened my darks, lightened my lights and added a few more bits of punchy colour around the eyes and muzzle. All in all I'm quite happy with this one. If there's something I haven't been clear on or if you'd like to ask questions about what on earth I'm doing with art please just ask away. As teachers say time and time again, the only stupid question is the one that isn't asked...and it's true!

In total this one took me about 2 1/2 hours since I'm still not as familiar with doing cats as I'd like to be and because I'm experimenting more with colour. I'll probably do another WIP next week or the week after but I'll choose a horse for that one, a subject I'm much more familiar with!

Hopefully this has been of some use to someone out there and you'll be able to find this ACEO up for auction on Sunday night. Until tomorrow!

100% Real Food For Thought

"Collecting the Sun" ACEO can be bid on here.

So yesterday I needed to go grocery shopping and on my tour of duty through the grocery store there were some things that struck me as odd. Rather, there were marketing tactics (presumably) that caught my attention.
Generally when one goes to the grocery store they're looking for food, occasionally toiletries and household items, but primarily it's for food. Within the walls of the grocery store one can find produce, meats, canned goods, dry goods, frozen foods and junk food. All of which are edible with some being much tastier than others (ever tried garnishing your spinach with crushed up Doritos? Yum!) Grocery stores also vary in quality from one to the other. Not that a lower price means it's any less edible, it just means it may not be as pretty looking. For me, personally, I find the charm of an oddly shaped red bell pepper rather intriguing. But that's just me.
The companies that produce and sell these food items, and there are many, are all competing for you to buy them. They'll package them in neon boxes, they'll attach coupons for .50 cents off your next $75 purchase (why, how generous!), they'll tout their anti-aging properties in bold lettering and they'll even remind you just what the heck it is the product is made of. It's this last little point that had me scratching my head.

First of all, when I'm in the produce department I assume I'm going to find products of the fruit and veggie nature. I don't expect some renegade box of Kraft dinner to pop up out of the asparagus display. So far, this has been what's happened...although I'm very suspicious of star-fruit and lychee's, tasty though they may be.
It was in the meat department that my confusion began. You see, I was perusing for a nice package of lean ground beef. It's a versatile form of meat that can be used in many a tasty dinner. After only a mere couple of minutes I found it and a sign that provoked all of this. It read:
"Lean ground beef. Made with 100% real beef!"

Well, thanks for clearing that up. What the heck is the other stuff made of that I've been eating? Should my current package of ground beef read "Made with 95% real beef and 5% polystyrene"? When I buy something labelled "ground beef" I assume it's made of beef and nothing else. If they've been sneaking pork in there I don't care...just give me a heads up!

This prompted me to search through the grocery store for other products that were posing with one identity when perhaps they had more. I found several other examples such as tuna (which I don't eat anyway, but I know some of you do). It also had a label with similar wording: "Now made with 100% real tuna!" They're even outright admitting that they used something else prior. I can just see some unsuspecting person going to open their older can of tuna, maybe to make a sandwich, and out pops a troll that says "Surprise! It's only 80% tuna...you can guess what they rest is!" and then it runs away laughing maniacally.

What has all of this taught me? Not much really. You can bet I'm going to be reading labels more often though and then the other half and I can sit around the dinner table and play the "guess what we're eating tonight" game...but neither one of us will win because we'll never really know. Oh well, as long as it's 100% edible.

Act One and Two

Greetings and salutations dear reader. Today's post will consist of the first two stages of (another) ACEO featuring Bill, my dog trapped in a cat's body. I'll basically just be describing what I've done in each one and why/ how I did the work I did. This ACEO is my beloved Prisma's on a light taupe coloured Mi-Teintes (can't remember the exact name). I use Mi-Teintes regularly for my ACEO's because it comes in a variety of colours and has good tooth but not so much tooth that I can't get in really fiddly details. I've tried many a support for ACEO's and for me this is just what works best. So, without further ado here's Stage one:

I should note that this isn't really the first stage. The first stage (if you want to get really nit-picky) is to put down the initial outline. I'll usually do this with my cheapy HB or a medium french grey and erasing as I lay down my first smatterings (that's a technical term dontcha know) of colour.
So what I do after my initial outline is down, and this is with every work whether animal or human subject, is I get the eyes in. Many artists do this and I think it's so that you constantly have something staring back at you, not blinking, coercing you to finish the piece. I do it for that reason and because for me it attaches a feeling to the piece. I don't finish the eyes but I do need to get them in so that I can continue onto the rest.
After that I block in certain things, and in this case it was Bill's markings, whiskers and other peculiarities that make Bill the oddity of nature that he is. I'll also mark in my lights and lay down a base colour for any spots that will be punchy (another technical term).


Stage two looks like this:


As you can see, quite a bit has happened since the first stage.I've gotten in more of his colouring, but in it's lightest form, and I've defined his markings a bit more. I've also marked/ emphasized the punchy spots around the eyes and muzzle. He's starting to look more like a cat rather than some tick marks on a piece of paper. Who wants a cat with ticks? Gross.

Keep in mind that all of this is to give you, dear reader, an idea of how I work on my ACEO's. I've actually learned a lot since I started doing them since they force you to really look at what needs to be done and what you can cast aside. When working this small there are simply some things that can't be included for lack of room.
I've also become horribly addicted to doing them. Hey, they're safer and more affordable than hard drugs, right?

The next installment for Bill will be on Thursday as tomorrow I'd like to partake in a bit of babble and share with you an odd revelation I had while grocery shopping today. The canned goods aisle truly is a wonderful and revealing place.

Fun in the Sun

"They Call Him The Wanderer" ACEO can be bid on here.

Welcome back dear reader and hopefully you're enjoying the March Break... muddy, warm weather and all.
While many students across North America will be spending this week relaxing and slacking off in general, us adults (and for me I use the term loosely) will still be chugging away at our daily tasks. I think at this time of year when the weather flip flops between promising and "What the bejeezus was I thinking living in a Northern climate" these tasks can be done with great zest or teeter on the brink of being unbearable.

I'll spare you the gritty details but suffice to say that when you live on a farm with horses there's a lot of *ahem* poop scooping to be done in Spring...a lot. Now I spent a good portion of yesterday doing said clean-up and I did it quite happily. The sun was shining, it was warm and a great amount of snow was melting, a sure reminder that the warm weather is creeping up fast. I was happy cleaning up mounds of horse buns.
Today, while still warm, is cloudy and not quite as optimistic feeling as yesterday was. What's more, because there's no sun today the snow isn't melting as fast which can be discouraging. The daffodils are starting to peek through the soil of one of my flower beds out front but it's not enough. Do you hear me Mother Nature? Not enough!

I'm usually not this insistent on kissing Winter good-bye but at this point I've had it. I don't want to see dirty snow, I don't want things to freeze over, I don't want a cold wind blowing. I want to shovel horse doodles in the sun. Is that really so much to ask?


Now that I've gotten that out of my system just a quick note that I'll be updating again tomorrow with a small WIP of an ACEO (Bill was kind enough to model for me again) for anyone that's interested. I don't often post my WIP's so it should be nice change of pace and I had a lot of fun doing this one, more experimentation with colour. Until tomorrow!

It's the week-end...time to work!

Welcome back, dear reader. Today's post is for all you aspiring artists out there that want to make a living doing art. You want to but can't find the time...or so you think.

Today I'm going to direct you to another blog, more specifically the blog of artist Maggie Stiefvater (look, you're already tired trying to figure out how to pronounce her last name) who has become quite successful in a relatively short period of time. I know what you're thinking: So? What's so special about her? Glad you asked. Before I direct you to her post let me give you a bit of background on her:
She's a 25 year old mother of two children both of whom are under 3 years old (see, again, you're tired already!) She's the owner of 2 cats, 1 dog and married to a police officer husband. She's also an aspiring novelist that is in the process of having her very first book (hopefully) published. She is a full-time artist and making a decent living from it to boot. To say that her life is busy would be an understatement.
She wrote the post I'll direct you to after receiving numerous requests to share her secrets or at the very least, let folks know where she purchased her cloning machine. Alas, there was no cloning machine to speak of and she is a mere mortal like the rest of us. What seperates her from many other potentially successful artists is that she's driven and, most importantly, she has a plan. So, without further ado, please head here and read up on how she does it.


*Intermission*


So now that you've had that light bit of reading for a Friday afternoon it gives one something to think about the next time one feels the urge to say "I just don't have the time." Do you really not have the time, or is it the motivation?
I'm a very firm believer that if you want something badly enough you can get it. If you're willing to do the grunt work (and becoming an artist is no walk down the yellow-brick road, I can assure you) you can reap the rewards whether it be in the form of money, recognition, personal satisfaction or just the sheer joy of creating. Excuses won't get you very much at all.

It's the week-end, dear reader, and perhaps time to approach your art career with a different mind-set. If you really want it badly enough, it's there for the taking. Go create your plan and put it into action.

Just to end it on a light note, this is the face my cat Bill makes when he hears about someone not putting their all into something. Please don't make him do it again...


...once was scary enough.

Jump!

"Black, White and Red All Over" ACEO can be bid on here.

Welcome back, dear reader. There's actually not much exciting news to share today on the art front, although I wholeheartedly encourage you to visit my eBay and bid to your heart's content on the ACEO's I have listed.

So what can I tell you?

Well, I'm working on several pieces right now that are all on the cusp of being done as well as some commissioned pieces that need to be finished up. I also have some other projects that need to be started in anticipation of the upcoming show season. It's true, before we know it Spring will be here and then Summer and then instead of complaining about the cold we'll be complaining about the heat. What we won't be complaining about is the shortage of outdoor activities to attend to...like art fairs! I enjoy doing art fairs and I'd like to have a nice body of work for people to choose from. I'm also planning at least two Open Houses this year so I'd be well suited to have works for those as well. With that in mind I have a lot of creative energy today so I'd better use it wisely!
On the topic of using time wisely I'm also looking forward to watching America's Next Top Model tonight since I missed it last week due to my tooth drama. Now I'm going to have to catch up on who hates who and who is the most catty of the group. It's very important stuff, you know.

For another great segway: On the topic of nonsensical entertainment, for you 80's hair band fans I do have some unfortunate news. It is indeed true that VanHalen will not be re-uniting for a tour. I guess there won't be any encore presentation of Roth's acoustic version of "Jump"...a version that never should have come to fruition in the first place. It makes me ill just thinking about it.

Sorry my post isn't as long today but I really must go and work on some art. On Friday I hope you're in for some lengthy reading because I'll be touching on the subject of motivation and referring you, dear reader, to another blog post that is a must read for all you procrastinators out there. Until then!

Trouble for Dubble Bubble

"The Poser" ACEO can be bid on here.

Welcome back, dear reader. Today we're going to talk about choices.
Some people, without question, make very poor choices in life. Some of these things, for example, would be to run a red light. To not wash one's hands after using a public bathroom. To place a small pet in a handbag. To lick a metal object in cold weather. Or, my favorite, to eat raisins.
These are all poor choices (unless the raisins are coated in chocolate or mixed with peanuts and Honey Nut Cheerios).

Then there are odd choices. These types of choices would include such things as pairing plaid with argyle (acceptable only if you're a bagpiper). Purchasing a leather sofa when living in a hot climate. Listening to any Jessica Simpson album from start to finish. Not putting melted cheese or cheese curds and gravy on french fries. Purchasing a goldfish as a pet.
These are all odd choices.

Poor choices and odd choices are made by everyone at some point, and it's something that usually happens more than once. We're human and it's one of those things that makes us just so darn quirky. The difference between the two being that a poor choice can have tragic consequences whereas an odd choice is just, well...baffling.
So what happens when a criminal (a poor career choice by any standards) makes an odd choice? Well, it would seem that stealing money, cars, jewellery, identities and the like was just too boring for one woman in Southern Ontario. Perhaps she thought those things were too typical and decided that a fresh approach to theivery was needed. What better way to do this than by stealing chewing gum?
The "Bubble Gum Bandit", as she's been dubbed, has already stolen $5000 worth of chewing gum from various large retail grocery stores in the Southern Ontario area. The police have determined that she does this by going into the store with a shopping cart, filling it with cases of chewing gum and then places flyers over top of the cases and walks out of the store with no one the wiser to her evil little Bubblicious ploy.

First of all $5000 buys a lot of gum...even in Canadian dollars. Secondly, the police say they know how she does this and yet they still haven't caught her. Thirdly, is there no one in these stores that thought it a might bit funny that there was a woman walking out with a grocery cart full of flyers? My guess is that somewhere along this line of crack detective work someone has made a poor choice since this woman is still at large, and hoarding away massive stashes of Bazooka Joe, no doubt.

One can only hope that this wayward thief will ultimately make an error and be caught or that she'll turn herself in before she chews all that gum and massive dental work is required. Even with that she'd probably steal a root canal, some bridge work and new veneers before anyone figured it out.

That, dear reader, concludes our news broadcast.

Purple Looks Good Too...

"Taking A Chance" ACEO can be bid on here.

Thanks for coming back, dear reader. I'm assuming you're anxious to see this work that has taken me 7 months and the journey through a project to complete.
Before I post the final piece I'm going to post the stage that it was left (some might say abandoned) at. When it got to this point it sat and sat and sat some more. At one point I even considered tossing it in the fireplace because I hate it when unfinished works look at me mockingly. However, somthing told me that I needed to keep this one. Here's how it was left:

Looks okay but I knew there was something missing and holding me back from completing it. I can't even count the number of people I asked (artists and non alike) what they thought it needed. Punch up the colours? Add in a background? What kind of background? Don't include a background? Change the colouring in the horse? Stick my finger in my eye and be done with it?
Okay, that last one was a question I asked myself.
Anyway, I got some great suggestions which I stored away in my mental rolodex for future pieces. For the past month, while working on the VG project, I started to get an idea for the horse and the background. I also took a cue from my "accidental" VG horse, Peat, that I completed not too long ago. The end result of my pondering is this:

I'm happy with this. Very happy. Not only did I finish a piece that had just about defeated me but I was also much more liberal with my colours. I was fun like nobody's business!

So there you have it. I suspect that many of my pieces will be adopting a more colourful appearance. Not wacky colouring, but they'll have more punch to them and I suspect I'll get a lot more enjoyment from my art.

I hope you see what I see, dear reader. Back on Monday with more adventures in art!

At Long Last

Hello dear reader. I bet you thought I'd been taken back by the Mother Ship or been hopelessly over-drugged by the dentist. Nope, although that last one might've been appreciated.
I must first apologize as it seems last night when I went to post my finale to VanGogh, Blogger decided it would be better to burp in my face rather than co-operate and let me finish up my project. So, with that in mind I hope you will understand the delay.

Below you'll find the sketches leading up to my final piece. A pencil sketch, a detail from the pencil sketch and lastly a colour study. Keeping in mind that things got tweaked along the way (and my significant distaste for pre-planning) the final does, of course, look slightly different. I know, 'Shut up Rita and show us the pictures already!'...



So those are the skecthes, read into them what you will. Below is the final product and after that I'll share my thoughts on the whole darn thing.


Okay, so to be perfectly honest I don't like the final piece. When I did the pencil sketch I felt it for this piece, all the potential. By the time I got to the colour study I was teetering and when I finally got around to the final I was flat. There was nothing left in this to excite me.
This goes back to working style. I've never been a planner when it comes to art. I look at something, decide if I'd like to tackle it and then have at 'er. If it works, that's super. If not, I trash it or burn it and move on. Pre-planning, for me, doesn't work and sucks the fun out of what I'm doing.
Now I should back-track a bit because I'm sure some of you are saying 'But you said in a post of yore that you did pre-plan, what gives?' I know I said that (or rather typed it to be exact) and what's worth noting is that I said I pre-planned in my head...which is exactly what I did with this piece before the pencil sketch. That's why I felt it for the pencil sketch and by round two I wanted to burn it in effigy. I suspect I'm going to wind up taking this final piece and tweaking the bejeezus out of it in a month or so. Right now I'm going to hide it away in my studio lest it corrupt my further work.

On a much more positive side there have been a huge number of benefits I've gotten from this project, namely I've conquered my fear of pushing colour. I'm sure I still have a ways to go but the freedom that came with slapping down a layer of 'Mulberry' on something that has no business bearing a colour with such a name was a fantastic feeling. It even allowed me to finish a piece that had been haunting me since last August...AUGUST!!! So tomorrow I'll be posting the before and after of that piece and hopefully you too will be able to see what I mean.

Before I sign off I'd like to give you an update on my tooth which a good number of you have sent your concern/ condolences my way. The dentist told me that the wisdom tooth can stay, although he did say that they could pull it anyway if that's what I'd prefer. I could just see the little dollar signs glittering in his eyes. I told him I'd rather opt for a full frontal lobotomy than have someone rip open my gums and remove a tooth the size of a raspberry. That said, with all the poking and prodding around in my mouth that they did with their shiny little weapons of torture I was inclined to think that they had removed the wisdom tooth without doping me up first. I was very ouchy and had to resort to consuming liquids again.
At any rate, I was happy that there was room in my mouth for the additon of another member to my little dental family and as I drove home clutching the side of my face I heard something on the radio that, despite my pain, made me grin: February 28th is Tooth Fairy Day. Indeed it is.