Hectic!

Hi there!

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth... at least not yet. The past 2 weeks have been very hectic as the Other Half and I had to move our wedding date from early October to June 13th. No biggie, who needs extra time to prepare anyway, right?

Needless to say, since I've lost 3 1/2 months of planning time (aka- 3 1/2 months of me being incapable of making a decision on what type of flowers to use, where the best pics will be taken, etc) this blog may only be updated sporadically for the next few months. Couple the rush on wedding stuff with the general chaos of life and that makes for a very busy Rita.

"Under Mom's Careful Watch" ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

On the plus side, it means that the wedding will be done earlier and I can relax and enjoy my Summer without having to worry about dress alterations and seating arrangements and how to keep Al clean for photos and... well, you get the idea.

Guess Who...
ACEO, coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes

I've still been working on art, as you can see, but I suspect that much like updates on this blog that my output of art will slow down quite a bit too. I'm going to try and update at least once a week which may be just the thing I need to keep me same until June 14th. :D

Cherries and snow

Well, we didn’t get that much snow on the week-end and after checking the forecast it would appear that it’s actually coming overnight and throughout tomorrow. Other than a few errands I have to run tomorrow I think I’ll be spending a good chunk of time working on art since I didn’t get as much done over the week-end as I was hoping to.

Despite time constraints over the week-end I do have this little ACEO to share as well as the beginning of an 11x14 piece I started.

"Red, red and more red" ACEO- Part 1
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

"Red, red and more red" ACEO- Done!
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

For the larger piece it’s a re-do of an ACEO I completed last year. The original reference image is from WetCanvas! I believe. In the original photo there’s a lace tablecloth on the table and when I did the ACEO I omitted it but I’m considering including it in this piece. Since this is a larger piece it would be much easier for me to include the detail of the lace as opposed to the ACEO where I’m quite sure had I attempted to include the lace my eyeballs would’ve fallen right out of my head.

No title yet... WIP
11x14, Coloured pencil on Colourfix

Copyright Rita Woodburne

The other thing I did with this one was use solvents for the background. I really wanted that solid black and since I’m working on Colourfix for this one I knew that no amount of burnishing would get me that solid black... not without waxy consequences anyway.

I’m debating whether I want to attempt using solvents for the cherries as well since I’m pretty much a newbie when it comes to combining cp’s with solvent. I may try a few test pieces to figure out how much manipulating I can do.


So that’s what I’m up to for now. If anyone out there has suggestions for using the solvents I’m all ears!

Pearls are a girl's best friend

Since I haven’t done a post on this in awhile I thought I’d share some info on one of my Master study ACEO’s, this time with Vermeer and that saucy gal with the pearl earring.

I had contemplated doing this particular piece for awhile but because I’m not deviating from the originals in terms of colour, style, etc for this small project I wanted to do something a bit different to give it a different feel and to make it a bit more of my own.
To do this I decided against the typical portrait format of the piece being vertical and instead went for a landscape format. This meant that I had to crop the piece and this is where it got interesting because the original is pretty basic on it’s own so I didn’t have a lot to play with. Ultimately I found a crop that I was happy with and at that point the games began:

"After Vermeer- "Girl with a Pearl Earring" " ACEO
Part 1- Jeepers, someone needs to get out and get some sun!

Initially I had debated doing this piece at all because it’s a very well-known image and any discrepancies between my mini version and the original would be horribly obvious to just about anyone that hasn’t been living in a vacuum and also because I find I get bored very easily when doing “popular” images (this will be the subject of another post).

"After Vermeer- "Girl with a Pearl Earring" " ACEO
Part 2- Looking better, but some bronzer wouldn't hurt.

I think in the end it turned out pretty well and, as expected, I learned a few things from doing this one. First and foremost is that I’m finding that for any piece involving a portrait (or a piece where a human subject is prominent), regardless of the individual’s skin tone, working on a warm coloured support is best. I had a lot of difficulty achieving the warm skin tones form the original and it got to the point where I simply could not layer any more colour onto this ACEO. I also took a chance with the cropping and, if I may toot my own horn, I’m quite pleased with it. I get bored with seeing and doing conventional. Having said that, “conventional” definitely has it’s place, don’t get me wrong, but these mini studies are strictly for experimenting and finding out what I can and can’t do... and where I need more work. ;)

So here’s how she turned out:

"After Vermeer- "Girl with a Pearl Earring" " ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

I’m happy, she looks happy (I think) and I even have another ACEO portrait study lined up from another famous fellow... but you’ll have to wait to see that one.

In keeping with my plan for the year I also started a large piece, an 11x14 to warm me up for something larger, and I’m hoping to have a few progress shots to share this week-end. We’re getting more snow so what better time to work on art, right?

2009: The Plan

"After van Gogh- "Sunflowers" " ACEO
Part 1, coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes

Happy New Year, dear reader!

So 2008 came and went and now we’re into 2009. This year is going to be particularly busy for me as I have my personal artistic goals to meet as well as obligations towards helping to make the 3rd annual Lilac Tea a success. This year also sees the ‘Art For Literacy’ program expanding into another local library, the Deseronto Public Library, and that means that there will be a show held there as well, the Harvest Tea, which is slated to be held in September. Busy, busy, busy!

Also, for those of you that have been following this blog for awhile know that I got engaged last year and the Other Half and I have decided on an Autumn wedding. It’s not going to be an over the top affair (that’s definitely not my style) but as I’m sure you understand it’ll still require some planning so that’s going to be preoccupying me this year as well.


Enough nattering, you’re here for art and I just happen to be an artist so let’s find out what tomfoolery I have planned for myself in 2009:

Artistic
- Improve my photography skills to take better reference pictures and images of my artwork. This is a carry over from last year but I’d like to work on that and becoming even more familiar with Photoshop.
- Do a large piece... nay, several large pieces. I feel that this is something I really need to do. I’ve been staying in my comfort zone far too long.
- Begin my equine still life series which I would like to consist of at least 5 pieces.
- Work on my understanding of composition. I think this will develop as I do more still lifes but I'm really not familiar with all the technical aspects of composition and if I really want to do some bang-up work I need to get a better understanding.
- Purge my older “What the Hell was I thinking!?” work. Some of the really horrific stuff will see the inside of the fireplace and the other works will go to eBay so I can pay for more art supplies. I do this from time to time but my intuition tells me that now is the time to really clean house so I can move forward.

"After Vermeer- "Woman Holding a Balance" " ACEO
Part 2, coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes

Business
- Make more contacts within my local art community. This was on my list from last year but it’s a worthwhile goal and I think it deserves a place this year as well.
- Promote my studio/ gallery more via arts organizations, advertising and personal efforts.
- Prepare a portfolio for submission to a gallery. This has been in the back of my mind for awhile and I think I’d like to spend this year working on a solid portfolio to get into a gallery either later this year or early in 2010.
- Update my website. New images need to be put on and I need to do some re-shuffling to reflect what I’m currently working on and where I'm going.
- Update this blog. This one is kind of iffy because of the new format that Google has with it’s drag and drop widgets which, while convenient, is a bit buggy. This goal will be dependent on whether or not Google can get itself sorted out. If not, it's good ol' fashioned hand-coding for me.


So that's what I have lined up for this year. As always I'm enacting the "wiggle-room" policy because life is, well... unpredictable. Also, I really have no idea how much time is going to be spent planning a wedding as I'm blissfully ignorant of how much time and effort goes into this sort of thing. That said, having the guidelines above certainly helps and makes me accountable for getting everything done.

The last thing I'm toying with is doing less art fairs and instead concentrating my efforts into getting into shows held at galleries. The reason for this being that I think it helps beef up my artistic resume and, let's be honest folks, the economy is going in the pooper and to put that much time and $$'s into a show where I have no guarantee of even making my booth fee back is just plain silly. I'll still do some fairs this year but in the interest of my sanity and bank account I'm going to be very selective as to which ones I participate in.


So there's the plan for 2009. Can I do it? Only time will tell... ;)