Tag Archives: flowers

The Devil is in the Details

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My father was a detail man.  He was a commercial artist, and his specialty was filling in the designs on the fabric of shirts, pants, diamonds, and just about anything else that was advertised.  I can’t imagine how he had the patience to do such a thing, but, perhaps it’s just that it was income, and you do what you can do.

So, I think I’ve started channeling my father, the detail man.

I really, really used to think detail was boring.  I would do drawing with large flat spaces, and details, as a touch.  After all, that’s what I was taught was good composition.

I’ve switched to loving detail.

And letting the details lead the story…..

 

KITTEN

 

Can you find the kitten?

So, at that point, I took a loose idea…..and just let the detail flow.

As my drawing progressed, I realized I enjoyed detail. No longer boring, just put on some music and dance. Or, in this case, detail, detail, detail.

 

More recently, I’ve kept spaces for detail.

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Yes, I filled around each clover blossom on this.  I didn’t mind it.  A few  years ago, it would have driven me out of my already somewhat insane mind.

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A few years ago, this is when I really details really took off…or dragged me down to earth as the case may be.  I wanted to make my artwork more painterly, but I was fighting, tooth and nail, against the medium,

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However, the details started sneaking in. Thanks, Dad.

So, I’ve taken a new direction, in my work.  Let the details rule! Or rock and roll, if you prefer.

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My motto in life has become, “Let It Flow”, both in my dealings with life, and in my artwork.

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And What I Mean by That is..

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I guess I didn’t make that very clear.  I certainly would have understood what I meant, and I”m me.  Start with what you know, indeed.

What I mean, is that when starting out a piece of artwork, there are some areas that you already know how you’re going to handle them.   For instance, in the new drawing above, I knew how I was going to draw the people.  Started there.  Which gave me an idea of how to handle the branch, which gave me an idea of how to handle the middle ground, and so forth, so on, and blah, blah, blah, etc.

The drawing may look a little weird the way it looks here.  It’s a small drawing, that the WordPress format blew up in size.  Every little stroke of the pencil is visible here, whereas it really looks muted.

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Just a personal note about my life at the moment, my tremor has gotten to the point that I can no longer control the pencil well enough to stand at my easel to draw.  So, I’ve made a different approach, working smaller and in a way to brace my hand better.  True, it’s a little dull doing small pieces, but I tell myself if there’s something I really like, when I figure out how to do it, I’ll make a statement piece out of it.  Also, I’ll have a lot of little accent pieces.  See if that’s any better for sales.

But thinking about it, I wondered what of the drawings I have already would make a good accent piece.  My first choice is an unassuming sketch of mine which I am now naming “Mind Games”.  That’s firstly because it resembles the intricate working of a person’s mind and also, I was listening to John Lennon a lot when I drew it.  Okay, to refresh your memory:

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Yes, it needs a little tweaking, but with figures of children added to it, I think it would me a damn good huge, huge, I’m telling you, piece.

But there are others that I think would make a good statement piece.  For instance, this:

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It’s actually a nameless little piece that I did as a label for a friend’s line of natural products.  But can you see this 5 feet, by 5?

And then there’s this:

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My old logo, Cheshire Cat like.

Going back to my small, paradise works:

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Now, I’ve gotten so many statement piece ideas, I can’t make up my mind.  Mind?  Mind Games again?

I’m going to bed.

 

 

Turn, Turn, Turn

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There was  a song big in the sixties, during the folk music era.  The lyric went something like this;

To everything, turn turn turn…there is a season, turn turn turn, and a time to every purpose under heaven.

Some of you, I know, remember this song.  Some of you, will remember it because your parents played it.  I think it was made popular by Peter, Paul and Mary, but I’m to lazy to Google it to be sure.

 

For me, the season has been spring, but the purpose of the time wasn’t art.  I had family issues, a new job that turned into a horror show, and all sorts of sundry events and mishaps that life takes from time to time.

And so, finally,  I can turn, turn, turn back to my artwork!

The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring..Tra la

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So, in the time that I so looked forward to, spring, I’m stuck with a stubborn case of artist’s block.  You’d think, with all the time off I’ve had, I’d be fruitful as fruitflies.  I’ve made attempts, but nothing that I’m excited about..at least excited enough to do the hard work behind doing a drawing.  I’m left wondering WTH happened, and what do I do now.

Then, gazing at the beautiful spring day, I realized, not only is spring beautiful, it’s also pretty.  It’s the type of pretty that brings out the cliches in everyone.  Doing something original is about impossible, with all these darn flowers everywhere!

“Floral Overload”

20 x16 inch image. Lightfast colored pencil on archival cotton rag paper.

$200.00

Patience, my dear, patience

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I’ve actually found something that’s more tedious than drawing a lot of dots….drawing around a lot of dots.  The dots in question are meant to be clover, and the around, grass.

It’s a shame I had to throw out so much of my old artwork.  No space, no time to move it.  There are some pieces I miss especially.  One of them was a drawing of trees on a lake, but in such colors that it reminded you of a cloudy day.  A moody, cloudy day.

As well as the Japanese paintings that my sister described as a rainy countryside, I find I have another association with clouds and rain.  It’s what I expect England to be like.  I’ve never been there, but I know the type of weather she’s famous for.  Indeed, the literature that I’ve read, set in England, is made more romantic by the moody mist.  I see King Arthur and Robin Hood, going through landscapes of green and gray.

So, finally I have duplicated the feeling of the old drawing I lost in time.  Cloudiness and romance together as a serendipitous combination.  Here goes:

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like….OH NO!!!

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As Summer arrives with the ending days of June, we look forward to the end of the Fiscal Year.   That’s right folks, while you’re enjoying the Fourth of July, and trips to the beach, people in retail are getting ready for the December holidays. Even artists are starting to look for the venues for art/craft shows in November and December.  I am no different.

I’m thinking of doing what is named the Pumpkin Festival, which is a large fair at a local church.  I have a while to think about it.  I’m going to give whatever venue I plan to do, my best shot, with my best moneymaker, which I realize now is hand drawn note cards and holiday cards.  So, that’s that.

I’m working now on note cards, because the weather here went from way too cold and rainy to go out drawing, to too hot and sunny.  So, while taking the trash to the dumpster the other day, I found a sweet surprise in the condo complex.  Wild strawberries!  So, I’ve done one note card, and am working on another.  I may eventually do a large version, like I did this:

And tried to do, this:

  

Here’s the photo I’m working from, which I like as a photo almost as much as I do a reference for a drawing….

Happy Summer Solstice!

One Day at a Time..and a Way Back Wednesday …

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So,I’m off from the day jobs today.  I’m working a lot of hours these day, but unfortunately, not on art.  Today was filled with errands, and an overdue visit with a friend.  Not much time, or for that matter, energy for drawing.

However, a little bit at a time is better than nothing.  I remember giving the advice to someone that I had been given, you can at least do artwork for 15 minutes a day.  If you can have your painting set up in a corner at all times that is probably true, but that’s not really possible for all.  So, do what you can. Even five minutes over a period of time mounts up.

So, that’s what I’m doing..working on the endless possibilities I talked about last post, in periods of a few minutes daily.  The good thing is that I’m always hungry to do more, and I’m not burnt out and tired from having done too much all at once.  For those of you who remember this..it’s a review, for those of you who do not, here’s Floral Overload, in which I had gotten so sick of doing flowers over and over again.  If I had done it in only stretches of five minutes a day, I doubt I would have had that reaction.

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