Cowboy Sketch WIP

Here is an update on my cowboy sketch. It's a work-up for a huge cp painting. Getting a lot of details and values figured out before putting it on the board.

Lots more to do still. Got to work out a major flaw in the saddle as well fix the values in the flag. I hope to have another update at the end of this week.

Drawing From Life I

In keeping with my theme for back to the basics, I have been trying to draw from life as well as from ref pics. The gallery director asked me the other day if I wanted to start a drawing class or workshop at the gallery. I told her I would think about it and let her know. So, along with back to the basics I've been doing lately, I've decided it's time to get back to drawing from life and make sure my drawing skills (from life) are up to snuff! If I'm going to do this class, I want to do a lot of life drawing, so I'd better have my skills up to par.

In addition, I've been asked to do a colored pencil workshop by both people interested in taking the class as well as the gallery director. So, I'm thinking up a lesson plan for that as well.

Here is a quick little drawing today from life. It's a small pitcher I bought for still life set-ups. This pitcher has some strange ornamentation near the handle. It's a very small pitcher, and the ornamentation was hard to make out, especially in this lighting.

It's only a quick sketch to practice drawing. I apologize for the bad photo. The weather here is bad today and the sun has not even come out all day. Snow and rain. Love the snow, hate the rain! Yuck!

Lessons Learned This Week

This week I have been in the gallery everyday doing demos of my artwork. I started a new horse piece before going in on Monday and have been working on it all week. It's just like when I've done "Artist In Action" in the past at art stores. I just sit there and paint all day. When people come by, I greet them and explain my work. I explain my medium, my techniques, and have several completed pieces on display for them to see. The piece I have been working on all week is very close to being completed! During the course of the past five days, I have learned some important lessons:

1. Shutting yourself into your studio to work is a good idea .... initially, but........ it takes getting out into contact with other people, especially other artists, that will really motivate and inspire you. I have accomplished more this week, even while teaching others how I work and talking to many interested people (and potential clients) about my art. I had become lazy, unmotivated, and uninspired by staying at home working in my studio day after day. By getting out into the middle of the local art world, I was rejuvenated and my confidence was boosted. I had many inquiries about commissions, about selling the art pieces I had on display, and many, many compliments and a great deal of encouragement. Everyone needs encouragement and support. That is exactly what I have received this week. Not that I don't get that at home. This is different. It's by people I don't know and who have no reason to say something simply to please me. That is important and makes the compliment more effective.

2. Don't blow dust and pencil particles off your painting while chewing gum ........... you might get unexpected ...... and undesired ....... results.

3. Be prepared to market yourself at all times ..... even at the most unexpected or unplanned times. Unwittingly, I have been marketing myself all week ....... and I hope to be feeling the effects of that for some time to come. You just never know who you will run into while you are out there in the world working on your art - potential clients or people who know potential clients and will recommend you to them. I also ran out of business cards and desperately need to get more made ASAP!! Never run out of business cards!

4. Exposing your art to the public will give you name recognition in the future....... people will talk about that animal artist that was demoing her art at the gallery, you know Nancy Pingree Hoover ...... ! And if they forget my name, they now know where to go to get it, and my contact information.

None of this means you need to paint in public all the time. It simply means not to be afraid of getting out there and exposing yourself, and your art, to the world! I feel that I have completely changed many of the public's previous (and prejudiced) view of colored pencil artwork now that they have been able to see it done and had it explained to them by a colored pencil artist. I feel more confident in displaying my art locally. Chances are, it will be better understood than it has been in the past, and if someone makes a disparaging remark, I bet there will be someone nearby who can correct them now that they themselves are better educated about colored pencils.

By the way, goals one and two are now completed for this year! I am now established in an art gallery AND I have, as of tomorrow, completed one week of being the featured artist at the gallery! I am psyched and ready and rearing to go with completing a lot more artwork!!

What Are Your Goals for Your Art This Year?

No, I do not call them resolutions. They are goals. Goals that are thoughtfully pondered over and realistically set for both the short-term AND the long-term.

A short-term goal is one that should see completion within a relatively short period of time, such as six-months, one year all the way up to five years. Long term goals obviously then would be five years and beyond. Haven't you ever gone for a job interview and been asked, "Where do you see yourself in five years? ..... in ten years?" I always hated those questions, and usually the interviewers did not like my response (but that's a story for another day). The point is, if one is to succeed, one must first set realistic goals, otherwise one tends to succeed at nothing more than wandering aimlessly.

I find goals easier to manage when they are broken down into small chunks, much like a painting. In case you hadn't noticed, I like to work my paintings one section at a time rather than all over at once. I have to feel like I'm making progress or I get discouraged. When I work one section at a time I am constantly seeing progress. So it is with goals. I break them into smaller, more manageable pieces that can be completed in a short enough period of time that I can see and feel the progress I'm making.

Furthermore, it is important to write how you intend to accomplish your goals. Simply listing your goals is not enough. You need to have a plan of action other wise it becomes too easy to fall by the wayside and never achieve your goal.

Although it is putting yourself on the spot by making others privy to this information, it helps to let others know what your goals are. In this way friends and fellow artists can help you, and I, achieve our goals by occasionally nudging us in the right direction, or reminding us of a goal we may have forgotten about.

So I am taking my own advice and writing my goals for 2010 here. I will not be including what my plan of action is here. That is for you, and me, to do for ourselves, because a goal without a plan of action is probably a goal that will never be achieved.


Here is my list of goals for this next year, and included is the date when I would like to have that goal accomplished:

1. Get established in at least one gallery within the next eight weeks.
Goal = Feb. 28, 2010

2. Do store demos, an "Artist in Action" sort of thing.
Goal = March 2010.

3. Enter at least two national art competitions this year.
Goal for first entry = May 2010.

4. Enter at least two local and/or regional art competitions.
Goal = May 2010.

5. Write at least one tutorial for my website.
Goal = July 2010

6. Finish my Christian paintings!!!
Cowboys for Christ: Goal = September 2010.
Is Your Name In The Book: Goal = December 2010
The Great Compromiser/Deceiver: Goal = June 2011

7. Work on my art basics. Turn what I learn and what I work on into lessons that can perhaps help other artists as well.
Goal: Ongoing throughout the year.



Now what about all of you? What are your short-term goals for this next year? What would you like to accomplish in your artistic life?

I challenge you to think carefully about what you would like to accomplish this year and write out your goals, then write your plan of action to accomplish each and every goal. Make your goals known to others and take their reminders and inquiries throughout the year as encouragement rather than as nagging. You may just find yourself accomplishing more than you thought you would, and hopefully more than you have in other years.

Angles of Light and Shadow: How to Draw the Shadow of an Angled Object

Supplies needed for this lesson:
Protractor
Straight ruler
Rolling Ruler (if you have one)
8” x 10” piece of paper
Eraser
2B Pencil
HB Pencil


Yesterday’s lesson covered the very bare basics of shadows. Today, we’re going to tackle the problem of What if the sun hits an object on its corner? How do we know how to draw the shadow and how long to make it? So, take out your supplies and let's get to it!

If you have never used a protractor before, now is the time to give you a brief lesson on how. Look at fig. 1. You will see a line drawn horizontally, and another line perpendicular to that line. Where the two lines meet you will see a circle. That circle is where you want to line up the little circle in your protractor. See fig. 2 to see what I mean.

Fig. 1

Fig 2

To figure out the angle of the light, first decide how steep or shallow an angle you want the light to reach your object. In today’s lesson we will be using a 45 degree angle for the light. Look to the left side of your protractor and look for 40, then count five more bars up and that will be 45. Then, to draw a straight line, you can place a small straight ruler over the protractor (make sure you hold onto the protractor tightly so you don’t accidentally move it), and line the right end of the straight ruler up at the location where the two lines meet, and the other end should line up with 45 degree angle. You can then make a short line along your straight ruler. Lift the ruler and protractor up. You have now drawn a line at a 45 degree angle to your square!

Okay, now that you know how to use a protractor, let’s draw our object, which is a square turned so that the point of the square is facing you. A one or two inch square should be big enough, but you can go bigger if you want. Just remember, you will be drawing lines and a shadow outside of the square too, so you will need a good deal of room surrounding your square.

To help you see just how to draw a square with its corner facing you, look at Fig. 3. Remember when drawing your square, all angles and all sides should be exactly the same! You will also notice that I have drawn in the angle of your light source as well. Use your HB pencil lightly so if you have to erase you can do so without leaving a lot of marks on the paper. I erase a lot since I tend to be a perfectionist, so I draw lightly at first, then when I am sure I have the object exactly the way I want it I will go over the lines with my 2B pencil (using the straight ruler of course).

Fig. 3

Now that you have a 3-d square, we need to finish it off by indicating where the back corner and bottom sections of the square are located. These, of course, would be invisible to your eyes, but are necessary to help you measure where the shadow falls from the object. So, take your HB pencil and, using your straight ruler, lightly draw dotted lines where those invisible sections are located, use Fig 4 as a guide. Ignore the lines in fig. 4 that are drawn outside the square at this time.

Fig, 4

Once you have drawn those “invisible” sections, you will want to draw in some ref points outside your object as well. You will notice the line at the front part and to the right of the object is not exactly parallel to the base line you drew. That’s the way it is supposed to be. You want that line to be just a little bit off of parallel, and you want it to be dotted. Then, from the right corner of the square, draw a dotted line parallel to the dotted line you just drew. Finally, you want to draw one more dotted line from the back corner of the square parallel to the previous two lines you drew. These lines are used to tell you just how long the shadow is going to be.

Before you can continue on, if you have not done so already you will need to draw in the angle of light you want to use. We are using with a 45 degree angle for this lesson. Place the angle of light in the same location I put mine in Fig 4.

If you have a rolling ruler, you'll want to pull it out to use for the next part. The lines indicating the angle of the shadow must be the same as the angle of light. Line up your rolling ruler with the line for the angle of light, then roll it over to the top corner in front of the square and lightly draw a solid line from that corner down to the first dotted line you drew. Do the same to the next two corners on the top of the square going to the right, lining them up with their respective dotted lines. If you’re not quite sure what I’m talking about, take another look at Fig. 4. I circled the points at which the dotted lines and the angle of the shadow intersect.

Now I want you to draw in the lines of your shadow. To do this you will connect the lines from where the solid and dotted lines you just drew meet. Look at Fig. 4 again and see the small circles I drew where those lines meet. Just connect the dots, so to speak. For more help, take a look at Fig. 5.

Fig.5

You can now erase your lines that show beyond your shadow, and then fill in your shadow using your 2B pencil, and your drawing should look something like Fig 6.

Fig.6

Now you can erase your dotted lines inside the square and add shading and highlights to your square and you will have a 3-d square with an accurate shadow. Congratulations on completing your first lesson on angles of light and shadow!

The next lesson will cover how to draw the shadow of a pyramid and how to draw a shadow cast against a wall.