Week 11: Hodge Podge

This week has been very diverse, creatively speaking. It's also felt strangely backwards. Earlier in the week it felt like Thursday or Friday, and yet today doesn't feel like Friday at all for some reason. Plus the whole week has felt like two! I'm so confused... 

Lots of good things have happened this week, though. Monday I went back to Mill Pond Park, this time to do some plein air drawing. It was too gorgeous a day to spend in the studio! My dream is to one day have a studio that has a nice porch or balcony or easily accessible outdoor space for lots of plein air art! I love working outside. Tough when it's windy, but otherwise so nice. I'm not really a landscape painter, I just like being outdoors!! (Though right now I'm in the studio listening to the pitter patter of ...a leak from one of the apartments upstairs. Lovely.) 

Tuesday one of my private students and I were working on drawing portraits (we've graduating from drawing Skully), and I have a bunch of photos from magazines, so we drooled over...er, drew...Benedict Cumberbatch. It made me realize how out of practice I am with portrait drawing! I'll need to get back into the sketch book!! I'll share what I drew, even though it's very flawed. At least it looks something like him!? 

Tuesday evening Skully and I took a drive up to Lansing (the Capitol of the great state of Michigan!) to meet up with some friends of mine who live on the west side of the state. It was great to see them and spend an evening talking and catching up! Skully stayed in the car, naturally, but we snapped a photo in front after. Some of my friends on Instagram are worried about me, I think. I assured them Skully was plastic, but that didn't seem to help. Philistines. ;)

Wednesday morning I took a Steampunk jewelry class at 212, and it was SO FUN!! Kelsey, the teacher, has the coolest stuff, and knows how to make anything work. Here's my creation - the clock hands, propellor, and gear all move!! I love it so much. You should all come take her next class! 

The last two days I've been in the studio drawing the main character of our book, Tom, over and over and over. I'm having fun playing around with facial expressions... 

I have a really hard time with the idea of drawing the same thing over and over. It's not in my nature! But I'm learning to adapt to it and make it a part of what I do. It's excellent practice. I want to be comfortable with these characters before I dive into the nitty gritty. Better to change something now than when I'm halfway through the illustrations!! 

Ok, back to work. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend! I'm very excited for some bagpipes, men in kilts, and beach time!! 

Also, a BIG thank you to our women and men in uniform. I am so grateful for the freedoms we have here in the US, and for those who have fought so we can keep them, including my grandfathers and other family members!! The photo below is of my Grandpa Downie & Grandpa Johnson. My Scottish Grandpa Downie, who served with the Queen's Cameron Highlanders in WWI, is in his dress uniform, which included a kilt! My Grandpa Johnson was a Marine and fought in WWII. He also had a sweet ride. ;)

Steampunk Sea Art...Sea Punk?

I wanted to do a quick post to share something that I accomplished last week.  It's one of the paintings I referenced in my post about failure! 

A few months ago I was working in my sketchbook and started working on a drawing of a Steampunk'd-out sea horse.  I really liked it, but didn't go anywhere with it at that point.  Then, a few weeks ago at 212, our graphic design guy Keith showed us the postcard he made for Saline Picture Frame's Circle of Art - an annual art auction that benefits Food Gatherers of Ann Arbor.  The theme for this year's art auction is Steampunk!  I knew what I had to do...

I took my sea horse sketch, did some tweaks and changes, and made it into a small watercolor painting. It was going along well - I liked the colors, felt pretty confident about it, and while there were a few things I thought about changing, was pleased with how it was coming along.  My final touch was to do the inking on it, and it went well...until I shook my koh-i-noor ink well pen too close to the painting and disaster struck:

The ink splotched everywhere (including on me), and all over the lower portion of the painting.  I couldn't believe it!  I tried to do a pattern on the tail that would cover the ink or incorporate it somehow, but failed miserably.  

At that point I realized that I could sit there and brood about my messed up painting, or just Keep Moving Forward and start over.  I'm fairly pleased with the results! There are some things I liked better on the first, some better on the second, but all in all I'm happy with it: 

You can bid on the finished, non-ink splotched sea horse on the Circle of Art website, or go to the event on May 18th from 12-5pm at Saline Picture Frame and bid on it in person!  I'm also planning on doing more of these to sell on my Etsy shop, and will post a link where there up.  There will be more Steampunk animals to come, as well!