Big, Bigger, and Biggest News!

Big News:

• Today is International Artist Day. The idea behind the day (which is Picasso's birthday) is to encourage people to take time to support artists. Artists make it their life's passion to bring you beauty, humor, thoughtfulness, emotion, etc, why not take some time today to support one of them?
  
• And of course, now you are wondering what you could do...take an artist out for coffee, visit a museum, babysit the kids of an artist mom you know...or, of course, buy some original art. And that leads me on the bigger news...
  

Bigger News:

• New website - I have created a new website, rosewelty.com. It is a gallery of my work, updated and expanded to include new work. And that leads me on to the biggest news...
  

Biggest News:

• Artwork for Sale - I have begun a new blog, rosewelty.blogspot.com. I have had such a positive response over my "daily inks" that I have decided to make them available for sale. You can see all the specifics over on the new blog, but essentially I have the ink drawings for sale for $25 including shipping to the US. For now, if anyone overseas is interested in purchasing my work, please contact me via email (it's in the sidebar of either blog).
• I will be putting new art up for sale every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
  

This is truly a thrilling moment for me as an artist, and a wonderful way for me to spend my first International Artist Day. I have spent countless hours organizing and preparing for this over the last several weeks, hence the shorter posts you've seen on this blog. I apologize for that, I should be getting back to my usual art history, modern techniques, book review writing self very soon.

Finally, I need to give a shout out to Stacy of Stop and Draw the Roses. Stacy is launching her own sales blog today. She and I teamed up over email to get each other through this process, I am so thankful for her friendship. She's been a great source of information, reminders, and encouragement.

Big News This Weekend

Just a quick post today...I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow is International Artist's Day and that means big news around Rose's Art Lines.

I've been working over the last several weeks on some new things, you will be able to see them on Saturday. Actually, you can see one new change already in the sidebar...new avatar.

The Last of the Roses?

"A Rose From Any Angle"
4.5in x 5.5in,
acrylic inks on watercolor paper

Today the weather here in north Texas is distinctly nippy, it seems that we may have left the triple digits for 2008. I say "it seems" because most of the Thanksgivings I've been here have been hot! But today that feels very distant.

Yesterday I snapped a photo of what may be my last rose of the year. I have sure enjoyed my roses this year, above you see some of them - although the ones in my garden are yellow, I just like purple! Yellow and purple is one of my favorite painting combinations.

Some Mixed Flowers and the VSD

Daily Ink Number 13

Just a reminder that the Virtual Sketch Date is coming up. The reference will be posted on Friday the 17th. You'll then have a week and sketches should be posted on Saturday, October 25th. The process will be a little different this time, so be sure to read what you need to do. (It's nothing major, just a way to make things easier for everyone.)

Off to cut some paper...

September Goals Review

Daily Ink Number 4 Acrylic Inks and Brush on WC paper

This post is a review of my goals for September.


Business

• Donation - I donated a piece of artwork. I had a sticker label on the back. I also handed out a few business cards. (An important part of this goal was to get the stickers and cards and begin using them.)
  
• Write an article for online submission - This goal never happened. I think it needs baby steps...like write a rough draft, refine the draft, and submit.
  
• Update website - this didn't happen. Part of the failure was laziness, part of the failure was that I have been mostly painting and that stuff isn't exactly advertisement quality yet.
  
• Consider uses of new sticker labels and business cards - I've handed out a few cards.
  

Research

• Finish Oil Painting for Serious Beginners - Didn't finish this book, but read 4 others on oil painting.
  
• Begin Joseph Albers' Interaction of Color - Didn't begin this, but I'm satsified with my reading this month.
  

Artwork

• Oil Painting (3 paintings/week) - I did six oil paintings so far this month (one is for VSD, you can see that on Saturday). That is about half of what I had hoped for. Mostly the shortfall is due to "life" happening. However, I do think I am learning..some painting time was given over to reading when I felt I needed to read and think before just slapping paint down and making the same mistakes again. As well, the "daily ink" project is helping my brushwork just as much as painting with oils.
  
• Finish a second graphite piece for card collection. - This didn't happen. I decided to spend the time painting rather on graphite. I wasn't as thrilled as with the "first" one for the card collection anyway. In short, the "card" project needs further development.

I'll give my goals for October in a few days, probably Monday. The VSD is tomorrow!

Daily Discipline

Recently, I picked up Painting More Than Eye Can See by Robert Wade. I purchased it for two reasons. One, I really like the pictures in it - I love this painter's style. Two, the cover...he took an ordinary photo and turned it into a fabulous painting. I have loads of ordinary photos, I'd love to know how to get more out of them. I am very interested in creating more than a photo can show. I'd like to make my paintings express more than just reality, I'd like them to express reality as I see it.

One of the exercises that he encourages is painting daily...but not in the way you'd think. He suggests doing a 7 or 8 minute (4x6 in) "postcard painting." The idea is to just get used to watercolors, how they are applied, how they blend, etc. It occurred to me that I could take this idea and make it my own...

My New Daily Discipline Idea

• spend 5-10 minutes a day doing an ink and brush painting (although Vivien Blackburn posted today about sketching in oils, so that may happen too)
  
• perhaps use a small format, although for this one I only had 9in x 12in paper available.
• do the painting from a thumbnail image of one of my photos. I am gradually building a library of my own photos, so all I have to do is open a directory, pick a thumbnail and paint from it. The idea is that the image is too small for me to really know the details, this should force me to just concentrate on values, patterns, and suggesting rather than truly delineating everything. (In short, force myself to be a bit more painterly!)
• Above is my first effort, it was really fun to have only a few minutes and just whip out the inks, splash around, and throw them back and be done. The photo was taken on vacation this year, a view of the dry creek bed, trees (which are sadly dying and not really green), and distant mountains in Forest Falls, CA.
  

The book is all about the artist being the "director" and manipulating elements as she sees fit. He calls this idea "visioneering." Essentially, having a vision in your mind of what you want the painting to be...the mood it expresses, the perspective you want to give on a place, etc. He stresses using the fundamentals to accomplish this...reflected light, values, atmosphere, figure placement, etc.

Again, this wasn't anything particularly new, but he wrote with such confidence about manipulating basic elements to achieve what you want...well, it just makes me want to have a go with some ordinary photos.

Wade also offers the following encouragement "whatever I have achieved I've done by working my fingers to the bone. I've practiced until my eyes were so sore I couldn't see straight. I've driven myself to keep on going when I could cheerfully have dropped with exhaustion at some weird hour of the morning." (Wade, p.100)

I've never been one to stay up until the wee hours, but that statement does give me hope that with hard work, I will persevere.

Thoughts on Acrylic Inks, Brushes and Drawing with Them

This post is a summary of my thoughts on using acrylic ink and brushes to draw - my process and a few other tidbits and opinions.

My Process With a Brush

1. At the outset I must say that my drawing process is much different with a brush than with a pencil. Pencil in hand, I usually sketch a polygon that encloses the subject, then continue refining shapes and lines from there, almost as a sculptor would work.
   
2. I load my brush with the lightest value that I see (besides a white highlight). I then look at the shape of that value.
3. Then I decide how I need to hold, twist, twirl, or press the brush to achieve that shape in one stroke. Somewhere I read that the first stroke you put down in watercolor is the best, if you go back to adjust it then it only gets worse - I can't find the quote now, but it has made an impression on me. So ink painting has become a bit like golf for me!
   
4. Next, I twist, twirl, and/or press the brush to create the shape.
5. Repeat steps two through four with the medium value shapes. Of course, as there is no outline drawing, it can all go a bit wonky - this where I hope that practice and diligence is improving my eye.
6. Then I finish with the darkest darks.

Acrylic Inks

• I'm not sure what made me try these initially, but I'm glad that I did.
• They come in a great range of colors.
• They have the usual lightfastness standards and issues.
• To me, they are less intimidating than watercolors. Once dry they can be painted over again without disturbing the lower layer. However, when wet they have the same nice "accidental" power that watercolors have.
• They are easily mixed with water and can be mixed together to create different colors.

Brushes

• Up until now, I have used a brush I borrowed from my son's watercolor set and it has worked beautifully.
• Recnetly I purchased a couple of white sable brushes that were on clearance -- they can be used with oil, acrylic, or watercolor - so I figured they'd be alright with acrylic ink. I'll let you know.