Winter Blahs

Hi everyone. Had some warmer weather this weekend and at the beginning of the week. Makes the now one digit temperatures hard to take. We, here in central Ohio, are not terribly snowed in at this point, though.

When not working on my job I have been working lately on orgainzing my business records, website and renewing art related memberships, as far as New Year's goals go. I have learned alot about business taxes, which since small business are most likely to be audited, is in itself worth the time and money I have invested in learning about taxes this past year. I did see this new blog, ArtIsBroken.com, from reading Making a Mark. They offer a free reveiw of your current website and marketing efforts resulting in some marketing advice. I enlisted in the offer yesterday. Looking forward to the response.

Getting some angst about not doing any art this past week, will get on a good schedule with that soon, I know it.

Keep warm and cozy as much as you can! Thanks for stopping by and stop back soon!

Blue Eyes

Here is one of the commissions I did for Christmas. The large dog is a German Shepherd-Huskie mix. Aren't those blue eyes intriguing! I used three different photos to make this composition of two dogs. It is 12x9 inches, colored pencil on Ampersand pastel board. I heard from the client that the gift was very well received. When asked how I could improve my services, the client replied only that I should keep doing my art because he considered me so talented. A very nice comment. Very rewarding experience all around -- the doing and the happiness of the customer! This customer (a couple who gave the commission as a present to their son and daughter-in-law) saw me a the art festival in Zanesville that I did this summer.

I have been going to work at my job this week -- in between has been taken up by trying to catch up on neglected house work and seeing my mom. So thus far I have not done great in the New Year on some of my goals. But I will follow Mona Majorowicz's example of having faith that putting my intentions out into the universe will help lead me in the right direction.

Hope you are all having a great New Year. Thanks for stopping by, Angela

Poster Finished and Delivered

Here is a final version of the poster. You can see better if you enlarge it. I have several more shots I took and one of them might be better as this is effected by being tilted back a little. I will have to look at those later. Just picked one quickly to post. I delivered it this afternoon. Ran several errands and am posting before I go to the barn.

We are supposed to hear something by February 1. I am glad I did it. I do have some difficulties with painting in acrylic and the horse is not everything I envisioned, but I had to stop working on it in order to get it in on time. I had envisioned a old timie circus kind of thing, but chickened out on puting the lettering on the picture with the time I had. I think if I could have done that, it would look more like I envisioned. I think the finished picture has some of the qualities I was going after,though. I retouched the horse's eye in photo editing to match what I did on second thought with color pencil just before I ran out the door. It is noticiable and does not blend in as well as it done in the original in the enlarged version here.

Thanks for looking and thanks for you support, Mona!

Poster WIP, Loss of an Artist

Here is my picture portion of my poster competition entry, thus far. It has lettering on the sides and bottom, but that is currently taped up and so I cropped that out for this WIP. I have a little ways to go yet, but did not get to work on it yesterday like I planned. Will not now have a chunk of time, now, until Thursday -- cutting it close, but doable for Friday hand delivery, I think. I tried to darken the sky a little and made a streaky too dark mess -- will be fixing. I have to work on the horse the most yet, saved it for last. Also, been having problems since I moved him when redoing my drawing to make the table stand out more -- made some mistakes that I did not discover until I started painting. So he has had some redos to try to fix him. Still need to adjust his color and add tack. I need to work on the green areas more, too.

Some of you may have all ready read about the death of Stephen Huneck, but in case you haven't, you may want to look at his art and read about his life. He did hand carved wooden sculptures and wood cut prints of dogs and was known as a dog folk art artist. He wrote some books which were on the New York times best seller list. He built a dog chapel that people from all over the world visted and left memorials to dogs in their lives who had passed on. I have enjoyed looking at his art and reading about his life as an artist. It is tragic and very sad that he is gone and could not rise above a time of dispair. My heart aches for his devoted wife.

Catching Up

Pony at Winter Pasture, 9x12, oil pastel on grey Mi Tentes

Posting an old one of one of my POA ponies (Pony of the Americas) that fits the season. She looks alot like Buddy, my old man Appaloosa, but she has smaller spots and is a lot smaller, 12.1 hands, with a beaautifully refined head and large eye.

I have been working like mad on my poster, deadline this Friday. Interrupted with training for a job as a tax preparer and getting dressed up like an astronaut to go out about four times a day to do the barn chores. Has been in the teens or lower for several weeks, really tiring.

I will try to post a WIP of the poster on Monday -- my next day with a chunk of time at home. I do hope to get it finshed or 98% on that day as I will be getting a work schedule on Monday that will probably include some working next week, too.

Hope you are all well and warm. Thanks for stopping by!

Poster Mockup

I am posting the pencil sketch (still not the big one - 18x24) and the color mockup I have done so far for the poster competition. The color mock up is done with Neocolor II's. I toyed with using them for the final piece, but I just have not had enough practice with them I think to do that. I think the final will be done in acrylics. Not that I have a great deal of experience with them either, but at least one can paint over them for corrections. The color mock up is smeared in many places due to too much experimentation. The table cloth in the foreground was more pleasing to me at some earlier point, but I was experimenting with the effects/juxapositions to the point of no return. I will be moving the plate on the table fully into the compostion. Straightning the tent a little more. And the figures, i.e. the father and child walking toward the tents, the woman walking a dog and the muscians, will be a little more prominent in the final/larger composition. I am trying to include representation of the following elements: wine and food, polo (the grounds are known for polo and there will be a polo match on the second day of the two day art festival), art and art festival, the manison grounds, children enjoying the festival, and musical entertainment. I am using a lot of white space, but hope tinting will help with some differentiation. I think the tents will show up better in the larger, non smeared final. I know it is alot of white elements, but hope in the end they work. I am almost embarrassed to post this, but this is what I am up to. Comments/suggestions are welcome. I am going to work on the large sketch today, maybe start painting tonight.