Arnold Art

Graphite and chalk sketch

8 1/2 x 11"

Arnold Schwarzenegger (aka: the governator) is in Columbus this weekend. I hope to get the chance to meet him on Sunday.

Why is this even on my blog, you ask? Because every year, Arnold hosts a huge Sports and Fitness Expo here in our fair city http://www.arnoldsportsfestival.com/. This year, along with the bodybuilding competitions and various other sports, 50 artists from all over were selected to paint or draw the athletes. I was lucky enough to be chosen to participate.

So, today we had athlete/models to sketch and draw for several hours then we were turned loose throughout the convention with our digital cameras and sketchpads. Tomorrow we will show up bright and early (7:30 a.m.!) to begin to create a piece that we will frame and have ready for a show on Sunday. There are prizes awarded and Arnold himself is choosing a favorite.

Today was so much fun and such a pleasure to have these amazing athletes to model for us. (However, they had no idea that holding a pose for hours could be so physically challenging.)

So, now you know why the Terminator is on my blog.

Frequent Sketches

Ooh, boy, I've been busy: cleaning out the studio, moving things around, reorganizing, taking inventory, and just generally doing some spring cleaning.

Because I'm not motivated to make commitments and changes in January when most people do (I just don't have the energy), I wait until spring. This year, not only am I making some much needed physical changes but I've made some much needed new commitments to myself and my work. Here are the biggies:

1. I've written out my mission statement and have it posted where I read it daily.
2. I have also posted my list of professional goals where I can read them daily along with their deadlines.
3. Each goal is broken down into workable steps with each date marked on a goal calendar.
4. To avoid the inevitable (for me) lag time between finishing a piece and starting a new one, I will strive to have more than one project going at a time. This is also very helpful when I am struggling or bored working on one particular drawing.
5. I will sketch. I am not committing to a daily schedule, but a frequent one. It's just impossible for me with a young son and so many other commitments to sketch daily. But I have promised myself to try to work on a simple sketch for 30 minutes or less. I plan to share many of these sketches here.
6. I have made a daily work schedule to block out large chunks of time to commit solely to my artwork. This schedule is then being shared with my family so they can be aware of when I am working.

Making these commitments and cleaning out that studio has given me a new boost toward my work and creativity.

Does anyone else feel the need to "spring clean" to recharge the batteries?

Slightly Slacking

Sketching from Life

Project on Wetcanvas

May 2008, Week 1: Flowers

My solution: lilacs from my yard in my 5 x 7" moleskin sketchbook

It may seem that I have been slacking, and, in Blog-World, I have. But, I have been very, very busy in:

Art world -

• Started and finished a new piece on layered Mylar (I'll show you, I promise), with plans for a few more.
• Got word that "Sticky Situation" was accepted into the July National Exhibition in Southport, North Carolina at Franklin Square Gallery. Beautiful gallery; beautiful part of the country.
• Came up with some new ideas for a new series of work. (You'll see it as it develops).

Home world -

• Son home from Army training! (More on that later, too.)
• Constantly reminding children (especially grown ones) that Sunday is Mother's Day. (I'll let you know if they remember.)

Social world (AKA "Spending-Time-With-Other-Adults" World) -

• Gala fundraising event (had to dress up),
• Focus group for a fair trade organization (didn't have to dress up)
• The Police (Sting is STILL hot!) Concert (just wore my favorite jeans). (Yes, yes, more there, too.)

Rhonda world - (Where I live in a quiet, well-organized house, with a highly paid and competent staff who tend to my every need. Right....)

• New camera! New computer! (My argument that these are tools for my trade really worked!)
• Training! I have made the commitment to run the Columbus Half Marathon in October. Yes, it's hard on the body; great for the mind. Keeps me sane and very good for my disposition.

BUT one the biggest excuses I have for not blogging recently is that I, too, was flagged as a spammer (as if!) and put on hold for a couple of days. (NOT good for my disposition.) Looks like the folks at Blogger are working out some of the bugs on this matter, as I didn't have to be down as long as some other blogging art friends. Whew. Still, mighty annoying. I barely have time for all the stuff I do now - how the hell would I find time to spam? Let alone learn how to? Jeesh. (Has this happened to anyone else in the last week or so? Anyone know WHY this happens? Is there a rampant sabateur out there lurking and ready to flag wee art bloggers?)

Oh, maybe I just needed to take a week or so off from posting. Sometimes time off from something, even something you enjoy, can refresh and clear the cobwebs from the attic, so to speak. Then again maybe pushing away from the keyboard gave me some time to just go do stuff so I can come back to tell you all about it. Mmmm.

Shadow Play - Some Color Theory

Here is my latest contribution in the "Sketching from Life" project on Wetcanvas. The subject was cutlery or utensils, so I decided to use this juicer-thingy partly because I just thought it would be fun to draw but more so because it was white. I set this little tool right on top of a white table and went to work. I haven't done a white on white drawing for a long time; but after enjoying this one so much, I'll probably do a few more and sooner.

I thought I'd share what I do while drawing with colored pencils to create shadows and to keep them as a glowing, lively part of the picture: I rarely use black or grey -- almost never for shadows.

In most of my drawings, I shy away from using greys and black and if so, only in the last phases of the drawing. For my taste, I prefer achieve a believable shadow by layering various complimentary colors to tonally achieve a grey, but becuase it is mixed with the eye, it becomes much more vibrant and believable. When I first discovered this, mostly from studying the Impressionist painters, it was an "ah-ha" moment and I saw a breakthrough in much of my own work.

Here are a couple of examples of where I might have chosen to use grey, but instead used various colors and their complements to create a more lively grey.

For the "Aviators", I combined lavendars, blues, pale pinks and warm yellows to illustrate the folds in the musician's jacket. This was an outdoor setting and therefore, the change in value range in the shadows was rather subtle; thus the use of mostly pastel or lighter values for my pencil choices.

Here, too, in "Early Autumn Meditation", I chose similar hues, but with more chroma or deeper values. The model was indoors, with natural lighting, but deeper shadows were needed, therefore, I chose pencils with deeper values. Under the chair, I used Indigo Blue and Dark Green (Prismacolor) to intensify and darken that shadow.

All three of these drawings (either from life or the reference photos I shot) were done in natural light, which can make a huge difference when learning to render shadows without greys; you can just see the colors in the shadows much more easily. That is because natural light contains all of the colors in the spectrum.

But eventually, no matter what light is present, with practice and more knowledge of color and color theory, you can apply this technique to any drawing you do. You'll be able to reference an "ok" or even poor photo and create some amazing drawings. (The reference photos I shoot are usually not very good; I just know how to draw them better!)

I can honestly say that my color theory class in art school was one of the hardest classes I have ever taken, and one of the most worthwhile. If you are interested on further study, read, read, read and then look at a lot of drawings and paintings (especially Impressionists such as Monet, Degas, Mary Cassatt, and if you really want to have fun, Seurat) on the internet, in books, museums, abd galleries.

Here are a few places to start:

1. A thread on Wetcanvas discussing Munsell color theory.
2. Fun and interactive site which briefly explains and demonstrates color theory (Iowa State educational site.)
3. Color theory in a nutshell - great for printing and keeping!
4. Color theory - some facts and thoughts on Watercolor.com, simple and easy to read with some excellent examples.
5. Another Wetcanvas site, ArtSchool and loads of info on color.

A Child's Observation

Sketching from Life Prokect on http://www.wetcanvas.com/

Week 3 - Something from your refrigerator

45 minute colored pencil sketch

Recently, my young son was invited to a birthday party for one of his friends - who's father happens to work for Ohio State University and is one of the football coaches. The party was at the training center on campus.

Now, if you've ever been to a military base or Fort Knox, you have some idea of how hard it is to get into the OSU football training facility. Very few people ever get the chance. And around here (in Columbus), its equivalent to a shrine or holy place.

After two hours, we returned to the shrine and waited for it to open (we could not get in), and as he emerged he looked very, very tired. I, thinking he'd had an awful experience, was concerned; but no, he had just spent two hours training with the football team, hanging out in their locker room and rec room (read XBox 360 and any video game imaginable), trying on equipment and just hanging out with all the guys! My husband and I (both avid fans) turned around and shook him and said "Please, please tell us more!"

Because we also pressed upon him that he was indeed one of the few chosen to ever get inside, he began to share his experiences. (We were kneeling at his feet by then.) Then he told us that he got to go into Coach Tressel's office. (Gasp, the inner sanctum!) We both whispered "What was it like?"

He said it looked like an office for a god.

We nodded, comforted and satisfied.

Sketching from Life

Weekly Sketches from Life

page from my sketchbook

45 minute sketch

A while ago, I made a confession that I had not been (gasp!) keeping a sketchbook regularly. I made that confession public, in part, to motivate me to be the person I want to be and begin keeping one. I bought one - ok several. (Those suckers are as addictive to shop for as shoes!) I DID take one to Bolivia and did do some fun sketches there; but I haven't been so great about using it daily.

So, while blog-reading the other day , I find out that there is a new monthly thread on Wetcanvas where everyone participating will be doing WEEKLY (less pressure for me) sketches in colored pencil! Voila! They even give me ideas! Love that.

(If you are an artist, crafter, hobbyist or are interested in any of those things, check out www.Wetcanvas.com. Great site by artists, for artists.)

For the month of April, all of the SUGGESTED topics are "In the Kitchen" and this week's is "something from your pantry". Yes, I ate it afterwards but I still feel good about myself because I sketched it first.