Upside Down Sketching and Hint

You might guess that an item was "upside down"  The red, white and blue bowls called to me again that I sketched for bowl and plate last Hunt.

Number 5, upside down - in the big book on the page with the greenback with the Lamy pen.

And here is the big sketchbook again for you that don't know about it and the post when I started it.
https://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/2016/01/happy-new-year-sketches-for-hunt-434.html

You would never know the bowls are red, white and blue.  Here is the pastel I did turned upside down.  I was going to cheat and just turn this one over.  Not kosher, eh?

Turning the painting upside down, taking a photo and changing to black and white are great ways to check if your painting is successful.  It is easy to see in the upside down photo that the ellipses are not true and the sides of the bowls are uneven.  The values in the black and white version are pretty good.  If this were a painting to frame, I would fix the sides of the big bowl.   I would be happy with the values.

If you don't have time to use the camera, you can look at your painting in a mirror and/or turn it upside down.

Here is another sample, the Fishing Shack from a few weeks back.

Fishing Shack

10 x 8 inches on Pastelbord

Try this with your paintings.  I find that I use color instead of value a lot and this doesn't always transfer to a successful painting.  More about that later.

Sketching for Hunt477

Sketched a bit for Scavenger Hunt 477
http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1417704
Sketching can be relaxing, taking my mind off of all the things I should be doing!  Same story: in the big book with a Micron 01, quick as I can.

Number 5, something with numbers - pocket ruler
Number 6, needs liquid - tea bags (in can, ha)

Alyson Stanfield posted about doing your annual check up.  Excellent advice.  Sadly, I don't have much to check on this year.
https://goo.gl/ADW3iC

Sketch Hunting for #423

Interesting day today.  It was so nice this morning.  We had our snacks, coffee and checked e-mail, etc.  Then we went for a short walk.  About thirty minutes.  There are about 5 new houses in our neighborhood either finished or almost finished.  We weren't gone to New Mexico that long were we??

When we got back from our walk,  I checked blogs and wetcanvas.  I decided to sketch here at my computer desk.  I could see several items or substitutes from here, or part of them.  I sketched in the large sketchbook with a Pilot ball point pen.  The pen is for writing, but makes nice lines and usually does not leak or leave globs or fuzz on the paper.  I use this brand in my sketchbooks for the car and purse.

For Scavenger Hunt 423  http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1389662
Number 1, furniture - the umbrella stand used for Gene's cane collection.
Number 2, decoration - the wall hanging David made for me.  The fleur de lis on it are very pretty and cast beautiful shadows on the wall.  I could not depict that in the small space I was using.
Number 3, curtain - substituted the shutters on the window
Number 4, lamp - substituted the ceiling light

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My iTunes is playing the La-la Song.  That is what Jennie called it when Joanna practiced on the piano in Bolivia.  It is Beethoven's Fur Elise in A Minor.  The version playing is on a guitar on an album called Guitar Classics, who knew it was a guitar classic?

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There is a great underpainting article on Richard McKinley's blog with some exercises to try.  Maybe I will do them.  Sure......  It is such a good idea to practice.  It might get me to paint.  Hmmm.

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/art-demos-techniques/practicing-intuition-9-underpainting-exercises

I Miss Regina Burchett

You all know about Regina Burchett. http://reginaburchett.com/  She is a great painting buddy.  She and Larry moved to North Carolina, far, far, from Bastrop, Texas, a few years ago.  They both fall in the great friends category.  We lived in their RV after the Bastrop fire and they helped us get our new house.  We can never thank them enough.

We have been friends since about 1998 or so.  When they lived in Bastrop we saw each other very often and painted together quite a bit.  We had a couple of shows together and even painted one pastel painting together and donated it to charity.  We visit easily and also enjoy painting quietly together.  We have laughed, cried, cussed and discussed, got into some mischief, helped each other, gone to workshops, and drank a few gallons of lattes. 

Regina is an amazing professional artist, teacher and writer.  She has a link to her book and poems on her website. Regina is a generous and caring person of friends and animals.   She wrote a great blog on March 3 that may inspire you and give you moral support.  Please have a read:

http://reginaburchett.com/blog/89328/peaks-and-valleys-an-artists-path


If you put Regina's name in the search box at the top left of my blog you will get some idea of our friendship. Here, I will do it for you:   http://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/search?q=regina+burchett  These photos will come up:

Our Together Painting

 McKinney Falls
by Regina Burchett and Jo Castillo
Pastel on board with pumice, 16 x 20

 Regina in her Texas studio.

 Regina out painting plein air .... with me!

Regina and I at the IAPS convention in Albuquerque.

It is so good to have a friend that is easy to confide in and share your work and inspiration.  We talk on the phone, write e-mail and visit when we can.  It has been a couple of years now since we have been together in person and I miss her.

Maybe we will get together in the fall ......

Oil Painting, Sketch for #371 and Photos

I sketched yesterday, hoping to warm up to finish my oil painting.  It was very nice out so at least I enjoyed being outside.  Gene rode his bike so I worked out with my weights and went for a 20 minute walk.  Then I was ready to paint!!  Or not.

I did work on the painting and I am calling it finished.  Not a best but good practice.  I am too stingy with the paint I think.  Richard McKinley talks about the excitement of painting and what happens when you aren't excited.  The art link is below.  I will try his advice next outing.  Not plan, just paint.

Skyline

Oils on Canvas Panel, 8 x 10 inches

 Before painting I sketched in the regular sketchbook with the Micron 05 pen.

Number 9, front door
Number 10, bag
Number 11, old art supply - the metal and canvas folding table.  Joanna gave me two of these several years ago.  They have really been used.  Very lightweight for carrying around and serve as a table with a board on top.

For my art link today I am sending you off to read about "Striking Out" by Richard McKinley.  Good advice.  Maybe I will "play" some today and see if I get on base.
http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/art-demos-techniques/playing-the-painting-game-what-to-do-when-youre-striking-out

And some random photos from New Mexico because it is so pretty here.

Butterfly and thistle.

Michael's Kitchen in Taos, a great place to eat breakfast and more.

Rain Clouds in Taos

Taos House

Do you think they cater to Texan's?  As a Texan I would rather buy something from New Mexico.  Hmmm.

Ponderosa Pine Woods

Stacked Sketches and Photos

Coming up with blog post titles is not the easiest thing.  It is tempting to just put "Hunt 369 Sketches" but then it is hard to differentiate between the posts.  The play on the word, stacked, may lead you to think it is a good looking woman or another idea.  Hopefully it caught your attention!

I post my sketches as a record for me.  It keeps me sketching when I don't really feel up to it or when I am just lazy.  The Scavenger Hunts have been my way to keep putting lines down on paper since 2006.  Miles of paper, right?  The sketchers are a fun bunch of artists from around the world, making my sketching world more interesting.  I have sketched things I would never have dreamed of sketching, like a toilet or leftovers and dirty dishes.  It keeps me on my toes  ... or actually on a comfortable chair with my feet up.

I sketched for Hunt 369 http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1356697 as per usual in the travel sketchbook with a Micron 05 pen.

Number 3, stack of something - the woodpile on the porch.  Some happy little ground squirrels appear to live there.  I sketched one previously lying on the wood box.

Number 4, pair of - earrings
Number 5, beside each other - the two rings
Number 6, beside my bed - table, book, lamp (bottom)
Number 7, electrical plug and socket - for the computers and phones

The paper does not have a pattern.  I think the design is the sun coming in through the screen.  I didn't take the photos over, I left it as it is an interesting effect.

I was up before the sunrise this morning and remembered to look.  It is unusual for me to be up at sunrise.   The clouds and light was pretty.

Art Link:

Check out my art friend, Bag Blog, Lou Baggett on her blog  http://bagwag.blogspot.com/
and see more of her art on her FineArtAmerica page http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/lou-baggett.html
We are looking forward to a visit from Lou and Toby for painting and some fun.  We all went to Arkansas last September.    You can read about it here and see photos:  http://jocastilloartblog.blogspot.com/search?q=arkansas

IPad Sketches for Hunt 363, Art Link, Photos

I sketched another item for Scavenger Hunt 363 yesterday after the tree and then forgot to post it!  I'm lost in the beautiful mornings doing nothing on the porch, I guess.  I sketched again this morning.  We had .4 of an inch of rain and the morning was nice and cool about 72 degrees F.  I took photos of birds and delayed coming in as long as possible.

From yesterday for Scavenger Hunt 363, number 3 - foot and number 4 - shoe. Done with the app, Brushes.   Gene's foot on a little stool that is not at all crooked as it is molded plastic.  Sigh....

From today number 5, water view.  I was playing with a paint brush for the background and pastel for the rest on the app, ArtRage.  Interesting, but takes longer as I am not used to it.  Getting better, though.  It records your strokes and I will try to get it here for you to see how I do a sketch.  More learning!

I also use SketchBookPro on my iMac.  Nice, too.

Inspiration:

Did you learn how to cook?  Did you learn how to play a musical instrument?  Did you learn how to drive a car?  If you did, I suspect you can learn how to paint.  This article by Richard McKinley, http://mckinleystudio.com/, reinforces this idea in his article, "Artistic Drivers Education".  http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/inspiration-creativity/artistic-drivers-education

There are many useful articles on his Pastel Painters Blog, http://www.artistsnetwork.com/category/art-blogs/pastel-pointers-blog.  Most of the articles would apply to other media as well.  He is a very learned instructor.

Cardinal

Egrets

Birds

There had been a very nice house finch with lots of red on him but he wouldn't come back to the feeder when I was sitting out there.  Then I came in and there he was again.  Too much time spent there and then going through all the photos to find a few nice ones.

Two Winners!

I  monitor a mentoring class by Jason Horejs, Xanadu Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona. http://www.xanadugallery.com/home.php   He awarded a one year mentoring to Carolee Clark  http://www.caroleeclark.com/   and I signed on to audit the course. (read below) It has been super with so much gallery information and also insights into Carolee's work as a full time artist on her way to becoming famous.

I follow her blog and the other day she put up a small painting of some rooftops, yard, clothes on the line in her vivid happy style.  The painting is named, Creatively Casual.  Perfect I thought.  I really liked it.  Houses always draw me in and the bright colors add to the painting.  I have always wanted to paint clothes on the line, too, but never found or took the right photo reference.  I suggested to Gene that he get me an early birthday gift since Mother's day is gone.  My birthday is in September so he agreed!  (I'm sure he will forget and I will get another gift, right?)  I am also sure that if I wait, Carolee's work will become out of my price range.  At least I hope so.

At any rate, I ordered the painting on Daily Paintworks on a Thursday or Friday.  Carolee mailed it right away and it came well wrapped and safely on Monday or Tuesday.  It more than met my expectations.  Beautiful, colorful and cheery for my dining/kitchen area.  So a winner!

Here it is on the wall with one of my small paintings.  We don't have much wall space in that area.  I like the way it looks there.

I guess I saw the painting on Daily Paintworks first and I was doubly pleased to find what  she wrote about the painting.  She painted it from the Virtual Paintout from a scene in Chile.  We lived in Chile from 1978 - 1980 and just loved it.  So another connection.  The Virtual Paintout is a fun idea for artists, you paint from Google Map photos, if you care to see the other Chile paintings or join in here is the link to the main page, http://virtualpaintout.blogspot.com/  I'm not sure when the subject changes, but you paint around the world.  You can see it on her blog to look at a closeup here http://goo.gl/eJn0wW

A big surprise followed a couple of days later.  I opened my newsletter from Daily Paintworks and found that I won their weekly drawing for a painting by Gary Westlake from Canada.  Pink Lotus, is the painting.  I imagine I will put it just above Carolee's painting.  Very cool!  You can see it here
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/gary-westlake/pink-lotus/211083  and I will post the photo when it comes.

Daily Paintworks features original art and if you buy from them you can enter the drawings to win a painting by their featured artist for the week.  You can enter for 30 days or 4 drawings.  How cool that I won.  I had my art there for a while, but you really need to be a more frequent painter than I am at the moment so I decided to drop membership for a time.  It is a good place to place your paintings as they don't compete with photographs and prints.  Of course, as an artist you need to let people know where your art is on any on-line venue.  Not much chance of someone surfing around and finding your work among the millions out there.  Possible but not probable.

Gene and I won some tickets to a musical event last Friday, too.  Jennie used the tickets, said they had a good time. I was hoping that the winning would continue on to the Lottery, but no luck so far!

-----------------------------

The mentoring with Jason and Carolee has been great as I said.  I learned some new things and am able to see how Carolee has progressed in her artistic journey.  The sessions are mostly about getting into a gallery/galleries and the business side of art.  It does include info on websites, social media, etc., too.

Jason is going to do the same again for another artist this summer.  You can apply to be the mentor-ee or to audit the class here.    It was worth the money and I am joining again.

You can see and apply for the mentorship here:
http://www.xanadugallery.com/Mentorship/Index.php

I have some of my available paintings on the Xanadu website here
http://www.xanadugallery.com/2013/Artists/ArtistPage.php?ArtistID=4125

Jason also offers an inventory system, Art Tracker at a low cost.  It is called ArtSala and tracks your art, addresses, and much more.  http://www.xanadugallery.com/ArtTracker/Index.asp   It is very helpful and I may go to it later, but for now I have one I made on Bento.

If you don't keep an inventory, you should.  Every once in a while I look in my archives and am surprised at how many paintings I have there and it reminds me I don't have records of many more.  I didn't really start keeping track until about 1999 with just snapshots and a spreadsheet.  I updated my system when I revamped my website about 2006.  Since then I have numbered my art pieces and have a record of where they went.

As usual, this started out as a quick post to tell you about my painting and then .... the rest of the story!

Blog Saturday or Not?

"They" of the advice/marketing blogs say you should not blog on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays.  I tend to agree, especially about Fridays.  That is the day the politicians always release bad news as it sort of slips by.

At any rate, I tend to post when I have something exciting to tell or have my routine Scavenger Hunt sketches to post.  Today is a bit of both.

First my sketches for Scavenger Hunt 345.  I sketched in the new large sketchbook with a plan of six sketches to the page.  I used the same Prismacolor Premier 03 pen/fine line marker.  I took about 10 minutes each sketching the first two on January 21 and the others this morning.

Number 1, made of wood.  Some small folding tables from Peru.  They are wooden with leather tops.  Number 2, made of glass.  A coaster that is painted on the reverse side of the glass with a wooden backing, also from Peru.

We had one of the tables with us in New Mexico so it didn't burn in the big fire in Bastrop in 2011.  The other one and the coasters were given "back" to us recently from the Mear family.  Kathy bought them for her folks when she visited us in Peru.  Both of her parents passed away not too long ago.  The family thought we would like to have these memories.  Nice, eh?

Number 3, square - another table from Peru with Number 4, rectangle - a piece of masonite on the table.  Number 5, metal - the grate in the fireplace.  At least it appears to be metal.  That is an electric fireplace so it may well be plastic.  Hmmmm.

Added this photo about a half hour after posting.  Thought you might like to see one of the tables and coasters.

And for my exciting part, some interesting links:

I "discovered" a new graphite artist.  Geri Dunn, who does wonderful western drawings.  Just beautiful.  http://geridunn.com/

Check out Sharon Crute's blog post of January, 20, Permission to be Great.   http://scrute.blogspot.com/2014/01/permission-to-be-great.html   Then just do it!  I'm going to try it!  Let me know what happens .....

And an informative article by Richard McKinley, A Painters Guide to Composition, Using the Elements of Design for Stronger Paintings.  He is a very good painter and teacher.

I hope your weekend is just great, I plan on painting.  Really!

Sweet Hunting Sketches for #335, Photos and Art Link

Sunday  was a day off from the studio but I did manage a sketch.  As I mentioned, I am hosting the November Monthly Challenge in the Southwest forum on wetcanvas.  We sketch or paint from photos provided by the host or our own photos or items.  For the Scavenger Hunts we are to sketch from life so rarely does my sketching fit into both forums.

On Sunday, however, one of the items on the Scavenger Hunts was "shoe" and another was "dos" (two in Spanish).  I decided to get out my boots for shoe and my spurs for dos and then use the sketch in both forums.  How much fun is that?

For Scavenger Hunt 335  http://goo.gl/QdeZZ5
Number 6, shoe - my boots
Number 7, dow - two spurs

Number 8, nature - I think my little ducks are on steroids!

Number 9, sweets - my favorites, little chocolates.

Number 10, foot

This is the best time of year here for me.  We can have the doors and windows open all day and night!  It is a bit muggy today with rain in the area, but just so nice.......

The lakes have a bit more water after our 6 inches of rain last week.  This is the lake more to the north yesterday in the sunshine.

This is the lake more to the south today in the cloudy weather.

For my art link today:

If you need help in starting a blog, making a website, or how to work with your photos and get organized,  check with Regina Burchett, http://fallshadows.com, my pastel painting buddy.  She has so much computer savvy and talent working with design.  She can either help you or do it for you.  This is her website for that:  http://artistanswers.com/

Also if you are a Texas artist you can enter to win the Hunting Art Prize. deadline is November 30.  It doesn't cost anything and there has to be a winner!
http://www.huntingartprize.com

The Hunting Art Prize, which is sponsored by the international oil services company Hunting PLC, is a prestigious annual competition open to Texas artists who are 18 years of age or older. Its $50,000 award is historically the most generous annual award in North America for painting and drawing, and has helped to build the reputations, raise the profiles, and support the careers of distinguished artists.

I have been auditing Xanadu's mentoring with Jason Horejs.  He is mentoring Carolee Clark, Oregon artist.  He has some good advice as a gallery owner.  I think you can still join in, information on his blog.  http://www.reddotblog.com/wordpress/

His advice this week is to start your painting/studio time in the morning and put off all social media until late afternoon.  Such a good idea.  I have been good in the past about checking e-mail, facebook, etc., only 3 times a day in quick intervals, then leaving browsing and goofing off until late evening.  However, lately I have really fallen back into old habits.  I have been checking e-mail while I have coffee and then getting sidetracked and look up and it is noon!

I started the new program yesterday.  I finished my donation for the Crisis Center (previous post) and today I packed it up and got a new project started.  I hope I can keep this going for a while.  I can make so much progress.

No e-mail or any social media suffered by waiting until afternoon.  Ha.

I also sketched while having my morning coffee and started Scavenger Hunt 333 which  started on October 14.  Sketching is a good warm up for my studio time and gets my brain working toward painting.

I sketched in my Canson sketchbook with a Prismacolor Premier 03, a Micron 01 and added a bit of colored pencil on the last ones today.  I sketch freehand and quickly to practice looking and putting down a mark.  If you see well, you mark well.  When I get lazy, I get poor perspective, check my stool below.

Number 1, step stool - the red and chrome stool.  Gene took the back off and now it is much easier to use.
Number 2, sweets - M & M's
Number 3, clear container - the M & M jar

Number 4, whole tree - the tree out back that I still haven't been near enough to see if it is one tree (one stump) or two trees.  How long have we lived here??
Number 5, mushrooms - some wild ones growing in the yard.  They were very big and open.  Wonder if they are edible??  I'm not checking!

Number 6, ribbon

Number 7 map - maps from the car.  The Texas map gets so much use, even with GPS.  There are so many roads that I usually pick a route before I turn on the GPS and then see if it is going my way.  We have driven in the area here and try to vary our routes!  We pick up a new Texas map at the welcome centers.  Guess where the other maps are from?

Part 3, of My Review of Tom Christopher’s Workshop

The second day of the workshop Tom Christopher did a demo of snow.  He gets to see a great deal of snow in Iowa.  Since we don’t have much snow here, I painted from one of his many reference photos.

He started again with a very simple sketch.  He didn’t rush, though, and put his plan down on his paper. He used U-Art sanded paper.

Without using any pure white, Tom worked toward a finish.  By the way, Tom puts his paper and canvas on a wall at home to work upright.  He has a door on the wall and uses that for his easel.  It is good to work upright or even tilted a tiny bit forward so the pastel dust falls off your work.  He says it gives him more room to step back and look at his work.  (I always stand to paint when I can.  I have more movement and can move back and forth so I don't get stuck in one place and start to over work any section.  It is good to look at the work upside down or in a mirror, too.  I take snapshots and look at them in black and white and flip them around on my computer.)

We then worked on our paintings with much individual help from our instructor.  He has a great deal of patience and tunes his help and critiquing to fit the artist.  He was very encouraging to the beginners and helpful with those of us that had painted before.

Here are a few more from the day.  Some of us did more than just two a day working from his photos and personal photos.

Day three, we convinced Tom we needed a third demo.  He painted a path in the woods and some rocks.  Demonstrating that to lightly scumble different colors of the same value into the different areas, he could then use the various shapes to pull out the trees in the background, leaves on the path and the rocks.  It was helpful to paint the rocks that way with just a few marks instead of trying to “draw” the different rocks.

After lunch our instructor critiqued paintings.  He offered to do them individually or in front of the group.  We chose having our work talked about in front of the group.  Each of us could ask questions and learn from the other artists.

And finally my snow painting. 

I like the light in it very much.  Tom really liked how the snow drifts just worked themselves out in the scumble technique.  This painting is 24 x 18 inches on Wallis paper.  Very large for me.  I really enjoyed spreading the pastel dust around so freely.  I must do some more large work.  Wallis paper has a lot of tooth and was good for the light scumble technique.  It will make your fingers bleed if you are an artist who blends pastels with your fingers.  It can eat up your pastels, too, if you use a heavy hand.

It isn’t practical to get too much larger in pastel.  Glass and backing get very heavy.  Frames get very expensive, especially if you don't work in standard sizes.  Perhaps I will look into acrylic glazing.  I do have some non-glare acrylic on my Ollas painting.  It works, but doesn’t show the luminosity as well as museum glass in my eyes.  It is a bit pricey as well.

The workshop was well worth it.  Lou (Bag Blog with link to her post) and I had such a great time and we even learned a bit.  Gene and Toby had fun.  It was great to see David and Lisa and get my new shelf for the niche.  

My funk seems to be on the run or more like slipping away.  I have painted the cows since we got home, finished the apple painting which I haven't posted here yet and worked on the first painting we did at the workshop.  I think it is finished.  I will post those two paintings soon. 

I'm working on a donation for the Family Crisis Center Gala.  It was the Festival of Trees in past years.  It is a beautiful fundraiser.  I will tell you all about that, too.

I’m having fun in my studio again!  Woohoo!  

Part 1, How I Choose a Workshop, Part One of my Review of Tom Christopher's Workshop

Part 2, of My Review of Tom Christopher’s Workshop