Important words on the arts

Today I was fortunate to come across this speech which was given at Brigham Young University (my alma mater) in February 1976 by the recently departed President Boyd K. Packer. I read the speech and now I feel like I need to go back and study it over and over again. My faith is very important to me both as a person and as an artist and though my art is currently not overly representational, I try to instill my beliefs into my art.
I have yet to "make it" in the art world, I'm still in what is technically the starving artist phase, meaning I've only sold one painting so far. I feel that I was guided to study art, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to study with Wulf Barsch and other wonderful teacher/artists; it can be discouraging to still not be where I would hope to be. I wonder if I'm doing the right thing and if I'm working hard enough at what I do, honing my skills or squandering my education and talent.
I don't want to be famous but I aspire to be a great artist, for my art to have the impact and influence that some of my art heroes have had, Durer, da Vinci, etc. both with secular and spiritual art. I hope that by studying this speech and working and reevaluating where I'm at, I can come closer to my hopes, dreams and goals.
You should read it too, there are some great things said.

A portrait

I've been working on drawing more and I've wanted to see about creating portraits, with the goal of creating portraits like the grand and beautiful ones seen in museums or perhaps stately homes. This is the first attempt that I've brought to any sort of finished state. There are lots of areas where it could be improved, I used mechanical pencil rather than drawing pencils for example.

This is a portrait of my Grandpa when he graduated from medical school.

Master Studies

I've been continuing to work on drawings and to draw from the works of master artists. Here's the last weeks drawings.

From a painting by Albrecht Durer

From a study by Michelangelo

From a drawing by Durer

From a drawing by Michelangelo

A study by Michelangelo

And a drawing by Michelangelo

As the week went on I started making a greater effort to really finish the studies and not just to get lazy and call it good.

Colors

I am constantly fascinated by color theory, by the way colors interact and influence one another. I've tried to document the process and I've missed days but I think it still gives you an idea, it's just so crazy how this color looks this way with these colors around them etc.

Leonardo's Treatise on Painting

I just finished reading Leonardo's A Treatise on Painting translated by John Francis Rigaud. I feel like every would be artist should read this book, it's essentially getting an art lesson from da Vinci himself, I learned a lot.
I have to say though that this book isn't perfect, I feel like more pictures and da Vinci's actual pictures could have helped a lot. I'm a visual learner as many artists are, makes sense. Anyway read the book, you can learn tons about bettering your craft.
This post sounded way better in my head when I decided to do it the first time the book was blowing my mind. Sorry.

Drawing again

I believe I've mentioned but I've been working on drawing more, improving my skills etc. There are periods where I do better at this and periods when I fall off but I'm on again (hoping to be more consistent this time around) and so I wanted to share my studies of masterworks.

This is from a study Michelangelo did for the Battle of Cascina.

This is a study of Degas' painting The Tub.
They could both be better, but they could be worse. It's a start.

Painters of the past

We've had a painting for a long time, it's by a relative and I just figured out who it was by.

This painting was painted by my grandpa's aunt's husband (so his uncle but by marriage not blood relations) Edgar Jenson. I like it, it hung on our wall all growing up but it got taken down during some home improvements and just came out again so I'm seeing it with fresh eyes. I don't know that it's a masterpiece but it's a lovely painting.