Drawing excercises

I've set my sights on some new goals as an artist and what I'd like to achieve will require me to up my game. I've really worked at a lot of things over the years but drawing and other art "fundamentals" if you will, have slipped, so I'm making yet another effort to improve my drawing skills.
This is a very simple and unexciting exercise, I remember doing in on in my first high school art class, possibly in middle school as well. I remember being satisfied with my efforts in high school but it's been a long time. In middle school I used one pencil (usually a .5 mechanical pencil) to achieve the full range of values. I was introduced to the idea of using a range of pencils (hard to soft) to achieve the same effect, I became more aware of the range of papers available and how not to abuse them as I drew.
What I'm taking a long time to say is that I'm still getting used to the idea and process of using a whole range of drawing pencils to create my range of values. I should be much better at this by now but I've never put the work in. Hopefully I can do that and stick with it this time.
Here's my first attempt.

I'll do better on the next one.

Tools of the Trade

I was working out a new design and I was reminded of how helpful colored pencils are. One grid can begin endless designs so until you're very familiar with the based pattern, it's to mark out your design so you don't forget. You can work with the colors you intend to use and see how they work or you can just use random colors.

Tools of the trade

Today we're talking about modern good of the trade, nothing da Vinci etc. worried about. Today we live in the digital age where we can take and share hundreds and thousands of pictures all the time and that can be a real help in the art world.
I mostly take photos of my own work.

I use a Samsung point and shoot, it's not an amazing camera but it's pretty effective. I have a very crude set up and no real photographic trading. I general use natural light, lay my work on the floor (not directly) shoot several photos from above and try to get a variety of angles.
Then next step is to upload the photos to my computer and crop them using a free program called Irfanview. I also sometimes use Corel paintshop pro when I want to polish my images a bit more.
I have on ocassion had professional images taken and I've gone to David Hawkinson for that, he does a really good job and I believe his rates are reasonable.

Tools of the trade

It's been a while since I've shared a tool of the trade but these thave been a game changer for me.

While I often draw the patterns I use by hand, I have loved having these two stencils! It can be very difficult to create a tesselating pattern with accuracy, there's still room for error using the stencil but it takes off some of the time and pressure.
You'll likely recognize these from my work.

Paint problems

While painting today I came to wish that I had a different shade of green, I have two but neither of them is really what I would hope. I've been looking around for a new green but I haven't been able to find one that doesn't have multiple pigments, or the possibility to cause cancer etc. The search continues I suppose, maybe I'll be able to find something.
If you know of a green that's great, let me know.

Arches

I want to take a moment to say how wonderful Arches paper (pronounced arsh, it's French) is. Arches is fantastic watercolor paper, it's such a high quality, it's the best I've used, though I imagine there might be a few other brands better. Good quality paper makes it possible to make better paintings, there's a reason that they've been in business for centuries. Thank you Arches, for beautiful paper and a quality product!

Watercolor blocks

I would like to thank the person or persons who invented watercolor blocks. I normally use Arches watercolor blocks because I like the paper and because it's wonderful not to have to worry about my paper warping. I've been working on a specific painting and I wanted a different size than the watercolor blocks I normally use.

 I still used Arches paper but I didn't tape it down or stretch it, with a smaller painting you can get away with that but apparently my paper was too big because it's been warping.  A reminder to me and everyone else to tape or stretch larger pieces of paper and a reminder of just how nice it is to have watercolor blocks.

Hazards

So something I was taught in college that changed the way I did things and have come to be grateful for, is to be very wary of what kinds of materials I use in my art. There are a lot of toxic and harmful art supplies/materials out there, ones that are commonly used even. There's a sort of stigma about artists being crazy or unstable(Van Gogh being the prime example), things like lead poisoning will do that to you.

It is an unfortunate truth that a lot of pretty colors/pigments come from things that could kill you, heavy metals are a serious factor there (cadmiums, cobalts, etc.). I don't think enough is done to make people aware of that. I myself was blissfully unaware until I was told horror stories of things that had happened to artists my teacher knew (becoming allergic to one's hair, teeth falling out, etc.) and the same teacher was hospitalized at one point from fumes produced by a neighboring artist in his work space. This is serious business and so I want to do my part in spreading the word.

Research your materials before you buy or use them! There are books on the subject and you can usually find an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet ex) that can tell you of any health concerns and how you might properly handle them if you do choose to use them. There's probably more I could or should say about all this but I hope that this will be of some help to someone.

Eight Fold FAQs

So last night was the opening reception for my Eight Fold exhibit. It was really fun to be able to show my work off and talk to people about it. It also gave me insight into what questions people have about my work, that was enlightening, so here for those who see the exhibit when I'm not there, are some FAQs from last night, in the order that I remember them.

Q: Why is the exhibit called Eight Fold?
A: All of the pieces in the series shown in this exhibit are based on the same underlying pattern most of the facets of this pattern and the resulting pieces are eight based.

Q: Where did you get the base pattern/what started you on all this?
A: I went to a workshop given by Dr. Lisa DeLong of the Prince's School of Traditional Arts. She showed us the base pattern.

As for the start of my interest in Islamic art/designs, I can't remember exactly how it all started. I know it was while I was at BYU, almost certainly in classes with Wulf Barsch, through an introduction to Little Wooden Books. I'm not really certain how but here I am.

Q: How do you make everything so uniform and tight?
A: With a compass and a ruler/straight edge. With the question applied to the painted parts, I use watercolor washes, I use multiple brushes in various sizes, I let sections dry before painting around them so that there's no bleeding and when I do go over the lines I do my best to clean it up with some paper towel.

Q: Do you have a favorite?
A: No, there are currently close to sixty of these designs, I have ones that I like better than others, maybe some turned out better or I like the colors better but I don't really have a favorite.

We'll start with that, maybe I'll remember some more. Comment if you've got other questions.

Pro tips and rookie mistakes

So I just delivered fifteen framed paintings for my upcoming show. I had everything ready I just needed to get the eye hooks in and the wire on the frames. I forgot how long it can take to do that by hand. Sufficed to say that I didn't listen to the advice to use a drill for pilot holes right away and wasted hours chipping away at the process when I could have been done well in advance. If you're putting in lots of screw eyes in, have a drill.
Also, I don't know why I always forget this but Michael's they're just never the place to go for anything related to art, always go to Utrecht/Blick!
That is all.

One more, remember that the post office is not open very long on Saturdays.

Pictures of pictures

So there are so many things I've learned and adjusted to in the years since I've graduated, one of those things is to take better pictures of my work and to crop and edit them. I usually use IrfanView and crop the images I take of my pictures. I've recently learned a new trick on a different editing program. I use natural light to take my pictures, sometimes this is great and other times the light is not as great (cloudy days etc.), with this new editing trick (which I haven't actually gotten around to using much yet) it can make the colors more like they are in real life so that's cool.
Before:

 After:

LII

watercolor

18x18in

2014

Series: Eight Fold

It can make a real difference, though sadly I'm not sure if you can really tell with these two. There might be an edit but for now if you can't see it, just trust me that this can be pretty cool.

This post brought to you by the letter O

And O is for Ox gall.

 So Ox gall is something that I use for my watercolors, it was recommended to me by a teacher, to keep the pigments well distributed, I've tried to look back in my archives for pictures of what it can look like if you don't use ox gall I wasn't taking great pictures of things back then either (I've come a long way on many fronts). Ox gall is in fact what it says it is, for more info on the subject google it.
When I use the ox gall I just add a few drops before I add the water to the well I'm using. It lasts forever. This bottle above lasted me for years, I would still be using it if I hadn't dropped it one day, cracked the lid, spilled half and then the cracked lid let it evaporate. Don't do that.

This is the ox gall I'm using now. The first bottle I used was clear, this isn't, I'm not really sure why but it seems to work just as well so yes. Now you know about ox gall. A random art supply.