Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Have Yourself A Merry (little or big) Christmas



Years ago when my dad moved in I vowed to make my life easier, because it became very complicated overnight. Christmas was one of those things I simplified. Gone is the endless quest for the perfect gift. You give me a list or you get what I give. I give to family and a few friends. Not 42 of my closest friends and relatives. Gone is the 6 foot Christmas tree festooned with two huge boxes of hundreds of ornaments and the tangle of lights that never seem to work the next year. We now have not one, but 7 “mercury glass” trees on the mantle. Easy up, easy down and the presents go under my 3’ Norfolk Pine. Gone are the elaborate decorations, I hook a wreath on the door. Done! I no longer dictate there be bushes and trees so laden with glowing (only white) outdoor lights that they are a beacon to those traveling from afar. (And that light up the hood so bright no one can miss it) If the hubs wants to put a few up, thats his job. Both up and down. And gone is the process of making my own cards and sending them to everyone I know. Literally. Everyone. I’ve always been a “go big or go home” kind of gal. It’s always been how I roll. Can people really change? It been 5 years now and I simplify a little more every year without sacrificing any of the meaning. If anything, I’ve recovered my sense of the real meaning of Christmas.

Bah-Humbug you say? Maybe. But I dont feel that way. I did at first, but the more years that pass with this toned down, basic Christmas, the more I can enjoy it. I can put more thought into the gifts I do give. I bring out only the things I love and not the things I’m really to busy to fuss over. That only caused stress. Did I mention I don’t like taking it all down? Now, taking it down its an afternoon job, not a week long one. And I know you're waiting for it... Don’t I miss making my own Christmas cards? No. I really don’t. I paint for myself these days and if I want to paint a Christmas scene at Christmas time, I do. No pressure. None of the hours creating, editing, sending to a printer- spending days addressing, stamping and mailing cards. I’m just over it. 

This trimmed down Christmas suits me just fine. But just in case YOU miss my Christmas card art, here is a quick little sketch of one of my favorite Christmas things. I don’t put any nutcrackers out, so this little guy is just the ticket. Fun, colorful and VERY low maintenance! 



Have a (complicated and wonderfully full...or...a pared down purposefully simple) Merry Christmas!! Until next year! 

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Don’t Read This Blog.

That title was a trick. If you tell people they shouldn’t do something, they will almost always want to do it, right? And a lot of us are just ornery enough to do it anyway. So now you are here-reading this blog post! But I’m here to tell you it’s a waste of time. You see, the blog is dead!

Friday, November 3, 2017

Inktober and Failure

Well, as usual these days, I couldn’t finish Inktober. I had an emergency that derailed me and then it was hard to get back on the tracks. I haven’t finished much the last few years. If you’ll recall I began a sketch a day in January. I don’t remember how far I got, I think three months, but looking back it was a bit ambitious. Inktober seemed more doable. Only 31 days. But alas, it was not. I did complete 100 faces in a week a while ago, so there’s a win. After getting two thirds of the way through Inktober and then “failing”, I wondered why I did it in the first place. Why do I set myself up to fail? And do it so publicly at that?

As I was thinking about my failure with Inktober and all the past fails that I have with my art I realized something. It’s a bit silly to call them failures. The real failure would be to never try or start anything. Maybe right now I have to be prepared for a month of sketches to be unexpectedly interrupted. Hey, that’s real life and the reality is that Inktober is a challenge to create art for 31 days. Not a personal call from God to save the universe. Perspective. Ahhh, I feel better now!

In light of that perspective, I want to share a few of the my favorite sketches from Inktober. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll get all 31 done? Or not. But that saving the universe thing? I’d better get on that!! 




Friday, October 13, 2017

Criticism, Perfectionism and Art

As Joan Rivers say’s “Can we talk??” I posted the pic below of the baby face with a description that went like this: Trying to conquer my need to erase. I’ve never done a face, let alone a child’s face in only ink. I’m not comfortable with it yet!
 
I get a lot of comments from people telling me I’m too hard on myself. That I’m my own worst critic. I find it curious, because I don't see it that way at all. But I’d like to explain my comments because I think people misinterpret them as self criticism. Which they are! 

I think people think criticism and perfectionism are one in the same. They are very different animals. “Criticism is an evaluative or corrective exercise that can occur in any area of human life” (Wikipedia. I liked that definition) The dictionary says “the analysis and judgement of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work”.  Criticism is an evaluation or analysis of the MERITS AND FAULTS of a work. Criticism can be a good thing! While it’s true we usually focus on the faults, I also see that as a way to make correction. I may not talk as much about what’s good (then people think your full of yourself!) but I certainly make mental notes about what works and I repeat that!!  

When it comes to my art I’m a recovering perfectionist. A perfectionist is someone for whom anything below perfection is unacceptable. (My lose definition) The standard for that perfectionism usually comes from within and in art that is really pretty subjective. There can be no defined standard for “good art” because, as they say, art is in the eye of the beholder. That’s just really the bottom line. Perfectionism is not your friend because you will never be perfect and neither will your work.

I do realize that’s how my post comments may look. Negative and critical. And on the surface they may be. But go with me here: the difference between perfectionist Michelle and critical Michelle is that perfectionist Michelle would never post anything that wasn’t up to her perfect standards. Mostly because every time she thinks she does make something close to perfect she has to put the bar a little higher next time! Standards are set of course arbitrarily by her as she defines for herself what perfect art is. She is judge and jury. And therefore, she never posts a thing! You see, the perfectionist stands as the only person whose standards matter. Her standards my be swayed by the opinions of others, but mostly the perfectionist blows off praise and opts to focus on what's wrong. (And this is why it seems my post are self critical. )

 Critical Michelle on the other hand has made peace with the fact that she’s never going to make perfect art. She understands that art is expression and that it looks different on any given day and with any given work. Critical Michelle welcomes feedback from others. And not just the good stuff, but she takes that in with thanks. She actually seeks out others whom she respects and ASKS for critical feedback to help her grow as an artist. She knows that she is not the only good judge of art. She understands that she may not see the good or bad as clearly as another person and welcomes the fresh perspective. She is not lonely because she welcomes others into her art!! 

Here’s the point I am making about the above post: I critique every work I do. It’s a habit, and I don’t think its a bad one. I look at what’s good and what’s bad and I try to learn from it. I’m pretty comfortable that I can make great art one day and crap the next—using the same tools and techniques!! Experience has taught me that my chances of success—or my version of it—rise the with every piece I make. And that each one teaches me something I can take to the next one. So, my comments reflect frustration as I am trying to use tools and techniques that take me out of my comfort zone and push me in new directions. Using nothing but ink is a stretch for me because Perfectionist Michelle still loves to use an eraser!! And I really was uncomfortable with it. Which is funny, because that’s what it would look like if I used a pencil too!  Pencils-and more so an eraser-is  like a bike with training wheels. Those lines would still be used but I’d know that once I reached my goals, I could erase all those lines that guided me to the finished drawing. Make sense? 

In the end I’m not saying there should be no standards for your work but I’m also not going to tell you to reach for some ideal or standard. I think you are doing  that if what you are creating gives you joy, fulfills you in some way, says something about you or expresses something within you. In art like life, everyone is in a different place. And every artist has something thing to say and different ways to express it. Who am I to judge that? So put perfectionist you in a closet and replace her with critical you. And just remember, critical you looks at both the MERITS and faults. There are always both. Use both to move forward. And make art! And then-show others your art. It’s like anything else, scary at first, but once you do it a few times you realize people are usually less "critical" of your work than you are of your own.

Here are the rest of #inktober this week. This week I used a pen with no pencil drawings. It definitely stretched me! Have a great week!






Saturday, October 7, 2017

#inktober2017-The First Seven Days





Thanks to all of you who took the time to respond to the survey. It was very useful. While I will not be able to roll out a greeting card line in time for Christmas, I may (or may not) do so in the future. But I thank you for all your feedback-always!  


Seven days in and I am struggling to keep up. Granted I was out of town for the first two days and then sick the next three-but I still managed to make small ink drawings. What’s your excuse?? Ha, Ha! I know your out there just drawing away for Inktober. Here are my drawings for the week. This mornings was done from the sktchy app inspiration photo and the Inktober prompt “shy”. It literally took all morning. But I had the time and drawing (and painting) all that grass was meditative. I will be trying to explore some new things in the coming weeks.


Or maybe not new things, just revisit some techniques or tools I don’t normally use. This week I used the brush pen on the lamb. Not a fan. I see people do wonderful things with black brush pens, but the carbon platinum pen I used is fine nibbed and the brush pen completely overwhelmed the drawing. Lesson learned. I will use it again soon and see if I have better success. One thing I’m challenging myself to do is use tools I don’t normally use. Next week I’m dragging out the dip pens and we will see how that goes! I like a spill here and there with watercolor, but ink, not so much. We will see what happens now wont we??

Speaking of spills. As I leave you for the week, I’d like to leave you with a little metaphor. I had dinner with a friend a while ago during which we talked about Inktober. My friend reminisced about her first ink drawing in high school and how when she was quite a way into the drawing she spilled the jar of ink all over the drawing. With the teachers help, she cut the spill from the drawing and mounted paper to it and continued to finish the project into a nice drawing. As we talked she said insightfully, “I was young and thought it was a disaster. I thought this meant it was ruined.

Today I understand that spills happens and I would just incorporate and work around the spill and make it a part of the drawing. The metaphor being that life is like a drawing. “Spills” will happen, but age and wisdom teaches us how to work around them and make the best of them.” (Paraphrased)  I challenge you to embrace the “spills” in your art and put them online. As you can see below, I’m not cranking out masterpieces here. I felt the brush pen “ruined” my lamb drawing. But I went with it and worked around it by using color to distract from the heavy ink nose and eyes. So grab a tool you don't normally use and give it a go! 

Along those lines, what “spills” do you have in your life right now that you have to work around? We all have one (or more) but as my wise friend said, we learn to make them into a part of the drawing of our life. Life is art, and art is life. Have a great week! 







Thursday, October 5, 2017

Holiday Card Survey

I put together a little market research survey to help me figure out if I should put some of my images on greeting cards. I'd appreciate it if you would take 5 minutes to complete the survey for me. I much appreciate your time!

Holiday Card Market Research Survey

Friday, September 22, 2017

Inktober

Inktober is fast approaching!  Are you ready?? For those not familiar with Inktober, it is a group of people who join together for the month of October to do an ink drawing each day of the month. Because it's origin is social media, the idea is to share the drawings to social media marked with a hash tag so others can find it.  (Google "hashtag" if you aren't familiar with them or their purpose) Inktober is both exciting and inspiring. And I'd like to share some thoughts about it and encourage you to do it with me.

First, you CAN do this. It’s 31 days. That’s all. One ink sketch a day for 31 days. Not a life sentence. You will not get ink poisoning or die from finger cramps. Trust me. 

Second, the rules are simple. Ink. On paper. That’s it. Size, color, subject—all up to you. There are prompts for each day. I posted them on my facebook page, but these are optional. I will not be using most of them.

Third, post your work on social media with a hashtag so others can find it. Now here’s where I meet resistance. “I am not good enough to put my work out there.” Nonsense. No one is going to create a masterpiece during Inktober. If you think you should then you’ve completely missed the point!! Sure, some people who really get into it might create some of the most gorgeous work, but does that diminish yours? If that intimidates you, or scares you off, again, you’ve missed the point!

Fourth, what’s the point? The point is to stretch yourself. To challenge your creative spirit. The point is not about comparing. The point is not about your perfectionism. The point is not about what someone else can do and how well and how you measure up comparatively. The point is to make art with ink for 31 days. I have found tremendous inspritation from the people who post their work. You will see techniques you can imitate. You will see subject matter you can use. You will see great skill and beginners just doing their thing. It really inspires me, and I’m not talking about the work that looks like it could be in a magazine. I’m talking about art that comes from all different skill levels. I guarantee you will learn, and grow and be inspired. And THAT is the point!!!!!!! If no one shares their work because of fear then we all lose!! 

Last, do you do art? Draw, paint, colored pencil, mixed media?  Then you are an artist. You have what it takes. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This my friends is about the journey, not the destination! I will bore you with my drawings and my thoughts throughout the month. I really hope you’ll consider joining me. 

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Back At It (and other things)

I know I've been gone a while. A lot has happened. The birth of my first grandchild has taken me to a new place!! I am smitten!

On that note, I am starting to eek out some time for my art. Not big projects or finished paintings. Mostly sketches and random drawings of my dad. Here are two that I felt turned out well. My favorite subjects!! I know many of you are not on facebook, so I will try to share more here.




I briefly toyed with the idea of teaching again. At this point I still think it's too much. But its a good sign that I want to teach again.  And that I am back to doing art.

I want to talk a little bit about sketching. I know I've talked about it before, but it has grown into a huge deal worldwide with the latest Urban Sketcher's Symposium happening in Chicago this summer. While I follow all this online and have learned a great deal from it, my take away is this:  Sketching is a way to do your art without pressure. We don't as a rule show our sketchbooks to others, so it can be private, like a journal. It can also be taken anywhere without too much of a struggle. It is also usually small, which takes a great deal of pressure off us!! A sketchbook is a place to explore and make mistakes. It is a place of growth. Of expression, free from expectations. And last, it is a place of record. It not only records our experiences, but it records our growth as artists. In our sketches we become more of the artist we were meant to be. I have come to value them in a new way.

I often like my sketches better than the finished painting I did from the sketch. They are free-er and less stiff. They have a shorthand that I seem to forget when I attempt a painting I may show. Most viewers like the finished work better, which confuses me. I remember seeing some plein air and sketches that Thomas Kincade did and I was so much more impressed with them than his tight "painter of light" works. Not dissing him here, or his other work, just saying that I have a preference to that approach. In them I saw the fine artist he was beyond the machine of commerce he was known for. 

 For me, the sketch conveys the feeling the artist has because it is raw. Less fussed over and more to the point. Often I dont have time for any details other than what it was that was speaking to me at the time.  The finished work is more of a complete sentence, with correct grammar and spelling and phrasing. (I've never been able to spell, so that might explain some things!) Lol.

I've encouraged you all to sketch before, and I do it again here. Take a class of some kind if sketching doesn't float your boat. Find some friends to do art with-I've found this to be key in my motivation. Join a group, make a paint date or sketch in the evening while watching TV. I challenge you to do some art once a week. It's my personal challenge. Seems easy, right? 

I'm also hoping to get back into blogging here again. I did want to mention that my other blog Caring for Dad hit a bit of a snag when I changed it's address I lost all subscribers. If that was any of you, I apologize. You can find the blog at sacredcaregiving.blogspot.com. I've posted there recently after a long break as well. 

Happy Wednesday!!



Saturday, March 4, 2017

Day 60

Day 60 already? Where had the time gone?? It's been wonderful to actually DO this! Many have asked me to show more of my process, so I snapped a few shots of day 60.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

52 days of drawing or 1/7th of a year.

If you divide 365 by seven you get 52.1428571. I used a calculator. In case you thought I did that in my head. When I reached 50 days of drawing everyday I patted myself on the back because I seriously didn't think I'd be able to keep it up.

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Inspritation

I did this from a "screen shot"
Inspiration. What is it, and how do you find it? The answers to those questions will be different for everyone. The biggest challenge with sketching everyday (besides actually sketching everyday!) is finding inspiration. I can sketch a coffee can and get excited about it once I start, so a lot of it is just getting started. And drawing coffee cans can be exciting. But I can make daily sketching much easier to keep up if I'm excited by the subject. 

The point of this whole venture, and there is a point-(which I will explain in another post) is not achieving a goal of 365 sketches. That will be the outcome, but it is not my goal. Not the point. Having pretty little sketches to look back on is also not the point. Again, there are several reasons I'm attempting a daily sketch habit, but it's not at all about product and all about process for me.  

catching the gesture
We do art because we enjoy it, right? We don't usually willingly participant in something we don't enjoy doing. So when art becomes something you must do for whatever reason --deadlines for commissions or shows or dumb self inflicted daily sketch challenges for example, it becomes more about the product than the process. Getting it done. And that's going to rob me of the joy when it becomes something I have to do. Some self inflicted goal I must meet. I can't keep things exciting and fresh every day if I'm just going through the motions. Making sure I get a sketch done everyday. Instead I want to make art everyday that is meaningful. Not change the world meaningful. But small glimpses of what I might find meaningful. 
 

my husband is always a subject of interest! 
Art speaks. It resonates with people and speaks to them. That means the artist that created it gave it that voice. I have an artistic voice and my story is in my work. I discovered this many years ago and it changed the way I made art. Each artist has a unique voice and I felt I needed to ask myself--"self, if you are going to do-and then have 365 continuous sketches-what do you want that to say?"  And not to get all deep and philosophical, myself just answered "a record of what you love".  Ok, let's go ahead and get all deep and philosophical--I believe my art reaches people if it comes from a place that has depth. Love, pain, joy, etc. Not all my work will have the same depth of message, but my aim is to be true to my voice. Have you found your creative voice? If you haven't found it yet there are some very good books that might help clarify that for you. One I found helpful early on was Finding Your Visual Voice. I'm sure there are many others on the subject but this is the one I used when I was trying to figure out my "style".

A photo I found on the app Sktchy
Your voice, like you as an artist, is ever changing as well. Right now that is very true for me. Occasionally you have to ask yourself questions to help you move out of one phase and into another. To clear the path so to speak. So to wrap this up and not bore you, I asked a second question of myself- "self, what do you love?" Well, I find love in many things. But right there at the top has got to be people. I love doing portraits and drawing the figure, so I know that I will be doing lot's of that in the next 350 days. I love to look at people and see how different we all are! Everyone has a nose but there is not one nose that is the same! And the key to getting a drawing to look like the subject is really being able to see. Seeing is a key skill in art and 365 days of really looking at things will most definitely bring back my skills. Because you "lose it if you don't use it". Luckily, it is "like riding a bike" or muscle memory, it will come back with use.

So the for the next 332 sketches I set up some goals. At least one face a week. Draw at least 5 minutes a day. Set a timer for 30 minutes so I don't overwork it. (I can come back the next day!) Don't make it about the product but enjoy the process. Seems simple doesn't it? So far so good.

No excuses-you always have a model!! fast selfie! 
I will be posting them daily on my facebook art page but not on the blog. Here I will hit a few good ones or talk about what I'm learning. And I will be learning--because you're always learning something from every work! So as always, thanks for reading. I hope you're inspired to do some art. Maybe not daily, but more than you are doing now. Because as Picasso once said "Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life".
 


Tuesday, January 10, 2017

365

 

A friend of mine has an art page on Facebook where she shared her desire to carry her sketchbook everywhere