Face from My Sketchbook

Here's a graphite sketch from my sketchbook. I take make sketchbook with me all the time during my commutes to and from work and sketch at home. I've pretty much filled this one up. 

The sketches get really dirty because they are constantly getting banged around in my laptop bag so I figured I would start taking photos of them, or at least the good ones, so I could share them here on my blog and preserve them as well before they get too dirty. 

I may also clean up some of the other sketches that are already dirty looking and take photos of those as well. I bought some clear fixative to cover the sketches but who can remember to do that every time, especially after an hour and a half commute. Not me! Plus the family isn't too keen of the smell it makes while it's drying. I could keep it outside but chances are I'll forget some day and it will of course rain on that particular day and... ah, not good.  So enjoy.

"untitled" graphite sketch from my sketchbook. 

"Pair of Pears No. 1" Work in Progress Painting.

"Pair of pears No. 1", oil on panel, 6" x 6"

Fresh off the easel. Finished this Saturday morning. Still tweaking the highlights and some cleanup but 95% done. I love painting the skin of the pears and the textures of the wood. I struggled with the skin but I found that by stepping back to arms length and painting the skin helped a lot.

You have really focus on the highlights and try to ignore everything else around them. You have to shut off that part of your brain that is telling you that you're painting a highlight on a pair and listen to the right half of your brain that's telling you that your painting a light gray shape with pinkish shapes in the middle.

I did an initial lay in of colors with a wash of paint and Turpenoid and let that dry. I came back to it on Saturday morning and finished up painting wet into wet. I'm still touching up the highlights and cleaning up brushwork but it's almost there.

"First Thursdays" event

Albion Cultural Exchange building, formerly the old Wakefield Gas & Light building.

We stopped in last light to Wakefield's "First Thursday" event. This is a local event that features some art-related event on the first Thursday of every month at the Albion Cultural Exchange building. 

http://www.albionculturalexchange.org/content/first-thursday-art-exhibit-july-7th

It was really nice to see all the cool artwork created by teachers and students of Kidcasso and Create Artisan Studio in Wakefield. I had a few pieces of my artwork as did a couple of my students. I particularly love looking at artwork created by children. I'm often amazed at how well they do and how creative they get. There's always a few pieces that put a smile on your face. Children are so innocent and they usually give you a completely honest opinion and have no problem telling you why they do or do not like your art. I love getting their unfiltered opinions. Life should be so easy and free. 

The event was held at the Albion Cultural Exchange building that was formerly the old Wakefield Gas & Light building. It's a great building and I'm really excited about the future possibilities that this location holds for the arts community. The town recently won a grant for a feasibility study on what it will take to fix up the old building, make it handicap accessible, bringing it up to code, etc. The building is a wonderful old brick building with high ceilings on the main floor that will make a great gallery and art workshop space. It has huge windows that would make it an ideal space for painting workshops or for renting out for events. 

The main floor has been fixed up a bit and walls were painted with a new coat of paint. It was very promising seeing all the people who came out last night. It was good to see the building put to good 

I took a quick look around last night and in addition to the main floor there is some great space downstairs. I'm sure there are just as many ideas for this space as there are costs to fix the place up but I couldn't help envisioning what it could be some day.

There is some great space down in the basement that could be the future location of a ceramic studio with it's own ceramic kiln, pottery wheels and shelving to store ceramic works in progress. I would love to see one of the basement rooms converted into a silk screening station where students could learn to screen print their own posters and tshirts. 

There is more great office spaces upstairs that could be rented out as artist spaces that would be rented out by the day, week or month. It would be great if one room could be kept as a open artist space that artists could rent hourly to work on current projects. 

When I envision the possibilities for our new Cultural Exchange building, it's truly amazing and I hope it comes to fruition sooner than later. I'm a member of the Artist Asylum in Somerville and they have a great concept, they teach classes and have expensive equipment that artisans can use as part of their memberships. It would be nice to have something like that here in Wakefield for artists in this area to use. It would be great if this building could grow into a self-sustaining model and become a wonderful resource for artists or people who want to become artists. 

Fried Egg Painting

"Fried Egg" Oil on board 6" x 6"

Here's another one I did the other day. I decided to try it after watching a documentary on YouTube entitled, "Getting Close" about megarealist painter Tjalf Sparnaay. In the documentary they show one of his paintings of a fried egg that is about 3 feet by 3 feet. 

It turned out to be pretty fun and I learned a lot about painting subtle shades, values and blending. I didn't get any where near as detailed as Tjalf did but it was fun exercise. As with any painting, you can get a crazy as you want with the details and spend hours rendering it but I wasn't feeling it that much.

Here's the link to the documentary, there's a lot of subtitles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQa4BmCCAu0

Sketch Whenever You Can

"Study For Pillar" by david Kassan 30 in. x 20 in. charcoal on mylar

In my opinion, if you're an artist you have to sketch and draw and you need to do it as much as you can. I tell my students this and I strongly believe in it's usefulness. Even if your medium is not charcoal, pencil or paint, you should learn to draw. Sculptures and anyone working in a 3D subject can reap the benefits of sketching and drawing.

Drawing is something that you have to practice consistently in order to get better at it. Start off by drawing simple, small objects like a ball, a pencil or a envelope. Look around your house and draw easy things at first and then try harder things as you get better. Anyone, can learn how to draw, it's just a matter of taking the time and effort to learn and practice and get a good teacher to help you get better. Or take or subscribe to drawing program online. Good teachers can look over your shoulder and see what needs improving but if you cannot afford lessons then I provided a list below. There's really no reason not to sketch. We all have small moments of time that we could take out a sketch book and sketch something quick, even if its just practicing making circles, lines or boxes.

Here are some tips to get you started in Sketching and Drawing:

1. Carry a small sketch book with you everywhere you go and draw whenever you have free time.

2. Draw everything and don't worry about making a good drawing - just attempt it and do the best you can. You don't have show your drawings to anyone if you don't want to. You just want to practice and challenge yourself to a try and draw things as best as you can.

3. Break thinks down into simple straight lines and shapes.

4. Draw the shapes that make up the subject you want to draw and don't worry about trying to draw the subject. For example: Don't try to draw a building but instead draw the rectangle of the building then draw the rectangles inside the rectangle outline of the building.

5. Print out a photo and try and draw it as best you can to the actual size on some tracing paper.  Once it's done, hold it over the picture and see how close you came and where you went wrong. This will show you where you need to improve and it helps train your brain so you do better.

6. Use a compass to measure the width and height of a subjects, use it to measure distances of items withing your subjects. For example: If you were drawing a bird, you can measure the width and height of the bird, measure the distance from the end of his beak to where it goes into the head, measure the size of it's eyes, the size of it's wings, feet and tail and copy the measurements to your paper or sketch book. Once you get all these little measurements in then you go around and fill in missing items and details.

7. Sketch very lightly so you can erase you lines.

8. Buy some soft vine charcoal to sketch with. You can wipe it off very easily and redraw. That's also it's drawback is that you can also wipe off what you wanted to keep and you'll have to seal your drawing with some clear spray when you're done.

9. Go to the library or go online and try and copy simple drawings. Even if it's meant for children, don't be afraid to use those drawings to practice. In the beginning you are just training your hand and eye coordination and you want to keep practicing until you can do it without thinking.

10. Don't worry about details or making something look like a photo. In the beginning you just want to train yourself to copy the basics outlines and shapes and get the proportions as close as possible. It's all training your hands and eyes in the beginning.

Here are some good web sites for learning to draw.  Some are free, some have monthly fees (no I don't get any commissions) and some are more expensive. There are tons of free websites that you have to show you how to draw so start with those. The key is practice, practice and practice some more. You will get better each and every day.

YouTube.com:
YouTube has a ton of video instruction and I've learned a lot from watching videos. I love to watch the time lapse videos on painting and drawing. You can even slow down the videos if you want by going to YouTubeSlow.com. You just cut and paste the youtube address into their web site and it will play in half the speed or a quarter of the speed:

http://www.youtubeslow.com/

Andrew Loomis Drawing Library:
You can view all the Andrew Loomis books online for free. These are amazing drawing books with tons of information covering all the basics. They are old and dated but all the lessons awesome:

http://www.alexhays.com/loomis/

Deviant Art:
Deviatart has tons of free lessons for both traditional as well as digital drawing and painting online, a forum, gallery and lots of really cool art.

http://www.deviantart.com/

Drawing Tutorials Online.com:
This is one of the best online sites. They have lots of video tutorials that are well explained. They have a weekly podcast, video critiques, reference library, online pose videos and membership gives you access to over 1000 video tutorials. I was a member for awhile and learned a ton from. Membership is only $19 per month or $147 per year (good deal):

http://www.drawing-tutorials-online.com/

Language of Drawing DVD:
I haven't personally used this product but based on the lessons he shares on his blog, he has put together a great basics of drawing DVD. His methodology teaches the basics of drawing through a series of exercises that the students are expected to practice repeatedly so they become second nature and the exercises slowly build on the previous skills that were learned:

http://www.waichulisstudiostore.com/

Who Wants To Buy Your Art & Why?

"Cascading Hair" by Malcolm T. Liepke

Who Wants To Buy Your Art & Why?

Knowing who wants to buy your art and why is a question every artist, no matter what the medium, needs to ask of themselves. I realize that artists feel inspired to create certain subjects but if you want to make money doing what you love then there has to be a market for it. There has to be a buyer for your art or you cannot support yourself painting them. It's that simple.

The fact is that if you want people to buy your art, then they have to feel connected to what you're creating or making. It's simple economics, people buy things because it's something they need, something they want or that they love. Simple.  If you want to be a successful artist then you need to have a strategy based on this simple idea.

People don't need to purchase art, but if you're creating visually pleasing art or creating something really amazing, then they just might believe that they need it. If you're making something unique that doesn't appeal to the masses then you have to figure out which niche part of the population that your art would appeal to and then target your marketing efforts to obtain buyers from that niche target group.

The other two reasons people buy are because they are things they want or that they love. This is where your planning comes into play. There are certain subjects that people prefer and if you produce good, original work that contains these subjects then you should do fairly well selling your art. I've included a list of art subjects at the end of this article. This list is in order of what art subject matter sells the best. Landscapes, to no surprise, are the best selling painting subjects. Paintings of nudes come in dead last so I guess there is still a large number of the population who are uptight about nudity.

Local Views & Locations:

Tourism is a niche target group for art related to certain locations. We've all been on trips and seen artwork that is related to the location that you're visiting. People want to take home a memory of their trip and what better way than a piece of art that contains a local attraction. Selling prints and postcards are great ways to make money and offering art at different prices allows anyone to purchase from you.

Fans & Hobbies:

If your art appeals to certain fans such as horror movies, science fiction, or is related to specific hobbies such fishing and hunting enthusiasts, then those would be good niche markets. People who participate in cat and dog shows are another huge group. There is a niche market for any interest or hobby.  If you get known by a specific group for creating authentic renditions of their hobby then you will quickly become the go-to artist for that niche group and reap the financial benefits as well.

Animals:

People are crazy about animals, especially their own pets. If this is your genre then you can paint pet portraits and offer pet portraits to make money. If you don't prefer to paint animals but just want to support your art then why not offer to paint pet portraits? Do I hear someone screaming "sell out" in the back of the room? Some people will argue this point and maybe if you're signed up with a gallery or hang in large groups of serious artist friends then I can understand this might not be a venture you want to take. For everyone else, this is a good way to make money that will give you financial breathing room to create what you want.


Personal Connections:

People love to buy personal items. You could be the "personal" part of your art. Everyone loves a story so tell them the story of your art. Why did you choose to paint this painting? What happened in your life that led you to creating this piece of art. How does it make your feel? What were you feeling when you created your art. People love to hear the story behind your art, that way when they have it hanging on their walls and visitors come to their homes, they can share your story. Your art becomes a conversation piece. It may even lead to other sales. People who buy your art want to make a connection. You have to find out how to make a connection with your potential buyers.

Subject Matter:

What you choose to paint affects sales as well. Certain subjects historically sell better than others so that is something you may want to consider. Usually artists get known for painting certain subjects but painting series is a way for you to venture into other subjects if you need or want to. Galleries usually want you to stick to painting the subject matter that you're known for so if you do get into a gallery, it's probably a good idea to stick with painting that subject matter until you've had a few successful gallery exhibits or have been successful with them for a few years before you venture into other subjects to paint.

Certain subjects sell better than others so here is a list of subject matters in order of their success.This list is according to a survey in Art Business Today.  This is a list of the top 10 best-selling subjects for paintings in the United Kingdom:

1. Traditional landscapes.
2. Local views.
3. Modern or semi-abstract landscapes.
4. Abstracts.
5. Dogs.  (my apologies to my cat)
6. Figure studies (no nudes).
7. Seascapes and beach scenes.
8. Wildlife.
9. Impressionistic landscapes.
10. Nudes.  (yes, we're still uptight about viewing the nude body)

I love to go to art shows and hover behind people and hear what they say as they're viewing art. I feel that this is the best way to see what people like. Listening to their comments is a wonderful way to make improvements in your own work as well as finding out what people like and want to buy. Go to art shows and craft fairs and watch what paintings or booths that people are congregating around. If you watch over a period of time then you'll get a little understanding of what the public likes.

Now go and create!
- Rick

Douglas McDougall Sculpting Charcoal and Graphite

Douglas McDougall - Charcoal & Graphite on Snowden Cartridge paper.

Douglas McDougall creates these amazing drawings with charcoal, graphite and a scalpel. He explains his work by saying, “My medium is charcoal/graphite on 300gsm Snowdon Cartridge, it’s a combination of drawing/painting/sculpture with a nod towards the discipline of ‘trompe l’oeil’. Click on the above photo to view the fine details that he scratches into the surface of his paper. I love the textures and depth he achieves in his pieces. It's definitely inspired me to try this at some point on my own. I really wouldn't mind owning one of his creations in my home, I love these.