Name that tune!

"It's a mid-week day. A rainy day. Walk-a, walk-a, walk-a waaay!"

Really, bonus points for whoever can name that tune. Think waaaaay back to the decade of decadence, the 80's. That's the only clue I'm giving.

"After Boticelli- "Birth of Venus" " ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

It is, in fact, a mid-week day and although not rainy Mother Nature has granted us some warmers temps and a weird concoction of ice pellets and light snow. I don't have much to write as I've been creatively sapped for the past week and a half, although I do have a couple of ACEO's to share, one above and one below.

"After Sargent- "Madame X" " ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

I've got more of these Masters ACEO's I plan on doing since I'm really enjoying the challenge of re-creating famous works and giving them a bit of my own twist. I thought about turning it into a series titled "Tackling the Masters" but then I got a weird visual of me in a huddle with van Gogh and Mary Pratt about to take on Vermeer, Michelangelo and Emily Carr in an attempt to push them back past the 40 yard line. It was odd and yet slightly amusing.

Anyhoo, art mingled with sports aside, this week again has been filled with a ridiculous amount of running around and the Other Half and I are having guests this week-end so I'm quite sure that no art will get accomplished.
Next week might hold some promise though, but only time (and my energy level) will tell...

Yellow anyone?

Let’s talk about van Gogh, shall we?

More specifically, let’s continue with the discussion from earlier about works that can cause grief. I debated doing this one... extensively. Despite being one of his most famous works, I am really not a fan of this one. I look at it and say ‘blah’. Even for me, who likes simple composition and uncluttered images, it’s about as exciting as a loaf of bread.

Also, there’s a lot of yellow. And not even a nice kind of yellow. It’s the kind of yellow that makes you uncomfortable. However, I shoved my dislike for this piece aside and decided that I wanted to tackle it.


Normally an ACEO takes me a couple of hours to do. This one took me 4 days working on it on and off. It's progress can be seen below:

van Gogh, "Sunflowers", Part 1

van Gogh, "Sunflowers", Part 2

"After van Gogh, "Sunflowers" " ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Let's just say I can understand now why van Gogh went off his rocker. Yellow. Orange- yellow. Yellow ochre. Canary yellow. Goldenrod. Deep cadmium. I mean, really, how much yellow can one person tolerate?

About half way through this one I almost tossed it into the fireplace but I'm glad I didn't. I knew I needed to persevere and get this one done... even if it meant that I was going to go crazy and eat my cp's.


Thankfully that didn't happen and this ACEO has found a new home. Doing this ACEO reminded me of a lesson I learned when I was seriously starting out with cp's and that is that coloured pencil pieces can have a very long "ugly" stage. I had forgotten this because I've been working on ACEO's for so long and they are generally done very quickly so if there is an ugly stage it's very brief.

This one was educational and I'm glad it's done.

This week is shaping up to be a very busy one for me so I don't know that I'll get to do another post until next week-end. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak one in but if I can't, until next week-end keep on art-ing!

Keeping my sanity... kind of.

So the art is keeping me sane... who woulda thunk it?

That said, before my mini hiatus there I had mentioned that I wanted to discuss pieces that didn’t keep me so sane. More specifically, pieces that were difficult to get through for one reason or another.

To touch on this subject I’m going to use 2 ACEO’s I completed not too long ago, those being Vermeer’s “Woman Holding A Balance” and van Gogh’s infamous “Sunflowers”.

Let’s start with Vermeer, shall we?

This piece, while exciting, was fiddly in nature and also, because ACEO’s are so darn small, presented the challenge of getting the woman’s face in that space without it looking something akin to the female version of the Elephant Man.

Before I get into my ACEO trials and tribulations here’s a link to what the full original painting looks like:

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/37/76837-004-D488CF6A.jpg

Now imagine cramming even a portion of that into a space 2.5 x 3.5 inches!

I liked the challenge that the aspect of teen-weeny spaces presented to me (so much so that I’m doing more of them) but I didn’t anticipate how much it would frustrate me.

Below you can see the stages of how this ACEO progressed:

Part One.

Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes

Part Two, with some wonky lighting issues.

Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
(Yes, those are some of my cp's the ACEO is sitting on)

Done!

"After Vermeer- "Woman Holding A Balance" "
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

I think the biggest challenges I had with this one, aside from teeny-weeny faces, were making the balance obvious to the viewer and retaining that softness and dramatic value that Vermeer has in so many of his works. There was also the challenge of getting her hands to look like hands, rather than making it look like she’s wearing flesh coloured mittens, and speaking of flesh, there were issues I had with colour as well. I don’t often do portraits or works with figures so this particular piece offered up a few learning curves.

In hindsight I’m pretty happy with it but if I were to do it over again I would have given more attention to values and colour (in that order of priority) since in comparing the original with my ACEO the two main areas of focus, her face and hands, are lacking darker values in the ACEO which is part of what gives it that drama.


Since this post has already gotten quite long I’ll save van Gogh’s piece for this week-end. It’ll be a nice break for me to post again and I suspect that if I have to address two pieces that gave me trouble the sanity I’m trying to hang onto will fly right out the window. Although that would make for an interesting post, wouldn’t it?

Hectic!

Hi there!

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth... at least not yet. The past 2 weeks have been very hectic as the Other Half and I had to move our wedding date from early October to June 13th. No biggie, who needs extra time to prepare anyway, right?

Needless to say, since I've lost 3 1/2 months of planning time (aka- 3 1/2 months of me being incapable of making a decision on what type of flowers to use, where the best pics will be taken, etc) this blog may only be updated sporadically for the next few months. Couple the rush on wedding stuff with the general chaos of life and that makes for a very busy Rita.

"Under Mom's Careful Watch" ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

On the plus side, it means that the wedding will be done earlier and I can relax and enjoy my Summer without having to worry about dress alterations and seating arrangements and how to keep Al clean for photos and... well, you get the idea.

Guess Who...
ACEO, coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes

I've still been working on art, as you can see, but I suspect that much like updates on this blog that my output of art will slow down quite a bit too. I'm going to try and update at least once a week which may be just the thing I need to keep me same until June 14th. :D

Cherries and snow

Well, we didn’t get that much snow on the week-end and after checking the forecast it would appear that it’s actually coming overnight and throughout tomorrow. Other than a few errands I have to run tomorrow I think I’ll be spending a good chunk of time working on art since I didn’t get as much done over the week-end as I was hoping to.

Despite time constraints over the week-end I do have this little ACEO to share as well as the beginning of an 11x14 piece I started.

"Red, red and more red" ACEO- Part 1
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

"Red, red and more red" ACEO- Done!
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

For the larger piece it’s a re-do of an ACEO I completed last year. The original reference image is from WetCanvas! I believe. In the original photo there’s a lace tablecloth on the table and when I did the ACEO I omitted it but I’m considering including it in this piece. Since this is a larger piece it would be much easier for me to include the detail of the lace as opposed to the ACEO where I’m quite sure had I attempted to include the lace my eyeballs would’ve fallen right out of my head.

No title yet... WIP
11x14, Coloured pencil on Colourfix

Copyright Rita Woodburne

The other thing I did with this one was use solvents for the background. I really wanted that solid black and since I’m working on Colourfix for this one I knew that no amount of burnishing would get me that solid black... not without waxy consequences anyway.

I’m debating whether I want to attempt using solvents for the cherries as well since I’m pretty much a newbie when it comes to combining cp’s with solvent. I may try a few test pieces to figure out how much manipulating I can do.


So that’s what I’m up to for now. If anyone out there has suggestions for using the solvents I’m all ears!

Pearls are a girl's best friend

Since I haven’t done a post on this in awhile I thought I’d share some info on one of my Master study ACEO’s, this time with Vermeer and that saucy gal with the pearl earring.

I had contemplated doing this particular piece for awhile but because I’m not deviating from the originals in terms of colour, style, etc for this small project I wanted to do something a bit different to give it a different feel and to make it a bit more of my own.
To do this I decided against the typical portrait format of the piece being vertical and instead went for a landscape format. This meant that I had to crop the piece and this is where it got interesting because the original is pretty basic on it’s own so I didn’t have a lot to play with. Ultimately I found a crop that I was happy with and at that point the games began:

"After Vermeer- "Girl with a Pearl Earring" " ACEO
Part 1- Jeepers, someone needs to get out and get some sun!

Initially I had debated doing this piece at all because it’s a very well-known image and any discrepancies between my mini version and the original would be horribly obvious to just about anyone that hasn’t been living in a vacuum and also because I find I get bored very easily when doing “popular” images (this will be the subject of another post).

"After Vermeer- "Girl with a Pearl Earring" " ACEO
Part 2- Looking better, but some bronzer wouldn't hurt.

I think in the end it turned out pretty well and, as expected, I learned a few things from doing this one. First and foremost is that I’m finding that for any piece involving a portrait (or a piece where a human subject is prominent), regardless of the individual’s skin tone, working on a warm coloured support is best. I had a lot of difficulty achieving the warm skin tones form the original and it got to the point where I simply could not layer any more colour onto this ACEO. I also took a chance with the cropping and, if I may toot my own horn, I’m quite pleased with it. I get bored with seeing and doing conventional. Having said that, “conventional” definitely has it’s place, don’t get me wrong, but these mini studies are strictly for experimenting and finding out what I can and can’t do... and where I need more work. ;)

So here’s how she turned out:

"After Vermeer- "Girl with a Pearl Earring" " ACEO
Coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes
Copyright Rita Woodburne

I’m happy, she looks happy (I think) and I even have another ACEO portrait study lined up from another famous fellow... but you’ll have to wait to see that one.

In keeping with my plan for the year I also started a large piece, an 11x14 to warm me up for something larger, and I’m hoping to have a few progress shots to share this week-end. We’re getting more snow so what better time to work on art, right?

2009: The Plan

"After van Gogh- "Sunflowers" " ACEO
Part 1, coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes

Happy New Year, dear reader!

So 2008 came and went and now we’re into 2009. This year is going to be particularly busy for me as I have my personal artistic goals to meet as well as obligations towards helping to make the 3rd annual Lilac Tea a success. This year also sees the ‘Art For Literacy’ program expanding into another local library, the Deseronto Public Library, and that means that there will be a show held there as well, the Harvest Tea, which is slated to be held in September. Busy, busy, busy!

Also, for those of you that have been following this blog for awhile know that I got engaged last year and the Other Half and I have decided on an Autumn wedding. It’s not going to be an over the top affair (that’s definitely not my style) but as I’m sure you understand it’ll still require some planning so that’s going to be preoccupying me this year as well.


Enough nattering, you’re here for art and I just happen to be an artist so let’s find out what tomfoolery I have planned for myself in 2009:

Artistic
- Improve my photography skills to take better reference pictures and images of my artwork. This is a carry over from last year but I’d like to work on that and becoming even more familiar with Photoshop.
- Do a large piece... nay, several large pieces. I feel that this is something I really need to do. I’ve been staying in my comfort zone far too long.
- Begin my equine still life series which I would like to consist of at least 5 pieces.
- Work on my understanding of composition. I think this will develop as I do more still lifes but I'm really not familiar with all the technical aspects of composition and if I really want to do some bang-up work I need to get a better understanding.
- Purge my older “What the Hell was I thinking!?” work. Some of the really horrific stuff will see the inside of the fireplace and the other works will go to eBay so I can pay for more art supplies. I do this from time to time but my intuition tells me that now is the time to really clean house so I can move forward.

"After Vermeer- "Woman Holding a Balance" " ACEO
Part 2, coloured pencil on Mi-Teintes

Business
- Make more contacts within my local art community. This was on my list from last year but it’s a worthwhile goal and I think it deserves a place this year as well.
- Promote my studio/ gallery more via arts organizations, advertising and personal efforts.
- Prepare a portfolio for submission to a gallery. This has been in the back of my mind for awhile and I think I’d like to spend this year working on a solid portfolio to get into a gallery either later this year or early in 2010.
- Update my website. New images need to be put on and I need to do some re-shuffling to reflect what I’m currently working on and where I'm going.
- Update this blog. This one is kind of iffy because of the new format that Google has with it’s drag and drop widgets which, while convenient, is a bit buggy. This goal will be dependent on whether or not Google can get itself sorted out. If not, it's good ol' fashioned hand-coding for me.


So that's what I have lined up for this year. As always I'm enacting the "wiggle-room" policy because life is, well... unpredictable. Also, I really have no idea how much time is going to be spent planning a wedding as I'm blissfully ignorant of how much time and effort goes into this sort of thing. That said, having the guidelines above certainly helps and makes me accountable for getting everything done.

The last thing I'm toying with is doing less art fairs and instead concentrating my efforts into getting into shows held at galleries. The reason for this being that I think it helps beef up my artistic resume and, let's be honest folks, the economy is going in the pooper and to put that much time and $$'s into a show where I have no guarantee of even making my booth fee back is just plain silly. I'll still do some fairs this year but in the interest of my sanity and bank account I'm going to be very selective as to which ones I participate in.


So there's the plan for 2009. Can I do it? Only time will tell... ;)