This was the last drawing of the evening, and we actually had twenty-five minutes to work on it. It is great to have and know you have a time limit, as it helps you consider how much can I get done in this amount of time. In a life drawing session, there is not teacher and no input from other students. You can take the medium of your choice and try to draw what you see. It is challenging and a learning experience. I have fairly good drawings and some not so good drawings.
With this drawing, the model asked to see what I had done, and asked to take a photo of it. I have drawn this model before and she now always asks to see my work. I consider this an honor, as she did not ask to see any other work in the class.
I’ve drawn her in the past, and this was before the recent portraiture class I just took. This was a twenty minute sketch where I think I captured her essence, but the proportions are off. Her eyes kind of moved a bit off too! I just left it as it was, as it looks a bit abstract.
Life drawing sessions are good for improving a quicker drawing, and fun to have the camaraderie of different artists. It is fun to see the variety of styles and levels of expertise. I hope to do more in the future. Join my blog and hopefully we will see improvement together.
I’m wondering if anyone else has ever been asked this question? If you were asked this question, how would you respond? I’ve told a few people I was asked this question not long ago. I know I did not give you the best response at the time. I said art materials are expensive. This person considers painting and drawing my “hobby”, not my passion. I know with the answer I suggested that I was not being honest, as I felt it was an insult.
I took some time to look online to see if there could be reasons not to want to sell your art. Here are some of the results I discovered:
Someone told you you should.
Somesone told you you shouldn’t.
You need to justify expenses on materials.
Do you need to monetize everything?
To prove your Art is good enough. For what? For whom?
It isn’t a natural step just because you have a lot of work stored in your home.
Give it to Charity
Paint over it
Give to friends
Abandon it
I’ve done all of these!
There is no quick win for easy money.
Because you enjoy it for fun and selling somehow takes that away.
Because you’re still learning and refining your unique voice.
Because you don’t want to!
I can say I do NOT agree with any of the above statements! But what are good reasons for selling your artwork? Here are answers from the internet:
Creative expression: For artists, creating artwork is a way to express themselves and showcase their creativity.
Financial gain: Selling artwork can provide a source of income for artists.
Exposure: Artwork that is sold can gain exposure and reach a wider audience, potentially leading to more sales and opportunities.
Emotional connection: Artwork can have a deep emotional impact on buyers, creating a sense of connection between the artist and the buyer.
Provide an additional source of income for artists.
Gain exposure and increase their visibility in the art world.
Validating for artists, as it shows that their work is valued and appreciated.
Can lead to feedback from buyers and collectors, which can help understand the reception of their work.
Can build name recognition where you reside.
People often ask: When should you start selling your art, not if you should start selling. If you can answer yes to the following statements, then it is time to start selling your artwork.
Have you been drawing regularly for a year or more?
Do you draw at least once a week?
Do you have more than 10 friends or followers on any of your art related social media accounts?
Are you working to get better with each drawing you make?
I have been creating art for many years. I have sold , donated, and gifted to family and friends. I have taken and continue to take classes from experts in many fields. It is ludicrous to ask me: “Why do I want to sell my artwork?” The real question is “Why not”? It is not a hobby. It is my passion. I love creating something that someone else might treasure or enjoy, make them happy, cause them to think or look at something differently. My suggestion to anyone reading this, is to never ask an artist why they want to sell their art! It is a very insulting question and tells you the person asking either does not know much about art and/or artists or does not care that what you do is important to you.
So with that said…. Buy art, the artist will treasure that you appreciate that they created something you will enjoy and want to have in your life. You are buying a tiny part of what is very important to them!
I think one of the most challenging types of art is the portrait. It is difficult to capture the essence of a person in a painting. You can paint all the parts, and they can fit together nicely, but do they really look like that person. I have started taking a portraiture class and decided even if my painting does not look exactly like the model, I am going to enjoy the experience of drawing and painting. The first day of class we learned proportions and worked on value. We did not get to far, so I finished this at home.
The second day of the class we had a lovely model for four hours. Once again we started laying out the proportions with burnt umber on the canvas. We just started to add color and it was time for the class to be over. I do not feel I captured the beauty of our model, but do not feel bad about the painting as a piece of art. I think I am starting to get the idea of making it smoother, and add only detail that is necessary. My teacher felt I need to add more of a highlight on the right cheek.
The third week we had a new model that was a different type of beauty, but had almost perfect proportions. There were only two of the five students in this class, so it was almost like a private lesson.
Of the three so far, I am most happy with this one. I feel she looks softer and more lovely than the previous paintings. It is fun at this stage of life to constantly be learning something new. I think it helps to keep us alive.
This is the result of the final class, and though I have a lot yet to learn, I am enjoying the process. I hope to continue learning and practicing by doing portraits of family memb
It had been over a year since I enjoyed a “Life Drawing” experience. I call it an experience, as it is not a class, but more of a session. A model is provided, and you bring everything you intend to draw with, and sit and sketch. In this session, it started with four minute sketches, went on to five minute sketches, then ten and finally twenty minute drawings. Our model had strong facial features, so I decided to focus on that. I brought a variety of tools to use. This drawing uses 8B, 6B & 4B pencils that can be manipulated (somewhat) with water. Since I had never tried this before, it was a bit challenging.
This was my first twenty minute drawing, using only charcoal and little pen and ink. I did not get the eyes right, but like the fierce look it gave the drawing. Need to practice a lot more!
This is the same model, but I wanted to show the softer side to him. He looked so very serious, till he took a cellphone call on a break and gently started laughing. I do realize his eyes are looking in two different directions, so a bit of an error on my part, but now too late to change.
I do suggest joining a session like this to loosen up your drawing skills. I firmly believe that if you cannot draw, you cannot successfully paint.
Sometimes when you are “out & about” you view a scene that makes you think about how different our culture is today, that it was twenty years ago. Before cell phones became such a way of life, we interacted in very different ways. Maybe in the good old days, we read the paper instead of talking with coffee, but that was the only time of the day that happened in most families. In today’s world we start the morning with coffee, email and checking the different social media sites. In my house, we don’t really talk. We get ready and walk to the gym or to pilates and chat along the way. Many people then go back on their phone to catch up with “what’s going on in the world” or play a game or are back to social media.
When I was younger, “social media” did not exist and I think it was a healthier way to live. You met your friends for coffee, or lunch and/or maybe a drink on the way home from work. You actually talked to one another and used a telephone in a very different way than it is used (by many) today.
We recently went to a wine tasting at the beautiful Domaine Carneros, near Napa. It is situated on a hill with beautiful views. As we were sitting enjoying our tasting, I looked over to see a younger couple enjoying the afternoon in a different way. She was talking on her cell phone and he was turned the other way looking at his cell phone. I don’t know if the sun was in his eyes and he could not see, or if this is just the new way of life. I see this all the time.
I decided this would make a good painting as a statement of how we now live our lives. It is no wonder that people don’t talk as much as they used to… They don’t think it is necessary? I think that is why I love and admire my best friends. Our phones are in our pockets or purses when we are together and only come out for fun photos!
Is this how you interact with your family and loved ones, or do you actual talk to them and listen to what they have to say?
I’ve been so busy painting and cooking and not writing, I decided it is time to get back to my blog. I just finished this 30 x 40 inch painting. I painted over one that is similar, but I did not really like the colors. This year, I would really like to work on having the right color in the right place.
I’ve started studying other artists to see how they paint some of the same things I like to paint. I believe you can always learn by looking at how anyone does something differently than you. I’ve always enjoyed taking classes for that reason too! One of the complications I find in painting, is how much detail to use to make it readable without taking away from the creativity.
I love painting abstracts, but do not seem to bring that into my impressionist painting. Where do you find the balance, or how do you find the balance? I like abstracted realism, but it is just not my style. Finding one’s style at any age is important. Hope you enjoy this new painting.
Life is about the experiences we have, not about what we have or often what we do. I’ve been painting for several years and never really entered a larger competition. I took a class in Mendocino and my teacher suggested I should join the upcoming Mendocino Paint Out; so I signed up. As the weeks went by, I collected frames and made sure I have enough canvases. I made an hotel reservation, and thought I was set to go.
About a week before I was set to leave, I thought I should check with the hotel about my reservation. I am glad I did, as I accidentally booked a room with twin beds and a bathroom down the hall. I upped it to another room with twin beds, but my own bathroom. In the interim, my husband decided to join me for the weekend festivities, so when I arrived I asked if I could upgrade a little more, so I would have one bed, not two. I ended up having a living room, bedroom and bath, which was large, but very old and very sad. The draperies in the rooms, had blackout shades in shreds. At one time they must have been beautiful, but today they were old and looked tired. Everything looked tired. It could have been spectacular with a little love and maybe a little money.
When I got back to my room after dinner, and discovered the TV did not work, I was glad for my IPad and was set to watch a movie on it. But as I pulled back the sheets I noticed a fairly small drop of blood on both the top sheet and the bottom sheet. That did not make me smile, but I was tired from the long windy drive in pouring down rain. I just crawled in, poured myself a glass of wine and watched my “Chick Flick”.
And then it began: The first day, we all (or those who started that day) lined up to have the back of our canvases stamped. We could enjoy viewing the one piece painted before the paint out, that everyone was to bring and hang. It was a wide of assortment of talent and style. The three main artists (the judges) had their work on display. The work was interesting and varied, consisting of two oil painters and a watercolorist. Although their work was artistic, it was not particularly to my personal liking. I would learn a lesson from this later in the week.
So we all took off to find out place to paint the first day. I headed to Little River Inn, where I has stayed before, and enjoyed the distant view. I finished my first painting in a couple of hours, and headed back to town to get a bite of lunch. Waiting in line, a nice young man informed me there was a spider on my backside, before he knocked it off. I had been sitting on a quite old and damp bench painting. As it turns out, I was lucky he saw it and ended its life, as it was a Black Widow. So that was how my week began?
View from River’s End Inn
My first painting was 20″ x 10″, and I painted it in an already framed canvas. I forgot to have this one stamped, so had to call to get permission for it to be allowed. They were very nice, and let me use this the first day. I had time after lunch and it was a beautiful day.
I had discovered when I set up my palette to paint, that my plein air paints had all dried out, so I decided to drive to Fort Bragg to a local and wonderful art store to refresh all my oil paints to the tune of $260. Fresh and new, but an expensive lesson. Since I was already in Fort Bragg, I ventured to MacKercher Park, hoping to paint the lagoon. As I was setting up, a creature crawled out of the lagoon with a direct line toward me. I did not know what it was, but it did not look “friendly”! I had never seen, what I found out a few moments later, was a Crawdad, alive. Luckily a young woman in the parking lot knew what it was, as her father was a commercial fisherman. But I decided I would go to the other side and paint the beach!
When I got to the beach, the fog was setting in and I could not decide what view to paint. It was busy with lots of people. I generally like to paint quietly in my studio or in a more deserted spot for Plein Air. I did spend a lot of time on this one, and I am afraid it shows. By the time I finished my first day of painting I was pretty tired and wind-burned. Nevertheless, I took it back and hung it on my wall. The Art Center provided free pizza that night, and they even had gluten free. That and glass of wine was perfect!
The next day, I decided I would paint one of the beautiful houses downtown. I worked on it most of the day, and wiped it clean at the end of the day, not liking it. The next day I tackled it again and upon finishing it called it “a day”.
By this time, I am beginning to think that I do not work as well under pressure. The next day I went to Fort Bragg with a very nice woman I met to paint at the harbor. I decided to paint something a little more simple. I painted the trees on the hill above the harbor. It was fun and relaxing and we painted in an area where there were not many people.
The last day was a quick draw contest. They give you a location and send you out. You have about a half hour to set up and two hours to paint. This year it was downtown Main Street. You could paint the beach or turn around and paint the town. There were 50-60 artists all painting downtown. I chose to go quite simple and painted the distant shore. I never knew so many small bugs could fly into a painting. Apparently they like the smell of the paint. I still need to finish the piece I did, as a gnat flew into it after I hung it up on the wall.
You can see the bug and the scratch marks, where someone tried to remove it.
That evening they had the rewards ceremony. My lesson with all this was: If you are not particularly fond of the work of the featured artists (judges), why would not be surprised that you would not have selected the same pieces to win the awards? Of all the talented artists in the contest, I did not agree with most of the winners. Many that were by far better, did not win any awards. Of the awards given, often another piece by the same artist was more beautifully executed. One of the awards went to the husband of one of the judges, and it was the one I really thought was color straight from the tube, poorly drawn and actually a little ugly.
I did not go expecting to win. I went for the experience and an experience it was! I met a lot of really nice people, and a few that were a little too overzealous about their art. I ate some great food, and some not so great food. I could not find a good latte anywhere in town, but the raw oysters in abundance made up for it, even if they were flown in from Washington State.
Many artists do ten to twelve of these a year. I found it exciting, exhausting and challenging. Would I do it again? Maybe for a shorter duration? I might try doing another medium, as no one was doing gouache, there were only a couple pastel artists and maybe one doing acrylic. That might up the odds of having a chance to win. Some paint outs provide a free place to stay, so that might make a huge difference expense wise. There are so many factors that go into deciding what to do with your art.
I took a life drawing class in Sacramento last weekend, and enjoyed the experience. I had not worked in charcoal in several years. It took a while to get back into it. There were two very experienced models. We started out with five minute poses, which we erased, then went on to twenty minute poses. These are all twenty minute poses.
The first day of glass we painted the arch in the afternoon after doing a value study of it in the morning. It was a very very gray day, so there was not a lot of color in the water, not a lot of color in the arch, no color in the sky. So even though the teacher thought this was quite successful I felt it’s a little bland and I may have to work on it a little bit.
The second day we went directly to the site to do some plein air painting. We went to McKercher Park, which is closest to Fort Bragg. On one side is a beautiful pond and on the other side is the ocean, so it’s a great place to park your car and plan our paint. I took this photo of the pond and decided to paint it that morning. I didn’t finish it that morning but came home and finished it later I think it turned out pretty well, it’s small at 9 x 11 inches
In the afternoon, we walked over to the beach area and our teacher gave a demo first and then we could pick where we wanted to paint. I chose an area with some rocks in a nice view out to the sea. This is another 9 x 11“ painting and I was pleased with the outcome of it. The mountains were not in the background but that side of the painting seemed a little bland so I gave it some mountains. That’s a nice thing about plein air painting you don’t have to paint it is exactly as you see it , but you can paint it as you can imagine it., but you can paint it as you can imagine it.
Classes are always challenging to me as there is always a wide variety of expertise and experience and ability in the same class. This class had a wide range of artists in the class, with a few fairly experienced and most were more of the beginner variety. I always find it interesting how people talk about their art before you see what they can do. I don’t talk much about my art, as I don’t want people to have expectations that I don’t meet. I would rather exceed their expectations and come up with something that is surprisingly artistic versus talk about what I’m doing before i do anything.
The third day it rained so we were in the studio all day. We did a value study of a photo that she gave to us. Each table had a different photo to work with. You could trade, but you didn’t really get to pick what you wanted to do . Mine was a surf scene so I worked on that most of the day with a value study first and the painting in the afternoon. She gave us linen royal paper to paint on as an alternative to a Pamela campus and that was a fun experience.
It was fun painting on a slightly different medium our teacher also gave a demo on using Gouage, which I would like to try as it paints and mixes like oil, but dries quickly. It would be great for travel. You can paint on 300 lb paper, so no canvas or panels to carry!
It was an excellent class, and Ellen Howard is a knowledgeable and interesting teacher!
So a friend of an acquaintance of mine, whom I met briefly once, called and wanted me to do a portrait of her granddaughter. I told her that I did commissions, but that I was not a “Portrait Artist” per se. She looked at my work and insisted I do it for her. When I told her my prices, there was a long pregnant pause. I told her it would be $50 less if she framed it, knowing all too well it would cost her considerably more if she were to have it framed at a frame shop. She sent me the photo, and asked that I take out the toy in the hand and add a beach with palm trees in the background. I personally thought it was overkill, and let her know in a subtle manner. I did as she asked, and spent about four days on the painting. I was charging $400 unframed and $450 unframed.
I am finally learning at this point in life, not to be as trusting as I have been all my life. I did not ask for a deposit. Shame on me! I trusted she would like the finished product.
Well, it did not turn out that way. She did not like it; never came to see it in person and was pretty rude in her interactions with me.
This is the photo that she emailed to me. She said she loved the hat, and wanted palm trees in the background on the beach. She wanted the green toy removed. This what I sent her, then I redid the lips, but did not send. I did not hear from here the first week, the second week she said she was ill, and this went on for about a month and a half. I sent a note and said she did not have to buy it if she did not like it. Well, she certainly did not! But rather than even stopping by to see it in person, she sent a “text” saying that: ” She did not like it all, and it looked nothing like her granddaughter, and her son did not think it looked her either. She NEVER saw the portrait itself.
I think I am a little upset, as I spent longer on it than I normally do on a painting, and basically wasted three days of my life. But did I really waste my time, or was this a message I needed.
I texted her back saying this was not a photograph, but was represented an image of her granddaughter. She stated she would pay me nothing, and that part is rude, but not unexpected. I added that I learned a good lesson: Don’t do commissions for someone you do not know, and get part of the money upfront. I wasted time and nice linen canvas. The thing I really cannot believe is that she could not bother to even stop by and take a look. I think she just decided she did not want to spend the money.
A family member in the interim asked me to do a portrait of her daughter, and she loved it. She did not ask for a background, which is usually nominal in a child’s portrait, but gave a photo that showed the whole head, without a huge hat.
I still do not call myself a portrait artist, and will not step out and take a chance with a total stranger. The woman who did not accept the portrait of her granddaughter did not say thank you for your time or even offer to pay for the canvas or my time.
It is one thing to accept negative comments, but something entirely different to be treated so rudely. How do I know, maybe she is just not a happy person or I did not make her grandbaby a beauty contest winner??
You can be the judge of that! I think I will just draw a mustache on the painting and deliver it to it’s proper home: The trash!
