New Year's Resolutions for Artists

I resolve to have a more creative year!  How about you?  



Here are some things I would suggest adding to your resolutions for the year, to help you be more creative:



1)  Make time and space for your art this year.  Do something every day, and try not to leave your art until the end of the day -- too easy to make excuses not to do it.

Here's my space -- Nothing fancy and kind of cluttered and messy right now . . . okay, all the time.  But, lots of art has been created in this space.

I haven't always had a studio.  But, I have made space for my art -- on the kitchen table, my lap, in an extra bedroom, the basement (on top of the pool table), a barn, on the back porch, dining room table, TV tray -- you name it.  

2)  Keep a sketchbook.  Draw, write, and paint in it as much as possible.  Take it with you everywhere.  Start a new one each year, and try to fill it up before the end of the year.

Draw or write it in it first thing in the morning with your coffee.  Or, during lunch.  In fact, draw your lunch.  Check out this blog for ideas for your sketchbook.

3)  Experiment with new watercolor techniques.  Try not to be too concerned with the end result -- just enjoy trying out new things in your painting.  Or try using a different kind of paper.  If you usually paint on paper, try painting on Aquabord or watercolor canvas.  

4)  Treat yourself to a new "tool".  Buy yourself a sable brush for your birthday, or buy a set of Quinacridone paints right now, so you can use them all year.  

5)  Go and see some real art or artifacts.  Visit museums, galleries -- maybe a different museum every month.  Go to art openings; visit public art in your town.

We visited the Denver Museum of Nature & Science last month.

6)  Take more pictures.  Do the Photo Challenge every week, on this blog.  Post your pictures on Facebook, Pinterest, or Tumblr  -- or Instagram.  Make photo books (on a site like Shutterfly --http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books).  Just the act of taking photographs will help you in your art -- with composition, ideas, lighting, editing.  And you can use them as references for your drawings and paintings.  Buy yourself a camera, and learn how to use it.  I have a simple point-and-shoot Canon, and I love it!

7)  Mat and frame at least one piece of your art this year.  Give it to someone as a gift, hang it up in your own house, or sell it!

I hope you try at least one of these this year.  

Have a happy and creative New Year!

PHOTO FRIDAY -- Photobombs

Each week, I'll be posting 1-7 photos, which will be my interpretation of a weekly theme.  I will also announce the next week's theme.

We don't always have to draw and paint to be creative.  And, that's one of my own New Year's resolutions for 2014:  To be more creative in every area of my life.

This week's theme was "PHOTOBOMB".

Since photobombs are not planned -- when someone hops into your photo at the last minute -- I rounded up all my "family photobombs", from the last year or two.

Silly, I know!  But, I love these photos.  

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The theme for the next weekly Photo Challenge:  "CONTRAST".  Time to get serious . . . 

MONTHLY RECAP -- What I Have Been Up To

This month, I was busy with a portrait commission and illustrating a children's book.



I finished and shipped the portrait to my friend in Ohio, just a few days ago.  These are three of her grandchildren, so I really wanted her to love it.  I'm always nervous when there is more than one subject in the portrait.  But, I was satisfied with the result (as was my client, thankfully) --

watercolor by Pat Howard, 29" x 21"

Another fun project was "Annabelle" -- illustrations for a baby's board book.  Here are a few of the illustrations:  (there were 11 total)

And, of course, I continue to take lots of pictures, which may or may not become paintings, down the road:

Geraniums, safely inside before the first snowfall of the season.

A harmless wolf spider on our back deck -- scary and hairy, but harmless.  Glad he was OUTSIDE!

Morning visitors

Alan starting on a new project -- his last before he retires.

The view out our front window in Durango

SKETCHBOOK ASSIGNMENT: More Than 10 ORANGE Exercises to Try

For these sketchbook exercises and color studies, you'll need the following:

A sketchbook, pencils, black pen, gold pen, colored pencils and watercolor pencils, markers, and -- okay -- an eraser, if you must.  Also, a watercolor sketchbook, if you have one, or small pieces of watercolor paper, and watercolor paints and brushes.




Try a few, or all, of these ORANGE exercises --


1.  PUMPKINS -- Draw a pumpkin, with pencil.  Then, add color with colored pencil.  Layer the colors, starting with yellow first . . .

Now, try another pumpkin -- this time, drawing with pencil, and then painting with watercolors.  Add a patterned cloth at its base.  Once again, start with an underpainting of yellow . . . 

2.  ORANGE FLOWERS 

- Draw a Daylily, or another orange flower, with pencil.  Color it with colored pencils . . . 

Look at a bouquet of orange flowers, or part of a bouquet, and start painting the colors and shapes, without drawing first.  Mix the oranges right on your paper.  Let that dry -- and then come in with a black ink drawing on part of it. . . 

3.  PAINT A "FEELING" OF FALL -- Don't draw first, just paint a simple little landscape, using oranges and other autumn colors . . . 

4.  ORANGE FRUIT -- Buy some orange fruit -- preferably, the kind you like, so you can eat it after you're finished drawing/painting.

- Draw a few pears and an apple on a ledge.  Add a pattern on the "tablecloth".  Mingle your oranges on the fruit.  Paint a violet background, and then paint the pattern.

- Zoom in on your orange fruit and fill up the page with the shapes -- to make it almost abstract.  Draw contour lines with a gold pen, and then mingle the orange colors within the fruit.  Paint some darks in your background.

5.  COLOR MIXING --  

- Flesh-Tones -- Do a page of Fleshtone mixtures -- which is really just pale orange.

Make notations right on the page, so that you remember what colors you used.

- Orange Grid (a la Paul Klee) --  Draw a grid of square, and in each one, make a notation of the color you will try to achieve there.  (Be sure to include one Blue square, for contrast).  Then paint each square, either directly (from the tube, or mix on the palette first); wet-in-wet mingling (use water first, and mix on the paper); 

6.  CARROTS -- Buy some carrots, with the greens still attached.  They are more fun to draw and paint that way.  Draw them, and then paint with watercolor.  Do a yellow underpainting on the carrot and greens.  Then paint the rest of the background a light blue.  Mingle the colors in the carrots, using yellow, orange, and a warm red like Cadmium Red.  Leave some of the yellow showing, especially in the middle of the carrot, to give it a rounded look.  Then use the blue to paint a cast shadow.

7.  ORANGE-LINE DRAWING/PAINTING -- Set up a still-life, or look at your pet.  (Use a photo, if your pet won't sit still.)  Mix up an orange paint with your watercolors, and start "drawing" the shapes with your brush and the orange mixture -- no pencil drawing first.  Keep drawing shapes until you run out of paper.  Then, fill in the shapes with mingled colors -- exaggerate the colors!  Paint up to the orange line, but not over it, so that you get the nice contrast.

8.  AUTUMN LEAVES -- Collect some leaves from outside, and draw/paint a few small leaf studies.

9.  DO SOME DOODLES -- Draw some doodles with black ink, add a patterned background, and color with colored markers, especially orange.

 

10.  FACES -- Paint a few ORANGE under-paintings on small pieces of watercolor paper.  Then, using a black pen, draw a face on each one.  (Either find random faces from magazines, or use my examples here.)  Title and date your faces.

Orange you glad there aren't eleven of these?  

BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK -- My 2-Day Watercolor Workshop in Ohio

I enjoyed painting with 6 wonderfully eager-to-learn ladies, at my 2nd Annual Watercolor Workshop in Uniontown, Ohio, that took place two weeks ago.  We painted forests, using the negative painting techniques that I love to teach.  It is such a great technique to learn, in order to achieve depth in your paintings.  

Even though they were all following my lead, with this step-by-step project, they managed to create 6 uniquely different paintings by the end of the day.  It's always fun to see the results of this project.   

music is "Leaves of Autumn" by Jiang Xiao-Qing

On the 2nd Day of the Workshop, we worked on two different projects -- a Grid of Leaves (where we tried out various underpaintings in each section, and then drew and painted different leaf shapes over them),  and Stargazer Lilies (where we drew and painted lilies, from life, (and one sunflower!), and did some negative painting, too).  Since we went back and forth between projects, no one was able to finish any one painting, but they were all off to great starts on both.  Hopefully, they all finish their paintings at home.

                                          

music is "Autumn Equinox" by Cynthia Jordan

It was a great time, and I think everyone learned something.  I'll definitely be back next year!