Melancholy Princess - Miniature

Well this one will look very poor after the copy of a masterpiece, but I thought I would give doing my own image using what I learned from that one little Waterhouse copy. Oh boy... much more difficult than copying a masterpiece and a good reminder of why I was trying to do more copies in an effort to improve my portraits. :)

This is the same size as the other one: 2.5" x 3.5" and is of my daughter about four years ago. We had gone to the Vermont Renaissance Festival and it was very hot outside. We took a break under some trees and my daughter, dressed as the princess for the fair, looked so sad.

OK back to something else. :)

If you want to see more miniatures I've done, I've got some posted on my official website: www.nicolecaulfield.com and to go right to the miniature gallery you can go to http://www.nicolecaulfield.com/gallery3.htmwww.nicolecaulfield.com/

Waterhouse Project

After Waterhouse, My Sweet Rose
Miniature
2.5" x 3.5" (about actual size)

I've been doing monthly projects with the group I'm in called Fine Line Artists. Each month we pick an artist to study up on and do a work inspired by him/her. This month was Waterhouse. I have to confess I was busy this month or recently not feeling well so I didn't study much on him and consequently couldn't come up with much inspiration.

I therefore just made a copy of a detail of one of his paintings in miniature form, My Sweet Rose, which you can find by scrolling down on this page.

I've done quite a few beautiful women miniatures now. I've done Vermeer, John Singer Sargent and some from people at the Vermont Renaissance Fair. I really enjoy doing them and since I seem to learn something every time I do one, maybe when I start doing portraits again, I'll be better than I was before. This time I picked another silhouette which I always find difficult to do. I think what I learned on this one with silhouettes is to keep those edges soft even where you would think it would be a hard edge as with the outline of the nose on the background. Doing this miniature also reinforced some things about color and skin tones. I tend to never put enough yellow in creating a chalky look - I had to keep on adding yellow to get even close to Waterhouse's colors. I love that little band of bright orangey yellow he left on her hairline. How important a bit of green is to lessen the intensity of the pinks in the usual flesh colors was also reinforced.

Cans 2 WIP finished - well, pretty much

So here's where I'm at. I always sit with them for a little while to see if I need to adjust any values or spread some color around. I think for instance I need a bit more of that pink somewhere to tie it together.

I named the first one "Canned" but I'm not sure what to name this one yet. Maybe "Tight Situation." Hey I just realized one of the cans in the other one is the same can in this new one but going down instead of acroos. See if you can see which can was repeated!

I've always loved doing metallic surfaces so this was therapy. I enjoyed the can tops so much I've decided to use the can theme again soon in a much bigger representation. The city of Keene New Hampshire and the business owners on Main Street are having an Art Walk in downtown Keene. Artists display their artwork in the Main Street shop windows the first week in June and people parade through looking at the artwork. I've been summoned to do some sidewalk art for Artworks, the art school I teach at, during the event. I've decided to do some sort of squished can. Not a load of squished cans like this, but a lone LARGE squished can on the sidewalk.

My friend Katherine Tyrrell made the joke that it was like depicting litter right on the sidewalk, which I like! I wouldn't be the first artist to do that! I was just reading the book "Still Life A History" by Sybille Ebert-Schifferer where in the very first chapter they talk about a Roman mosaicist, Oikos Asarotos (Soss of Pergamon), who was known for depicting food scraps and other trash on the floor of wealthy homes in the second century CE. According to the book and Pliny "sweeping up the remains of a meal was bad luck."

Cans 2 Post 4

I'm getting there sloooowly!

Cans 2 Post 3

This is the absolute slowest I have ever been. I can usually finish a 6 x 18" in one long day but here I am at day 3 and not even half way finished.

The reason why is I can't sit or stand in one place too long. I seemed to have overdone it while jogging and my hips are so sore. Not my knees like most normal people, but my hips. Nothing seems to help it, even rest. I'm sure it will get better, but for now its hard to concentrate while drawing. If I sit they really start to hurt. I found that kneeling helps, but then I have to take breaks when my feet fall asleep and standing in one spot is just as bad as sitting.

So this piece is taking forever. My productivity relies on drawing for long stretches at once usually 12 hours in a day and I have only been aboe to get in 1 maybe 2.

It is also looking a bit different than usual. I just can't get myslef to lay the pencil down as evenly as I usually do and I am not finding the patience to go back and tidy up the pencil strokes. SO I just decided ot give up on the clean look and go for a bit of edge. Or as Simon said on American Idol last night a bit of "grit." Which is perfect I figure for these cans anyway. Why would I want a completely clean technique for dirty crushed cans anyway, they deserve a bit of "grit" as did the songs on American Idol last night - so many were sung perfectly but lacked the edge/grit that they so needed to be pulled off.