Update on Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Here's a very warped update!  I took away the hairs that were on her face for a cleaner look and have started all that grass!

I really wish I could buy open stock pencils locally that are not Prismacolors! Coloursofts are my workhorses but I don't want to wait for them to be shipped to keep going, so the pencils here will be very mixed. Good thing they play nice together: its a mixture of Coloursofts, Prismas, and Luminance pencils. 

Beginning of Norman Rockwell Series

I've been wanting to do a series inspired by Norman Rockwell for a long time (ask my friends, they are tired of hearing about it) and I am finally diving in. The idea of the series is to combine the sense of humor of Rockwell but apply it to today's social environment. I want them to say something about family life TODAY and all the wonderful weirdness of it. Issues I am thinking of is the plethora of extracurricular activities kids are in, the infusion of gadgets in our daily lives, working Moms, Dad's new roles, etc. etc.

The reason why I haven't started yet is because the set up on them is more than I am used to and I am not sure how I will market them... or if I will.   I just feel like I have to do them and after just having my 38th birthday I am ready to risk it and to do the series, before I hit 40, lol. That is what you do right? Hit 40?

So I started my first one... its a simple one, in that it only has one model. The next one will have multiple models, props etc so I decided to do my first one with just one model (even if she [my daughter] made me pay her $20 for the honor of portraying her).

I think the title will be "Wrong Place or Wrong Time." A little girl stands on an empty soccer field, ball in hand, cleats and pads on, but also dressed in her ballet outfit and bunned hair. Did her mom drop her off at soccer when she is supposed to be at ballet? The viewer can guess, but down near her feet will be two google calendar event bubbles for "Soccer Practice on Thursday" and "Ballet Class" on Wednesday. I wonder if she looked at the calendar before she drove off in the SUV?

It is 24" x 36" - which is huge for me. I plan on getting these photographed after and if I frame them, framing them open air (no glass) &varnished to cut framing costs and to keep the weight down - glass is heavy. If I varnish I can't use Polychromos like I usually do with my portraits, so I am using Coloursofts and Prismacolors like I do on my still-lifes. The paper is my favorite Fisher 400, which I am running low on now! Varnishing these may backfire. Whenever you varnish a colored pencil drawing the darks will deepen and some colors will change a bit. That's why I will be having them photographed professionally first and then trying the varnish. Hopefully the varnish won't change them much!

Keene Sentinel Article

I was recently interviewed for an article in my local newspaper. The article is for a piece they do every other week focusing on a member of the community. It will be online probably only for a week. You can see the new "little" piece I'm working on it it too.

http://www.keenesentinel.com/articles/2010/10/02/community/monadnock_profile/free/id_414222.txt

Nopales

Cactus Salsa

In November I am going to be part of an exhibition at Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego California along with my online critique group: Louise Sackett, Katherine Tyrrell, Gayle Mason, and Vivien Blackburn. 

The show is supposed to reflect the wildlife in the park. Here's a snippet from the Mission Trails website:

Mission Trails Regional Park encompasses nearly 5,800 acres of both natural and developed recreational acres. Its rugged hills, valleys and open areas represent a San Diego prior to the landing of Cabrillo in San Diego Bay in 1542. 

It has been tough for the group to come up with subject matter for the show as all but Louise lives far from the area. I live in New Hampshire, on the east coast, which seems mighty far away, but Katherine, Vivien and Gayle live even further away in England, so I am not going to complain. 

On the Mission Trails website they have listings of pretty much all the plants that live in the park. One was the prickly pear cactus (the one and only cactus in the park) which I am very grateful for! So when I went back home to Illinois this summer I visited a Mexican grocer and got myself some prickly pear cactus! I know... show in California, I live in New Hampshire and I picked up the subject in Illinois... at a grocery store. Well you do what you have to do!

So to end an unnecessarily long story, my cactus has been getting browner and browner in the fridge so I had to do this piece now! Its a collection of ingredients for Nopales Salsa! 

I'll be doing a couple of more pieces for the show soon... thanks to my stepsister Lisa who lives in San Diego and who sent me a bunch of goodies she and her son picked up for me! 

Since Art in the Park I've gotten one artwork finished, but its not something I can show you presently... sorry about that. Its Top Secret for now. :)

So on to other things...

I was asked to participate in a fundraiser for our local arts theater: the Colonial Theater.

It is one of these dinner/art auction/raffle things that they have every year. They always do themes for it and the artwork auctioned goes along with the theme. One year it was "Tray Jolie" and we decorated trays. This year the theme is:

 “Birdland” : Birdland was a jazz club founded in New York City in 1949 by Charles Parker, a noted saxaphone player. The club still exists today but not in the original place.

So of course we are applying our artwork to birdhouses. Mine is the one that I am holding above. Ignore the face I am making - that is the face you make when a 7 year old is trying to take your picture and is taking a long time.

I have never drawn on wood so my daughter and I practiced today on little $1 birdhouses I piked up at the craft store. The wood is rougher than the wood on the nicely crafted house I will be using but it allowed me to try out which pencils worked and how much detail and layering I could get.

I found that the waxed based pencils worked best. I preferred Derwent Coloursofts over Prismacolor because they are very soft and covered the wood much more quickly. The Prismas worked fine but would take longer to over the wood.

As far as details and layering goes - they both performed the same: not that well. The colors go on bright and pretty but you will only get a maximum of 3 layers on there. So I think my design will have to be pretty stylized which is okay.

I am thinking about doing apples in a tree for the birdhouse so that's what I did for practice: