Updates

Hey everyone!!! So sorry I havent been on here much to update you! I have been super busy with school work and end of term stuff...Almost summer break WOO HOO!

So UPDATES!!!!

1. I finished my Einstein sculpture! Love it! It's super freaky!

To paint it I used Acrylic Paint for the base....and Linseed Oil as well as Oil Paint to antique it!

2. I finished TWO Paintings for the local cafe here called Blue Dog!

(I am not really sure why its coming up upside down but I will fix it later!) both are Acrylic Paint the orange one is pallet knife, while the all blue one is just brush. These were super fun to do...AND BOTH SOLD!! :)

Those are updates on some pieces! I will post more as soon as I get the chance! I will also include pictures from my art show! Enjoy! And sorry about the lack of blogging!  

Digital Media

Hey All,

Over the span of about 8 months I have been taking a digital media class. Through out the class we have learnt many techniques and on line tips & tricks to make or digital work successful! I have a couple assignments I can show you that we have made in Adobe Illustrator as well as Photoshop. One of our first assignments was a word biography done strictly in tints & shades of white & black. We had to create a poster of mainly words to suit our personalities. I thought this was a good exercise & got the class to familiarise themselves with the program.

Another assignment we did was for the school we had to come up with a S.H.S.M (Student high skill major) logo for the fitness department. We were supposed to keep it simple as it was going to go on many things such as posters, handouts & apparel.  I decided to do an abstract mustang, as that is our schools mascot & tried various colours before deciding on the blue monochromatic colour scheme. I kept the lettering bold so that it would stand out on the mustang & made sure it would be a simple enough image to create in any size as well as black & white.

 In our class we did a large assignment on logos, and recreations. The object of this assignment was to recreate a logo of your choice to your name. I chose Jelly Belly, Honda, & Harley Davidson. I decided on these because they were closer to my name. The easiest one was the Honda logo, I got it finished in 5 minutes. I had a bunch of issues with the Jelly Belly one as well as the Harley Davidson one finding similar fonts & making the odd shapes.

I will post more of my media work as it progresses!

Albert Einstein Sculpture

Hi again!

So I am pretty excited to show everyone this piece! I sculpted a head!!! Very cool! Our assignment was to find a figure you had an interest in! I decided to sculpt Albert Einstein! What we had to do was start with an armature ...(I made this out of newspaper, tape, and covered it with a plastic bag) and then build from that. 

I had some difficulty getting started, especially with creating a realistic looking nose....so I took it to my sketch book and sketched out skulls & facial features to get proper proportion and to understand the structure of a skull. After that I went back to my clay and began sculpting my nose, as well as adding eye sockets & creating cheek bones.

Once I built up the face to my liking, I began with the detail, such as the eyebrows and the moustache (adding the lip first then building off of it). I scored & slipped the parts where they were going (as seen in the 1st image below) & then placed the pieces on. (to add texture to the eyebrows & moustache I carved away pieces of the clay with a pencil like tool...you could use a tooth pick if you did not have proper clay tools on hand) 

                       

when I created the eyes I found that was difficult as well, as the eyeball itself is actually larger then we see it (no pun intended) I had to push in on the clay and create an eye socket (I started this from the beginning to help with the facial structure.) Next I created 1 ball and cut it in half to make both eyeballs (that way they are proportionate to one another) I then scored & slipped once again both the eye ball and socket and placed it in there, pushing down the front part of the eye first to create a smooth look, then pressing the sides down to properly attach the eyeball. Once I was satisfied with how it looked I created an upper lid and made the lower lid more recognisable. To create the detail in the eye I used a knife to draw a circle in the eye and a pencil to create the pupil.  

After I was finished with the eyeballs I started on the ear, that was very difficult to sculpt proportionality, I was creating it to big every time....Once I got that sorted I moved on to the hair...again scoring and slipping all the clay onto his head. Once moulded the way I wanted it, I went through and added detail in the hair, as well as refined the details in his wrinkles on his face, as well as built a little bit of his neck out. (as seen in the completed image below)

Over all I enjoyed completing this project! (though it did however freak me out sometimes) Now I am waiting for it to be fired (turning the clay white) so I can paint it to look lifelike! I will create another post with the final outcome! 

Art Tips! -Feature Post!!!

Hey bloggers!
I thought I should start up a little art tip section to my blog to help you out!

These are tips that I have felt are useful & have helped me in situations! The tips will be ranged from anything small such as how to make your canvas look complete without framing it, to how to get the perfect look to your finished piece!

Here are some that I have come up with for this week!

1. Before adding the finishing touches to your artwork, take a picture with your digital camera using the black and white setting, or change it to black and white on your computer. You'll be able to quickly judge if your values are correct. Also, if you are sending a picture for a non-colour publication, put these digitals on your computer screen to decide which ones will look the clearest in black and white!

2. Present your small canvas paintings in style without buying frames. Paint the edges and display them on small replica easels of the larger style ones.

3. For left handed artists..(Like me)..you should turn your spiral bound sketch upside down and work from the back of the book. The spirals will be on the right side and not interfere with your hand! (This helps!!!)

4.  To photograph your artwork it is useful to take a white sheet, and pin it to a wall in/outside. Hang the painting or put it on a shelf on a wall. Mount your camera on a tripod. Then put the sheet over yourself, the painting and the camera, using the sheet as a giant light box! Works wonderfully for photographing pictures!

5. Keep some non-bleeding tissue paper on hand when painting (or Kleenex). If you have an area of paint where you wish to change or tone down the colour, tear off a piece of tissue paper in the colour you wish to add, and just apply over your dry paint with a bit of water. The tissue will stick but can still be torn off.


Keep checking in for more weekly tips & tricks!! ☺

Blue Dogs Everywhere!

Exciting news!

I have been asked to paint a piece for a local café in Brantford called The Blue Dog.

(http://bluedogcoffeeroasters.com/ ) This small café features paintings & other artwork local artists would like to sell. These paintings are put up for auction & sold at the end of their featured date. This space has many opportunities for growing & upcoming artists as it features open mic night & other events dealing with local art.

Not only do I enjoy the art based atmosphere of this café, but I also like knowing that it is fair trade products! I love to know that we are helping others in the community as well as throughout the world instead of having people essentially "slave" for the money they make, just so it can be sold at ridiculously high prices.

Some facts about Fair Trade!!

1. Fair trade increases annual incomes of small farmers.

2. Fair trade assists small farmers to stay out of high interest debt.

3. Fair trade helps put in place tools for self-sufficiency.

4. An estimated 5 000 000 people worldwide benefit from fair trade.

5. Africa is the fastest growing fair trade region.

if you would like to learn more about Fair Trade (Canada) feel free to take a look at the link! http://fairtrade.ca/

Anyway.....as for my Blue Dog painting!!!! (I am so very excited!!!)

The only criteria for my painting is it has to have a "blue dog" in it, for the celebration of yet another successful year! I have been thinking of many different ideas and in my search I found an artist who is also on blogger, and her dog painting caught my eye! I enjoy the colours, as well as the way that the paint is applied very freely. I think that this will be a similar route I take with my painting. If you would like to check out the full blog I have added the link ► http://karenmathisonschmidt.blogspot.ca/2012/03/dog-painting-work-in-progress.html ☺

I will post pictures as I begin to work on my design & give you updates on everything else going on!!

:) fun pieces!

I found some smaller pieces I think you all would enjoy! I have a "self portrait" of me, wire like, I have done with pen & ink as well as pencil crayon...I also have a cute non representational piece also done in this medium! Sometimes I love doing small pieces like this just to get inspired! Hope you enjoy them! :D

Spring time bugs!

Well it's spring time (woo hoo)! and though there is snow on the ground still I was inspired to do a bright piece for this eventful time! This time, I have used chalk pastel as my medium. (can you say messy!!!) I have used this medium before and do enjoy the look of it! I decided to do a bug on a flower....(I know I used more summer time colours, but I wanted something bright!) As you can see my paper is quite large....(I am not 100% sure the sizing) it took a while in previous attempts of chalk pastel to learn how to manipulate the chalk into the paper. As you can see in my sketchbook in the  1st picture, some pulmonary trials for colour blending. When creating a chalk pastel piece, you have to buy special paper with "teeth" on them to hold the chalk in, so practising in your sketchbook is quite different from the good copy.

 When doing chalk pastel, as well as anything in art....always start with the background! I noticed some problems with this concept though...as you can see my bug is a lot darker than my background! I was constantly having to go back and fix the background as I would get some unnecessary dark bits in it.

When doing chalk pastel there is different softness' of pastel...in my piece I used soft pastel, which is used for the whole image...and for the fine detail I used conté as well as some harder pastels.

As you can see in my image below I have pretty much finished the piece I just need to touch up the background and add some more detail to it. I also need to cut & mat my piece before I consider it done!

I hope you enjoy this piece and it inspires you to do some "spring time art" for yourselves! :)