Fur In The Paint

Since I mentioned in yesterdays post about this lens I thought today I’d talk about it a little. And to be honest I’m kinda phoning it in.

I am packing to leave for this weekend’s event and the gallery work hasn’t let up lately so I’ve not got a lot of time to devote to making this an outstanding post. You’ll just have to settle for an informative post that points you to an outstanding lens on the subject. So here’s my latest Squidoo lens. It’s about preparing art fair slides and digital images for the art fair jury..

Quality images of your work are the single most important determining factor that gets you in the event. In this day and age you really need to be as professional as you can in order to compete for the limited number of booth spaces available for any particular event. I read somewhere that Cherry Creek had over 2000 applications for 200 booths. (Yeah I know right? How do you think you’d stack up in that kind of competition? Well here’s a few of the basic pointers on how your slides. Refer to the lens for more in depth information as well as a bit about Zapplication and how to maximize your images with it. As with the post the word slide and image are used synonymously.

What constitutes a good quality image.
1. Clarity. No fuzziness or blurry areas. Also no shadows or glare.
2. Color is true to the original. Too light or dark is not acceptable.
3. Image Only. No framing, matting, glazing, or fingers, grass, carpeting. You get the idea.The nice thing about digital files is this is easy to crop out.
4. No Distractions As mentioned #3 the focus should always the artwork. In a like manner the background color should be neutral and muted. Bright White or Very Dark backgrounds should be used cautiously.
5. Image is square. This means the image is not crooked or fading off into the distance on one end.
6.Your best work only. You will be judged on your weakest work guaranteed. Most applications take 3-4 images. If you have 3 outstanding pieces and one so-so piece. It is the so-so piece that will determine your entrance into the event.

The lens also discusses the importance of a good quality booth slide. There was a time when the booth slide was simply meant to be used to show the scale of the work. More and more though the booth image has become a factor in the actual jurying process.

What Makes A Good Booth Slide/Image
* Your slide should contain no banners or obvious things that indicate who the artist is.
* No people in the booth including yourself or customers.
* Just like in your actual booth at the event, no items on the ground (ever.)
* It should not be overcrowded with work.
* A good idea to create a new booth image every year.

So if you are entering art or craft fairs and want to learn a little more on what a jury is looking for be sure to visit my preparing art fair slides and digital images for the art fair jury lens. Also for those of you on facebook can now vote on liking a lens.

I received this silk scarf in the mail yesterday as a gift from fellow artist Helen Reese. Isn’t it lovely. It has all my favorite colors in it. Red, purple and blue. Makes me want to get naked and roll around in it. (What? Too much information?)

Helen is a silk artist who has some seriously stunning work so be sure to check out her website reesearts.com Her angels and paintings on silk are lovely. (Yeah, I know I just said “lovely” again but by the time I got to the end of writing this post I’d run out of appropriately awesome descriptives for her work.)

Anywho this was a very unexpected present and it all began many weeks back when she contacted me after running through my art fair squidoo pages to thank me for providing so much information for free. We exchanged a few emails and eventually I offered to take a look at her slides and give my opinion, for her to take or leave as she so chose. Fortunately I was working on a new Squidoo lens about Preparing Art Fair Jury Images and so I had a few Zapplication facts ready at hand. I shared what I knew about what juries look for as well as giving her my gut reaction when looking at her slides.

“Remember, I’m pulling for ya. We’re all in this together!”

- Red Green

After doing this I wished her well and asked to be kept in the loop as to her progress, but otherwise assumed I wouldn’t hear from her for awhile Truth is this is something I do quite a bit of lately. Mentoring artists and offering a pep talk or a butt kicking as needed. Despite having little free time I do this because I remember how daunting it was starting out and my personal belief can be best summed up by Red Green. (see quote)

So it was a great surprise when a few weeks later she contacted me to buy a painting. (Total unexpected awesomeness!) And to top it off, with the check for the painting comes this gorgeous silk scarf as a lagniappe. (I totally had to google that word as I had no idea what it meant.) I am at a loss. Her generosity has blown me away.

So Thank you Helen. You’ve taught me a thing or two about random kindnesses.

Now I just need a swanky event in which to wear it. Or I’ll do the naked thing. Either way it’s all good.

My Trip
I’m back from my visit with mom. We had a lot of fun and now I’m plumb wore out from all the running about we did. We went to a small local zoo where I photographed some critters. I’m hopeful I’ll get a new totem critter (coyote) and a small duck painting out of my zoo time. We”ll see when I get the pics back.

We also went to visit an artist friend of moms who I hadn’t seen since I was in high school, Dale Bendel. I am absolutely annoyed to not find much of anything online about him to show you because this guy is just all kinds of brilliant. Hey paints women with the same sensitivity that I paint critters. But he also incorporates mythology and metal leaf into his paintings and wood carvings.

I know thousands of artists and rarely am I as impressed with the genius this guy puts into his work. Not to mention he carved a huge carousal horse which sits in his living room. Yup it took all of my personal restraint not to climb up and ask om to take a picture. It was stunning. Oh and he’s a sous chef in his spare time. (yeah I know right?)

The good news was the ghosties remained silent for my visit so maybe the next time I go back I won’t be dreading it quite so much. Okay enough of my trip.

And when I got back I had a box of the latest issue of Apples ‘n Oats waiting for me. So as my usual I’ll include an excerpt for your reading pleasure. To see the whole article rush on out and get yourself a copy. OR just check out the Apples ‘n Oats website. Yup my article is there too. Just peruse the sidebar.

Those Clever Girls
One of my favorite memories of these horses was several years ago when I awoke in the morning to the tell tale signs (manure piles and dinner plate sized hoof prints) of horses having run amok in the yard. After checking to make sure my horse was safely grazing in the pasture, I immediately called my neighbors to tell them the girls were out.

We received a call back a few minute later to say that all their horses were in the yard paddock. “Huh” was all I could say to that.

The following evening in the wee hours, I was awakened by strange noises. As I looked out my living room window, I saw giant black shapes moving about in the darkness. The noises were the horses stepping on the cellar door and it groaning under the weight. They seemed to be intrigued by it as a few moments after stepping back off it, they would step back on. Frankly it a miracle it held them.

So with the dawn came a repeat of the previous morning, where I call and again the horses are all peaceably waiting by the barn.

After the second call my neighbors did a more thorough search. As it turns out after a closer inspection, the fence was found to be weak in one area. The mares apparently pushed on it and just stepped over. How the whole herd managed this is unclear. Whether one held it down for all to leave and all to return or whether each horse did the same maneuver to attain freedom is still known only to them.

Whatever the case, the end result was they frolicked and cavorted in our yard all night long (probably taunting my horse and sheep with their freedom.) Then just before dawn they’d return, sneaking back in the same way they got out. Only to be found standing around waiting for their breakfast grain ration looking bored and hungry. And if it weren’t for my ratting them out, they’d probably have continued doing it for quite some time.

Those clever, clever girls.

UPDATED: Okay so maybe it’s help if I spelled the guys name correctly. Dale Bandel. His artwork is awesome and I really got to say the photos on his webpage do not (at all) do them justice.

Here’s what I’ve done so far on my rhino. I’m kinda in a groove with it so I’m a little disappointed to have to leave it for a couple of days. I’m heading back to MN to visit my mom briefly. I won’t be gone long because a couple days after I return, we begin the last “big hurrah” of the art fair season. My September is completely booked so I have loads of prep work to get done for it.

Hopefully I won’t come home with any new ghost stories. I already have a story for this Halloween in mind and I don’t really feel the need for any new ones.

I was speaking with mom about my trip home and I was debating whether my air mattress still held air. Because there is no force on this planet that would make me sleep upstairs in any of the bedrooms, despite three very comfy beds. (Coincidentally this Halloween you’ll find out why.)

Mom: “You can always sleep on the couch it’s very comfortable and long.”

Me “Yeah” not sounding too thrilled though.

Mom: “You know Jo (my aunt) was sleeping on the couch a few weeks ago and …”.

Me: “Don’t you dare tell me a ghost story!”

Mom: “Um …”

Me: “I mean it! I don’t want to hear it!”

Mom: “Uh … well … oh … okay.” (a long silence)

See mom thinks waking up to something touching her or standing over her is quaint and charming. For me … not so much.

Hopefully I’ll return to my Iowa home normal (well as normal as my usual) and not be mumbling about trying to find my “happy place.”

UPDATED:
Yeah. Okay. So reading back through this I can totally see how the whole crop circle debacle thing happened.

Despite the painting and prints having been done for over a month I am finally getting them available on my website. So check it out for more print information of Creature Comforts.

Tomorrow the latest Rhino WIP

Angela asked me to explain about how I use Inktense as my base color on suede. And I thought “Heck why not get a post out of it.” Plus it’s so much easier to explain with pictures. I decided to just show the entire process while I was at it.

The Inktense Pencils are scribbled in (literally) dry. For the areas that I want to be lightest I keep the color to a minimum. Here I used Deep Indigo and Moss Green.

I imagine a brush would work just as well for this but I like the q-tip because I can scrush around the color if I want to. I am pretty sure this would ruin a paint brush.

Note: Once again whenever adding water to suede be aware of it’s wicking tendency so apply water sparingly to the edges.

While the suede is still wet I “impregnate” the suede by rubbing a dry pencil (or Neocolor ll) over the surface. Since Neocolor ll has a tendency to allow only so much pigment to be applied I started doing this with the wc pencil first. Though it turns out when used this way the Neocolor ll works just as well and doesn’t limit the amount of layers I can apply over the top. Here I used a orangey pink color.

Note: Be aware that the you’ll use a lot of pigment (pencil or crayon) this way.

After letting the suede dry completely I begin the dry work which in this photo is just the tips of the horns. You can see the subtle lightening of the image when the suede dries along the area at the base of the horn. I am using both wc pencils and Neocolor LL for this stage.

Note: The impregnation layers looks more intense when everything is still wet. It will lighten and soften when it dries.

And then finish the area and move on. I uses wc pencil as the last medium to cut through the Neocolor ll to create skin texture.

So you may remember back in July when I did that demonstration at the Side Street Gallery in Okiboji. And I was like “Well it went well enough. I sold a few things but it wasn’t a smashing success.”

Um … I can now consider it a smashing success. It just goes to show that you never know what will come of some effort.

Farewll My Friends
A couple of weeks after the event I received a check from Mari at the gallery for my Yellow Bear painting. I’m thinking “nice.”

A couple of weeks after that I get a call from Mari saying that the client who had met me at the event (in fact had actually come to meet me specifically) wanted my Bulls Eye and Cowgirl paintings.

Now I had told the patron at the event Cowgirl was mine and not for sale. (Truth is I actually have a couple of folks on a wait list, wanting the painting as soon as I’d part with it) When Mari called she was asking on behalf of her client if I’d reconsider.

The problem with my business being about selling my art is in fact, that it is created with the intent that it will be sold. I like to hang on to pieces that I consider to be bench marks for me. But in the end, apparently I can be bought.

I quoted a price 5 times what I’d normally charge for this tiny painting, I’m am quite sure no one on my wait list would pay that amount for it, but apparently this woman didn’t think twice.

So I’m feeling all “Yay” and “ah crap” all at the same time. Ah well I’ll get over it. I’ll buy myself another set of art supplies that I’ve been wanting and pay bills. After all the beast that is my business needs to get fed regularly and I should feel blessed that my original work is selling so well. The ones that is, that I don’t hide away in my gallery and claim they’re not for sale.

A Side Note: The sale of these make a total of 5 original paintings in 5 weeks being sold. I seriously need to get creating some new art. Not like I haven’t been working it, but the unfortunate truth is draft horse paintings rarely sell. The prints do, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing them so much. But for the most part the paintings do not. So I guess what I’m saying is the last piece really doesn’t count toward seriously marketable art.

UPDATED:
You know I don’t know why draft horse originals don’t sell as well as my other work. If it weren’t for all the other things the work does for me I probably would paint less of them. But then again who knows. I didn’t really figure out draft originals don’t sell as well until recently when glancing around my gallery, it’s kind heavy on the heavy horses. But here’s 2 reason that keep me doing it despite this .

1. I love the big horses.
2. If you type in Draft Horse Art or Draft Horse Artist in google and not only is my website the very first out of 1,200,000 (for art) but also google images has two of my paintings shown out of 4.

I’m Flying Without A Net Here Folks
So I began this with the knowledge that I really wanted to do a rhino painting, but other than that I had absolutely no idea what exactly I was going to do.

The trouble with being a portrait artist who doesn’t actually do much in the way of portraits (meaning I do essentially wild animal portraits that have no actual owner funding me) is, that I still have this artist side of me wanting to be creative. I don’t just want some rhino head. I want something with character and presence. In the end it will look to everyone else like just another rhino painting but I want to feel like I made it my own. I had a moment where I almost turned him into one of my Crayola Critters but fought it off (for now. Wouldn’t he look just awesome in pink, blue and green.) Nope not today though. Today I’m shooting for a more realistic look.

I like to think I set a challenge for myself every painting. And for this one I’ve set two. First I’ll be using my new Neocolor Water Soluble Wax Pastels for the majority of this piece. (We’ll see how that goes) And the other will be that huge expanse of background. Yikes!

I’m thinking a dark (not settled on the color yet. Mauve maybe?) horizon line and the foreground soft like the dust is billowing. Yup a totally new thing for me to try. And you know me, either play big or go home so this paintings size is about 20 x 32. So that way you can watch me succeed marvelously or crash in burn in grand style.

My biggest struggle beginning this piece was finding the color scheme. First he was too blue (big surprise there.) Then he was too green. Eventually I settle for all the colors of the rainbow. I realize it’s hard to see in these pics but he has all the primaries without turning Crayola. And that makes me a happy girl.

You Know Because Rhinos Are So Soft & Fluffy
When I took the second WIP photo Mike said that what I’ve filled in so far makes him look like a dinosaur. I’m like “yeah, but then rhinos look kinda prehistoric anyhow.” Really if i put a few spikes on his frill (which is actually his forehead) he could pass for a Triceratops.

And yes this piece is again on suede and no it’s not because he’s so soft and fluffy. My original intent was to use Inktense penciuls as my base colors and the Neocolos over the top. Which is what I’m doing. Since this has been a practiced technique for me I went with suede. ALso creating a soft dusty atmosphere seemed like it would be easier with the suede than on paper. Time will I guess.

So this is where I’m at on Sunday Morning I’m hoping to get a whole bunch more done today. I had a great time playing my horse this morning and now I’m ready to get after it. Mike is in the hay field and all the doors. There’s nothing holding me back . . . well, except the Budda needing love.

If You Want A Bigger Better Look please visit my The African Wildlife Art Squidoo Lens

So here they are in all their glorious splendiferous color. FedEx brought me this little bundle of artsy joy the other day. They are those Neocolor II water soluble wax pastels that I have been planning on buying forever and just not gotten around to it. 84 sumptuous colors. Now they do have a set of 126 colors but it was $100 more which I would have done except 10 of them were metallics (which I never use) so it would have been an extra $100 for essentially 30 more colors. So I passed. If however I fall in love with them (which I think I will) I will buy the larger set anyhow.

As you know my Summer has been hectic as usual so I’ve not spent any time writing new Squidoo lenses or tending the ones I have already created. But I just had a few days all to myself and there is no art event happening for the next 3 weeks so I’m going to pop out a couple. The first being this one about (dah, dah da dah!) Neocolor Water Soluble Wax Pastels Lens

Squidoo How I Love Thee, Let Me Count The Ways (or rather dollars)
My squidoo earnings started out pretty slowly (as in non-existent) But they are currently depositing a nice little chunk o’ cash in my account each month. (despite my lack of attention the payment last month was $95) Now while the work I’ve put into them has been worth far more than the monies earned from them. Once a lens is created it needs some but in general very little tending. After I create over 50 lenses I will also receive a rank bump which should help increase earnings.

I have heard you can earn more money with hub pages, but at least for the moment squidoo is where I’ll stay. I really like the community here.

Oh and yes I did buy my new Neocolor ll off of one of my lenses. I looked at Cheap Joes and a couple of other places but when shipping got included (at the time of my purchase) an amazon affiliate was the best price.

Okay so while I didn’t exactly make my Apples ‘n Oats deadline with this painting (the article was though) it did get finished shortly after. But it went to press without a title. In fact it still has no title. I am leaning heavily towards The Gathering What do ya’ll think?

Here’s the problem with this title. I have an artist friend who has a horse painting named the same thing (or at least I think she does, I couldn’t find it on her website) and another artist friend who has an entire art installation (which has nothing to do with horses at all) named the same thing. (sigh)

So …since you guys were so helpful last time I thought I’d try again. If anybody has any thoughts on what would be a good title for this painting, leave a comment. If I pick your suggestion (or even a derivative of your suggestion) I’ll send you a free print when they get done.