Just a small update for today because I'm currently fighting it out with an oil piece that's giving me a lot of trouble. I'll post pics as soon as it stops looking like a pile of crap, promise. So, two things:

1) If you haven't heard of Proko and you want to learn to draw, this is the place to start. His drawing videos are fantastic, and he is starting a series of videos specific to figure drawing, which I am very excited about. Now, I'm a big fan of art books and I have quite a few, and maybe you do, too, but seriously--check out these videos. They are very engaging and the concepts/processes are not only described but demonstrated marvelously. At any rate, I am going to go ahead and shamelessly link to the premium membership in the hopes of winning one. If I don't get it, it'll be at the top of my birthday list! :)

2) I have two pieces (L'Escargot aux yeux écarquillés and A Drawing in Likeness of the Queen, With Ceremonial Sword) in Gallery Provocateur's Modern Muse exhibition and the opening reception is this Saturday! The gallery is in a new space since last year with high, airy ceilings; as an aerialist, this is a vast improvement in my opinion, but I suppose the labyrinthine quality of the last one, albeit small, had its charm. When I dropped off my pieces, I had the pleasure of getting a glimpse of other artists' work there (some from the previous show and some that will be in Modern Muse)...beautiful, enchanting eccentricities that are not to be missed!

Well, here we are: almost June. That leaves me a mere two and a half months to get in as much art as possible before it's back to teaching French again. I've kept myself pretty busy these past two weeks, between recovering from a cold, teaching trapeze and making art. I have refused to wallow in a post art conference depression! Here's what's cooking:

"Aozora" in progress

I did the following sketch at Spectrum, soothing my deflated self-esteem by drawing spirals, like I am prone to do. I decided to pursue the concept with a finished piece. The color pencil drawing was "color study"; I don't know how effective this will end up being since oils handle pretty differently than color pencils, but I did really enjoyed doing it!

"Aozora" sketch

"Aozora" final color pencil drawing

There are a fair number of things I think don't work so well, some composition problems, that I resolve to avoid in the oil painting. I used vine charcoal to lay out the drawing on the canvas (a really old one that I re-gessoed to cover a truly hideous early painting of mine), which turns out is loads easier than using a graphite pencil because it erases much easier from the surface. It does get messy...

...but it cleans up really well once you trace over with ink and wipe off the charcoal with a wet cloth (let the ink dry first)!

I was debating whether or not to use this canvas since it's so old, and I've been wanting to try illustration board. When I visited the art store, though, and had a look at this thing called illustration board, I realized it really is just super thick paper, which means that I would need a large drawing table (the kind that you can tilt up) for me to be able to fix it down and work properly. This I don't have, plus there's some debate as to how much you can truly seal the paper from the paint, even if you coat it with gesso first (which you have to do). Lastly, I realized that this old canvas was exactly twice the size of the paper I used for the color pencil drawing, which made redrawing on the canvas easier. Someday when I have a bigger studio, I'd like to get a projector to help me transfer drawings to paintings and a nice big drawing table!

Anyway, the next step for "Aozora" is some digital color comps using a photo of the canvas drawing.

Moving on, the following piece was a long-overdue portrait I had promised One & Only to do of our dog.

"Portrait of a Gentleman" in progress

"Portrait of a Gentleman": first layer of paint being laid down

Final phase zoomed out, so you can see my delightful Omar Rayyan print

"Portrait of a Gentleman" : a bit closer

This piece made me realize how useful it would be to collect period clothing...fabric is tricky to invent.

Lastly, behold my lovely Travis Lewis print:

OK, signing off...be good while I'm gone, people.

This past weekend was spent at Spectrum Fantastic Art Live helping Aaron Miller with his booth. What a great learning experience and so much amazing art! It was kind of painful being there, though, for two reasons: 1) I couldn't afford to buy all the art I wanted, and 2) I quickly realized how much harder I will have to work for my art to be at the level I want it to be. 

I only got two portfolio critiques--one from Ryan Lee and another from Peter Morbacher--but combine them with being exposed to so much spectacular art at once was enough to make me quickly realize the truth about where I'm at right now versus where I want to be.

Some bright points: 

• Donato Giancola gave an oil painting demonstration, which was very enlightening, and now I want to try a bunch of new things on my next oil! 
• I sold my "Eye of Octopus" and "Eye of Chameleon".
• Aaron gave me an Omar Rayyan print as a thank-you!
• Travis Lewis gave me one of his lead holders because I was so curious as to what it was (and I bought one of his prints).

Also, look at all these amazing business cards and flyers I picked up! Each one is like a tiny work of art!

So, here is the final FINAL of "Madame Hélice de la Mare". Thanks to all those who gave me their input!

I think I'm going to take a break from digital for a little bit--I'm so tired of working at a computer! I have a couple oils I'd like to get started, although I also need to get back to "ORIGIN" (my comic), which does require digital work. At any rate, I have all summer ahead of me!

Happy spring! 'Tis the season for pollywogs (tadpoles)! Here is a new piece to celebrate:

"Madame Hélice de La Mare"

I have plenty of process documentation for this one since I was doing it as part of an online course. Honestly, I can't say I got that much from the course, but someone in an earlier learning stage might. You can, however, pretty much get the same amount of information and feedback from online communities like Awesome Horse Studios and Crimson Daggers. The main reason for my doing the course was because 1) I'm a huge admirer of Justin Gerard's draftsmanship, and 2) there was a promotional discount. 

So, here's the process:

Thumbnails (There were actually more, but I didn't see the point in scanning them all.)

Rough Sketch & Values

Color Comps

Final Painting

So, that's that...now to see if someone will critique it!

Here is "Paint" again, with a few tweaks, plus a snapshot of my work space with brainstorming and thumbnails in progress:

Maybe something to do with snails..

Hey, so you remember that "teaser" I posted a little while back? Well, lo and behold--I dropped that idea and went with this! I worked on my that first version for a few hours before realizing it wasn't what I wanted. I don't regret changing my mind--just goes to show that you shouldn't be afraid to trash an idea if it doesn't feel right.

"Paint" will be the last addition to my series based on dreams for a bit. There are more pieces to be done, but I need to work on some other things first.

Model credit: KristabellaDC3

I'm pretty pleased with it (at the moment), so I'm going to post it around for some feedback before I tweak it any further.