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Time is ticking away - Christmas vacation is slipping away.  But, I'm enjoying looking at the New Year, trying to plan how I can fit everything in that I want to do - especially art.  As it stands, I will be the featured artist at the Town Center Gallery in October and I've got to get busy producing new work.  Although it's a smaller-town member gallery, I'm excited about having a goal to work for.  And, I'm really delighted to be taking steps back into the more "fine art" world - it can only enhance my illustration.  I'm inspired by new ideas that I look forward to pursuing - I'll get more into that later.

Today, I carved out an hour OUTSIDE of the house, no less, to do a little sketching.  I'm wanting to do some small still life paintings to get into the swing of things and play around with my new and improved understanding of acrylics (thanks to the mural).



Anyway, during my break I've been addicted to watching previous seasons of the PBS series Art 21 on Netflix Instant Watch.   It has reawakened my interest in fine art and all of the discussion that goes with it that I miss from college (although I can't say that I took proper advantage of the opportunities for such discussion back then).  I'm going to dust off my many sketchbooks from back then and see how my ideas have changed since then. Maybe I'll post more on those thoughts soon.

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It's been forever since I've been able to pick up a pencil and doodle something for fun.  It was my turn to work in the Town Center Gallery which gave me a rare moment with my sketchbook, a little music, surrounded by art.  So, I started with a doodle - as I always do - to get the juices flowing.  Unfortunately, the camera that I usually use to photograph my drawings is no longer working.  I was forced to scan this on my basic scanner/printer and I don't like the quality at all.  But, what can ya do...?

Slumber

And, regarding the mural, the city will be sending a couple guys to come and pick it up on Friday.  When that happens, I'll be getting a photo of the whole thing put together.

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Went forward with a 2nd coat of varnish on the backs again today.  I'll be setting up the saw horses tomorrow.  But first, I have to de-clutter the studio zone a little.  Since it is in the garage, summer vacation sort of crept into my area - books, boxes, bikes, OH MY!

Anyway, while I had the varnish out, I also painted a coat on all of the studies I did during the mural  process.  Remember those?  I shared them along the way.  My plan is to frame them and probably put them up for sale in the Town Center Gallery.  I don't see the need to keep them.  Well, I might put a couple up for sale now and see how it goes.


Now that I'm anxious to paint other projects...I have no time.  Oh well...

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Well, I'm back.  It's been a very busy week with the end of school (summer vacation - here we come), registration for my homeschool co-op next fall, a broken down car to repair, my turn to sit at the gallery, a birthday (mine), unexpected doctor appointment...you get it.  Also, I've been suffering from tennis elbow symptoms that have been around since before I started the mural, so a little break seemed like a good idea.

My very own art critic

I did head out to the garage this evening to add some details to the strawberries - softening the shading around the seeds, adding dark shadows under the leafy tops, etc.  Also, I detailed some of the flowers a little more - mainly the centers, adding a little red/orange in.


I wasn't out for too long, though.  I'm at the point where I'm going to be moving on to the next panel - the grapes and all of those leaves.  It's going to require me to mix up a little more of some paint colors and, once I get going, it's one of those areas that I'll probably obsessively continue until I have them all done.  So, tonight was not the night to go there.  Maybe tomorrow.

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It was nice to spend a good chunk of time on the mural today after a VERY busy weekend (which included a girl's craft party at my house, Artist Reception at Town Center Gallery, Pinewood Derby at church, 2 kid soccer games, 1 whirlwind trip to LA for an MLS Galaxy pro soccer game, Sunday church service, a birthday party...you get the idea)

So, after the girls got started on their schoolwork, I was able to sneak out to the garage and get back to the "Cheers" panel.  As you can see, much was accomplished, although a lot is left to do.  However, I think I've gotten a good enough first layer of detail to move on to panel 5 for a while.  I'm looking forward to working on something besides grapes and using some different colors.

I like how the barrel turned out - it's always exciting to see the image building with every detail.

Now, if you're keeping score of changes made to the original design, you'll notice another one here.  The male figure had a slight costume change - he traded in his brown jacket for a dark navy-ish one.  I never really liked the brown one in the original design as it seemed like there was just too much brown goin' on.  I knew I wanted to have him in blue jeans, so my fashion-forward teenage daughter suggested this color.  Works for me!

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Panels are primed and ready for the design.  Luckily, I have use of a nice projector recently donated to Town Center Gallery to make this process go A LOT quicker than drawing freehand.

I cut a photo copy of the design into 5 equal parts, enlarged it to fit the panel, and sketched the basic shapes with a pencil.  I'm mainly interested in basic shapes, placement and proportion - I'll worry about details as I paint.  I was able to tansfer the design onto 3 out of 5 panels (so far) in a short amount of time. 

Saves sooooooooo much time!

I'll do the rest tomorrow.  After that, I'll be ready to start painting...but I won't start that until next week (State Cup Soccer Tournament this weekend with oldest daughter).  So, no updates for at least a week.  Check back, though, and see how it all comes together.  Posts may not be daily as the painting begins, but I'll try to keep the pictures coming.

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Lots of wonderful things have been happening lately on my travels toward an illustration/art career: my art classes have been going well, I now have some prints available for sale on Etsy and soon-to-be at Town Center Gallery, and I was selected to do an 8' x 20' mural by the Town Center Gallery.  It will eventually go somewhere in Santa Maria, but the location is still be determined.  My plan is to keep everyone updated on the progress...

Celebrate the Harvest - Santa Maria Valley (proposed mural)

Bathing Beauty is one of my prints now available

The five 4'x8' MDO panels were delivered a week ago (they look a lot bigger in my garage than I imagined).  I spent the past few days using a latex wood filler to fill gaps in the layered edges, and then today, 4 delightful helpers from Town Center Gallery came by to help me with the primer.  Thanks to Hattie Stoddard, Beverly Johnson, and Tom and Rella Heslop - it would have taken me a long time to get it done.  Also, thanks to Home Depot here in Santa Maria for donating the primer and rollers!

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