Oh gosh, so behind on the posts!!

Thanks to this ultra-crummy economy and some personal experiences that have made me question where my life is going, I'm in the midst of a career change so things have been hectic to say the least! I haven't been able to meet my goal of a painting per day, but I'm doing about two a week right now. That's pretty decent, considering how frazzled and sleepless I've been. Painting has been a great way to focus my mind and ground myself during this wild time, though.

I will soon be doing an internship in zookeeping. My goal is to work at a zoo that is directly involved in conservation, education, habitat preservation, and SSP projects. I have several interviews for some great internships lined up and have already completed one interview. The rest of my time is spent frantically finishing up wedding photography commitments and a few other things I need to get off my plate before the new year rolls around and I'm off to some internship somewhere. And of course working in my sister's yarn shop to earn some money to live off of while I'm an intern! :)

In the meantime, I did finish one painting. It's a 6 x 9 of two wolf spiders and a ladybug. The wolf spiders were a real challenge...that fuzzy texture, their body markings, and their strange yellow-gray color. I didn't quite nail them, but that's what practice is for!

Ram!

The spider painting crashed and burned, thanks in part to my cat Tron. He is an evil little man.

I did, however, manage to keep him from destroying this little 4x6 of a ram. I was trying to use primaries to make neutrals, a' la Peggy Macnamara, but it didn't quite work out that way! I'm still happy with the results, though.

I'm going to attempt to do a painting per day. In the meantime, I'm experiencing a career change since it's become apparent that wedding photography in the super-saturated Seattle market is a really precarious place to be during crappy economic times. So I've been applying for internships in zookeeping throughout the country. I love caring for animals, and in my volunteer work at the local zoo I've learned that there is a big shift in the culture of zoos going on...focus is less on entertainment and much more on education, outreach, and conservation, with all the good zoos in the world putting a significant chunk of their funding toward breeding and repatriating endangered species, as well as aggressive and creative programs to preserve and expand habitat. That's what I want to do with my life! Help care for the endangered species and habitats of the world, help educate others about these issues, and feed animals and clean up their poo at the same time.

So as I search for internships, I find myself thinking about the exciting possibilities of getting to paint new landscapes and new creatures! Wahoo! This is good news all around. The only bad thing about it is that I'll miss my husband and the rest of my family...including my paining-destroying cat.

Anyway...I hope you like the ram! A painting a day from now on...hopefully.

A spider watercolor in progress

I've continued to draw and sketch since the last time I posted. I've gone through some rough times and it's been hard to stay focused. Today, though, I got inspired to just get out and make some art, so I took my drawing supplies and a few tubes of watercolor (alizarine, ultramarine, cad yellow med, and viridian) to the zoo. It was cold, so I stayed in the heated buildings, sketching critters.

A beautiful golden orb weaver spider in her web caught my eye and I sketched her in watercolor. It was quite a challenge to use only four colors, but I think it turned out fairly well for what it is. This is only my fourth attempt at watercolors, and I think every time I use them I gain more understanding of the medium. I'm really beginning to love watercolors. My mom told me that my dad was the youngest person (at the time) to be admitted into the American Watercolor Society, so maybe watercolors are in my genes. :)

I really wish my dad was still around to see me progress as an artist. I know he'd be so proud. I don't believe in any kind of afterlife, but I admit it is fun to imagine what he would say if he could see how hard I'm trying to become a good artist. It's nice to think back on how encouraging he was in all my interests and to feel the warmth of his pride in my accomplishments.

As I begin to work on the real painting of this spider, I'll keep Dad in mind.

Boy, it's been a while!

Has it really been July since I last posted here? Yikes! Sorry. I did indeed go sketching that weekend, and the results were fair. I will dig out my sketch book tonight and post it. Since then, I haven't had much time for art. :( I work as a wedding photographer, and the summer was busier than I'd predicted (which is a good thing.)
Now, though, it's fall at last and I am able to get back into the self-education in art. I'm looking forward to it! I've got some Bristol board and some student-quality pastels (couldn't afford the good ones...yet) and I intend to experiment with them tonight.
More later!

Sketching day?

I've been reading Kevin Macpherson's really awesome books, Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color and Landscape Painting Inside & Out. These books are more helpful than anything else save actually trying to paint. I just love the author's style. He subtly repeats key notes in such a way that you only realize there is repetition when you really stop to think about it. Wonderful teaching!

I have some of Macpherson's mantras stuck in my head right now: "Paint shapes, not things;" "Paint colors, not things." I'm so eager to try the out and see whether there is any learning or improvement that happens.

But alas, I need to get the slideshow up from my last wedding. So my "treat" for today will be to go to the zoo with some pencils and gouache, and sketch the animals...IF I can get the slideshow finished and posted online by noon.

Wish me luck! I have a lot of photos to go through before I can even start!

Watercolor attempt #3

On Sunday I tried out the July challenge in the Watercolor forum at WetCanvas.com. I've learned a lot by combing through the posts there. This is a scene of a Canadian lake. This was my first shot at any kind of scenery, including mountains, trees, water, and sky. All previous attempts at painting have been simple studies of an animal's body or head.

I think the mountains turned out well but I'm not thrilled with the other aspects. Plus the light is coming from all kinds of crazy directions, something I didn't notice until I'd finished the painting! Oops. :) Live and learn - I'll do better next time!

Watercolor attempt #2

This might be a step backward from my heron! I tried to do this turkey vulture without looking at any reference, just from memory. I volunteer at the zoo's raptor center and really love the turkey vulture who lives there. I spend as much time as I can looking at him, but I sure got this watercolor all wrong! Not nearly enough of the fine black feathers on the head/around the eyes. But I'm happy that I got some color variation in the black feathers. I'll definitely try a turkey vulture again in the future. This time, I'll make some sketches from life first!

So I'm learning how to paint.

My dad and my grandpa were both really talented, professional artists. I'm 28 now and have never before felt the desire to develop some painting skills. However, just a few weeks ago the urge to learn how to paint and draw hit me quite strongly. Maybe it's a family calling. I don't know. Whatever it is, I'm heeding the call and throwing myself into learning.

I saved up a very large chunk of money to fund a writing workshop, but when I wasn't one of the few applicants selected to attend I decided to spend a bit of that money on art supplies and to work on developing that skill instead. With the help of one of Elizabeth Tolley's books on painting, I purchased warm and cool versions of each of the primaries plus warm and cool greens and a white in oil (water-miscible), acrylic, transparent watercolor, and gouache. Plus plenty of canvasses and canvas boards, a few tablets of watercolor paper, and a couple of nice sketch books. And, of course, pencils for sketching and drawing. I also got an inexpensive French easel so I can try some plein air painting when I get brave enough to make the attempt.

I tried this watercolor of a great blue heron first. I've painted only cartoony, "fun," silly pet portraits for family members before. I've only tried to use value and tone twice prior to this watercolor, and this was my first-ever use of watercolor. I think it turned out fairly well, but I have a long way to go until I'm where I want to be. With plenty of practice, I'll get there...eventually.