Practice, then draw the instructors, John Reynolds and Bruce Neckar. I did a couple of quick sketches and surprised myself. I never think of myself as a portrait artist. It gives me courage to tackle my brothers’ portraits.
Sketchbook Studies – The EYE is Key
For $100 you can spend 10 Monday evenings with 2 well known Indiana artists, John Reynolds and Bruce Neckar, either learning to draw or honing your skills. They give you supplies, generously provided by Prizm Art Supply in Indy (a favorite art store of mine, so I am happy to give them a plug!) The classes are hosted by Nickel Plate Arts in Noblesville, IN, where John and Bruce have their studio.
If you want to see what a working artist’s studio looks like, you should check it out sometime!
These classes (or workshops) are conducted in a laid back fashion and you get out of it what you want to put into it. The guys are very happy to coach and answer questions or help you get unstuck, if you ask.
For 2 of the 10 weeks the guys brought in stuffed specimens to give us an as-close-to-a-real-thing in drawing wild birds as an artist can get. That was a highlight for me.
I love birds and have been painting raptors for over 30 years, so it was fantastic to get this close and to be able to study them. I spent the time doing quick sketches to “feel” the birds, as opposed to trying to do a finished piece.
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Touring the Mormon Temple in Indiana
Carmel, Indiana is home to the newest Mormon Temple (#148). Many artisans were involved in all aspects of the creation and design of this sacred building, but the one I was most interested in was Jacob Dobson. Jacob hosted us on a tour of the temple this morning. What a pleasure and an honor!
Some of my long time readers will remember Jacob as the inspirational art teacher from my days at AI. He was my teacher in Life Drawing, Art History, and 2 Illustration courses (class 1 and class 2), which created a turning point in my art and my life. He holds a very special place in my heart because of that.
Jacob created the high relief panel above the baptistery depicting the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist; however, no photography is permitted inside the building, so we have no photos of that beautiful piece (except the one I snagged from the online virtual tour and one process photo on Jacob’s website.)
The beautiful stained glass was created by a company in Kokomo Indiana. A theme throughout depicted the flower of the state tree – the tulip poplar.
This is what an artist lives for, to do something that is personally meaningful and will be a blessing to others. I am simply thrilled for Jacob!
If you get a chance to tour before August 8, you will not want to miss it. (There is also an online virtual tour.)
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Grammar Lettering
I am an Instructional Designer and writer, as well as a graphic designer. I am really enjoying the Editors on my team right now and decided to let them know this by turning some of their editorial comments and gentle reminders into hand lettered posters. Here is the first one.
Compounds formed with prefixes are spelled closed [i.e without a dash – took me a bit to figure that out] unless they create double identical vowels or triple identical consonants. – Helen O’Guinn
This one spoke to me for 2 reasons: I was curious as to why they removed some dashes and not others in my documents, and then it took me some puzzling to figure out what Helen was trying to tell me here. When the aha moment happened, I knew it was worthy of it’s own wall space.
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Found Typography
Even a stroll through a nature park can surprise you with typography. Winton Woods, Cincinnati.
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Primitive Treasures
Farm Scene – graphite and crayon – Mildred Burge 1943
Our own Grandma Moses: My Dad’s oldest sister was born in the early 1920s. I spent today going through and scanning some treasures her daughter shared with me – drawings made on found paper. It caused me to wonder a lot about my aunt who died when I was in 5th grade. She was the oldest of 10 and her art and photography has been quite the revelation of a creative young woman with a love for her family and the details of life.
Night Before Christmas – graphite and crayon – Mildred Burge 1943
The Attic – graphite – Mildred Burge 1945
The Rockies – graphite and crayon – Midred Burge 1948
My aunt seemed to be inspired by her travels, Christmas, and lots of detail.
Farm Country Scene – graphite and crayon – Mildred Burge 1950
Farm Scene – graphite and crayon – Mildred Burge date unknown
Farm Scene – graphiite – Mildred Burge 1969
Countryside Scene – graphite and crayon – Mildred Burge 1969
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Mountain Valley – graphite and crayon – Mildred Burge 1950
Large Barn Scene – graphite – Mildred Burge 1950
I find myself becoming lost in the details of life in the mid 1900s. It is like an eye spy page -the more I look, the more details I find! Very interesting.
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Organic Textures
As an artist / designer, textures fascinate me – they are a visual delight – a stimulating playground for the eyes, which, in turn, stimulates creativity and spawns new design elements in my work.
Sometimes I love to simply take photos concentrating on visual textures.
Brought to you from Longwood Gardens, PA.
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Rescued
What does an artist do when she blows 2 tires on her new car and her sister and family, Sunday soup in hand, come riding to the rescue in their clunkety van? She draws a thank you!
Note: Coup Fourre is a reference to a rescue card in the game of Mille Bornes, which the kids insisted would have helped me a lot. I told them that they were my coup fourre.
Their unabashed joy in the whole situation made it not so bad. A month later, their poor van gave up the ghost itself, but it was useful for several family rescues over the years.
Note: It has only been recently that I learned to illustrate. Much thanks to a class I took during my graphic design degree. Thank you, Jacob!
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Flummoxed by Flamingos
A recent foray to the zoo convinced me that the most difficult photography subjects there are the flamingos! Beautiful in their purposeful movements, yet oddly difficult to focus on. This is my year of getting back into my photography and learning the ins and outs of my digital DSLR. Fun stuff!
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Annual Family Calendar
Every year for the past 13 I have created a family calendar. It is a 13 month calendar since I normally do not finish it until January – that would be because of all the Christmas orders and the busy holiday season. This year was a bit different in that I received a stack of ornament orders at the end of December, but I somehow managed to complete my calendar before the end of the month! Yay!
I kept it simple this year:
- I used some of the photography of one of my sister-in-laws, as well as my own. She and my brother are around the farm at different times of the day and year than I am and she captures some great pictures.
- With 23 nieces and nephews – I pulled from this past year’s images and created a sepia closeup of each.
- I added a scripture per month.
- 19×13 inch matte 2-sided photo paper.
- HP large format printer
Flexing My Wings 