30 Day Challenge

January 31, 2014

Thank you to Leslie Saeta for doing another 30 day challenge.  If you have the chance, look at this link to be inspired by the work of so many artists.  You can look at their blogs and be inspired all over again.  

I confess to not doing all thirty, maybe only 1/3 of that.  If it were not the challenge, I might have spent the month of January just trying to organize my studio and be distracted by other things. 

Here is my mini-challenge.  I learned how to do collages from Leslie's marketing challenge.  Go to "ipiccy" to make your own. 

 

This month I've been adding more paintings to ETSY and still trying to improve my photos.  At least I stopped using my phone for pictures and use my little camera.  I'm not doing that well on using a big fancy camera.  (the picture of the apples posted  on ETSY recently is one of the worst).  I 'm giving myself a year to improve. 

Accidental Still Life

January 28, 2014

I brought this box home from my studio and had nowhere to put it so I placed in my light box.  I needed a subject to paint for today and was thinking of the ginger jar and just placed it in front of the box and there is was, a composition.  I liked the way the black balanced out the ginger jar and created just enough interest.

 

This experience told me to always be on the lookout for a composition, it could be right in front of you. 

30 Day Challenge

January 15, 2014

I've at least added paintings two days in a row on the 30 Day Challenge with Leslie Saeta.  More than that I've done another study of the flowers with the inspiration of Qiang Huang.  I admire his devotion to staying with a subject to learn everything about it. 

It is true that doing the same subject improves your understanding and skill of whatever you are painting.  I hope to master the lights and darks and the variety of edges. 

Qiang Huang has many paintings listed on Daily Paintworks and he has a blog.

Here is the second study of the same flowers.  (The photo of the still life is on yesterday's post)

  Painting is 4 x 5 inches

30 day Challenge

January 11, 2014

Today I thought I would try the challenge on Daily Paintworks.  It's a great place to get ideas of subjects to paint and a way to challenge yourself. 

Here is my effort, trying to keep loose brushwork and using what I learned from Quang Ho's dvd about painting the light and tonal painting as an approach.   I was also thinking about what I learned from the dvd about figure painting. 

30 Day Challenge

January 10, 2014


Over the holidays I watched the DVD set by Quang Ho.  It was so inspirational.  He summarized the important concepts so well and demonstrated while describing his ideas about what is important in a painting. 

While I was painting this little one (6 x 6) I kept thinking about what he said about shapes and values and painting the light.

I'm including this in the "30 Day Challenge", but am embarrassed to say this is only the 3rd painting for me and it is day 10.  I was obsessed with organizing my studio and it is still not finished, but I can let go for awhile and get back to painting.

I'll put this on ETSY.  So far that is working well.  I'm mailing the salt and pepper shakers today.  Here is a photo of that one.  I figured out how to put the mini-ETSY shop on the side of the blog.  The instructions were pretty good.

Wow, this photo is really bad, that is why improving my photo taking skills is one of my goals.  The painting looks better than the photo.  

3 Roses to celebrate 30 in 30.

September 30, 2013

Something to celebrate.  I made it for 30 in 30.  Roses always say special occasion to me. 

 

 

 

It wasn't easy to do 30 in 30.  I almost gave up one time, but I'm glad that I stuck with it.  I really liked getting to know some other artists and I appreciated very much comments from other people.  That is always very encouraging. 

 

Thank you to Leslie Saeta for organizing this event.  Leslie, I know you have been very busy.  Not only did you do a workshop, but you moved into a new house.  How did you do it?



http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com/

30 Day Challenge and Ways to Improve your paintings

September 3, 2013

 

Keeping up with the 30 Day Challenge so far...

 

 

 Listed on Daily Paintworks

 

 

My theme lately has been ways to improve so since it is the beginning of a new school year I thought I would get a few of the Art Tutorials at Daily Paintworks call ARTBytes.  There are so many that are FREE, but the one that got my attention recently was by Carol Marine on Loose Brushwork.  It was a whole new way of looking at edges for me and I wish I had looked at it sooner.  Her approach is to start with the lights first and go from "island to ocean", the small areas surrounded with color or background.  

 

The idea of using stripes was one of the Daily Challenges, another offering to artists. 

 The bottom line is that Daily Paintworks offers many resources.  The ARTBytes are reasonable in price and you can save them and look at them over and over. 

 

Thanks you to Carol Marine and her husband for starting this website for artists. 

Here is a link to the page for Tutorials: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/ArtTutorials/ArtByteStore

Day 30 of the Marketing Challenge---GRADUATION. 

I'm including a link to today's challenge especially because Leslie has put the entire challenge into the form of an e-book.  I've been taking notes here and there and was thinking this morning how I need to make a complete list of the tasks for each day.  What a dream come true, Leslie did all the work. 

You can get the e-book here


THANK YOU

One of the best things about this challenge was meeting other artists through cyberspace.   Seeing the amazing work of others, their ideas and ways of creating blogs, websites, and much more has been inspiring to me.  The generosity and spirit of helping is heartwarming.  Thank you so much to others in the challenge. 

 

Wish we could get together for donuts!

 

How to make a collage, one of many things I learned.