IF - Disguise 01/24/14

Yes I know I have been off the site for a long time. But with the holidays I was just too busy to get anything else done. So, New Years resolution: I will post at least once a month.

A big deal here in Eureka Springs this month was the first annual Independent Film Festival. It was a great success, lots of entries, a wide variety of subjects and film makers. Looks like it will be a fine addition to things going on the ES. This is the FB page for the festival. www.facebook.com/eurekaspringsfilm.

IF - Underwater Oct 4, 2013

OK, so I was feeling a little weird today and with the IF word being "underwater" I just went for it. Looks like this fellow has been underwater too long.

IF-Onomatopoeia - Clickety Clack

OK. I was pretty sure I knew the word but looked it up to make sure before I committed to this. Anyway, if you have ever ridden on a train you know the clickety clack sound of the wheels running on the rails. This is caused by the shifting of the rails at the junction point of two rails meeting. Not very romantic but the whole train travel experience must be taken as a whole for it to work at all. After ridding the rails in Europe for a number of years I'm sorry to say that the system in the US is barely ride-able and needs a Major overhaul.

Class Room work

So here is one of my drawings from the Soft Pastel workshop I took from Tom Christopher at Eureka Springs School of the Arts (ESSA). Learned a lot. This is 400lb sanded paper (who knew it was Sand Paper, good enough to use in my wood shop :-)), started with a watercolor background and then pastel. Generally I work a little too heavy for this technique so I need to develop a softer hand. This was quite a stretch from my normal pen and ink but I'm trying to spread out into other mediums anyway and this was a very enjoyable class. Check out Tom's work at http://tomchristopherartist.com/about

Well I have been lax in working on my art for Illustration Friday however I have been working at learning other expression mediums so here is my first real try at a pastel painting. These are soft pastels and not a very expensive brand but I was happy with the results and plan on continuing to work at this as I would like to get more color into my artwork. I have an upcoming class in pastel drawings in about 30 days and I am really looking forward to it. This is a little messy kind of medium but I knew this going in so found a place I can work that doesn't make a great mess in the house. I have been looking at as many of the You-Tube videos as possible dealing with pastels and Colin1940 has some amazing drawings and does a lot of step by step tutorials. Check him out when you can. I'll set up a link to his www with the others. Well enough for now, enjoy.

Email from Crystal Bridges this morning. They were interested in using my latest drawing of the turtle as part of the advertisements for other classes at the Museum. Holly Cow would that be great.

This is a new color pencil drawing for which I developed the idea during a class in "photography to drawing" held at Crystal Bridges last month. The shell is a part of the structure of the museum and has always reminded me of a turtle.  Below are the pictures which I used to develop this drawing.