Illustration Friday - Stay

 

Stay With Me

(while I monkey around with my career)

Collage and graphite

9.25 x 5 inches

Big changes have happened in my life since my last post.  I did something even I couldn't have anticipated.  I resigned my high school art teaching position.  This was one of the hardest decisions I have made in a long time, and I know a lot of people think I must be off my rocker.  Maybe I am...  I absolutely love teaching.  I work very hard to be good at it, and I can only hope that the effort is understood and appreciated by those who retain my services as an educator.  The students always get it, maybe not at first, but eventually and reliably.  I miss them already and we are only half way through the summer.  

But change is good even if it is hard.  As Newton tells us, a body in motion tends to stay in motion, and I am no exception to that rule.  The current plan is:

1. Make art full time -  It is a now or never opportunity to promote myself as a professional artist.  Teaching gave me freedom to make art for personal intellectual pleasure at my leisure.  I have been much more productive in the last couple of years than in the past but now is the time to ramp it up to the next level.

2. Finish up my Masters degree - I am five classes away from completion.  With more free time I should be able to finish up by the end of next spring semester

3. Start a new blog - I will be putting up a new blog that will deal more specifically with my production of fine art and illustration. Illustration Friday submissions will be posted there as well.  I have three recently completed large canvases that are the beginnings of a new body of work.  As soon as I have good photos, I will inaugurate the new blog.

4. Work part time at Micheal's - As a evening/weekend "Customer Experience Manager" and hopefully fine art instructor... I still need to be able to make my car payment and tuition. :(  I worked at Micheal's about six years ago as a framer and event coordinator before I started teaching.  They still like me and have been kind enough to take me back.

I showed my son Todd, the illustration for this week.  He asked me what the word was, when I told him, he looked blankly at me and said "I don't get it."  If you have read to this point I hope it now makes sense.  To those who have been kind enough to follow this blog, I hope you will "stay with me" as I move on in another direction.  I'll post here to let everyone know when the new blog is up and running.

Make art with all your heart, mind, and soul!

Sally

Illustration Friday - Cultivate

2 point perspective drawing sample

I am teaching perspective drawing at school to my Art 1 students this week, and it just occurred to me today that my sample drawing could work for this weeks Illustration Friday word.  The drawing is not finished, but it is far enough along that it is a good example for my students on drawing a cityscape with details in two point perspective.

In addition to cultivating young minds, I have been doing a lot of literal cultivating this week.  I have built three raised vegetable and flower garden beds using the a square foot gardening plan.  I also purchased root stock of male and female hardy kiwi berry plants at Sam's club. I have been researching online to determine the best way to plant them.  It turns out that the vines get really large, (think Kudzu) so I am going to have to find some spare fence line to plant them on, or consider building an arbor.

You might remember a couple of posts back that I commented on my notoriously black thumb.   I figure I have about a 25% chance that any of these current gardening efforts will turn out to be successful.  I am ever optimistic that I will find the magic spell that will turn my black thumb green.  The above drawing is pure fantasy. :)

Illustration Friday - Stir

 

Stir the stars with a silver spoon,

and say "goodnight" to the waning moon.

The Sandman sings in the willow tree,

Ta Loo Ra La, Ta Loo Ra Lee.

I almost gave up on developing an idea for this week's word.  It just wasn't inspiring me and everything I could come up with seemed cliche or trite.  I'm not sure if this is any different/better, but this little quatrain kept swimming around in my head, so I finally decided it was worth pursuing.  Who knows maybe it will develop into a full fledged poem some day.

I am including the initial rough sketch.  There are a few things about it that I actually prefer.  Also the scanner fails to pick up some of the pale color shifts and value changes that are in the actual color version. :(

Foreshortening can be an interesting challenge!

Illustration Friday - Warning

Don't Eat Me!

ATC 2.5 x 3.5 inches

mixed media

Vocabulary word of the day:  Aposematism - a visual warning signal (usually bright color or high contrast pattern) indicating that an organism has a secondary defense mechanism such as; unpalatabilty,  poisonous glands, stings, neurotoxins, or foul odor.

Old IF entry wins Best in Show

Who would have thought that a small drawing created last year as an Illustration Friday entry would lead me to fame and fortune?  OK...no real fame and only a small $200 award.  But still, I am very proud to say that this small colored pencil drawing won Best in Show at last nights opening of Main Street Gallery's juried still life exhibit.   What a truly fantastic surprise!


The show will be hanging from March 3rd - April 12.  If you find yourself in downtown Tyler Texas, stop by to see all of the beautiful artwork created by East Texas artists!

Illustration Friday - Spooky

A twelfth hour posting for Illustration Friday.  These are three more sketches using the LiveSketch app on my iPhone.  You can't help but end up with spooky images using this app.  Happy Halloween!

Illustration Friday - Acrobat

Digital sketches using the Ap "Live Sketch" on my iPhone

My son found this free ap a week or so ago and downloaded it onto my phone for me  I really like the charcoal look of it and the fact that you are forced to work loosely.  You are drawing with your finger on a 2x3 inch screen after all.  Of course it is such a small image that the resolution is not great, but on the iPhone it looks fine.  This week's word made me think of the acrobatic manuevers that birds manage while in flight. I am awed by the flight of the swallows that come back to my house year after year, as well as the redtailed hawks that take nose dives from nearby telephone poles. (Usually to pounce on a windblown leaf)

I took a good month and a half break from IF but hope to still contribute on a semi-regular basis.  I am finding myself more and more busy with teaching, producing art for a local gallery, and working on a masters degree so I will have to balance my time a bit more carefully.  Below are a couple of more images from this sketch ap.  Kinda scary but fun!

Illustration Friday - Artificial

Venus

3.5 x 2.5 inches ATC

colored pencil on toned paper

Some of the synonyms for artificial are: man-made, artful, cunning, imitation, sham.  Man has been imitating nature for a very long time.....

Illustration Friday - Double

Double Thunderhead - Crayon on Manila Paper

Well since I reached my one year goal last week, I thought I would use this week's word to finally make a banner for my blog and give it a design overhaul.  Blogger is starting to offer a lot more options for those of us who are technologically challenged.  I also decided that I would use a traditional public school art media, the good old Crayola Crayon.  Even though I rarely put crayons in my high school student's hands, I think they are as worthy and useful a medium as any available.  Nothing makes me happier than a brand new box of crayons!

Illustration Friday - Dip

 “I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I'm not afraid of falling into my inkpot.” 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hemmed and hawed over this word all week and finally ran out of time, so here is my rather late (again) submission.  I thought about ice cream and guacamole and skinny dipping and all of the other possibilities that have already been done, but in the end decide to go with an image based on the quote that came in the e-mail for this week's word.

I am leaving for Houston tomorrow to take 5 high school students to the State Visual Art Scholastic Event competition.  This will be the first time for my current school to attend this event and I am really looking forward to it  I will post photos from the trip when I return.

Illustration Friday - Rescue

Colored Pencil

APC 4 x 6 inches

An eleventh hour submission from me this week.  The rigors of being everything to everyone has left me a little more than overwhelmed and I only just finished this quick cat portrait.  Todd and I literally rescued her out of the middle of the road on a cold, dark, and stormy night back in late February. This beautiful Himalayan mix kitty is obviously someone's house cat because she doesn't have a clue about roads or strangers or cars or anything out of doors.   We tried for several weeks to find her owners, but so far no one seems to be missing her.  She loves people and doesn't mind dogs, but she is not terribly friendly with our other cats.  As beautiful as she is, I would like to find her a home if we can't find her original owners.  She would be happier as an only cat.  If you live in East Texas and want to adopt a cat, email me.

Illustration Friday - Expired

"Last Rites"

Colored Pencil

This little female cardinal actually died in my hand about a week ago.  I was putting the  greyhounds out in the kennels and she crash landed through the dog door and into the wall of the kennel.  Sassy (the greyhound) grabbed her before I could, but also dropped her pretty quickly when I yelled at her.  So I'm not sure if it was the crash or the greyhound mouthing that did her in, or a combination of the two.  She died about 30 seconds after I picked her up, poor thing.  But observationist that I am, I set her aside near the outside trash cans so that I could draw her later in the day.   Todd complained a little later that the gnats were getting to her so I took pictures of her instead.  It just worked out that she was the perfect subject for this weeks Illustration Friday word.

Illustration Friday - Clumsy

Non-Dominant Hand Drawing

Gel Pen and Pitt pen

in my left handed moleskine

I have always been a klutz, but this weeks topic had me remembering much of the last year in which I was recuperating from a broken wrist.  I call my left hand the stupid step sister of the right,  but I was forced to function left-handed almost exclusively for several months while my right hand was healing.  Of course my biggest fear was that it would not heal completely and that it would hamper my ability to make and teach art.  I still had about three months of the school year to get through at the time which was challenge enough.  However, my students were very understanding and patient, and we completed the semester without much hindrance.

One of the things I did to perk myself up and feel better about the whole disaster was to start a left-handed sketchbook.  All the drawings and writing are done entirely with my left hand.  It is far from full, but I still occasionally add entries into it and really enjoy the challenge of working with a clumsy, less than obedient hand.  I admit to being much more sympathetic to my students when they break limbs now.  Every year there is at least one or two who do.  Now I pull out my left-handed sketchbook to give them a little extra encouragement that they can continue to make art and make it through the year.

I am including several of the earliest sketches below, chronicling the healing process.  Click on any of the pictures to view them larger.  Have a happy and SAFE week everyone!

Illustration Friday - Pioneer

The Railway Man

This is a little ATC I made today for a lady in Finland who collects cards related to steam trains and the men who work the railroads.  It got me to thinking about how the world was changed by these pioneers of travel and commerce.  Certainly here in the US we attribute the true opening of the West to the railroads.  It is a part of our elementary education.  I have been fascinated by trains, like most people, since childhood.   Cabooses were still in use when I was young, and we would always try to get the "caboose man" to blow his whistle for us as the train passed by.   I miss cabooses.  As a young adult I actually bought myself a miniature passenger train set that I still have some 20 years later.  Did I ever mention that I was something of a tomboy? :)

Illustration Friday - Hatch

Hatch Happy

Pen and Ink

Just a quick one this week.  Art teacher that I am, I just had to use the art vocabulary version of this week's word.  I have never had the patience to develop precision hatching technique, but sloppy hatcher that I am, I still enjoy using it to develop values and form.  I thought about a composition with a hand drawing another hand, but I decided the simple hatch marks were more effective.  Happy hatching everyone!

Illustration Friday - Unbalanced

12 x 15 3/4 inches

Pen and ink

Self Portrait

This is a sample of a project that I do with my Art 1 students.  It starts as a grid drawing that is then developed by creating values using patterns and textures.  Students have to control the value within a given pattern as well since the pattern/texture changes with each grid square.  I am always trying to get the students to take more compositionally interesting photos to work from so that we get more dynamic final images.  This means that I start by taking a lot of very unflattering pictures of myself to get them to loosen up about how they look.  The girls always want to be "pretty" and the boys just want to give me mug shots.  Teenagers are soooooo self-conscious!  I just tell them to loosen up and let their freak flag fly!  Of course they are certain that I am completely mentally unbalanced as the above image would seem to prove.  I also let a student choose which image I will work from which is guaranteed to be the one that is the most unforgiving. :)  Good fun!

Illustration Friday - Fast

oil pastel on black paper

I really don't have anything cryptic or unusual about this week's submission.  It is simply a fast sketch of a fast dog.  I raised, showed, and lure coursed greyhounds for a number of years.  They are exhilarating to watch doing what they do best.  I have had as many as 14 hounds at one time but I am now down to my last two retired greyhound girls and I don't anticipate getting back into competition with dogs any time in the near future.  I simply don't have the time or energy for all of the political maneuvering that goes along with it.  If it had been more about dogs than people, I might have stuck with it a bit longer.