30 Faces in 30 Days: Day 29

If you are a fan of home improvement shows, you will know who this is. 

Carmen

30 Faces in 30 Days: Day 1

I saw a challenge online for drawing 30 faces in 30 days, and I thought that was a darn fine idea. I didn't join their challenge, just doing it on my own, and this is Face Number 1. This is really good practice.

Carmen

Steve Jobs Collage by Carmen Beecher in Word Play Exhibit

This collage is in the "Word Play" exhibit at the SoBo Gallery & Art Center in Winter Garden for the month of January. The theme is artworks with words incorporated in them. I am really excited about this, because I used to live in Winter Garden and I always call it my "Happy Days" stage of life. It was a lot like the TV show, just a carefree time of life with some very interesting characters. For sentimental reasons, I am very happy to be in the show, and after about 30 years away from Winter Garden I was happy to see that the town is smart enough to keep up with the times and become a very nice place to visit. The downtown area has managed to be quaint, beautiful and trendy all at the same time.

P.S. This collage just sold!

Carmen

June Challenge, Black and White Art

The challenge for June was to do a piece in black and white.

* * * * *

Donna: When I heard Black and White my mind immediately thought "collage".   Hmm... black and white, penguins, tuxedos, pianos, people, words, photos???   No, songbirds, musical notes, sheet music and of course polka dots.

Song Bird 8x10 collage

Donnavinesart.Etsy.com

Donnavinesart.blogspot.com

* * * * *

Carmen: I love roots and the patterns they make. I was just in the Smoky Mountains and saw these beautiful roots spreading across a ledge. This challenge gave me an excuse to draw them in pen and ink.

Carmen Beecher

https://www.etsy.com/shop/carmensart

https://carmenbeecher.com/ 

Then I decided to do a black-and-white oil painting, so I chose a subject that had little color to begin with, Ruby Beach on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. This is a tiny 5x7 painting.

Carmen Beecher

https://www.etsy.com/shop/carmensart

https://carmenbeecher.com/  

*********************

Carol:  For this challenge, I chose three small paintings, done in black and white on a red support.  I allowed small amounts of the red to show through, which I believe, gives an interesting warmth to the paintings.

These paintings were all done from photographs of flapper movie stars.

Carol Schiff

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

***************

Fay: Several years ago, a distant cousin sent me this picture of the old Dressler family homestead. My great, great, great grandfather, Thomas Wilson Richardson, married Margaret Dressler in this house in 1860. My great, great grandfather was born here. I was inspired.

I started drawing the cabin free hand. REALLY free hand.

I decided it wasn't dark enough, so I darkened it up a little and added some sparse trees.

The final sketch below is a try at graphite transfer. I wish I had known about this technique BEFORE I spent hours trying get the cabin above in proper prospective. This discovery may have change my whole approach to art!

Fay Picardi

*****************

Kathy: Below is my response to the challenge. I love drawing with Micron Pens on good watercolor paper. This drawing was inspired by a leaf found in a cluster of similar leaves in an open field. I was on a one month artist's vacation in a beautiful cabin at the Furnace Mountain Zen Center in Kentucky. Surrounded by woods, I got to hike, paint and draw every day. I thought the leaf was just a beautiful dandelion leaf. There was no stalk or flower. But later I checked online and through several field guides, and it is most likely a young leaf from a milk or bull thistle.

Kathy Garvey

etsy.com/shop/snailflower

spoonflower.com/profiles/kgarvey


•••••••••••••••••
Jean: I love black and white. My sketchbooks are full of ink/Pitt pen drawings. Black and white forces you to simplify to achieve tonal variation. The drawing below is of my son Chris, underwater. He loved swimming. I found an old snapshot of him from one of those throwaway, underwater cameras. So I sketched him!

Jeanie Thomas
ozworks22@cfl.rr.com 

Pieces of Eight Challenge #8 - Value

VALUE...
       So many ways to interpret this word! The Pieces weigh in!

Cindy...

Cindy Michaud

www.cindymichaud.com

So I did a "value study" on top of a painting that I decided had no other "value."  The blue tape lines are protecting the frame which I realized was glued to the board!  This will be the underpainting for  an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I lifted some of the black/gray/white paint to reveal the reddish color underneath.  This value study should make an easy recipe for adding color....keeping the tones consistent to this underpainting.  Sometimes folks say they like the painting just as it is.  And you?

------------------------------------

Carmen...

 

Ghost Ship

 20x20

 I did this value study for my painting of a foundered sailboat. The colors in the finished painting are very muted, as were the colors of that post-hurricane day. It's always interesting to visit the beach after a hurricane, but you never expect to see a sight like this.

Carmen Beecher

www.carmenbeecher.com

www.carmensart.etsy.com

www.carmenbeecher.blogspot.com

-----------------------------------------

Kathy...

I thought about "Value" a lot for this challenge. (And I worked on the idea so much, it's enough for another blog entry.) But in reality, I rarely think about value when I'm creating. My focus is almost always on a strong graphic and interesting patterns. Because I sketch in just black and white, I automatically have my "darkest darks balanced with my lightest lights." And the patterns I enjoy so much tend to create in between values. A recent page from my sketchbook gives an example. (Click to enlarge.)

Silver Spring, Florida -  Leaves around Cabin,  from sketchbook Nov. 14, 2017
See more at www.snailflower.etsy.com

------------------------------------

Donna...

Value is one of the things I struggle with the most.  I have a terrible habit of "drifting" while I am painting.  I get caught up in the subject and not what I really see and before you know it I have changed something.  Many times it is the value.  This teapot was blue but like all paintings it was really darks, lights and shadows.

Teapot


Donnavinesart.Etsy.com
Donnavinesart.blogspot.com

------------------------------------

Carol...

Value can mean many things.  Today I am thinking about how much I value my blog readers and the people who have supported my art over my past 10 years, that I have been selling art on the internet.

25% - 60% Off original paintings

www.CarolSchiffStudio.Etsy.com

Many of you have asked about my moving sale.  After 40+ years of living on the Florida coast, we are pulling up roots and moving to the mountains of western North Carolina.  From the Atlantic to the Blue Ridge!

purchase here

It is both exciting and frightening.  Leaving family and friends behind is heartbreaking, but the mountains are calling us.  It's now or never and we decided on now!  

purchase here

As a result, I am trying to drastically reduce my inventory.  Thank you dear readers, for your support of my art in the past, and your response to my sale.  The results are heartwarming!  

purchase here

Today I am posting a few of my favorites that are still available.  With the upcoming holidays, .

it's the perfect time to get a head start on your gift list or your wish list, and I promise you, it will be a great VALUE!

CAROL SCHIFF
www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Fay...

   

     As a basis for the poem Quilting from the Outside In in my collaboration with George Snyder for the Transformations project, I used this photo by Bob St. Claire. After almost 20 years, beat up and faded, it is still one of my favorites. Whenever I look at it, I am taken back home to the mountains where my ancestors settled in the 1700s.

     For this project, I have revisited this photo to enjoy working with it again. Value has never been my forte. In fact, even when concentrating on it, I still have trouble making those subtle distinctions in shading. I’ve been thinking more practice might help. So I started by making a black and white copy of the photo.

     Now onto the value study. I chose an old piece of cardboard, which was not a wise choice. However, I proceeded and here it is. I’m somewhat satisfied that I have captured the depth. In any case, I have enjoyed the journey and hope in the future to try fabric collages with an abstract version of these comforting old friends. 

Home From Vietnam, 9x12 Graphite Drawing, Portrait

This was absolutely a labor of love. Our dear friend Ben was terminally ill, and his daughter Debbie posted this photo from her childhood, taken when he had just returned from Vietnam. I loved everything about the photo and just had to draw it for her. The week I finished, Ben left us. I'm so glad I could portray this happy moment in the life of this wonderful man.

Carmen

I Haven't Got Time for the Pain, Pen and Ink Zentangle by Carmen Beecher

Since this is the month of Zombie Walks, maybe this drawing fits right in. As I have sat and sat in my recliner, recovering from knee replacement surgery, I started wondering what a drawing of pain would look like. This is what I pictured. An unpleasant, jagged, sharp and yet aching sensation. Ugly, isn't it? Ouch.

I'm not whining, mind you. I am recovering rapidly and my X-rays don't look anything like the above drawing. My new knee is pristine and beautiful. When I am healed, we shall have a ceremonial burning of the above zentangle art piece. Meanwhile, ice is my friend. It smooths those jagged edges considerably, is non-addictive, and doesn't cost me a cent.

Carmen