Virtual Sketch Date: March 2009

Pencil and colored pencil, 7 x 10 inches

This time I decided to sketch for this month’s Virtual Sketch Date. Partly because I knew if I painted it, I would get caught up in the details. Also I was just in the mood to try something different. This was done in pencil with a little bit of colored pencil added in here and there. I had fun with this. It’s good to shake things up and try something different sometimes. You can view the work of other participating artists here and here.

Selling Art

Earlier this week I was at my day job, working on a customer’s computer on site. While I working on the computer, Rick was showing someone my art on Flickr. They mentioned how much they liked one particular painting. Now I’ve never made much of an effort to sell my art. It’s more of a mental roadblock than a conscious decision. A more alert person would have offered the painting to them for x number of dollars. After all, I can make more. Me, I just thanked them. Oh well, next time. For those of you who make a better effort to sell your art than I do, here’s a list of observations and suggestions from someone who recently spent some time buying art. I thought there was some good information in there.

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See all of my Virtual Sketch Date posts.

Cicada Sketch

Cicada, colored pencil
by Sydney Harper

I was doing an end of summer porch cleaning the other day and came across a dead cicada, in almost perfect condition. I couldn't help myself. I had to bring him to sketch. What, you mean everyone doesn't save dead bugs they find on the porch? I finally got around to drawing it yesterday. It was a little bit of an awkward angle but it still worked out okay.

While I was drawing this, I remembered a web site I found a while back. It was one of those times when I found link on a blog and then found another link and, well, you get the picture. Often I see people wanting to know the best way to prepare images for the web and was to protect their images. Science-art.com has a tutorial on preparing images for the web and another on protecting images. The instructions are geared towards images placed on their own site but I think the instructions could be easily adapted to your own situation.

Other than that, I've been very busy the past couple of weeks. Things are just now easing up a bit so hopefully I work in more art time.

Virtual Sketch Date: Sunquats

I decided this morning to try this month's Virtual Sketch Date. The reference photo for this month was provided by Leslie Hawes. This was probably a stretch of my colored pencil abilities but I had fun and I learned a lot. It's about 5.5 by 3.5 inches in colored pencil in one of my sketchbooks.

Otherwise, I've been struggling with a painting lately. It's a new surface (gessoed masonite) and somewhat of a different subject matter for me. It's still at the ugly stage but I think I'm getting it whipped into shape.

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See all of my Virtual Sketch Date posts.

Sketch: Passion Flower Vine

Passion Flower Vine - Ink and colored pencil

I discovered it's hard to be creative when there's work being done on the house with lots of pounding. I'm getting back in my groove though. This is a sketch of a Maypop or passion flower vine near our office. They grow wild in a little rocky, dusty patch of soil. It's too early for blooms but not too early to feed caterpillars. It's a main food source for the caterpillars of the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. Towards the end of summer you'll see lots of butterflies in the area.

I'm starting to enjoy using colored pencil for sketching. I just have a little 12 pencil set that I carry around with me. It's just enough for a bit of color without having to worry about brushes or water.

Sketch: Blue Salvia

Blue salvia
Copyright - Sydney Harper

There was a lull of blooming things in the yard for a few weeks, but now the second wave has started. Plus I was out of town at a conference so I'm just now getting back in my groove. I was sitting outside sketching this right after a brief rain shower so there was an occasional raindrop falling on my head and on the book. Then I plucked off one of the flowers to do a closeup sketch. Dozens of almost microscopic insects fell out of the flower onto my sketchbook, so I was brushing them off and inadvertantly smashing a few. Somehow the page ended up not too worse for wear. The hazards of sketching outside. In real life the flower portion of the stalk is much longer, probably about twice as long as what I have here. I just ran out of room on the page. It was a nice afternoon for sketching outside, even if it was somewhat drippy.

A Weedy Post

Henbit

Ink and colored pencil

I was feeling a bit uninspired so I sketched one of the weeds coming up in the yard not that the weather is warming up. I really need to do work in the yard. It's an annoying little weed but if you look closely, the tiny flowers are lovely. I think it's called Henbit. I've lost my painting mojo lately in favor of sketching. I feel it coming back though. I'm getting the urge to grab some brushes. Here's a couple of random things I picked up in my Internet travels the past few days.

Photography
One of my goals this year was to learn more about this fancy camera I got for Christmas so I can take better photos and reference photos. I've noticed that a number of people, including me, have questions about your legal rights as a photographer. Photojojo recently had an article on this, nicely distilled into 10 simple legal commandments for photography. The article also has links to more extensive information and information for those of you outside the US.

Influential Artists
Dani Draws has a list of 75 artists that influenced today's illustrators and web sites where you can find their work. Make sure you read through the comments for more artists.

If you find my painting mojo, send it back home.

Spring Daffodil

Spring Daffodil

We've had spring-like weather here this week, and we had snow just the past weekend. The first set of daffodils are blooming. Some of the trees are getting flower buds on them and I've seen some bird activity lately. So I just had to draw one of the daffodils. It's done in ink and colored pencil. I've been on a colored pencil kick lately. I'm not sure why since I've haven't done much with them until now. Maybe I'm just feeling lazy. I don't have to worry about water. I just grab a few pencil and go.

Blue Katie Cat

I've been intrigued by Kate Johnson's sketches on colored paper so I thought I would give it try with a pencil sketch I had done of Katie. I like the way it turned out, especially since I haven't had much experience with colored pencils. I may have to try this again sometime. Plus since she's a blue-grey cat, it works well for her.

Also I've added section on the sidebar called "SydneyH's shared items" with interesting blogs I've come across. This list will change over time. If you find something interesting, make sure you save the link.

Praying Mantis and Favorite Web Sites

It's pretty dreary this time of year and I wanted to draw something living. So I went through my photos and found this picture of praying mantis on a patio torch in my backyard. We have a fairly ordinary suburban yard, but I often see a praying mantis out there in the summer. They are so fascinating to watch. I'm not sure why they like our yard, but I'm glad they do. I started drawing this in pencil and then decided it needed some color so I added some colored pencil.

I'm a little late for this, but here are some of my favorite web sites I visited in 2007. By far, the sites I visit most often are those where I'm learning something about art.

Making a Mark - I didn't discover this one until late in the year, but I never miss it now. I have learned a lot about art and other art-related websites from reading Katherine Tyrrell's blog.

Sixty Minute Artist - I've found some good information here, like how to stretch a canvas. I'm not sure that I'm ready to start stretching my own canvas, but the information is here if I need it.

Gurney Journey - This is a blog that I found and lost and found again. I enjoy reading James Gurney's articles about the process of painting and painters.

Empty Easel - Art and Painting tips, articles on artists, and tips for selling art online.

Inspire Me Thursday - Weekly inspirations and challenges. I don't participate as often as I would like but I've enjoyed it when I have.

This year I'm going to try to get around to more blogs. I don't have time to visit many but I like the interaction.

Scissors and Lemons

I haven't been posting my sketches lately so I thought I would do a little catching up with some Everyday Matters Challenges. Things have been kind of hectic lately. First up are scissors for the EDM 105 challenge.
It was done in pen and colored pencil. Next up is EDM 106 challenge to draw something sour or tart.

I did this in my new Moleskin watercolor book. The pages are a strange size, long and narrow, but they seem to work out okay for watercolor sketches. I wouldn't want to use the paper for large paintings, but for sketches it works out well. I scanned these on the scanner whose color reproduction isn't so good. In real life, I made the lemons a little too green. Course on the other hand, they were a little green.