Sketchbook Sunday - June 10

Since my work schedule has changed, and Tuesday is no longer the primary day I have to work on my art, I'm going to replace the "What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday" posts with "Sketchbook Sunday" to show what I've done throughout the week.

Here's the first edition:

I think I mentioned before that I had heard of someone who drew an illustration for every page of a novel. I don't intend to do finished pieces as that artist did. I'm only doing maybe 10 min. sketches, but it's a good exercise in creativity. Here's one I've done so far. The book I'm sketching is "Heartland Skies", and on this particular page a bronc fell and was injured during the rodeo.

I've finished the outline of the draft horse and am starting to put in the shading. This is a very large drawing (the paper is 18x24"), so it's going to come along at a slower pace than you're probably used to seeing me work at.

And here's a closeup of the area I've begun to shade.

And finally, a look at the current state of the assignment I'm working on for the Art Instruction Schools. This is the final piece that will be sent in for grading when it's finished.

As always, I welcome critique, and if you see something that just doesn't look quite right, you'd be doing me a huge favor if you pointed it out to me before I get farther along and it's harder to fix.

Some pretty horse photos to inspire me back to drawing

This week, I'm finally getting back into my art. I heard a while back about an artist who'd done a sketch from each page of a book, and I'm giving that a try. They're just quick 15 minute sketches, but I need something to get me back into the habit.
Today, I'm devoting some serious time to my artwork - sketching, class work, and maybe working on a commission later today if it's going well, though I want to make sure I'm at my best before attempting that.
So to get me in the mood, I'm looking through the photos of my latest trip to Wisconsin and visit to Jerland Farms.

The beautiful Arabian horses:

And some other miscellaneous shots:

All photos are straight from the camera except for cropping on a couple of them.

My last month

I realize I haven't posted anything in over a month. Life's been crazy. March 8 was the day I realized I couldn't stay at my job any longer and had to quit whether I had another job or not. The same week I turned in my notice, I interviewed for, was offered, and accepted a new job, and I became a librarian on April 2. I had two 40 hour/6 day weeks for training, almost a full week the third week due to other commitments, and this past week, I was finally able to work what will be my normal three-day work week.
To make things even more hectic, I also became a mother in early April to an adorable little calf named Pumpkinseed, a.k.a. Punky.

Her mama had pneumonia and mastitis and was unable to take care of her, so I've been bottle feeding her morning and evening for the last month. She'll hopefully be able to make it on her own in the next couple weeks.
We're up to 21 calves now, and keeping the records, getting them separated from the rest of the herd with their mamas, giving them shots and tags, and moving them to the pen with the other cow/calf pairs has been a part-time job in itself. There should be 37 more coming in the next couple months.

I'm also loving what we're having of the spring weather. It's been 40 degrees and rainy the last few days, but there have been a few tastes of some gorgeous weather.

Of course, the spring weather also means that planting has started, and I've spent some time tossing around seed bags, pouring seed into the planter, rolling up the electric fence around the fields, and transporting my husband from place to place to move equipment.

Probably the most enjoyable part of the last month was a visit from my sister last weekend. She was dogsitting and brought Champ along. He didn't sit still for very long, so I got a chance to play with shutter speed in my photography.

(For the record, that stick was a good four times his length, but he didn't believe it.)

I was thrilled to finally have a camera with adjustable shutter speed to catch a shaking dog in action.

And one final shot of Champ.

In case anyone is still looking for a replacement for Picnik, that last photo was edited with Picmonkey.com. Pretty much just like Picnik, only FASTER!!! I'm actually happy now that Picnik closed because it was so dang SLOW!

So... there's my last month in a nutshell and the explanation for why I haven't posted. I also have hardly drawn during that time, and sadly, my ACEO per month goal is not happening. My intention is to get back into the art this week now that the work schedule has calmed down.

An equine photo shoot

Not a very glamorous photo shoot as I didn't give them any time to primp and preen, but the weather was so gorgeous on Saturday that I had to go take some photos. I actually went out to feed the horses, and they were running around kicking up their heels and playing, so I ran in the house for the camera, and wouldn't you know? When I came back, all they wanted to do was eat and stare at the camera.

All shots are straight from the camera except for cropping.

One of the first photos of the day and one of my favorites - my beautiful Sawyer.

Don't let the bored stare fool you - he was scared to death of the beeping and clicking of the camera.

Here's a good example of how shaggy he is. Would you recognize him as the same horse in the Sawyer drawing?

Sawyer has two pint-sized pals in his pen now. One of them, Tango, was the top model of the day with some great close-up shots.

Checkers, on the other hand, was more interested in eating. Here you can see the size difference - note that Sawyer's not a large horse either.

More of Tango. I love what the strong wind was doing with his hair.

By far the best pose I got of Sawyer. If only I'd had a clean background to photograph against.

And little Checkers demonstrating the wind in his hair.

We have two other horses on the place too, Rebel and Tex. You can see them behind Sawyer in one of the shots, but Tex is pretty flighty and not at all mannerly, so I didn't feel much like dealing with him.

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday - not much

Very little time spent drawing this past week. It was a combination of quitting my current job, interviewing for another, doing some outside work in the beautiful spring weather, and getting ready for my first show of the year this coming weekend.
The only project I worked on at all was the zebra ACEO.

The good news is that as of the end of March, I'll be free from my current job of 30+ hours a week with an hour commute each day!
The job I'm expecting to be offered will be only 15 hours a week plus filling in for others as needed. That will mean a lot more time for my art!

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday - a zebra and a farm

Didn't get a lot of work done yesterday on my art, but I did get lots of work done around the farm, so at least I felt productive.

I darkened the stripes on the zebra ACEO. I might make a couple changes, especially around the eye.

After a whole bunch of composition sketching of the farm scene, I picked my three favorites and put them on the final assignment sheet. Now, I have to narrow it down to just one to start doing value sketches with.

The little shed is supposed to be the center of interest. Which sketch do you think does the best job of leading your eye to that shed?

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday - bison, a new ACEO, and lessons

Worked on lots of different projects yesterday.

First off, I had to get going on the ACEO for March, so I spent some time deciding what to do and getting it lightly sketched onto the card. I'd like to get some work done on the bison this month, so I chose a fairly simple subject (as far as shading will go).

Can you tell what it is?

Speaking of the bison, I worked on him a little more too. Printed off a reference photo that showed the brisket and upper front legs better, so I made some changes to them. Then I started with the shading on the back end. The hairy front end intimidates me a little, so I'm starting off easy. I also watched "Dances with Wolves" this weekend and paid special attention during the buffalo hunt scene to see how they move.

Then a lot of work for my next art school assignment. I had to do two practice sketches showing that I understand the concept of making one object stand out in a group. Apparently, I forgot to take a photo of the first one which was a group of spools of thread, all standing up except one laying on its side. Here's the other:

Which one is your eye drawn to?

And for the final assignment for this lesson, we're given a photograph of a farm scene and told to compose it so that the shed in the middle is the center of interest. There's three parts to this assignment - 3 line sketches, 3 value sketches, and the final project. I've just done one line sketch which is largely a copy of the photo except I made it horizontally aligned, cutting out a lot of empty sky and grassy foreground. It's kind of hard to see because I had to darken the photo a lot since I sketch so lightly.

I'll be doing a bunch more of those little sketches in the coming week. I'll choose my three best to include with the assignment and the best one to move onto value sketches. I have to admit that while I love farm/country subjects, this one is not inspiring me, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what to change about it.