Animal Rhythm

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One of the things that makes me a little crazy is animal artists who present their subject in an awkward and sometimes even ugly pose. There seem to be a number of reasons for this, among them lack of drawing skill, not knowing the anatomy of the species,  getting too caught up in copying a photograph or simply not seeing the inherent grace and rhythm of living things. Just because it “looked that way in the photograph” is NO excuse. Be intentional. Don’t be lazy and settle for what’s in front of you. Now is the time to pull out the old National Geographic or hit Google Images. Not to use someone else’s images, but to fill in the information that is missing in your reference.

It is a matter of training your eye to evaluate what’s in front of you. Someone once said that drawing is seeing. Exactly right. As an example, here are two images of a cougar. Which pose do you think has the better rhythm?

andy1andy2The only real difference is the position of the head, but the 3/4 view really changes the flow of the top line and actually stops the sense of movement.

Here’s one of two horses I photographed in Mongolia last year. If you saw them separately as paintings on a wall, which one would draw your eye and pull you over to it?

ikh-nart-horses

My own eye has been influenced by looking at the work of Alphonse Mucha, the great Art Nouveau graphic artist. Notice how the hair is designed in deliberate, rhythmic shapes.

Think about how that might apply to a horse’s tail or a lion’s mane. It could save you a lot of time, and end with a far more interesting result, by seeing and painting hair and fur as larger shapes instead of individual strands. Fur rendered in excruciating hair by hair detail is definitely another of my pet peeves. There is a better way. Really.

12975573_cycles_perfecta_1897

Finally, here are some quick drawings (2 minutes or so) that I did this morning. Notice that I didn’t worry about the spots on the cheetah or the pattern of markings on the giraffe. All I wanted was to catch the gesture and rhythm of the pose. These quick sketches are also a way to find out if a pose “draws well”. Something that looks fine it a photo can look really weird in a drawing. Odd, but true. Why notice it when you’re halfway through painting all those spots?

cheetah

giraffe

cougar

ART THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

“The true artist does not paint to please the public – but he holds the interest of all who think,  for a work of art expresses the mind of its workman. In it are clearly reflected his vices and his weaknesses, as well as his virtues. He may deceive men, perhaps, but not inspiration, which will not be duped by hypocrisy.”

William Wendt (1865-1946) (as recently quoted in the California Art Club newsletter)

Mongolia Monday- Excerpt from my 2006 Trip Journal; to Khomiin Tal to see the Takhi

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I had found out that a third takhi reintroduction was taking place in western Mongolia and, somewhat blithly as it turned out, decided that I HAD to go there. Jan at Nomadic Journeys set it up and on the morning of September 21, I flew 1,000 miles west to the town of Hovd. My guide, Octyabr, met me at the airport and after paying 67,500 tugrigs for overweight bags (around $70), off we went. That evening, I caught up on the day:

September 21, 7:30 pm- Stopped for the night by the (a) river. What a day. didn’t get out of town until 2:50. Two German students, October (English spelling), driver, cook (who actually turned out to be a local guy who knew the route to the place: the German students did the cooking to “pay” their way) and me, in the end. Typical Mongolian expedition. Students needed 20 min., so went to October’s home for tea and bread. Then it was: hire a driver, go to the bank, top off the tank, stop at store, drop off father, let driver pick up gear. There may have been more, but I forget. (There was- lunch at a local cafe) Then I find out that it’s 300km to Khomiin Tal and we won’t get there today. Stopped to climb a rock overlook. Fabulous view of river valley with Kazak (sic) gers. Next stop was a brick factory. Oh, I forgot they packed an inflatable raft and fishing gear. But sailing down the road through spectacular scenery with the Mongols singing away was terrific!

Here’s a couple of photos. There’s more on my website.

Kazakh women outside of Hovd
Kazakh women outside of Hovd
Camping by a river; my tent is the red one
Camping by a river; my tent is the red one

Marketing Our Art During the Financial Meltdown, Part 4 (That’s It For Now); New Paintings!

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Alex "helping"
Alex "helping"

Take Care of Yourself!

Even in the best of times, and this ain’t them, it takes energy and decent health to put in the hours needed to paint and take care of all the other parts of having a career. It’s also easy to get down, if not depressed. You know you have to nurture your art, but you also have to nurture yourself. And that’s a guy thing, too.

I’ve learned this the hard way having dealt with chronic sinusitis for ten years. It manifests in a low grade fever that leaves me too fatigued to do much of anything. I generally have it under control, but always need to be vigilant about getting quality sleep, eating right and exercising. I also get a massage every three weeks to keep me tuned up. I accept that I’m going to have to work at staying healthy and that it is as much a part of my routine as getting to the studio in the morning.

Exercise is really important, especially if you sit or stand all day at an easel. “Studies have shown” that the two most effective forms of exercise are walking and gardening, so you don’t have to join a gym or run marathons. We walk our dog 30-40 minutes every morning unless it’s pouring rain. Longer walks on the weekend. Nighttime walks too, which are fun because sometimes a couple of the cats come along (Fortunately, we’re on a dead end street with very little traffic).

I do like to garden. I just planted some primroses, pansies and tigridia bulbs. This year we plan to do a serious vegetable garden and see how much of our own food we can grow. (Wish we could grow our own peanuts. What will they recall next?)

You need to find what works for you. But being physically active will make you feel less tired.

I do yoga at home, too. It feels so good to stretch, especially my shoulders.

Eating well seems challenging sometimes, but try to have good quality, quick to fix food around. Maybe popcorn for a snack instead of chips. We keep sugar-free pudding cups, Laughing Cow cheese, string cheese and nuts on hand. I have half a protein or energy bar in mid-morning and afternoon so I don’t crash. My evening treat is a few squares of 80% very dark chocolate. We usually have a glass of red wine with dinner. I stay low on the glycemic index to keep my blood sugar stable. We just made our first soup stock from a chicken carcass (new Joy of Cooking) and added wild rice, celery, mushrooms and carrots. We’re still putting raspberries and blueberries on our cereal from what we picked last year and put in the freezer and there are still three bags of apples in the frig for Waldorf salad, cobbler and just eating. As with exercise, see what will work for you.

Even if you don’t have space for regular vegetable garden, you might try salad greens on a sunny window sill or blueberry bushes in containers.

Feel free to post comments to share your own ideas and thoughts and what works for you.

NEW PAINTINGS!

Drawing and painting animals has come relatively easily for me. It’s what I seem to have a knack for, not that I haven’t put in a lot of work at it. But landscape, now that’s a whole other challenge. I finally decided that I was going to get this “tree thing” down. I’ve been hacking away for the last few months doing small studies of trees in interesting light with cast shadows and I believe there has been progress. More next week.

Dubois Cottonwoods oil 8"x6"
Dubois Cottonwoods oil 8"x6"
Wyoming Creekside oil 10"x8"
Wyoming Creekside oil 10"x8"
Wyoming Cottonwoods oil 8"x6'
Wyoming Cottonwoods oil 8"x6'


Mongolia Monday- Sain Bain Uu!

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Which is Mongolian for “Hi!” or “Greetings”. It’s pronounced, roughly, “sain” as in sandwich, “ban” as in bandaid, “uu” as in oval.

I’ve just downloaded what looks to be a very useful Mongolian language program from Transparent Language. The next trip is coming up in July and I want to be able to communicate better. Before my 2006 trip, I was able to  find a local Mongolian woman who tutored me in basic pronunciation and vocabulary, along with some simple sentences. It’s amazing how far you can get with: please, thank you, excuse me, yes, no, hello, goodbye, I like….., and knowing the numbers from one to ten. But it didn’t help when I heard a cool song on the driver’s MP3 player and had no way of asking who the artist was. I have a Lonely Planet Phrasebook and a “cheat sheet” from my tutor, but that’s not enough.

I have some familiarity with learning a new language. Spanish (see below), some basic Japanese (I can still count to ten!) when I was 14, two years of German in high school (wish I’d taken one year of German and one of French) and some Middle English and Anglo-Saxon in college. At one point I’d decided to teach myself Welsh. It was a short point.

Like many languages, Mongolian has sounds that don’t exist in English, so that’s a challenge. One travel writer describes spoken Mongolian as sounding like two cats fighting, but I’ve found that to be somewhat of an exaggeration. The guys seem to play up the gutteral sounds more than the women, especially in the countryside. There are rolled “r”s, which means that after 40 years, my stupid junior high Spanish class has finally turned out to be good for something. And there is a sound that is similar to the double “L” in Welsh. Vowels that are “doubled”, like in the sign below or in “Ulaanbaatar”, are audibly extended, as in Khan vs. Khaaan.  One of the sounds that I have found most challenging so far is “g”. It seems to be something like “uudo”, with a slightly rolled “d”, but I’m sure I’m mangling it into something hilarious. The Mongols are blessedly tolerant of anyone who takes a swing at their language and seem to appreciate the attempt.

Their alphabet is a close adaptation of  Russian Cyrillic and I’ll be learning that, too. It will be nice to be able to read at least some of the signs in Ulaanbaatar. Like these (I used to be a sign painter and still can’t resist taking pictures of signs that catch my eye). There’s just enough overlap with the Roman alphabet to be slightly maddening. You feel like you can almost read it, but no.

Khaan Bank, Hovd, western Mongolia
Khan Bank, Hovd, western Mongolia

Although, in this case, it was more the beautiful building that I wanted a picture of. But good to know that this is a bank, if one is running low of cash. One of the first signs I was able to read.

Gers and tents for sale at the Narantuul Market, UB
Gers and tents for sale at the Narantuul Market, UB

I took this photo partly because I had no time to inquire about details like prices and didn’t want to lose track of them since I would really like to get a tent like the one on the right.

Pet shop sign, Ulaanbaatar
Pet shop sign, Ulaanbaatar

Since my dog is a tri-color rough collie, the same breed as the dog on the sign, I had to get a picture. I’ve wondered since then if there are actually any collies in Mongolia. They certainly have a coat that would be handy in the cold weather. Lassie Forever!

Street sign, central Ulaanbaatar
Street sign, central Ulaanbaatar

Now, how could anyone resist a drink that will give them the energy of the Mongol Horde?

Marketing Our Art During the Financial Meltdown, Part 3; Two New Paintings and a Drawing

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Who’s Your Buyer and how do you get your work in front of them? We’re pretty much all going to have to be lean and mean in promoting our art. It’s called “targeted marketing”. Which means knowing who your buyer is.

When I went through the process of creating my marketing plan with a counselor from our local Small Business Development Administration (SBDC) office, the first homework I was given was to pretend that my buyer was sitting in a chair across from me and then describe them. Beyond the general question of who buys original art, who do you think will be interested in YOUR art? In my case, we somewhat humorously pegged my target buyers as “rich celebrity environmentalists”.

More realistically, it’s someone with a certain income level and probable interests in nature, environmental issues, travel and the outdoors. If you request advertising rate cards from a national magazine, they usually include demographic information on who their readers are to demonstrate the kind of eyeballs you can expect to view your ad. You can create the same kind of thing yourself to help decide where it makes the most sense to put your efforts.

I was talking about marketing approaches with an established artist at a wildlife art festival a few years ago. My specific question was where to look for galleries. His advice was to try place my work in locations where there were people “needing” to furnish second and third (!) homes. I’ve got to say, living in a county where the average income is $38,000 a year, that thought truly hadn’t crossed my mind.

Use the Internet- The world’s going digital. The US Postmaster just asked Congress for permission to cut the number of mail delivery days in the future because they are losing so much money. One reason is email and other types of online communication. I know that there are a lot of technophobic artists out there, but you’ve somehow got to suck it up and check it out, if for no other reason that using the internet takes time, but next to no money. At this point everyone pretty much knows that you have to have a website, same as you need a phone.

But when you bring up blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. the reaction usually seems to be a cri de coeur that there aren’t enough hours in the day as it is. My objection was that I couldn’t imagine that anyone would care what I had for breakfast (homemade muesli with berries from our garden, usually), so why should I take the time to do a blog. But……..when I evaluated it in terms of my marketing plan and learned how easy they are to do and that, unlike the website, I can update it myself at will in a far more dynamic way, I decided to give it a try. I approached signing on to Facebook the same way. An unexpected fringe benefit is the pleasant, informal contact with artists all over the country and the world.

Twitter I’m not sold on yet, but I monitor it with the idea that it will probably be just the thing at some point.

I encourage you to set aside an evening and check out Google’s Blogspot and also WordPress, which is what I use. Blogspot is probably easier to get started with, WordPress is more sophisticated in how it does things. You can register on both Facebook and Twitter, then just lurk around and see what you think. None of this is permanent. You don’t have to tell anyone. You can register and then cancel if you want. Be aware though that Twitter currently makes it very difficult to sign up again if you close your account.

Let me know if you start a blog or get on Facebook. I’ll be interested to hear what you think.

TWO NEW SMALL PAINTINGS

Hereford Study oil 8"x10"
Hereford Study oil 8"x10"

I originally started this as a demo for my painting class and thought it would be fun to finish it. I also have a commission that involves Herefords, so it’s doing double duty.

Afternoon Light, Pismo Beach oil 10"x8"
Afternoon Light, Pismo Beach oil 10"x8"

I did this one yesterday in a couple of hours. Sometimes it’s fun just to smoosh the paint around.

And, finally, a drawing of some grouse that I photographed in Mongolia. Not sure of the species yet.

Sand grouse, Wolff's carbon pencil on drawing paper
Sand grouse, Wolff's carbon pencil on drawing paper

I really like the work of Mark Eberhard, who has a background in graphic design and uses it to great effect in his paintings. When I saw the image I shot of what was a good-sized flock, I was struck by the pure design possibilities. To be continued…..

Mongolia Monday- Camel Drawings

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Here’s a few bactrian camel drawings I did in about an hour this morning. They were done on vellum bristol with a Wolff’s carbon pencil. The head drawing is a little more finished. The full body study was really just to capture the pose and lay in the shadow areas. You can see how I corrected one of the hind legs. The small hind leg study was to learn more about the structure. So, one subject, three different goals. As usual, do try this at home.

Bactrian camel head study
Bactrian camel head study
Bactrian camel studies
Bactrian camel studies

EBay Listings- 1-24-09; Sunset, Dry Lagoon SOLD

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Sunset, Dry Lagoon, Humboldt County, oil on canvasboard, 8"x10"
"Sunset, Dry Lagoon", Humboldt County, oil on canvasboard, 8"x10"
Trinidad Mist, Humboldt County, oil on canvasboard, 6"x8"
"Trinidad Seamist", Humboldt County, oil on canvasboard, 6"x8"

Marketing Our Art During the Financial Meltdown, Part 2; A Work In Progress And…. Cute Cat Alert!

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CONTINUING FROM LAST FRIDAY-

Strength in Numbers! If you think about it, one could say that the ability to be alone and self-motivate are prerequisites for being a working artist. In a sense, painting is a “solitary vice”. So, it may take some conscious effort, in planning the marketing of your work, to consider the multiplier effect of joining with others. This hit me two years ago when I was offered the opportunity to have a solo show at a financial management company. (I should note that where I live there are really no commercial galleries as the term is generally understood. Most spaces, some of which are very nice, are “piggybacked” on another business. However, the community is very supportive of its artists and finding a place to show art publicly is pretty easy. Sales are uncommon, but, boy, do we get fussed over.) I’ve had a few solo shows here and have always gotten a gratifying turnout. But it occurred to me that if I invited some of my animal/nature artist friends, it would not only be more fun, but that then their “fan base” would see my art, too.

I invited four colleagues and they all said “yes”. The reception was packed, I sold two giclees, another artist sold one and a good enough time was had by all that we decided to do it again. Last year we added a couple of new artists and moved to a different venue. We also invited the local wildlife care center folks to attend with a couple of their birds as an added attraction. Once again, a great turnout, both for the reception and during the month that the show was up.

The next show, Wild Visions 3, will be in October and we will have a nationally known wildlife artist as our Special Guest (more later). While, in a sense, it’s “my” show, we all pitch in with ideas (one of the other artists came up with the name) and work the reception. We’re exploring various ideas for “growing” the show.

Should you consider finding a small group to show with whose work is complementary to yours? With the right people it really is “the more, the merrier”.

What’s Your Story? There’s a lot of artists out there. Good ones, too. How do you make your work stand out? One way is your Story. What is it that sets you apart? If you’re going to successfully get local or national editorial coverage (back to last week’s “spend no money”), you have to have a hook to get the attention of a reporter or editor. Not to mention collectors. They are buying your story along with your art.

Now, you can’t just make something up out of whole canvas, so to speak. And you don’t need to.  You’re an artist. That gives you a leg up already since people in general are really interested in what artists do and get a kick out of knowing one. Find something particular that you do and why, test drive it and see what the response is.

I like to travel and it’s a necessary part of creating my art. I happen to really like Mongolia, which has a certain cachet as a destination. So, for me, it’s kind of a no-brainer. My story is my travels to Mongolia and the paintings and drawings that are the result.

Filtering how you present yourself and your art this way can simplify your choices, too, since there’s never enough time to do everything you want/need to do.

To be continued…

NEW WORK IN PROGRESS!

I’ve been fighting off a sinus infection for the past three weeks and haven’t gotten in much easel time, but I have made progress on this new painting from reference that I shot year before last down near Cambria, California. There is a huge elephant seal colony right on the beach next to Highway 1 and they really put on a show. Lots of male posturing.

Young male elephant seals
Young male elephant seals

NEW CAT UPDATE!

Just for fun, here’s a few photos of Alexander, who’s doing great. He’s gotten nose to nose greetings now from two of the three other cats and one is now willing to play with him.

Alexander, first day outside
Alexander, first day allowed outside
Alex in one of David's desk drawers
Alex in one of David's desk drawers
Alex in a new favorite place
Alex in a new favorite place




This Just In- America 2.0

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Dear World:

We, the United States of America , your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2008 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4th. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

The United States of America

(from http://www.theartistscenter.com, going the rounds by email, apparently)

There’s some great marketing info. at the site here