Category: drawing

A rose coloring page for email subscribers

Published on by kmgunnart18 Comments

I’ve had this idea pinging around my brain for about a month now, and yesterday for art group I sat still and just did it. I will be making pen-and-ink contour drawings (as in simple line drawings) as a fun little gift for my email subscribers to print out and color for themselves. Right now, one a month feels very doable for me. The very first coloring page is a rose, since Valentine’s Day is next month. I still need to hammer out a couple technical details, but I should have those squared away in a couple days.

The start of the idea

This all started because conventional wisdom in the current blogging space is that email subscribers want to be wooed with some kind of gift or freebie to sign up. For some bloggers, this is an easy thing to whip up. For an art blogger who wants to sell her artwork, it didn’t seem so obvious. I am persistent if nothing else – some might call me stubborn even. Browsing through examples of gifts for various email lists, I saw my niche: coloring pages. THAT I can do!

At the start of art group yesterday, I asked the others if they would subscribe to an email list to get a printable coloring page “like this.” Immediately one of the other artists, who works 3d instead of 2d, responded with a very enthusiastic, “Hell yeah!” I guess that answered any doubts I was having.

A rose for the first coloring page

contour drawing of a rose as a coloring page
rose coloring page for the email subscriber list

This is the first coloring page, a single rose with only enough detail to make it obvious what it is. The original is 9 by 12 inches, and is for sale if you’d like to hang it on your wall. I will NOT be making prints of this available, and the printable coloring page is 8.5 by 11 inches (standard US letter size). For those outside the US, that is approximately 21.5 cm by 28 cm.

I’ve used this rose drawing before

If you are thinking this rose drawing looks familiar, you are correct! I used it last January during my month of charcoal drawing. It is the basic outline for my black and white charcoal piece, A Single Rose.

A Single Rose charcoal drawing
A Single Rose, traditional charcoal drawing

This actually started out as a practice exercise, but I kept working on it because it just flowed out of the charcoal and onto the page at the time. It’s in my new sketchbook, and the edges are looking a bit worn already. I could do it again, or even in color, if you’d like to commission that. Or you could just order an art print of it in whatever size you need to beautify that empty space on your wall.

More coloring pages to come

I already have two more pen-and-ink drawings for the next two coloring pages: the line drawing for my Apples and Oranges 1 as well as one of a rooster crowing. Perhaps by the time I get to the rooster page, I’ll finally have a painting of it available. It was one of those days when I brought my sketchbook with me for the waiting room at the doctor’s office.

Want on the email list to get your monthly coloring page? There is a sign-up box at the bottom of each individual blog post, as well as a sign-up form at the top of the sidebar (which is below the posts on mobile touchscreen phones). Keep scrolling down to find it. Once you’ve entered your email address, the email service will send you a confirmation link, which you need to click to verify that yes, you did sign up for this. If you sign up after the 15th of the month, you can always email me and ask for a previous one.

Finally, do we want to have a cute or clever name for the email list? If so, does anyone have any ideas to share in the comments? My last two working brain cells have not come up with anything, so I am open to suggestions if you have them.

Award-winning artwork 2022 Creative Arts Festival

Published on by kmgunnart19 Comments

In the absence of an email congratulating me this year, I had assumed I did not win any places for my entries to this year’s VA regional healthcare system’s Creative Arts Festival. As of checking the post office box yesterday, I am happy to report that assumption is wrong. All three of my entries this year took either first or second place! Here is the breakdown of my award-winning artwork. Oh, and the medals in the images? Those were in the envelope, and now hang on the shelf next to my desk.

First place award watercolor painting

snapshot of the first place medal for the watercolor painting Pumpkin Close-Up with on-image caption and inset of artwork
the actual medal mailed to me, with the watercolor painting that won the award

For the second year in a row, I took first place in the watercolor division! Those of y’all reading last year recall I won the first place slot (and advancement to the national competition) with my Flamingo in Rippled Water. This year it is my Pumpkin Close-Up that moves up to national competition – and the original artwork is still available if you would like to hang it on your wall and boast you own a real “award-winning” painting. If the original 10 by 14 inches is just too small, you can order a fine art print large enough to fit most people’s walls at my Pixels store. Or, if you want to wear my art like my mother sister enjoy, check out the apparel options at my RedBubble store.

Second place award winning charcoal drawing

2nd place award winning artwork Two Flamingoes in monochromatic drawing division
Charcoal artwork Two Flamingoes won 2nd place award in monochromatic drawing

Last year, I took first place in the monochromatic drawing category with my white pencil on black paper Dew on a Calla Lily. This year, both Twitter and Facebook voted that I should enter this charcoal drawing of Two Flamingoes, and it took second place. Not bad, and it really IS an unexpected medium for this subject. Most people who draw or paint flamingoes will do so in color.

Want the original drawing to put on display as award-winning artwork? It’s a small 8 by 10 inches, so it will fit into small spaces if need be. If you have a need or strong desire to go BIG, you can always order a larger art print from Pixels. I don’t currently have it up at RedBubble, but may add it in if people ask.

Second place award in oil painting with an oil pastel

Now we get to the award I feel the most pride when I think about it. This would be taking “just” second place in the oil painting division – but with an oil pastel picture! Seriously. I figure the artists who invest in the materials for oil painting and the time involved (because it takes quite a while to dry!) do so when they are confident in their artist skill. Or maybe it’s just me who has hesitated so long. Going up against oil paint on canvas and still winning a medal with my oil pastel on paper feels good.

2nd place award winning artwork Book Reading By Candlelight oil pastel artwork
Book Reading By Candlelight, oil pastel artwork won 2nd place in the oil painting category

If you want the 11 by 14 inch original artwork, I recommend buying it sooner rather than later. My friend Keashia loves this piece, and will be debating anew whether she wants to buy it or not. Want a larger art print? Head to my Pixels shop for those (or a jigsaw puzzle). This image is definitely in my RedBubble shop for apparel and accessories.

Weekly email newsletter starting

If y’all have read down this far, you might as well fill in the little form at the bottom of this post for email subscription and a weekly newsletter (especially for those weeks I don’t get a new post finished!) that I will be sending out on Fridays. It’s been on my to-do list for months, but now it is in place!

Third virtual art walk this Friday

We’re having so much fun doing these virtual art walks, and will do another this weekend. I of course will be posting on Friday so I can do a new Feature Friday. We have at least one new artist playing, so check back in.

Working on my artist’s statement

Published on by kmgunnart8 Comments

I am in Florida, and we got lucky with the named storm that blew through here. Actually, it didn’t fully blow through as it shifted south. Knowing I would definitely lose my internet access (we are on satellite), and possibly even electric power, I decided to assign myself some hurricane homework for my offline time. I decided it is time to work on my artist’s statement. I do have a simple starting artist statement: “I make art to bring some beauty into this world,” but I feel I need to expand on that.

For the past couple years – since my husband persuaded me to get back into art – I have just made art that makes me happy. Some pieces have succeeded quite well (see this year’s entries into the regional VA Creative Arts Festival) and some I think I need to redo them better, but I picked up a series of articles on crafting a personal vision statement that I printed out and read through while hiding in the house from wind and rain the past couple days.

Vision statement series overview

This series of blog posts or emails breaks down what a vision statement is, why it matters, gives some examples of personal vision statements (including a couple from famous people), and then walks the reader through a four-step process of crafting a vision statement. It’s quite general, since it was written to be broadly applicable, so I intend to work through it here on the blog so anyone who wants to can come along for this small personal journey. I will of course be applying it to the concept of an artist’s statement, which is the lens I am viewing it through, but this can be used in any context.

So what is a vision statement and how is it different from an artist’s statement?

Generally speaking, a vision statement is a tool used by business and organizations to convey their mission, values, and goals succinctly to employees, shareholders, and other parties. It also helps guide decisions to stay in alignment with the overall purpose of the business or group. A personal vision statement – which this series of lessons is focused on – is using this idea on a personal level to focus on goals and values. Sometimes this will include a purpose in life or a desire to leave an impact on this world as your legacy.

An artist’s statement is a more-narrowly defined vision statement. I received a great email on the subject back in the spring from Inside Art, but apparently this is another email-only article. I’ve emailed the author to ask if he’ll post it so everyone can read it, but two very short quotes will get today’s idea across: “An artist’s statement is a paragraph that introduces viewers to a body of your work,” and “Your statement is actually crucial to how art professionals understand, talk about, draw attention to, and attempt to generate interest your work.” If you stop and think about that for more than a minute, you begin to realize that is some serious and heavy lifting for just a sentence or two!

So this is what I am starting: a series of blog posts about crafting a personal vision statement and/or my artist’s statement. I’ll know later in the series if I am doing one or two statements as I work through the steps. I am inviting all y’all (that’s the plural) to join me in this endeavor, either as a fellow participant and traveler or just as an interested spectator. I am happy to share the process here, as it often helps me to get feedback.

Artwork still in progress

The other thing I intended to work on during the storm was this sketch that I started earlier in the week, only intending it to be a simple line sketch to transfer to my watercolor paper to paint. As I was working on it over the previous weekend, I realized I am enjoying the drawing process so much I just keep going on with it. There are two main limitations to my drawing time, and both are cats in the house. They were both all about cuddling my lap for their comfort while the wind gusted and the rain fell. Here is where I am still at as of this morning:

pencil sketch for new jack o'lantern painting
pencil sketch for new jack o’lantern painting

Behind the storm, we have cooler temperatures and now the sun has even come out with a lovely cool blue sky that reminds me of the watercolor painting I did last December call Make Hay While the Sun Shines. My mom loves the title of this painting, as her parents used this phrase a lot when she was growing up (Grandpa was a farmer all his life) though Mom says I put “too much” sky in this particular piece. I told her that is how it feels down here on a cloudless day.

We didn’t even need to run our generator yesterday because we only lost power from midmorning to midafternoon, so the gas in the fuel cans will likely go into the truck’s tank. Here’s hoping this is our only late-season named storm for the year.

Entries for this year’s creative arts festival

Published on by kmgunnart12 Comments

Y’all recall last year when I placed first in two of the three categories I entered in the regional VA healthcare-sponsored creative arts festival? I am entering again, but this year picking the artwork to enter seemed much more difficult, given I can only enter three pieces again this year. I work in six media categories, not including mixed, and have made multiple pieces in most of those categories in the past year. So I took to Facebook and even Twitter to ask for opinions on which pieces I ought to put in the competition. This actually did not help as much as I hoped.

Oil pastel artwork

Oil pastels are not judged in the pastel category for this competition, but against oil painting as they define the category to include oil paint, oil sticks (which I have yet to try) and oil pastel. Basically, they want anything that includes pigment with some form of oil to fix it to a surface, which is not limited to canvas either. I felt my two best pieces from the past year are my Sunset Over the Hayfield landscape and my candle still life, Book Reading by Candlelight.

Folks on Twitter preferred the hayfield, while folks on Facebook preferred Candlelight, and when added together the votes were just about a dead heat. Any wonder why I asked for help deciding? In the end, I stopped to think (while milking goats) about the category and potential competition, and went with Candlelight because a bit of the textured paper shows in Hayfield, which might be enough to knock my piece down compared to the more traditional paintings.

Book Reading by Candlelight oil pastel still life
Book Reading By Candlelight oil pastel still life composition

Picking a watercolor painting

For this category, it was pretty easy for me. I simply love how my Pumpkin Close-Up came out last autumn. Truth be told, I really have not made many watercolor paintings over the past year, and this particular pumpkin one is my favorite of the three I did last fall (even though my mom just loves my Jack O’Lantern).

Pumpkin Close-Up watercolor painting
Pumpkin Close-Up watercolor painting

Picking a charcoal drawing

If y’all have been reading since the beginning of the year, you will know I was on a major charcoal drawing kick that started prior to New Year’s Day and continued through the spring goat kid bottling season. I made quite a few charcoal drawings, both traditional black and the tinted charcoal I am still experimenting with.

I managed to get my short list down to three, then once again asked on Facebook and Twitter which I ought to enter. The results surprised me. Personally, I had been thinking to enter my Apples 3 still life, but my husband said he really likes my Two Flamingoes. Meanwhile, my Single White Rose (in the same post as the flamingoes) tends to get positive reactions from folks. Both Twitter and Facebook enthusiastically said I should enter the flamingoes, though the rose was in second. What sealed the deal for me was the comments about how flamingoes usually aren’t depicted in black and white, and that I nailed the expression on the front bird’s face.

Two Flamingoes charcoal drawing
Two Flamingoes charcoal drawing

So, there we have it: my three entries to this year’s creative arts festival. I sent them off this morning, because today is the deadline. For whatever reason, I seem to always wait until the last day to enter. Perhaps it ties in with my usual answer when asked what I think my best piece of art is. My answer is always, “The next one.”

Update with results

(December) Results are finally back, and that required its own post because all three placed!

Ox-eye Daisy drawing in charcoal and pastel pencil

Published on by kmgunnart13 Comments

I actually drew this ox-eye daisy for an art challenge back in June of 2021, but it got lost in the shuffle along with the horse head drawing in black charcoal I call Bridled. In fact, I drew it prior to Bridled, first piece of artwork for that challenge, and initially was not so pleased with it because it looks a bit different than previous drawings, even of flowers. At the time, I thought this was more of an experiment in mixed dry drawing media that didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, as it was the first time I mixed black traditional charcoal with splashes of color from pastel pencils, all on toned paper.

Inspiration behind the drawing

The inspiration behind this drawing is actually quite simple: I hadn’t drawn a daisy in ages, and wanted to see what I could do with it. I had recently purchased the Canson Mi-Tientes assorted colors pad, marked as being for pastels in particular though I had used a sheet for my Blue Dragonfly I did in colored pencil. So with an idea in my mind, I next went to Pixabay to hunt for a reference photo that I wanted to use, in the process creating a folder of nothing but daisies photographs. (Trust me when I say, there will be many more daisies in my artwork!) I found this one, then cropped it to my satisfaction, and then it was a matter of making marks with the traditional black charcoal until it looked like a daisy.

charcoal and pastel pencil drawing Ox-Eye Daisy
Ox-Eye Daisy, 9 x 12 inch charcoal and pastel pencil drawing, original available $100 USD

Experimenting with color alongside the charcoal

Not satisfied with just black marks on the toned paper, I then decided to mix my dry media, just to see how I liked the result. I had a small set of eight pastel pencils that came with a twenty-some year old drawing set, the kind that tends to sell well around the end of the year, and the set has white, yellow, blue, and a medium purple. I purchased a sepia toned oil charcoal pencil to try out, and used that for the shading on the ox-eye center. Then I fiddled some more with the shadows on the petals, first with blue, then with purple, then added in the white highlights, but leaving the midtone areas blank to allow the paper’s tone to show. Lastly, I picked up the bright yellow and used that for the highlights on the top of the flower’s center.

Purchase links for Ox-Eye Daisy drawing

The 9 x 12 inch original drawing is available through Daily Paintworks here. If you’d like a smaller or larger art print for your wall, you can order what prints you need through my Pixels store. If you’d like this printed on apparel or accessories, check out the various swag at my RedBubble shop. Personally I think it looks best on the classic coffee mug:

two mugs on a shelf showing both sides of the print design Ox-eye Daisy
my mixed dry media drawing Ox-eye Daisy on a classic mug at RedBubble

Evolution of my feelings about this drawing

As I have hinted at throughout this post, my feelings about this experimental drawing have changed over the fifteen months since I made it. Now when I look at it, I get the subtle impression of movement – and given the floral subject, that movement feels like a very gentle swaying in the slightest of breezes, almost nodding a greeting to the sun’s rays that must be hitting the flower in spots where I put the white on the petals and the bright yellow of the center. Usually I have all the subtlety of a wrecking ball, and am notorious for not picking up on hints, so this change surprised me when I reviewed this in preparation for the daisy challenge this summer.

More daisy artwork since then

It has not been that long since I did the short three day art challenge with the challenge theme being daisies, but I thought this was a good spot to mention those for newer readers. Working backwards, and very much related to this piece, is my Daisies in tinted charcoal. The day prior I did a single daisy in watercolor using only four colors, though if I redo that one I will see how it looks with only three colors. To start the challenge, and cover down on a different art challenge from a different source, I did a blind contour drawing of a partially-painted daisy that is still (!) on the easel, waiting for me finish. It made a good model to stare at as I drew without looking at the sketch pad. If you are trying to parse that statement … just go read the post. Seriously, blind contour drawings are an “in-context” thing.

Finally, here’s a small selection of daisy photos from Bob Decker’s blog archive. He seems to have just about every angle covered for this one flower.

As a final thought, here is a very accurate article from Inside Art about the truth behind a quote attributed to Edgar Degas: “Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.” It hit my inbox last evening, and boy howdy did it resonate with me! Something to think about as I settle in to work on more art today.