The White Orchid

ORCHIDS
original drawing with conte on toned paper
size: 8.5" x 10.5"
copyright MaryAnn Cleary

This drawing is of an orchid that I drew from a plant that I have....hopefully it will be able to stand my plant care and survive. I thought that I would take photos as I progress through the drawing. I may add some more finishing touches, but for now I need to just set it aside for a day or so.

I am thinking that I may do something more with the background and flowers, but for now it is best to just leave it alone. If there are any changes, I will add them.

Here is the latest change...a couple more adjustments

MaryAnn

P.S. Please feel free to leave any comments.

Where to Next?

"Julie"
acrylic 16"x16"
an early work done after Zemsky-Hines workship
copyright MaryAnn Cleary

Many years ago I took a workshop by Jessica Zemsky and Jack Hines when I lived in Montana. Jessica and Jack live in a little town called Big Timber, Montana. It is beautiful in that part of Montana. As a result of that workshop, I initially began working in acrylics and sometimes watercolors. One of the things that is troubling me now as an artist is that I love working in several different types of media. As an artist, I feel that I should be developing my technique and style. Does that mean I must stick with one medium? I hope not. As one of my art instructors, Jim Garrison, in Arizona said, "painting is like drawing, only you are using a brush and paint instead of charcoal or a pencil". I also feel that depending on the mood and feeling that an artist is trying to get across to the viewer, one media may work better than another.

For now, I will continue doing my daily paintings in oil. I love using the small gallery wrapped canvases as I can paint part of the painting on the side to draw the viewer into the painting. I also like the quick and more instantaneous results (good or bad). Other media that I enjoy working with are conte and charcoal together on a toned paper as well as watercolor and colored pencils. When I use either of the last two media, I use many layers to build the values and colors that are needed. A work can take many, many hours to complete. However, I like the flexibility of using them wherever you are, especially the pencils.

By the way, Julie is my daughter. She now has her own little one, Nico, and lives with her partner in Montana not far from Big Timber.

Please leave comments as they would be appreciated. I would like to know how others figure out their style and who they are as artists.

MaryAnn

A Little Drawing.....

Nico's Toes

(final version)

copyright MaryAnn Cleary

The process of getting to the end of "Nico's Toes"....with photos....



TOOLS USED

1. a piece of toned Canson Mi Tientes paper smooth side
2. erasers...all types and varieties (kneaded, red, white, pencil....try them all to find what works for you)
3. charcoal pencils
4. conte sticks (black, sanguine, white)
5. a chamois (small piece of tanned leather)
6. a small cotton cloth
7. an erasing shield
8. smudge stick
9. tape, newsprint and a drawing board
10. photo or draw from life....(I like using charcoal and conte to sketch from life)

Here are some of the things that I use for this type of drawing technique

The PROCESS......

Stage 1: The paper is first taped to newsprint that is on a drawing board and then a rough sketch is drawn.

Stage 2: Here charcoal and the sanguine conte are used. The chamois will actually pull some of the charcoal or conte off of the paper when rubbed. The small piece of cotton cloth will blend and soften the charcoal/conte. It is best not to use fingers due to the oil on your hands. This could have a detrimental effect on the life of the drawing.

Stage 3: Above one can see the progression of the drawing. The conte is blended, charcoal is used in the dark value areas and then an eraser is used to pull out the lighter areas. Using an eraser is much like drawing.

Stage 4: This is were white conte is used to add highlights. This must be used at the very end of the drawing and I do not blend it.

Nico's Toes...not the final version..

Stage 5: This was supposed to be the final drawing with my name signed to it. However, I really did not like it at all so I set it aside for a day. After looking at it for a day, I knew that I hated the end drawing so I ended up redoing it. I erased a lot of the dark areas out with both the red eraser and one of those soft, big ones. I then added more of a sanguine color and redrew some areas. My mistake with this one was probably using charcoal to do the initial drawing instead of a sanguine conte. By using the charcoal, the dark areas were just too overworked. The drawing at the beginning of the post is how I am going to leave it. (I may soften the highlights at the top, but for now I will leave it as is.)

This really wasn't one of my better attempts, but I thought that it would be helpful to see the process. Even if one goofs up, it still can be corrected. Next time I will use a lot less charcoal and start the drawing using the mid-tone sanguine conte and then use the charcoal and the white for the light and dark areas. It is very important to save the white for the very end. There have been times when I just could not resist putting it on the paper. What happens then is that the white gets muddy looking, especially if a person tries to work it in with other colors.

When the drawing is finally finished, I use my chop (this is a stone with a mark carved into the bottom of it) from when I lived in China, and then also put my signature on it. With this drawing, the chop actually showed up better when I erased some of the charcoal areas - when I decided that I hated the drawing. In the almost final drawing, I did stamp the chop onto the drawing, but it did not show up too well. In a future post, I can show some photos of my chop (I did get several), but one is special as it was done by an artist who was very good at it. He went to school to learn calligraphy and was excellent.

Hope this process was interesting...

MaryAnn

The Beginning of a New Blog... or a Line in Time

This blog will be a more personal one where I will share how I go about creating a drawing, some art history, what makes a good composition and other things about art and my experience with it. At least that is where I plan to start and I know as I write, the blog will evolve. I hope to include my experience as I try to make it as an artist...an unsurmountable task I feel at times. There are times that I feel totally discouraged and then there are times that I know that I must stay focused, do what I love....and probably get another job (at least a parttime one) in order to survive until some sort of income is established.

The first thing that I did start doing was my blog of a daily painting. I knew in order to get my skills back to where they once were after working for a living as an engineer that I would need to discipline myself on a daily basis to create. It is a bit like riding a bike....I am a little rusty, but once I began drawing and painting daily again, the skills were still there and came back quickly. Things started to "click" and it was not such a chore to get down on the canvas or paper what I wanted to express. You can see my progress over the last couple of months by checking out my other blog "Spirit River Studio".

The second thing that I began was a website. See http://www.maryanncleary.com/ . I used a template to begin with and even with that, setting it up took an incredible amount of time. I know that eventually I will fine tune it add things, redo things, but it is also nice having a place that speaks of professionalism....is it worth doing it this way. I am not sure. The site has only be up and running for a couple of weeks. I also added "Google Analytics" to both sites. It was a little tricky setting it up ~ especially for someone who knows little about all the html script, etc. ~ and I think that I have it so that I can at least track my traffic progress.

The third thing I did was to write an article for EmptyEasel. Initially, I was surprised at it being accepted. It was a "How To" article on making a paint brush cleaner. With that article, the owner of Empty Easel also provided a link to my blogsite and I also had a link to Empty Easel. It did help with increasing traffic to my blog site a little.

The next thing that I have been doing is also putting my small paintings up for sale on eBay and I also have an eBay store. So far I have sold three paintings and I am at least breaking even with all the fees...insertion fees, fees when you sell, fees for paypal, fees for the store..... I really did not think that I would "make it" on eBay, but I did think that it may help with driving traffic to my blog and website. The only thing is people must "google" your name to get to the site since eBay has a policy against putting your blog or website in with your description as it would be considered a conflict of interest....they want all your money. I am also considering putting things up at a lower price...I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. Since I am trying to develop a following, it may be a good thing, but I may also end up "giving away" a lot of paintngs.... I guess it may be better than having a pile of them sitting at home. However, I am building up inventory if I decide to do a show.

What I am finding is the marketing part of this business of art is taking up considerable time and effort so a "Line in Time" will cover not only the drawing line, but the written business side or line of art.

More on tomorrow or the next day or so.
MaryAnn