Before Brush Hits Paper

NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO OF ART BY WENDY

When the call came, I was delighted.

 Take some pictures of Lucy and do a drawing. 

Lots of free rein.  My imagination went into overtime. 

Lucy is a lovely little Tortoiseshell Cat.  She loves to talk and will issue her commands in a very demanding voice.  Feed me! Where are my treats? Pet me! Treats are actually her favourite thing and if she thinks you have any well . . . She has a lot to say about it. She is independent.  She knows what she likes and knows how to get it!

She is black, well almost, one or two little white spots and a few light golden spots but basically very dark.  She is an inside cat which means the photo shoot is inside not much natural light. 

Lucy 1 - Graphite

Art making is about problem solving. So much is happening before you put your brush to paper. You know what it is like.  The excitement builds.  Plans start spinning in your head.  You can't sleep. You don't hear a thing.  You're in your own world. Trying this. Discarding. Sorting. Figuring .

Don't you just love this stage of a Picture!  I was on that bus.  I could hardly wait to get to work.

It was a sunny day so with camera in hand I started.  Lucy wanted to wonder so down on my knees I followed along.  (No head tilted pictures for me).   We stopped, she sat, she looked.  I clicked.  (thank heavens for digital cameras, you know what you have right away.  How did we survive with film?)  Lighting was bad, she was too shadowed. Adjust my settings. Oh oh, she moved.  In the sun. Adjust again. She jumped up on the chair. Turned her back. 

And so it went. Too dark.  Head turned. She's gone.  Too close.  "No Lucy I don't have any food for you."  ( I think she felt I should be paying her for the photos)  Click. Click. Click. Body turned.  Lights wrong.  Eyes closed.  Head down. Click. Click. Click. 

We took a break.  

Lucy 3 - Graphite

Of course the treats came out.  Lucy was happy.  She cleaned herself.  Settled down. Moved into shadow.  Rattled the treat bag. She moved. I crawled. Click. click. click.

Finally Lucy decided we were done.

The shoot was over but I had lots of material to work from. Working with the owner we narrowed it down to 3 of our favourites.  We couldn't decide so we didn't.  I did all three!

Not too soon to start thinking about a pet portrait for Christmas. They are a lovely way to celebrate a cherished pet. Give me a call and we can get started. 

 Be sure to like and share my posts. You won't miss a single one if you follow by email or Like my Facebook Page. Keep up with all the art events by joining my email list (see sidebar)

 Have a great artful day, Wendy

Can you Draw Upside Down???

NEW WORKS FROM THE STUDIO OF ART BY WENDY

I mean work away with everything

UPSIDE DOWN!

Paper, reference photo reversed!

Necessity forced me to give it a go!!

Western Hawk Owl (We think)

My Owl is one of my projects for the Mount Revelstoke Show from my Residency this summer. I really wanted to emphasis my owl up in the tree; hence the long, thin format.  However, it was far to uncomfortable when working on the top, to lean over the whole picture so I decided to turn things around.

What a difference it made!

When you work on a drawing it is so easy to fall into a pattern of drawing 'what you think is there' rather than 'what is there'.  That old left brain, right brain thing comes into play.  The left brain sees a branch and says, yeah, that's a branch and it looks like this.  But the right brain says well no, it kind of bends here, moves there, gets lighter and darker, it seems to have a life of its own.  Unfortunately, the left brain usually win these discussions and the drawing ends up looking very boring with everything looking very nondescript.

Working upside down I found that I worked with shapes and values more, my poor left brain had no idea what I was drawing and kind of left me alone.  It made it so much easier to create tangled branches with interesting shapes and lots of volume.

I turned the picture around so you could see how things were going!

We spotted this owl when hiking on the trails on Mount Revelstoke. We were really very fortunate to see him as he totally blended into the dead branches of the tree in a very dark and shady spot. I tried several settings on my camera to get some shots and was really pleased that some of my pictures turned out.  We are not quite sure what kind of owl he is but we think he is a Western Hawk Owl.  We are just waiting for confirmation.  I should know by the time I am finished.
Note: Just confirmed it is a Northern Hawk Owl.  Oct. 6, 2014

Well I have to get my peddle to the metal and get this guy finished, he has to be ready to head off to Revelstoke by Thanksgiving Weekend!!

Capturing animals in graphite is one of my passion and one of my specialties.  If you would like to commission a drawing of one of your pets Contact Wendy .  I would be pleased to work with you to bring your project to life.  See more of my Pet Commission Work on my Commission Page.  

Special Note: To learn more about the Residency see my first three August 2014 Posts beginning with this One.