Bubbles

Finally I'm feeling better that I can get back to making art again. Here is my sketch for today. I'm feeling kind of lost on what I want to focus on creating. Fooled around with the idea of maybe doing a kids series of all the things my daughter loves. I like animals, nature, cute girls, and just whatever. Thinking it's going to be a few month or more of painting continuously until I find my thing. Boy do I wish there were more hours in a day. My daughter goes to bed later and later. This week it's been 11:30 or 12! That give me no time but nap time to do any steady painting or a few hours on the weekdays. 

Sketch Dump

Artist Personal Photos

I've been reading tons of articles online about art business and marketing your art. Yeah, I should really get some actual books on the subject. Until then, I'll read articles online. One of those articles was about how art blogs are pretty pointless. They are filled with your work and some description of the end result. The article went on to say how art blogs are not personal so most people lose interest because they feel no connection to the artist. That was when it hit me that it was all true. All the blogs I like were very personal. My favorite blogs make me feel like I'm friends or want to be friends with the owner. Same for artists that I like. One artist I adore and she is always posting pictures of herself, her studio, random pretty photos on tumblr, and her art supplies. Every photo I see from her give me the feeling like I'm there and that I know her. Even on her artist website she has all her selfies and random photos she takes. Add another goal to my list. * Be more a more personable artist.

Here's a start.

Follow me on my artist tumblr. http://www.priscillageorge.tumblr.com

Taking Pictures Of Your Art

Thank goodness for my guest room! Even though I feel like my townhouse gets a lot of light, it really hit me today that it doesn't have the best lighting scenarios. I had to go all the way to the 3rd floor where the bedrooms are to get some nice bright morning light. Even then I'm not positive this the best possible photo I could get of my work.  Either way here is my first official completed artwork. Now I have something to put on my site. I have one other that I need to take a photo of that I did many months back. 

Good Sketches Don't Equal Good Paintings

The Sketch

Yesterday I posted my sketch for a watercolor I was working on. I loved the sketch...loved it a lot! Well I didn't bother to check the facial measurements when I did the sketch on my watercolor paper. Resulted in a totally different looking girl. I'm not too pleased. I'll have to take a better photo in the morning. It's okay but not what I wanted. 

The Final Watercolor

Photo References

For years I carried my camera around with me all the time. Taking photos of my surroundings was second nature. Last several years it hasn't been that way and I haven't taken many photos. Instead of finding my camera to be awesome it was cumbersome and bulky. Now that I have started to paint again I realized I had no photo references of my own. Painting Plein Air is something I would love to do. I'm a slow painter and I don't have enough free time to travel to the heavily wooded areas to paint. 

 Here are some of my photos from todays family hike that give inspiration for a series of paintings. Who doesn't love nature and trees paintings?

Painting Failures

  Months ago I had the artistic urge to paint all the artwork for my daughters room. Woodland creatures of every kind and any kind of woodsy theme. I am dabbling in watercolor since it's fast and easier to clean up and start up periodically throughout the day. This was drawn up months and months ago. I've been staring at it on my board all taped up and ready to be painted thinking that I wanted it done but scared to mess it up. With this new found burst of energy to start painting, crafting, or sketching everyday I thought I would knock this out. Sadly it did not come out the way I wanted.

It's an acceptable painting that I will still hang in her room but it just didn't meet the standards in my head. Plus it's far different from the painting style I normally do. Details are my thing. I love to paint every detail and make it as realistic as possible. Well, I have 2 of those watercolor paintings already for my daughters room. Instead I thought something more simple would even it out. To me this just look amateurish. Again, not pleased but it was an experience in attempting to paint in a different style and FAILING! Each painting is a learning experience and a step towards developing ones artistic skills....right?

Searching...

For the past few weeks I've been really dwelling on the artist mother role. There is another mother that is an artist who I have facebook friended and talked to a few times in person who is also searching for the answer to balancing the mother role and the artist role. We have found it hard to work on our pieces. Also we have unanimously agreed that we are addicted to the internet with all it's inspiration and time sucking abilities.

I came across this blog post today in my online search to find other artist mother who have it figured out. The blog post is titled Need more time for art? and really hits on the head that there is time but you have to find out what you are doing this a time sucker. Four of the 5 things that were listed to be restful but aren't  I do often, if not daily.

• Internet...how I love you and hate you. Sucking all my time but yet giving me this hope, drive, and inspiration to create. Time really flies on the internet.

• I'm not a tv watcher but I do watch a show or 2 during nap time ...so that could count. Easily an hour or 2 some days.

• Facebooking, yep I have the urge to always be up to date. Everyday I'm sucked into keeping up with a select few groups and making sure I don't miss anything interesting on pages I follow.
• Extra housework is not always something I get sucked into doing. In the past it was important for me to have every little portion of the house clean and tidy. It drove me crazy! When we went from a one story house to a 3 story townhouse it become much easier to ignore 2 floors and focus on the one I spend all day on which is the living room and kitchen. 
• Shopping I have to admit I do when I'm bored. Needing to run a quick errand is a good excuse of mine to turn a few needed things into a shopping trip on slow days coming back from something.

After reading the blog post it has really made me hyper-aware of what I am doing that is a time sucker. Today I felt accomplished by getting some crafting in by jarring all my dried goods and prettying up the lids. Doing the sketch of the owl for my daughters baking soda air freshener.  I'll post it tomorrow since I didn't get a picture today since I finished late but I did another little art project for my daughters room. I've been wanting to make a bow and hair clip holder for her room.. Previously I placed everything into a planter but wasn't pleased with the look. Plus I never dug down in the planter to get to any other bows. I was wanting to make a holder that was ribbons and a picture frame..you can find several pinterest tutorials on it. Then the idea hit me to look in my art closet and see if I could find another way to use ribbon and make a holder without having a picture frame. Thumbtacks and ribbon. perfect! How to make the thumb tacks pretty....I had little wood circles. Okay so gluing the circles on the thumb tacks but now how to make it look pretty. Well of course the answer to making wood circles pretty in a jiffy was to do some simple woodland animal drawings on them with pen. This led me to sketching and before I knew it my project was complete. The most time sucking part of it was putting all the bows and clips up. You really notice how many bows there are when they are out of the planter. I'll show you all that tomorrow.