Laurie's Drawing Board

Here come the shadows

Just a quick post to update where I'm at at the moment... Well need more adjusting of values. Trying to get a good sense of the different shadows and the light or lack of reflected back..

The tree takes shape

Need to push thru now to try to get this done this weekend. I've picked up a commission for a dog portrait which will start next week. I would like to get this one done for a gallery show in a couple of weeks.

So, here is my work from yesterday. The left mid/background I think is pretty much done. Will likely adjust values some once the overall piece is finished.

Minor update on the Poulnabrone piece

Spent a couple hours yesterday working on the sky and the old tree. When I walked to work the other morning, the sky was doing just what I was trying to get at... layers of low clouds with sunny horizon. Was great to look at that with the drawing fresh in my head. I think it help me understand a little better what I need to do to get to that effect... we'll see ...

New! Shaped by Time -- the working title for now...

One of the mornings I visited this place in the Burren in Ireland was simply awesome. No one was there yet (it can get very crowded with coaches and tourists). The sun hadn't yet come up over the horizon. It was late autumn and quite crisp. And quiet. A few birds, and a cows in a field not far. I walked around just looking and wondering about the people who felt this place was so special to build an impressive cairn some 5000+/- years ago. Eventually a parks worker showed up and we had quite a talk about the location and the dolmen. Altogether one of those special moments.

So Poulnabrone was built between 4900 bce and 2900 bce. It was a burial cairn, originally covered by a huge mound of stone. Over the ages the stones have been removed for fences and other buildings, leaving the innermost slabs standing. It sits in the Burren highlands in western Ireland, Co. Clare. A pretty special place for me.

8/30/10 - Contemplation - Done

8/5/2010 - I'm starting a little landscape I've had in the back of my mind. It is from a walk I took while in Ireland a few years ago. Briefly, seascape in far distance, dirt lane lined by rock wall and old windblown tree. Evening, so longer shadows. Size 5 x 7 on mellotex. Graphite.

Back to the Drawing Board

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The summer has come and gone. Whish! Now, winter is setting in with its grey skies and long nights. So I’m back to work on the drawing board, literally. Briefly, the Sibley workshop in June – awesome. Then fire season took me out to 3 separate fires in the state of Washington. Great experiences all of them. No – I’m not a firefighter! That is for the young folk. I help setup and run the fire camps. My first call was just after July 4th, and for the next month and a half I was out supporting fire fighting efforts. A whole ‘nuther story, perhaps another time.

The end of September I couldn’t (or didn’t want to) wait any longer so I returned to Ireland for a couple of weeks vacation, this time with Mom. I was very excited to share some of my favorite places with her. Just to go back was great. We briefly met with a couple of friends from the college while we acclimated from the jet lag, then I played tour guide for Mom.

Finally, mid October and I was back home and settling in for the winter. Finally back to work on drawings. Mostly I’ve been working on trying to complete a set of 5 Sporting Group head studies for a set of prints and cards (hopefully first of next year). Then a little piece I’d been wanting to do for my daughter – her two little “yappy” dogs, Tayysa and Angel.

I’m a little stuck at the moment on a good reference and layout for an Irish Setter and a Pointer for the last two Sporting Group dogs in the series. So, I’ve taken the plunge into a landscape that has been rattling around in my head for a bit. I’m sticking with pencil for now. I really like the effects and the textures and detail I can achieve with it. So, with some encouragement from the little exercise I’d done in Mike’s class way last spring, off I went.

There was this bike in the backyard of the cottage I stayed at while gong to school in Ballyvaughan. I have no idea how long it had been there. It was quite rusty and the ivy and grass had been having their way with it for a few years. It was calling out for a picture to be taken and something made of it – eventually. And then there are the rock walls I absolutely love. The different styles, textures, ways the ivy and blackberries and other bushes would climb over and around the rocks. So, the idea of the bike leaning on an old wall started bouncing around.

To date I have been working on the drawing for about 3 weeks, a couple hours a day more or less.

Now, as I move a little further into the drawing I’ve started to wonder about whether or not I want the bike to look like it has been there for years…. or someone just put it there. Each one conjures up a different story. Not sure which story will be told yet. I’m letting it unfold as I work up to the bike.

If you'd like to see more of the drawing board, go to my Drawing Board page on my website.

Sibley Workshop June 2008 Yellowstone

Not long before leaving Ireland, about a year and a half ago now, I was browsing the website of a British pencil artist I quite admire. He had just published a book which I found to be very helpful. Anyway, I'd already purchased my plane ticket home, when I found he was offering a workshop just across the water in England! Oh, if I'd known I would have postponed my go home date. Bummer. But... not long after arriving back home in the states I found he had just opened an offering for a workshop in - of all places - West Yellowstone Montana! Wow. Not only the chance to take a workshop from this wonderful artist, but to do it in my "other" favorite place - Yellowstone. Well, no hesitation, one way or the other I was going. So I signed up sure the spots would fill up quickly - which they did.

Well, that week has now come and gone, and it was well worth the wait! What a week. Mike is so generous with sharing his knowledge and helping those of us attending. To be together with about 20+ other wonderful pencil artists, all having a similar desire to draw animals and detail. Just to wander around and see how the others were tackling the exercises he gave us was eye-opening.

Well I could go on and on (which I might later...) In the meantime, here are some of the exercies from the workshop. Little tidbits of information, practice and understanding how to make that little pencil do some amazing things.

Final study using all the techniques we covered during the week.

Black Lab - The Sequel

Just a quick post of the latest Black Lab study. Still trying to get comfortable going really dark while keeping good value contrasts.

Black Lab Study

Well, this time it is a Black Lab. The challenge is the short black coat, as opposed to the the light wavy one of the golden retriever. And the other challenge I set was to do it in sections, as it often recommended. Usually I build up the entire piece as one with the idea I can keep values in line with each other. I also started it as a 12 x 16 to try a larger piece as well. Mistake! way to many challenges. So I've started over, this time it is 8 x 10 on smooth bristol.

Progress for this weekend. Been trying to identify those really dark darks and put them in. I think I'm still a little tentative. Sheesh, this has turned into a tough project for me! Good stretch tho.

My hand needs a break! Ok, there are levels of dark I wasn't aware of. I think this is getting closer. I'm finding as I go darker in one area, it makes it clear the need to do so in another place. So I've sorta given up on the one section at a time approach and am just working on value across the drawing.

Have to get off to work now... rats! I would love to keep working today. One of those days it just feels good to keep at it. Oh well, gotta pay the bills, so off I go.

I think I need to let it sit a while. Working around the glare has been a bit of a challenge now. I think I read somewhere here about using a mat fix to cut the glare. I think I'll give that a shot this afternoon and see if it help.

So, my crit... hmmm.. trying to keep the contract between highlights, midtones and darks has been tough. Keep finding the highlights too light as I pushed the darks. But overall it has been a great exercise!

Web Archived

Site is under construction.

First Painting Done Since Coming Home

Well, it has been five months since returning from Ireland. Finally finished another painting, the first since returning. It is another of the road trip paintings. I think I've a couple more in me before moving on to something else...

Donegal Bridge

As with the others it is 8 x 13 acrylic on prepared matboard.

So here are the other two completed while still in Ireland last spring.

Road to Donegal

Road to Lough Barra

Scrapbook: September 06 to May 07

I have enjoyed putting together a kind of scrapbook presentation that capture photos, sounds and music from my time abroad this past 9 months. For those who have visited my blog you will perhaps recognize some of the photos and art work. I have added songs, music and sounds that I heard often and now remind me of the places I've been and things I've seen.

You can download a version that runs in a smaller window but downloads a little quicker, or one that uses a little larger window but will take longer to download. Just click on the link and it will ask you if you want to open or save the file. It will download the wmv file and then run it on your computer. The duration is just over 15 minutes.

Clearly for me the pictures and sounds bring back many memories. I hope for those who view it, you will at the very least get a sense of where I've been, a wee bit of what Ireland, London and Italy look like, and a taste of the music and sounds that are so much a part of the memories.

Click here for the smaller window version.

Click here for the larger window version:

I hope you enjoy it.

May 31st Last Day in Ireland.

The walk into the village now is pleasant. The evenings are long, it is light until after 10:00, though I’m usually well in before then. On one side of the road the waters of Galway Bay vary on the day between glass calm and frothing whitecaps, in color from a clear brilliant blue to grey and angry green.

On this evening it is calm enough, there is some wind on the water pushing up small waves and wrinkles on the surface. The tide is in, bringing the water right up to the wall along the road. A few feet to spare yet, but I wonder, on a stormy high tide, do waves leap the wall?

On the other side of the road are a scattering of homes and cottages, holiday homes I wager for the most part. It seems, now that I’ve had a chance to spend some time here, that Ballyvaughan is largely a village for tourists. There are a few locals who stay year round, but there are many, many B&Bs and rental cottages in and around the village.

My last few days here. It is going to take a long time to digest all that I’ve learned, seen and experienced in the past 9 months. For now, it has been a well spent time.

I’ve learned quite a bit about my painting and about art in general. Can’t say I know yet what is going to come of it. I will keep drawing and painting, that is a given. What it is going to turn into, that is still open. I do know I am drawn to doing animals, in realistic rendering, and in landscape both as a background for subjects, and as a way of registering a sense of place.

I have also learned I am interested in traveling more. In looking back, the trip to Italy was a highlight for me. Something I never really thought I’d do, but am very glad I did. I would like to see more of the places I’ve read about in history, and of places where my ancestors would have left behind. I will certainly come back to Ireland to visit, and I am still particularly drawn to County Donegal.

And then there are the little things. References in reading or conversation or movies that now have more meaning because I have a context to put them in. And how differently we frame our thinking. I made a comment to some friends here one time about how Yellowstone was not far from where I had lived, about 200 miles. They sputtered at the thought. That is a major journey in the context of this place, where the next village is only a few short miles away, and you are never further than 150 miles from the edge of the island itself.

The smell of peat fires now brings warm and pleasant memories of walks through the village, or home after school on a cold and blustery evening. How much I’ve become dependent really, on the internet and the fact that it doesn’t exist everywhere, and where it does connections can be slow and dodgy. Soda bread is my downfall, particularly a thick slice toasted with melted butter in the morning alongside a bowl of wheatabix.

Walk on the footpath, not sidewalk; Hoover the house instead of vacuum. Use the cooker, rather than the oven for fixing dinner. Put recycle and rubbish in the bin. Very good things are grand rather than great. Everyone talks on a mobile, with a long i. Never ask for ride, its a lift. Young children go to cresh rather than daycare. And always start a conversation with a comment about the weather which can be soft, lovely, dull, bright, fresh and it will change before the sun sets.

I am building a slide show to post here that I hope will capture some of what I saw and heard. I hope to have it up in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

Last of the Artwork.... For Now

So, I have 3 days before having to button up packing. So I could start something.... but I've decided no more from here. Time to just tidy up, relax, and digest what I've been up to the last few months.

So, here is the last piece I worked on. I will call it finished.

Morning Breeze

Lough Barra

Another acrylic 9 x 14 done. From the trip through Donegal last month.