Graphite Peony Drawing - September VSD

Peony in vase

3" x 3.5" graphite in Moleskine

Stacy L. Rowan

Here is my submission for the September Virtual Sketch Date.

I knew I didn't have much time this week to work on my drawing so I decided to use my Moleskine sketchbook. That was a good decision. Since I was using the sketchbook, I decided to use graphite. That was not so good a decision.

Since the tones in the petals were subtle, I felt I had to lay in the dark background first to give me something to judge the lighter tones against. By the time I had layered on the darks in the background and the vase, my time and patience were running out. So I rushed the petals. As a result, this is not my favorite VSD entry - not bad, just not my favorite.

Of course, I wasn't loving last month's entry at this time either, and my cabbage definitely grew on me. I like it a lot better now. Maybe the lesson here is that I should refrain from passing judgement on my work until some time has passed.

Please visit the Virtual Sketch Date blog tomorrow and use the links to look at the other entries.

Note: I drew the whole entry and cropped the image after for posting here.

September Sketch Date Reference

The reference photo for the September Virtual Sketch date has been posted here. All entries are due Saturday, September 27th. If you want to participate this month, go to the Virtual Sketch Date blog and post a comment on the September reference post. Hope to see you there!

Preparing for an Art Fair - Part II

Sketches of people at a soccer game

graphite in small Moleskine

So now that I am done with my art fair, I have time to share the rest of my tips with you. If you missed part I of Preparing for an Art Fair, which dealt with managing the "stuff" needed for your booth space, you can find it here.

Part II deals with managing inventory and starts with making lists. I love making lists. Making lists makes me feel productive. So it's only logical that I chose to simplify my show prep by making lists...in this case, inventory lists.

I have an Excel spreadsheet for my note card and print inventory. In it I keep track of how many note card packs and prints are in inventory, maximum inventory levels and minimum inventory levels. The spreadsheet is set up to automatically calculate how many note cards and prints I need to make when I fall below the minimum inventory level for each specific image. It even has a column for production priority so I know what to make first. I swear, I could be a poster girl for Excel.

Now I know spreadsheets don't seem very creative and many people might be turned off by this tool, but I have to tell you it saves me loads of time. Before having the spreadsheet, I had to decide before every show how many note cards and prints I wanted to make. And of course, since it wasn't written down, I could never remember what I did for the last show. Plus it was too easy to get emotional about the whole decision. You know, thinking that this was going to be the show where hoards of people showed up all wanting the same print. Since I don't want to disappoint anyone or lose a sale it only made sense to make a few, or ten, or twenty extra prints of that image. Right?!??

With a spreadsheet the numbers are cut and dry, so I don't have to worry about being under-, or over- prepared.

I also have a handwritten list detailing the amount of each cash denomination that I take to a fair for making change. It makes a trip to the bank for rolled coins super easy. And it gives me a way to double check my receipts at the end of the day since I know exactly how much money I started with.

All the lists save me time by eliminating the repetition of figuring out how much of everything I need for every show. But, perhaps equally as important, they also give me confidence because I know I am well prepared.

In an ideal world I also mat and frame my paintings as soon as they are done so I don't need to have a framing marathon the week before a fair. The same is true for printing and packing note cards. I replace them as soon as I fall below my minimum inventory levels so I'm not making 30 or 40 packs all at once. Unfortunately I don't live in an ideal world, so sometimes this is more of a goal then a reality.

At the end of a fair, part of my wrap up when I get home is restocking bags (for putting purchases in) and business cards and returning the cash bag to its beginning values. That way I know everything is ready to go for next time.

Using this system I've had much better luck avoiding the pre-show stress-ball stage. I've also been able to take advantage of opportunities that showed up without much lead time. Best of all, I don't have to give up painting for a month leading up to a fair date, and my family has stopped avoiding me during that time as well.

Art Fair Today - Nazareth, PA

Coffee Break

approx. 4" x 3" watercolor and graphite

Stacy L. Rowan

Just a post for people in my area to announce that I will be showing my art this afternoon and evening at Nazareth Evening on Main Steet in Nazareth , PA. The event starts at 3pm and runs until 8pm. The art show is taking place in the square at Main and Center Streets. Also local businesses along Main Street will be open for the evening and there will be entertainment in the street and square.

If you are in the area, I'd love for you to stop by and say hi!

I created the above image for the postcard I sent to my mailing list announcing this event. If anyone is interested in how I make and print my own postcards, leave a comment and I'll be happy to share. Notecards with this image are also available.

Thank You!

I would like to extend a big thank you to fellow artist and blogger Michael Brinkley! Michael's blog focuses on pencil drawing and in it he gives detailed information for creating pencil portraits. In fact, Michael recently changed the name of his blog to Pencil Portrait Lessons to reflect this focus. He has made other changes in addition to the name change, including deciding to feature a different artist every Wednesday.

This week I am honored to be Michael's featured artist. Please go here if you would like to read my responses to Michael's interview questions.

Thanks again Michael!!

Preparing for an Art Fair - Part I

Familiar Blush

3.5" x 2.5" watercolor on paper

Stacy L. Rowan

I am currently preparing for an art fair that is taking place this Saturday evening in Nazareth, PA. While I'm in the middle of the process, I thought I'd share some tips that make show prep a little easier for me.

My first few art fairs included a mad scramble of preparation which took up all of my art time for the few weeks leading up to the fair. As much as I like doing fairs, I hated being away from my paints for so long and my family hated the stressed out, frantic person I turned into.

The solution - move as much of the prep work out of the weeks leading up to the fair.

This first post will deal with managing the "stuff" required for an art fair. By stuff I mean the canopy, lights, table, extension cords, print rack...everything that is not art.

After my first couple of art fairs, I realized that I needed the same stuff for every fair, and with a few fairs under my belt I had a pretty good idea of what it was. So months before I had any shows scheduled, I sat down and made a list of all the stuff I wanted to take with me. Now I will admit that I over pack for every occasion, so my list is quite long. I included everything I thought I might possibly ever need. And I mean everything. Big things like my canopy and chair and display racks and little things like zip ties, scissors and tissues.

Once the list was done I put it in a safe place. For me that place is in my bin of office supplies (receipt books, stapler, pens, calculator, business cards) that I take to every fair. It would also be a good idea to have a back-up copy somewhere, say on my computer.

Next I chose a spot in our basement to store all the stuff that I don't need to unpack between shows. This saves time when I am gathering everything together for my husband to load into the van. It also makes it easy for me to point my art fair stuff out to my family. So when I say "Don't touch Mommy's art fair stuff!" they know exactly what "stuff" I am referring to. Lastly, having everything together in one area makes it harder, though not impossible, to lose or forget something.

In my next post I will give some tips for managing inventory.

About the painting: I love the little blush of red that sometimes appears on green pears. I had the idea that cranberries would "pair" nicely with one of these blushing pears because of the common color and similar shapes. So I tried the combination on my kitchen table and a painting was born.

Watercolor Cabbage - August VSD

Cabbage

6" x 4" watercolor on paper

Stacy L. Rowan

Here is my submission for the August Virtual Sketch Date. I loved the purple and green combination found in this cabbage. Since I reacted first to the colors in the reference, I decided to use watercolors for my entry.

If you've been following my blog, you know that I have been out of the art habit recently. The virtual sketch date challenge was the perfect opportunity for me to get back to it. That being said, we all know that rusty feeling you get when you've been away from your paints. So I decided this month that my main goal was to finish my entry and submit it on time. As a reminder I wrote this on my printed reference page...

Success is in the doing, not the end result.

And I have to say, when I hit that "ugly phase", reading the above statement really helped!

Overall I am pleased with this little painting. I am happy with the colors I achieved and, by means of this post, was successful in my main goal of getting this done. However, I do feel I lost some of my initial freshness. I used masking fluid for the leaf veins. I have a love/hate relationship with masking fluid. I love that it lets me paint without being concerned about saving the light areas that are masked off. But I hate what happens when I remove the masking. The areas of masking are almost always bigger than I want them to be, and I hate dealing with softening the hard edges of paint that built up around the masked areas. I'm not sure if the painting actually looks less fresh, but the time I spent blending in the masked areas sure made it feel less fresh to me!

Please visit the Virtual Sketch Date blog tomorrow and use the links to look at the other entries.

August Sketch Date Reference

The reference photo for the August Virtual Sketch date has been posted here. All entries are due Saturday August 30th. If you would like to take part this month, go to the VSD blog and post a comment on the August reference post. Hope to see you there!

Yippee!

Child #1's cast came off today!! We are all very excited. She will be on crutches and still not able bear weight with that leg for at least three weeks, but we are taking advantage of this improvement and are on the move to enjoy what is left of the summer.

See you in September!!!

Virtual Sketch Date - July

Sunquats

11" x 14" charcoal on Stonehenge paper
Stacy L. Rowan

Here is my entry for the July Virtual Sketch Date. It is a charcoal drawing of sunquats. The reference was supplied by Leslie Hawes and can be found here. A list of entries will be posted on the Virtual Sketch Date blog tomorrow.

A Sunquat is a citrus fruit and is a cross between a kumquat and a lemon.

As soon as I saw the gray scaled version of this reference I knew I wanted to attempt it in charcoal. I admit that I may have been a little ambitious when I whipped out the 11" x 14" paper, especially given our current circumstances, but that didn't stop me from trying. Overall I am pleased with how much I got done and how the drawing turned out. Although, if you look closely you will notice it is not signed yet. I am reserving the right to tweak it later.

This is the first charcoal I have attempted on Stonehenge paper. I am pleased with how the paper performed. My only complaint is that I had a hard time getting my brightest highlights back. For that reason I still prefer working on Rives BFK paper.

In case anyone is interested, I thought I'd share a little bit about my process.

Normally if I am working on a charcoal from life, I'll start the process by doing some small, quick value sketches. In this case, I was working from a gray-scaled reference so I skipped that step. However, I did take the reference into Photoshop and posterize it. Posterizing reduces the number of different values and simplifies the reference.

Using my two references, I decided where I wanted to change values and where my three lightest and three darkest values would be. I made this decisions based on composition and focal point instead of following the reference exactly as it was presented.

After the computer work was done, it was time to start drawing.

When I start a charcoal, the first thing I do is apply an even mid-tone of charcoal to the whole sheet of paper. As a watercolor artist who is used to saving my whites like they are gold, the first time I had to tone a paper I was petrified. I've gotten over that fear, but still find this step the most boring part of the whole drawing. I use a compressed charcoal stick to apply the charcoal and a combination of cotton balls and paper towels to even out the tone. I am not particularly gentle during this toning process and yet, both Stonehenge and Rives BFK hold up well.

Once the paper is toned, the real fun begins. I lightly sketch out the composition with my charcoal stick and then add and subtract charcoal as needed to get the values I desire. For my darker values I use a range of charcoal pencils from 2B to 6B. For lighter values I use long handled cotton swabs, tissues and my trusty kneaded eraser to remove charcoal.

One of the things I love about charcoal is how easy it is to make changes. I can darken and lighten repeatedly without damaging my paper. Using the flat side of my kneaded eraser I can remove large areas of charcoal. If I want to erase lines or small areas I can use the edge or shape the eraser into a point. Tissues and clean cotton balls are great for smoothing out an area of tone while lightening it. A cotton ball or swab that has already been used is good for smoothing out tone without much lightening. They can also be used to darken a light value. For my brightest brights, I use a pink pearl eraser. It pulls more charcoal off the page than any other tool.

Charcoal allows me to work freely and quickly while still achieving realistic results. And in the warmer months, when I am surrounded by so much natural color, I find a real attraction to its black and white tones.

When I was preparing this image for posting, I played around with cropping it. I'd love to hear if you like the full sized image or cropped image better.

Sunquats - cropped
Stacy L. Rowan

And please remember to visit the other Virtual Sketch Date participants...

Leslie Hawes, Laura's Watercolors, Miki Willa, Sharon, Doug Hoppes, Melissa Muirhead, Kay Susan, Michael, Jeanne Grant, Kylie, Paulette, Maryann Cleary, Maggie Steifvater, Jeanette Jobson who served as admin this month, and the woman who started it all Rose Welty. (More entries may be posted before the end of the day. The final list of participants will be posted tomorrow on the Virtual Sketch Date blog.)

July Sketch Date Reference

The July Virtual Sketch Date reference has been posted. Go here to see it and leave a comment (there)on the reference post if you want to participate. Entries are due Saturday July 26th.

It is a wonderful reference and makes me want to break out the charcoals.

Sometimes Plans Change

Back at the end of May I told you my plans for the summer. Now I'm here to say that sometimes plans change.

Change of Plans

2B graphite pencil in Canson Field sketchbook

approx 45 min sketch

A week and a half ago, Child #1 broke her leg. The break is high up on her leg close to her hip joint. The doctors placed two screws in her leg to hold the bone together while it heals. They also placed her in a rather large cast called a spica cast. As you can imagine this makes some daily tasks a little harder for her than normal.

Life with this cast also ruled out some of the activities we had planned. Luckily we are a pretty creative family and are finding new ways to have fun. Both children (and parents) are being good sports about these unexpected changes and we all are in good spirits.

Providing extra entertainment and care for the children has made it tough to find time for art and blogging. So if you are expecting to hear from me either through posts here or by email, please be patient. I promise I will do my best to respond to everyone as quickly as possible.

Enjoy your July!!