Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Here There and Everywhere

Last Saturday was my reception.   I'm blessed to have such wonderful friends who came out to support me or sent me notes of encouragement.  I thank all of you.  

I couldn't believe that with all of the awful weather we've been having that I could be so lucky and have a beautiful sunny day with the temperature in the 80s!  The temperature fell below normal again the next day.  

My show will run until May 6th at the Loft Gallery, 313 Mill St. (upstairs) Occoquan, VA.
Hours: Tue-Fri 11-4pn; Sat 11-5pm; Sun noon-5pm; closed on Monday


Sun Dappled, 20x20" oil on Canvas ($375)

Blowing Bubbles, 18x18" oil on Canvas ($350)

Friday, March 30, 2018

April Artist of the Month at the Loft Gallery

The Loft Gallery in Occoquan, VA. is a great gallery made up of 21 local artists.  The gallery also has an Art Center for events and classes and 8 studios.  The Loft occupies the entire top of the block with over 300 works of art.  Each artist moves to a different space on the first Monday of every month (except January & February) and adds new art to their wall so there is always something new to enjoy when you visit. 


I am exited to be April 2018's Artist of the Month. 


Chicago, My Kind of Town, 16x20" oil ($395)
Tuesday April 3 – Sunday May 6, 2018
 Meet-The-Artist Reception
Saturday April 14th, 1-4pm

The Loft Gallery
33 Mill St. (upstairs)
Occoquan, VA 22125

 703-490-1117
Tuesday-Friday 11am-4pm
Saturday 11am-5pm   Sunday Noon-5pm




 

Basics of Perspective drawing



     Where in the world has time gone?  I found this post in my drafts that somehow never made it onto my blog.  

    The Springfield Art Guild SAG) invites a guest speaker to our monthly members' meetings.   


   A year ago I volunteered to do a hands-on presentation on basic perspective.  When putting the presentation together,  I had to consider the wide range of the audiences' drawing skills knowing many of them have been drawing for years and hoped everyone would enjoy a simple quick refresher.  


     I was not able to include some great tutorial videos I found on the internet so I wrote the following article for our newsletter to share the sites of those videos too. 


More Perspective Drawing tips 

Perspective drawing, a technique used to transform 3-dimensional images on a 2-D plane.

This article is to follow up to our SAG’s February 8, 2017 meeting with more tips on perspective drawing and techniques.  What’s great about perspective is it is a learned skill that everyone can do with practice.  
 
My challenge for the February meeting was to create not only a program for all levels, but to craft exercises that could be done in an hour and a half.  I decided focus on the basics of perspective with exercises on:  

1) how to use perspective to find the eye level (horizon line) in a photograph; 2) drawing using one point perspective; and 3) using two-point perspective to draw simple boxes above, on and below the horizon line.  

The great thing about drawing simple boxes in one and two point perspective is they can be used as the bases for creating buildings, bridges, cylindrical objects, and much, much more.
Do you paint/draw from photographs?  If so, why is it important to determine where the eye level/horizon line is before you get started drawing or painting?  If you know where it is that can help you figure out why a painting/drawing might not be working.  Then the question is once you establish eye level/horizon line are you looking at the BOTTOM of everything above that line and the TOP of everything below eye level?  Sometimes, it is as simple as that.  

With time limitations, I was not able to share tips on how to draw stairs or size figures in a scene using perspective.  Some participants asked me for diagrams on how to draw round or cylindrical objects like bike and car tires which I’ve included here.  

I have found a few tutorial videos I think will help anyone struggling with those issues.  First, I would like to give a shout out to all the artists who share their knowledge through online videos on everything imaginable including perspective.  I could (and probably have) spend weeks reviewing videos. I learn something new every time I watch a video. For this article, my criteria was to find videos that are fairly short and have simple lessons that we can try ourselves, but there are so many really good videos on perspective and I could only choose a few.  I encourage everyone to find and watch other tutorials too.  

Click on the titles of the videos to link to the sites. 


2.     Drawing Round or Cylindrical Objects: Knowing the tips on how to do this will really help you if you are drawing things like bikes or vehicles in your artwork. 

a.      Two point perspective cylinder · by Ms. Escobedo



3.     Interlocking Geometric Designs:  A fun exercise to try. 

a.     Abstract Geometric Designs  by Artyfactory.com provides Free Art Lessons and is an interesting website that provides great tips on perspective.


4.     How to Size People and animals in Scenes:  The tips you’ll find in these videos take the guessing out of how to do it.