My Year of Art

Hey guys! Here's a piece of art for every month this year.

As I go through the art I brought home from this semester, I'll post some here to show you what I've been up to.

New Website

Hi guys!

I just wanted to let you know that I have created a new website. It has a portfolio of my work, my biography, cv, and links to this blog and my art stores. I'd appreciate if you would check it out!

Click here!

I'm also going to be updating my Etsy shop soon with some new prints, so keep an eye out for that!

As always if you have any questions or requests for posts, comment down below.

Why a Name Change?

So you may have noticed that I changed the name of my blog. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Number one is personal growth. I have been moving into an arts and lifestyle type of blog recently. The previous name, Gyrfalcon Studios does not reflect that to me. The Owl's Nest is a name that is much more meaningful to my art practice and my life. Gyrfalcon Studios is the past and The Owl's Nest is my future.

Another reason is the meaning of the names. Gyrfalcon Studios was a name I picked when I was very young. It was based off of what bird had my wingspan. It had meaning to me then but not so much now.

The Owl's Nest has much more meaning to and much more thought put into it. The owl has been an animal that has meant a lot to me since childhood. It was giving a presentation on an owl that allowed me to break out of my shell as a child. It was also an owl that let me know for sure that Moore was right school for me (a story in itself, let me know if you're curious and I'll write a post about it). The nest is a place where something is nurtured to adulthood. The Owl's Nest is where I'll post about my art projects as they are nurtured to completion.

So there you have it! Gyrfalcon Studios is now officially The Owl's Nest. My instagram has been changed to @Owls_n_Art and my Facebook and Etsy have been changed to Owl Nest Studios.

An Art Update

Hey guys! Here's some of the things I've been working on for school.

Slip Cast Sculpture

In my sculpture class we learned how to make molds and then cast our objects in slip. We had to create a sculpture with some type of surface treatment and a pedestal that complement our object. I tend to favor pedestals that appear to be a part of the sculpture, so that's what I did!

Drypoint Print

I'm still working on this series, but here are some of the prints that I've made so far. Stay tuned for the final three prints!

  As always, if you have any requests for posts or questions, let me know in the comments!

How I got Organized for this Semester

College is in full swing! The key to staying ahead and creating as little stress as possible for yourself is being organized. One of the ways to do this is to use a planner. Now, if you're like me a traditional planner usually gets shoved into a drawer and forgotten about until the end of the semester.

Enter the Bullet Journal. You can read more about the original system here.

It can be as minimalist or as elaborate as you'd like. It can even be both! I know my spreads are more elaborate when I have more time. When I'm pressed for time, I stick with a simple design with some washi tape to liven things up a bit.

The great thing about this system is that you make it as you go so if you miss a week you haven't wasted paper.

Instagram is a great place to find inspiration!
I saw a layout like this one and am finding it useful so far.

Using this system to keep track of my projects for classes is a great help. It's also really rewarding when I check off a task, because it helps me realized how much I've accomplished that day. It doesn't even have to be a big thing like finishing a piece, I've definitely written down a task reminding myself to do my laundry. Write down anything and everything - it really does help.

Don't fret if at the beginning of the week, you don't have anything to write down for every day. I usually wait until the day before, or even the day of to write down what I have to do. Of course you don't need to wait this long, especially if you have pre-planned events. Finding what works for you may take a couple tries, but when you do find what works, run with it!

You can also add whatever you want in the journal. I have monthly and weekly calendars, but I also have a place to store my shopping list for Blick.

The Bullet Journal is really customizable to your needs. There's also tons of ideas on Pinterest already, so I would start there for inspiration! This system has really helped organize my life and took away a little of the stress too.

Digital Pointillism Tutorial

For this tutorial I used Adobe Illustrator, but you could use any comparable program to achieve the same effect. I have my color settings set to RGB, because I intend to put this up on Society6. Illustrator automatically sets to CMYK. I would also like to mention that I am using my trackpad to draw all of this, I am not using anything like a Wacom tablet.

The first step is to choose the size of your canvas and your reference picture. My canvas is fairly large (3300 x 5100) because of how Society6 works. My reference photo is a picture of Ken that I took at this year's Pony Penning. My canvas size required me to scale up the picture. 

The next step is to trace your image. It doesn't have to be perfect or pretty. It will serve as a roadmap of where you are going to place your dots.

Next, you're going to color sample the section you want to start with, with the eyedropper tool (pictured right). This color will usually show up in the fill box which is the box which is completely filled with the color. You're going to want to switch that color into the stroke. You can either do this manually by clicking the arrow by the fill and stroke icons, or let the brush tool do it automatically.  

After you switch the color to the stroke, you are going to want to select the brush tool. This is what you are going be using to create your marks.

the color is in the stroke

I usually start with the 15pt brush and mark out a vague section of where I'm going to place the color. This also helps me pace myself. Getting a small section finished seems a lot easier than the entirety of the subject's face.

I then scale down to the 5pt brush to fill in some of the spaces. I also feather out these smaller marks to prepare for blending the different colors together. 

Repeat the steps above for the next color. Remember to intersperse the second color into the first for a blended effect

Sometimes, depending on the lighting of your reference, the eyedropper tool will give you some very dark colors. Depending on how light the other colors are in your piece, this may look very odd. If that is the case, take the lighter color and intersperse it throughout the darker color. Make sure to zoom out to make sure that this helped to blend the colors together.

When you get close to finishing your piece, you are going to want to decide how to finish the piece. I'm personally a fan of letting the subject dissolve into dots.

When you are finished, delete your guideline. You're finished!

Prismacolor NuPastels

I was not compensated for this review. All opinions are my own. Your mileage may vary.

I was introduced to Prismacolor Nupastels when I had to buy them for my Drawing II class last semester. I am never going back. On Prismacolor's website they describe these pastels as:

"They’re tougher than traditional soft pastels, but maintain the same rich, creamy pigments needed for superior blending and shading. Artists of all expertise levels can benefit from these pastels, especially those interested in illustration or tightly rendered drawings. Because they can be used wet or dry, it’s like a two-for-one deal-- mix them with water or odorless mineral spirits to create cool effects."

These pastels have a very smooth texture, quite like a conte stick. These pastels are classified a hard and live up to their claim of being sturdier. They lack the more crumbly feeling of softer pastels and are harder to snap in half (a big plus for those who tend to apply a lot of pressure on their pastels). The harder consistency allows these pastels to create very fine lines that hold very well. In my experience, softer pastels can create fine lines, but they smudge very easily.

pastel on blue washed paper

 The color is very rich when applied with a heavy hand. You can get a very good gradient with these pastels as well.

pastel on grey toned paper

They blend very well, both when smudged and when layered. I personally find that a mixture of smudging and layering produce the most interesting and complex shading. However, this a technique suits my style so you may find a completely different way of working with these pastels.

pastel on grey toned paper (layered blending)

pastel on white paper (smudged blending)

There is a large variety of colors available. You can purchase a set that ranges from 12 to 96 pastels. Prismacolor also sells single pastels sticks. This allows you to buy replacements for your set or multiples of your most used colors.

While these pastels are on the more expensive end of the spectrum, I believe they are well worth the price. If pastels are one of the main mediums you use, I highly recommend trying these out!

More info here.

Pony Penning 2016 - The Pony Post

During the week I was in Chincoteague, I visited the ponies on both the Virginia and Maryland side of Assateague, so I'll separate my photos into those two categories.

Virginia

Maryland 

Pony Penning 2016 - The Beach Post

Whew! I'm finally finished editing my photos from Pony Penning. I took so many pictures this year that I decided to split the posts up into two categories, the beach and ponies. Enjoy!

These photos are slowly being uploaded to Society6, so keep an eye out for that!