A New Way of Working

Hey everyone! Whew, finals are over and I'm home for summer! I'm sorry for the radio silence the past couple months, but I had a lot more work this semester than I anticipated. Anyways, that turned out to be a good thing, because I discovered a new way of working in my flat art.

My drawing II class was intense. The smallest sized project we had to do was 18x24in. My final ended up being 8x4ft. However, this taught me something very valuable. I work really well when the space I'm working with in is very big. My final included creating a diorama of a space that we then would translate on to paper using mixed media. This was a great experience for me. I often hesitate to draw things from my head, because I can never get them just right. I found making a diorama really helps me visualize what I am trying to draw.

Now on to the pictures! My final was to create some type of space. I chose a sacred space and based it off of Stonehenge.

A picture of my diorama

Several pastels were killed in the making of this drawing. 8x4

This piece was created using pastels, watercolor, and acrylic paint. I am currently in the process of recreating this piece in oils.

I'm thinking of creating a series of these types of paintings/drawings. What do you think?

A Year of Art: Dreamlike

"I know you...I walked with you once upon a dream...." is the first thing I think of when I hear the word dream.

For this theme there are a few things you might want to consider:

The Style

One style you may want to consider is surrealism. "The aim was to 'resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality'. Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself."

The Medium

In my experience, dreams come in two varieties - vivid enough that we remember them when we wake up and the type that drift away when you try to remember them. Some mediums you may want to consider are watercolor, oils, or pastels.

Watercolor can mimic that feeling of a dream just about to slip away because of it's transparent nature. It also allows for easy blending which also creates a dreamlike effect.

Oils and pastels are more concrete and can mimic those vivid dreams that you can remember for the entire day. These mediums can also be blended quite easily which creates a dreamlike effect.

I can't wait to see what you come up with! Remember if you post them on instagram tag me @gyrfalconstudios or use #GFSYearofArt.

The Ancient World: Sketches and In-Progress Shots

For The Ancient World project I chose to portray the fabled tree spirits/goddesses such as dryads or the British goddess Nemetona.

These first two sketches are preliminary sketches done on my Ipad. I did a few others but these two were the most relevant to my project.  

The next step is to get it down on to paper and lay down color. I chose to do the piece in mostly colored pencil, but because I really did not feel like coloring in the entire background, I went in and laid down some watercolor as a basecoat.

Next is on to the actual colored pencil!

Some Pictures from Chincoteague and Assateague

Pretty sure this is a Piping Plover

Snow Goose

Blue Moon!

Gathering Research for a Visual Project - A Year of Art

This topic was covered extensively in my first semester of college. It is a very important skill, and one that, in my experience, does not get talked about enough.

Now, the best way to start is with a very broad topic (ex. The Ancient World). In my experience, if the first thing in your mind is extremely narrow (ex. Zeus) your project is likely to be less creative and perhaps more expected. My method is not the only one, but it is the best way that works for me.

Step One

Google your broad topic. Look at the images that pop up and the articles. If your topic is historical, scientific, ect. you might want to use Google Scholar to find online articles that are more relevant to your topic. You also may want to search for books in your local library or if you belong to an organization (high school, college, ect.) that subscribes to online databases, use those too!

Collect the pictures and blurbs from what you read that are interesting or inspiring. You could use a notebook, a binder, a powerpoint, or even a Pinterest board (remember these can be made secret if you don't want people to know what you're working on) for this. Whatever you choose, make sure to collect all your research in the same place.

After doing preliminary research, you should have a few vague ideas in your head. Write them down! Keep them in the same place you're keeping your research. Even if you choose to only follow one idea, these can serve as inspiration for later projects.

Step Two

The next step is to put your ideas on paper and narrow down on what you want to do. What does this mean? Sketch! I prefer paper because I seldom use digital as a medium (something I am trying to change this year) but if you prefer to use a digital medium for your sketches, go for it!

Ask yourself, "What am I most excited about creating?", "Is my idea plausible?", "How would I implement this?", "What medium will best convey my idea?", "Can I reasonably obtain this medium?", "Do I have enough time to create my piece?"

After asking yourself these questions, you should have some idea of what idea(s) you really want to do and what idea(s) that are plausible to do. If these two categories line up, you're golden! If not, you may want to reevaluate how you want to execute your project. Maybe do a few more sketches or consider another medium.

Step Three

This is another research step. Now that you have a specific idea in mind, find artist who explore the same topic or whose style you may want to incorporate into your piece. If you feel you need more textual research, feel free to find more.

It's time to create your piece (or more likely, a draft). Draw, paint, sculpt however you want to create your piece.

This was a piece that I created for a class based off the prompt Wilderness/Wild. I followed my original plan, do it in pastels and on smallish paper (10x12). However by the end, I didn't like the final product. It looked overworked and didn't have the style that I was aiming for.

This leads us to the final and optional step.

Step Four (Optional)

If you've created a piece you're happy with, congrats! You don't need to do this step. However if you were like me and was disappointed with what you created this step is for you. Reworking a piece. Step away from it for an hour, a day, maybe even a week, however long it takes for you to look at it with fresh eyes.

When you can look at your piece like someone else did it, you're ready to assess what went wrong. If you think it looks boring, maybe it could be that the composition is off or perhaps you used a very familiar size of paper. If it looks overworked, maybe you used the wrong medium to create the effect you wanted.

In my revision of Wilderness/Wild, instead of pastels I used oil paint and (gessoed) 18x20 sized bristol board. I did use pastels in the background to give it more atmospheric perspective. It gave me more of the illustration/ Brother's Grimm fairytale book look.

For this project, I only had to do one revision to obtain my desired effect. You may have to do even more. However, during this process, you are strengthening your skills and also creating different pieces with different strengths. In the end, you'll be able to see your progress and a cool collection of artwork.  

I'm in Chincoteague!

So as the title says, I am currently in Chincoteague to finish up my winter break. Pictures will be posted in realtime on my Instagram account and throughout next week when I get back home.

New on Etsy

Tornado's Legacy is finished and listed on Etsy! Here is a link to his listing.

I now take credit, debit, and Etsy gift cards!