Over the three day weekend, which was busy trying to get the house a little more normal after our flood this summer, I managed to finish the sketch I posted a few nights ago. This brings to mind how I have students wonder at why a sketch is necessary.
If you are writing a report or a book, do you think it is ready to be submitted or published after just finishing the first draft?
So it is with art. Sometimes I luck out and the I am happy with the first sketch and go from there, but many times I have to approach the work from several different angles before I am happy enough for the next step. Below is the finished sketch, or first draft. I will set it aside for a little while, allow it to have a little rest time (where I won't look at it for a while), then revisit and decide if another sketch is needed or if I am ready for transfer. (The same of course goes for writing. Allowing a work to sit in a drawer for a time allows a fresh look later--allowing all the mistakes you made to come oozing forth!)
If you are writing a report or a book, do you think it is ready to be submitted or published after just finishing the first draft?
So it is with art. Sometimes I luck out and the I am happy with the first sketch and go from there, but many times I have to approach the work from several different angles before I am happy enough for the next step. Below is the finished sketch, or first draft. I will set it aside for a little while, allow it to have a little rest time (where I won't look at it for a while), then revisit and decide if another sketch is needed or if I am ready for transfer. (The same of course goes for writing. Allowing a work to sit in a drawer for a time allows a fresh look later--allowing all the mistakes you made to come oozing forth!)
Secondly tonight, I will say that I have been invited to show my work at the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center again. This time it is for their Best of the Best show featuring the art of past award winning artists. I am excited about this and will be shipping three pieces tomorrow: Cavalry Comrade, Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning, and Yankee Go Home! Cavalry Comrade was formerly called Hatchet, but after thinking about the feeling conveyed in the eye of the horse and how it was a little bit of the soul of my larger piece that sold earlier this year, War Horse, I decided a name change was needed. Keep your Lamps Trimmed and Burning is the first name that came to mind when I finished the piece showing only the glowing light from an oil lamp warmly highlighting a single hand in the dark. (In case you are not familiar with it, the title is after a religious hymn by the same name. I personally love the version done by the small Arkansas band, Out of the Blue.) Lastly, there is Yankee Go Home! A fun piece I did in pencil, and I chose it to go because I am extremely satisfied with the textures in this piece from the rough wool of the soldier's jacket, the worn leather of his hat brim, to the slick rubber of his rolled ground cloth. As for the name, no matter your opinion on the Southern soldier in the War Between the States, most fought because they, just like many in the south today, wanted the Yankees to go home. Look and enjoy!