Fossicking Friday 21st January 2011

Nothing to "Do" tonight - just "Read" and "Look":

Read

There is such a great quote by artist Betsy Dillard Stroud on the Artist Magazine blog, where she says that "painters never learn by making good paintings." Hope for everyone.

The Creative Block: Best Practices: is a great article about 'getting into the groove' after a break from painting.


I have become a huge fan of Liz Steel (and Borromini). I love her sketchbooks and blog! Here is a great interview with her on the Artists' Journal Workshop.

No Matter What Distracts You From Your Art, You CAN Overcome It.

5 Common Traits of Successful Artists.


Look

Easy Oil Painting Techniques is a great site for painters, it is packed with excellent advice and great demonstrations. I love this step-by-step Oil Painting Demonstration of Persimmons Still Life.
How to oil paint persimmons is the second part of this demo.

Lisa Daria is a cancer survivor who has committed to creating a painting each day - this is  Number 594. Love it!


Another gorgeous demo - this one in coloured pencil:  Paula Pertile - Ginger Caramel Drawing Demo.


Images from one of my favourite artists, Andrew Wyeth.


Have a Great week end!

Fossicking Friday 7 January 2011

Happy New Year dear friends! May 2011 be the year we all Paint up a Storm!

I have been snooping all over the web again and here are my recent finds, categorised into: things to read, things to look at and things to do. Enjoy.

 Read

• The beginning of a new year is a good time for me to have a clear out. There has been some enthusiastic decluttering in our house recently. Never thought to: Clear the creative clutter in my head though, what a novel idea.

• 10 Ways to Overcome Mental Blocks & Boost Creativity is an excellent article by artist, Lori McNee. I have recently come across her blog, and find her advice for artists very informative. I also like her paintings.

• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Artists.

Look

• New to me artist, Claire Basler. Love, love, love her paintings! You can see her website here.

• Look at these fabulous animal portraits - some in coloured pencil - WOW!

• Elizabeth Fluehr demonstrates a fascinating soft focus watercolour technique in this video lesson. Her website is worth a look, but my personal favourite is her Tulip Demonstration.

Do

• Colour code your paint tubes so that you don't spend valuable painting time looking through your supplies - I am going to do this asap. What a simple, practical solution. Thank you Joanie Springer.

• Download this wonderful Free Owl Calendar for 2011:

• Are you ready to start selling your work, but are not sure how to start? Here is some very useful advice for selling online: Selling Art, beyond your paintings with cards, posters, merchandising.

A Fabulous Fossicking Friday to you!

Fossicking Friday 19 November 2010

I have divided this week's fossicking into 3 rough sections - stuff you can read, stuff to look at, and stuff to do, have fun!

Read

Now this is something really worth reading. Alyson Stanfield's artbizblog is always jam packed full of excellent advice, but this post on Just starting your art career is invaluable. If you are unsure about how to get started as an artist, click on this link and make notes.

And here is some more info for your art career: How to write an Artist's Resume or CV by Katherine Tyrell of Making a Mark.

The Little Book of Procrastination Remedies by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. Hands up who does not need procrastination remedies!!

My Busy, Busy Life.

Look

Susan Abbott!!! What a fabulous artist - spent much too much time 'paging' through her travel journals and looking at the Dream Tables Paintings! Absolutely LOVE them - I see she has a blog , so I am following that too! Found her in the Watercolour Artist magazine - such a good read. (Lucky me I borrow copies from the library and then make copious notes!)

Laurel Daniel Oil Paintings. I love these plein air morning paintings! Such beautiful light!

teesha's circus: journal pages. Always a visual delight!

Take a look at these coloured pencil works by Cecile Baird. The light is so beautiful, it's difficult to believe that they are done in pencil.

A beautiful Sketchbook by Wil Freeborn.

Not painting, but this YOU HAVE TO SEE: MousesHouses.

Do

The Creative Block: Challenge Yourself

The Artist’s Survival Kit « Keri Smith

If you liked fossicking this week, you may want to peek at  some previous Fossicking Posts:

Fossicking Friday 8 October 2010

Fossicking Friday 15 October 2010

Fossicking Friday 29 October 2010

Fossicking Friday

It's Friday, and here are some great things that I have found on the net this week:

• 10 Ways to Think Positively No Matter What is a great article on the fabulous blog, Get in the Hot Spot by Annabel Candy. It's a guest post, but while you are there, snaffle around, I love Annabel's take on things!

• After I was finished writing about caring for your brushes, I came across this: 5 Ways to ruin an art paintbrush. If you are not sick of washing your brushes yet, have a look.

• I was very flattered to receive an email from Delmus Phelps this week. I have mentioned his site, Easy Oil Painting Techniques a few times and he was writing to thank me for doing that - how kind. I do love the info that he makes available. I am particularly interested in his series on How to Sell Art, and will be having another closer look at some of those points this week.

• How to Put Yourself into an Effortless Writing Zone is an article for writers that I think is equally relevant to artists. The three step process, Find the Time, Get Some Space and Build your Zone is one I think I should adopt.

• This video is a watercolour demonstration by artist Joyce Faulknor. I love the way she handles the brush and places the colour so confidently.

• Artists Network - Watercolor Sketch Fix-it Guide, click on the free PDF download to see 5 common problem that you can fix while still in the sketch stage.

• Are you highly creative? Answer these questions.

• I love this sketchbook blog, Notebook Stories, WOW!

• And just for Halloween - check out this cool Creepy Coffin Pop-up Card.

Fossicking Friday

Fossicking AGAIN.  Thought your might like to know where I have been sticking my nose in this week.

Here are the gems:

• I had a look at some of the beautiful paintings of Joseph Raffael. His watercolour is so fresh, bright and clean. I particularly liked the glimpses into his studio.  I just love pictures of studios - so inspiring!

• Although I am not a fan of acrylic paint, perhaps I should be, looking at the work of artist Rick Pas.  Download a free digital feature on his acrylic layering technique at Artists Network.

• Top Time Savers for Your Art Business,  another useful post by Alyson Stanfield on Artbizblog.

• I 'stalk' Katherine Tyrell on her site Making a Mark.  I subscribe to her blog posts, admire her vast art knowledge and take her advice seriously.  I have particularly enjoyed Why you should get an art blog this week.  I was lucky enough to feature on her Who's made a mark post recently  check it out!

• It's a real treat to watch someone paint, I am so interested to see how another artist approaches their subject matter.  This is a video Painting on Location with Roger Bansemer - "Heritage Park". It is quite a long, so get a coffee first. I was fascinated to see that he took a photo of the subject and projected that onto his board before he began. I also loved the glimpse into his sketchbook - wow!

•  I have referred the site, Easy Oil Painting Techniques, before, and I really like this article on Pricing your art.  Pricing is something most artists struggle with in the beginning, and these are some fabulous suggestions. 

• Look at this snippet from the book, Ignore Everybody by cartoonist, Hugh Macleod of gapingvoid.  I may need to hunt down a copy of that book! I could not resist including an example of his work here:

• The Habits that Spark Your Creative Genius is an article that I enjoyed. Isn't the internet wonderful!

• Artist Chris Hobel is another artist-cum-blogger-cum-art teacher.  Her blog, Painting and Mixed Media Daily Painting is full of fabulous painting examples and clever techniques. Take some time to explore that!

Do let me know what you have found in your fossicking this week!

Fossicking Friday

Twice a year in Brisbane, Life Line has a charity Bookfest, the largest second hand book sale in world.  Bookfest is my idea of heaven on earth - hours and days rooting around in mountains of dusty pre-loved books. I was sharing my enthusiasm for this event with a friend who replied, "Gross!! All that dust and grime! I am just not a fossicker!"

Well I am.

When I am not fossicking at book sales or rummaging through charity shops, I am foraging on the web. Patiently wading through site after site, looking for the good stuff! And there certainly is a lot of good stuff out there.

Here are this week's gems:

• In my previous post, Turn a good painting idea into a great one, I used onions as an example. In that post, I linked to several onion paintings, but have since discovered another example on a fabulous oil painting site by artist, Delmus Phelps. The oil painting demonstration of onions is done in layers, in the tradition of the Old Masters. This link will take you to the first page of the demonstration then follow his links to see the rest.

• Click on this link to read about Planning a painting, a list of the essential decisions to make before you start. This advice would be particularly helpful for the novice painter, but I will be following it myself. 

• Annabel Candy of Get in the Hot Spot says about writer's block:

"Have you heard of writer’s block? But builders don’t get blocked and unable to lay another brick. Teachers don’t run out of things to teach. I can’t think of any other job where people make excuses for not doing their work. If you’re having trouble writing forget everything else I told you in the Blog Writing Magic series and just write what comes into your head. You can worry later about if you can make a blog post out of it, if anyone would want to read it or what your colleagues will think when they find out about your quirks and quibbles. Just write."

I think this is equally fitting for artists experiencing a creative slump.

• Click on The Ross Fountain, miniature watercolour painting to see a beautiful painting by Tracy Hall, that's only 3.25" x 2.25" in size! Such gorgeous detail, I love it - I think I might try a miniature myself soon!

• Alyson B Stanfield of the excellent Artbizblog  writes this about motivation:

WHY do you want to show at this or that gallery?
WHY do you want to sell more art?
WHY do you want to register for a class?

Motivation requires motive.

If you don’t know why you want to accomplish certain things, you’re going to have a hard time prioritizing and moving forward.

• It seems so obvious when she writes it out like that. I struggle with motivation, and have never asked myself these kinds of questions.

• Wildlife artist, Kalon Baughan's paintings are a real feast for the eye. I particularly like the way he paints fur!

• 8 bad habits that crush your creativity and stifle your success is a great post by Dean Rieck on the influential Copyblogger site.  Advice for writers that artists would do well to heed.

I hope you find much pleasure fossicking through these fascinating sites.

I HAVE been painting today!

I have been working on the step-by-step watercolour painting today, and have taken pictures at all stages.  It is going well, but I need to wait for daylight to continue.  I hope to have it up for you tomorrow - Brisbane time.

Watch this space!

In the meantime, while doing a little research about gum arabic this afternoon, I came across this great Watercolour site:  Ask Susie - Watercolor Q & A.  where you can post questions about watercolour painting.  She also has some other blogs - take a look!

I was also reading about an artist who uses gum arabic for glazing with watercolour, and found his site.  Click on this link: Eric Christensen - to see the brilliant colours he gets with water paints. I was fascinated to see that he seems to have found himself a niche market painting wine!!

Off the topic of watercolour, but a good read, look at Coach Yourself through the difficulty of Creating, by Cynthia Morris - some excellent advice.