The 5 W's and an H

Remember back to school days when you were writing essays or stories?  The teacher would remind you to be sure that your article answered the 5 W's and an H......who, what, where, when, why, and how.  The writer must keep in mind his or her audience and not frustrate the reader by leaving out pertinent information to their understanding.  Jump ships with me and you would agree that an artist must likewise include essential elements when creating representational art.

As I have been pushing deeper into my current drawing, I am excited to unfold the "rest of the story"  for you.  But patience is a virtue here.  This type of artwork can be very painstaking.  One must check and check again, and even 10 more times to be sure that the line or stroke you are about to apply to the paper is where it needs to be.  The buckles and straps and bone structure need to be accurate in order for the viewer to grasp the essence of the visual story.  

Right now there are still questions to be answered....like who or what all is in the picture? What is happening?  How will it all look in the end?  I know the gist of it, but I'm not telling. That's the fun part for the artist.  

We deal with the 5 W's and an H all the time in life, too.  We wonder how things are going to work out, what is going on, and why did things happen?  And we are not privy to the answers much of the time.  There is an element of trust and faith that things will work out. The Master Artist is at work creating the masterpiece that is our lives.  Our task is to cooperate and yield to the processes involved.  Someday the final stroke will be drawn and then we'll know fully what the big picture is all about.   And it will be a MASTERPIECE!

          

What's Next?

Once a work of art is finished and off the easel, the question comes up regarding what is next.  Where do we go from here?  Any ideas?  Curiosity can be fun but it also killed the cat, right?!  So we don't want any dead cats lying around.  Here's what's up next...I've already begun to work on the central figure in the drawing.  Some of you will be able to guess right away who this is.  There's a lot to this picture.  What you see here is about 64 sq .in. out of a 841.5 sq. in. drawing.  So I will be at this one for awhile.  But I'm excited to see it all unfold and how it begins to take a hold of me emotionally.  

In life we humans are always curious as to what's around the bend.  Uncertainty doesn't sit well with us.  Not having control of all the parts and pieces of life can be unsettling.  But on the flip side, not knowing has an element of delicious surprise and adventure to it.  Just stick in the saddle and stay in it for the ride.  Here's a favorite quote by Luci Swindoll that resonates with me:

"I decided to do whatever it took to keep my spirits up.  I took God at His Word----that He would be with me and take care of me; that He'd go before me and straighten out the crooked places; that He'd be my comforter, friend, and great physician.  Something about that choice had a rush in it for me.  An edge.  An excitement.  Each day I couldn't wait to see what would happen!"

Here's an update on the horse drawing I recently finished.  It is now back from the printer's and is now framed and matted.  My printer is A & D Technical here in Omaha.  The framers were my local  Hobby Lobby.  Here's a look at the frame...there's a little glare on the glass but you get the idea:

The framed original is available for $1200.00 USD.  Unframed prints the same size as the original (17.5" x 22.75") are available for $100.00 USD, including shipping and packaging. 

Just click on any of the above photos for an enlarged view.

The Devil is in the Details

"Ready and Waiting"

22 3/4" x 17 1/2"

Charcoal/graphite

After long hours of pushing the pencil yesterday, here is the finished result of my latest drawing.  I was so grateful to my horse model that she didn't eat too much hay or do much shifting around.  Day after day of being tethered to the same spot can be a bit much, even for a well-trained horse.  If she wants to step out of the photo I used for reference, she is free to do so and head for pasture!  

Drawing with pencil for me is all about the details.  That is where the magic occurs. Creating this genre of art is so different from when I'm painting in a looser style.  Pencil art eliminates the color from the equation, so it's all about values....what is dark and what is light.  And then how to depict all that comes in between...the subtle variances of shading.

They say the devil is in the details, but so is God.  I love the verse in Psalm 37:23 where David wrote that God delights in the details of our lives.  That is encouraging!  Just like a pencil drawing, we all have areas in our lives that are darker and some parts that are full of lighter material.  All the details in God's hands are given redeeming value and ultimately worked together for our good.  So when the final picture of our lives is on display, we will be able to see how all the parts and pieces completed the whole compostion.

By the way, does anybody want to muck out my studio?  My horse Roany has been in here for 10 days!

Some Background Thoughts

As I've worked away at all the many details in this horse drawing, I've been sifting through ideas of what to title it.  So I think I've landed on a candidate.  "Ready and Waiting" is what comes out on top of the stack.  This horse, who belongs to my son Elijah and is named Roany, is all saddled and prepared for work.  For whatever the reason, Roany is waiting patiently until his master needs him.  The action hasn't happened yet.  The important part is that Roany is prepared and ready to go when the time comes.


Art reflects life, so this drawing also reminds me of the larger metaphors.  Being prepared and ready for life's opportunities is critical.  In sports we are taught to be in the ready position.  In that stance it is difficult to be thrown off balance.  One is poised for movement in any direction.  I also am reminded of a great quote by one of my favorite U.S. Presidents...Abraham Lincoln.  He said, "I must read and study to prepare myself, for someday my chance will come."  That challenges me to do what I can to be prepared to deal with what life brings.  

The title also reminds me to not only be prepared, but also to be patient!  That may be the hardest part.  Patience, perseverance, endurance...these may not be on our list of favorite things to do.  But nothing great gets done without them.  I must be patient with the process. Things take time.  Also circumstances beyond my control can often determine time frames.  The part I can take is to be prepared and then develop character in patient waiting.

Ready and waiting....you can't go wrong with that!

Front Row Seat

"Front Row Seat"

Oil

30" x 36"

Here's my newest creation!  With this painting you have a front row seat to the action.  The model in this is a cowgirl in northeast Colorado who loves horses, is a professional barrel racer, and works from the back of a horse.  She truly has a front row seat to the action....and that includes all kinds as working with livestock brings lots of variety...at times dangerous and at times humorous.  She has a zest for life and this is what I wanted to portray.

Wrestling and Art

 

(Sketch of my son Elijah in the black hat and his friend Kelton)       

     Watching steer wrestling or similar activities to get an unwilling animal to cooperate with human intentions can be humorous.  But for the individual involved, frustration and lots of struggle can go into accomplishing the successful end result.  

     I find similar correlations from steer wrestling to the making of art.  How does that break down?  Well, at first, excitement to begin a new piece drives the selection of composition, size, preparation of panel board with gesso, painting a neutral color wash over the whole painting, and then laying in the sketch.  Next comes the first strokes of color here and there around the composition.  Things are still going great!  But......then you start to get a sense that the colors aren't working together well. You are not sure exactly what to change.  So you muck around in the paints trying to figure out just what color will correct the balance.  You resort to your color theory books.  You may call an artist friend.  You check out Youtube videos on the topic.  You may visit the local art museum or galleries for reference.  You pray.  Sometimes for me this can go on much longer than I have patience.  But that is what develops perseverance.

    There are no shortcuts to learning or improving your skill set.  You just keep picking up the brush and working away at it, wrestling with it, until at last color harmony starts to emerge from the composition.  You feel like "maybe"  the problem is solved.  Somehow it all comes together in the end to be at least a respectable piece of art.  But wow...the process isn't always easy and can be quite discouraging.  You sense you have really wrestled with that piece of art.  To wrestle means to contend by grappling with and striving with something, to engage in a determined struggle.  And that is where art reflects life!  We engage often in a determined struggle with a variety of issues and problems that come into our lives.  What do you do?  Along with other good choices, you keep "picking up the brush and painting".  You take the NEXT right step...incremental as that might be.  Ultimately the "painting" of your life will be complete and every color will matter to the whole.  

     I love the story from Aesop's Fables about the rabbit and the turtle.  More on that in another blog perhaps, but the point is "steady at it wins the race".  So whatever it may be for you in your life, keep on wrestling!

Oooops......!

     If you have ever hiked in the beautiful Rocky Mountains or some other similar terrain, you probably know what about scree.  For those of you who prefer staying at sea level, here's what scree is.  It is a mass of small loose stones that form or cover a slope on a mountain.  I experienced the "joy" of scree while attempting to climb Long's Peak in Colorado one August day.  If you have the misfortune of slipping on a large patch of scree, you are at the mercy of the pebbly landslide until your downward descent looses steam at a leveling off area.  Then comes the tricky, slippery-slide ascent with several more smaller descents tucked in just for "fun".

      Here comes the metaphor....life has many opportunities to experience scree in our work, health, relationships, and plans.  And I experience my share of them in creating artwork.  Understatement!  Here's a fresh example.  Last week I worked on a small watercolor painting of a dog and adhered it to a piece of wood as a backing.  After the drying and varnishing process, I discovered to my dismay that some of the adhesive buckled and wasn't going to be fixable.  This had happened on more than one painting.  So I ended up ripping the dog painting off the wood mount and took two smaller pieces of plain watercolor paper and tried a different adhesive as a test.  I decided to have some fun with it despite the messed up painting and getting the papers even glued crooked under the weight I used to press down on the painting.  This botched up project will be my own little reminder hanging here in my studio.  So here it is...

     And here is a peek at the dog watercolor painting before it got pulled up.  It was going to be titled "Keeping a Rein on Things".  I may go ahead and develop this one into a larger work down the road.  In the meantime, watch your step around the scree!