Some Stuff Happened Since July . . .

Time sure flies, and that time has been full of assorted creative and wonderful things!

Here's a list of some of what's happened since I got back from the ISSA gathering in NC (I wrote about that in the last post):

1) I completed a drawing I had just started and taken with me to NC. It was accepted into the Art at the Classic art show as part of the 2014 Draft Horse Classic and received a first place in the "Anything Goes" division. Below are some photos of "Fuzzdorable" in progress along with the finished board, it's a 5" x 5" board, colored with inks.

2) Three pieces of my dog art were in the "Dog Days of Summer" art show at Alpha Fired Arts. Velvet, the chihuahua painting sold. A portion of the proceeds benefited Front Street Animal Shelter.

3) I completed a number of mini scratchboard drawings, including this one of Pepper, who belonged to Carla Bratt, a friend of mine and a talent gourd artist. These mini boards are 2" x 2", you can see many more in this Facebook album.

4)"Show Goat" was in the Rocklin Fine Arts "Animal Kingdom" art show held in conjunction with Woofstock.

5) Six people attended my scratchboard workshop at University Art and we had a terrific time.

6) I'm gearing up "Sibling Hearts", an collaborative show with my brother (P.Y. Simpson) that's part of the Auburn Art Walk, and the 3rd annual Newcastle Art Studios Tour. Both events are on the horizon in October.

That's it for now, I have a few more things to share, but I'll wait for the next time I have the urge to write a blog post. Thanks for reading!

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Past and Future

It's been over a month since my last post, I'm sorry for ignoring you, my dear blog . . .

I love blogging, but it's much quicker and more immediate to share on Facebook, and that's exactly what I've been doing. I realize and understand that many people are averse to Facebook, and I was too, at first, but now I really enjoy it. I have two pages there, one's my personal page (where I'll admit, I spend more time than I should), and the other is my professional art page. Even if you're not on Facebook, you can still see and browse my art page. So if you'd like to see what I'm doing on a more regular basis than what you will find on my blog, please check it out.

To flesh out this blog post, I'll share the condensed version of what's coming up and what I've been doing lately:

It's time for fall open studios tours and I'm participating in two of them. The first features a group of Newcastle-area artists. The second features a much larger group of artists in the western portion of Placer County. For details about both, see the invitation I just sent out to my subscribers via e-mail.

I entered two scratchboard drawings in the annual Art at the Classic juried art show at the Draft Horse Classic. One of the two, "Beginning Line Dancing" (a pair of foals) was awarded a First Place in its division (Miniature). They don't have a category where scratchboard fits, so I entered Miniature, which is based on size, not media. I also entered my drawing of Rocky the donkey, and although it was accepted but didn't place, it ended up on the web site and in the event program (click here to see the art section from the program).

I did two "tiger eggs" for the Sacramento Zoo's Wild Affair and one for the tigers' keeper. They all feature CJ the adorable tiger cub. And I had great reference photos, courtesy of the keeper. I'm making a run to the Zoo tomorrow to deliver those.

 

Completed pet portraits include these scratchboard drawings of two golden retrievers. Sampson is drawn on a white board. I used ink and ink washes (leaving the upper background white), and when that phase was complete, I tinted the dog with a light wash of watercolor. You can see the progress stages of this drawing in one of my Facebook albums.

Bear is on a black board. After completing the scratching, I tinted the drawing with ink pencils.

And then there's this - something very different for me. It was challenging and fun and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. "Glory and Power" is the Harley-Davidson "gun sight" logo on a 5" x 7" scratchboard. The only color on this is the flag, the rest is black & white. I created this piece for the The Pink Llama Gallery in Cedarburg WI, where I have some of my work. Tammie Strause, the PLG owner, put out a call for motorcycle art for an HD Anniversary Celebration that was held in nearby Milwaukee. I figured, what the heck, and gave it a shot. Thanks to Sandy O'Bleness for providing the reference photo and to her husband Mike for suggesting that the drawing should have a flag and/or eagle in it. I opted for the flag.

Well, that's a snapshot of what's been happening, check back here in a few weeks or visit Facebook for the next update!

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"Percheron Power" - Scratchboard Drawing

This 5" x 7" drawing on Ampersand's Scratchbord (black scratchboard) is going to the "Art at the Classic" art show at this year's Draft Horse Classic, September 22 - 25 in Grass Valley, CA.



I usually work on white boards, but have recently been inspired by members of the WetCanvas Scratchboard Forum to try some black boards. This is only my fourth black board compared to countless white board drawings. I use a similar technique on a black board - scratching and re-inking to get the smooth transitions I want. I also added a wash of grey (diluted India ink) over everything except the chrome when I was finished with the scratching.

I took the reference at a Draft Horse Classic a few years ago. This is the greyscale version (not much different from the color version, with the exception of some red on the mane decorations).



I opted not to draw a couple of things from the photo as a matter of simplicity and design: the white ribbons hanging down from the mane and the one piece of bridle pulling upward on the horse's mouth. I looked at many photos of tacked-up draft horses and discovered that most every horse had a different tack configuration, so I figured it was ok to get rid of that one bridle component. I also shortened the length of leather on the chinstrap.

Following are various phases of the drawing with a few details thrown in.

This stage shows the white transfer lines and the initial scratching on the horse's head.




This stage shows scratching on the mane, some of the chrome and more work on the horse's head.


This stage and the details show most of the scratching finished.






These are details of the final drawing.

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