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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Misty - Pinto Filly Drawing

I finished this ink on scratchboard drawing last week. This is Misty, a pinto filly. She's a "pinto" and not a "paint" because she's a cross of an Arab mare and a Paint stallion. Pinto is a color pattern, Paint is a breed - although there is a Pinto horse registry for pinto colored horses of a variety of breeds. So there's your horse breed lesson for the day.

As often happens with drawings or paintings that aren't commissioned, this one took a while to finish. I took the photos of Misty and her dam a few years ago. I started the drawing in 2007 as a demo for an ink on scratchboard workshop. The in-progress drawing came with me to subsequent workshops and I made more progress on it. At the last workshop I taught in February, I managed to push it past the halfway point. When that happens, it usually inspires me to finish a piece.



I also decided it would be a good drawing to enter into this year's Draft Horse Classic art show, so that gave me further reason to get it done. The drawing will debut at Dancing Dog Productions (1101 High Street, Auburn CA) for the Auburn Art Walk on June 11, 2009. I'm coordinating a show of students' works from my ink on scratchboard workshops and want to have one of my works in the Art Walk show.

This is the original photo I used for reference:


This is the cropped photo. I opted to crop out her body and focus on her head, neck & chest:


And, as I always do, this is a greyscale version to help me better see the tones of black, white and grey.


I added dark sections to the background in order to provide contrast for her blaze and the wispy white sections of her mane. I took some artistic license and opted not to show the shadow of her head on the white part of her neck and I made her face a bit more sun-lit to show more detail.

The drawing measures 5" x 6.5"

I have note cards of this drawing available in my ArtFire shop. I also have this cute photo of Misty biting a bike tire on cards in my shop.

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