Sphinx Pheet

Working on a Sphinx or two for Arkonbey, and finding that my usual weakness applies here, too.  Number one reason I prefer drawing skirted figures:

Legs.  

Trying to get the twist of the feet and the perspective of the legs in general has been a challenge, especially as I haven't drawn for a while.

Just found this image of Bernie's feet, which may help, as I'd like to do a reclining sphinx.  

And, for good measure, this one of the whole chunky boy.

Last night just for fun I also started a sphinx on a bike.  What I can't decide is, wings or no?  

And lastly, looking for other reclining poses, found Rembrandt's Danae so I got caught up doing a sketch from that.  The actual drawing is mirror image to what you see here (laptop camera quirk.)  Same with Sphinx on a bike. 

That's all for now.  Just wanted to share one of my latest projects.

A quick wrap-up from Open Studio Weekend!

Well, it's Wednesday, and I finally feel like my batteries are re-charged.  This past weekend was fantastic, despite all my usual cries of "I'm not reaaaaady!!" leading up to it, and the weather being the usual mix of rain and heat.

Lynn Powers and I had easily 65-70 visitors the first day, and a few less on the following.  What a blast to have that many happy art-enthusiastic people filling the house with great energy!  Nice when it's empty afterwards too, of course, and I certainly needed a full two days to recuperate from all the excitement.   As you'll see, I was a little over-the-top with energy.  Yikes!  And look at me with a drink in each hand.  Crazy.

Myself & Lynn, at the tail end of Saturday.  Photo courtesy of Barbara Lang.

The shelf vignette outside my studio.  Photo courtesy of Barbara Lang

Rick on the deck!  Photo courtesy of Barbara Lang

Lynn (on the left) and myself messing about with PhotoBooth

I had so much fun, and yet still didn't get to have as much interactive art-experimenting for our visitors as I would have liked (partly as it was too busy!) So I'm hoping to have another "mini-open-studio" in July or August.  This will also give those a chance who missed the first round to come and see what sorts of trouble they can get themselves into here...  So if you want to be notified, please be sure to sign up on my mailing list!  I'll put a call out here on the blog too, of course.  

Before I sign off, I just want to give a quick thank-you to everyone who was involved, and that includes Lynn, Rick, my family, the Jericho/Underhill OSW group, all our fabulous visitors, and everyone else:  

I couldn't have done it without you!

THANK YOU!

Here's a little test card Arkonbey made for me tonight.  Deciding that the original cat-face cards were better, we're going to shelve this design for now, but hopefully use it for something different in the future.

(Phone blotted out, thus the little squiggles under my name.)

Arkobey found the sketch on a scrap of paper drifting about the house

One of the cats from my current business cards

In other news, I scanned in a bunch of new small paintings today, some of which are destined for the Etsy shop, and of course OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND is coming right up.  Ai!

dress me UP!

Hey, did you know you can sample the "Dress Me Up" show online, whenever you fancy?  And oh, you certainly may have to get fancy with this, because there are so many deliciously silly possibilities.

Arkonbey pulled all our gifs together into one big happy Flash interactive, and here it is!

Speaking of "here it is"  HERE at last, in full, are the two costumes I designed for the event.  And it looks like I'll have loan of them for Open Studio Weekend as well.  (Thanks Christy!)

Fox and Rabbit Dress  (Responsible fur!) 

Aquarium Dress

Some creatures on bikes

Let's just be clear, here:  I have lived with Arkonbey for a long time, and there are always bicycles in the house.  And yet, I remain completely unaware of how the things are actually constructed.  Far be it from me to actually go and look at one.  I mean, there are only a paltry few to choose from.  Regardless, here are a few creatures, on my interpretations of those two-wheeled devices.

Cat on a bike 1 ©SweetEnemyArt

Cat on a bike 2  ©SweetEnemyArt

Lemur on a bike  ©SweetEnemyArt

Thing on a bike (For Arkonbey) ©SweetEnemyArt

Thing on a bike was the progenitor of this series, by the way.

Incubating ideas

Last night I attended my second meeting with the 'Pollinators', kindly hosted by Sidney E.  This is a group she invited me to take part in, where working artists can bring their in-process-work in for feedback and ideas.  As with the first night, the Mode-de-Monstre work that I brought received the best response.  Sculpture keeps coming up as a response when I show my drawings, and Wylie mentioned an iron pour that takes place in Burlington.  My response has been rather giddy.  I got out my roma plastilina clay when I got home, but it's tricky to work with (and my hands stank all night.)  This is something I'll probably need to talk with some other sculptors about.

I'm also halfway through a class with Alyson Stanfield of artbizcoach.com and it's simultaneously overwhelming and energizing.  Tons of "to do's" are threatening to topple over onto me, so thank goodness arkonbey has stepped up to the plate and is, well, washing the plates.  Ladies and Gents, my man makes dinner and he does the dishes. 

Acrylic Underpaintings

Acrylic Underpainting Techniques
Free demonstration at Artists' Mediums, Williston, VT
Saturday February 27th, 2010
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 
In preparation for this weekend's demonstration, here's a peek at at least one image.
As usual, I've made a huge list of things I want to show, namely different grounds and techniques for applying them.  Colored pencil on watercolor canvas, colored pumice grounds, etc.  A pile of samples is currently building up by the door.  I also am working on a more complex piece in grisaille, based on Arkonbey's original sketch.  I haven't quite captured the original expressions yet.  But some of the shadows overall are pretty decent.  

More images to follow as we go!

Listening to while posting:  My Maudlin Career

Vermont Artists' Week Residency!

A nice little pile of mail awaited me this evening, and I'm pleased to say that I've been accepted into the Vermont Artists' Week residency at the Vermont Studio Center!
This was my second attempt, and I was quite picky about which images I chose (I also sent far fewer) and in what sequence they would be viewed.

So, several projects are in the works, including a collaboration with Arkonbey, partly in preparation for my Acrylic Underpainting Techniques demonstration that happens at Artists' Mediums on the 27th of February.  Wonder what I'll be working on when the residency rolls around...

woohoo!

Inking away

My poor, neglected acrylic paints.
They think I don't care for them anymore.
This past week it's been all about ink. And more ink.

Arkonbey & I have been following Jake Parker's blog, especially his wonderful execution of an ink drawing a day for the whole month of "Inktober"
(Not only does he post his own fantastic artwork, he also provides extra inspiration via ink illustrations by other artists, some well-known, others new to me)

A few months ago I dug up my old bamboo pen and did a few big ink portraits, as yet un-photographed. But for your viewing pleasure, and also because I wanted to write an entry for the AM Blog, I present to you some new work: portraits of Buzzy (top) and Purple Easter Man (with chair.)
Higgins non-waterproof ink on 11x14 paper, with nibs by Speedball & a new favorite, though vintage: Esterbrook.
More to be seen on the Artists' Mediums Blog!

Other people's creatures

Here's an amazing artist Arkonbey just reminded me about: Patricia Piccinini

You should check her out. Specifically her "The Long Awaited, Foundling" series, it's fabulously creepy and sweet all at the same time. You'll see why I'm attracted to it.

Arkonbey wants me to 'flesh out' some of my creatures this way, or at least in a life-sized drawing. Well.... it would be fun.

art in the garden, or at least the windowboxes

I HAVE A CAMERA!!!
Let's ignore the fact that I barely know how to use it. These are just a few silly shots of a pop-up card I made while trying to learn some basic techniques. That's my lovely basil in the background.





In other garden news, here's Arkonbey listening to the squeaky quality of our peas:

old gem of a link

Ooooh! I'm taking advantage of Arkonbey being asleep (recovering from 24 Hours of Comics day)and going through my old links list on his computer.

Check this out. Quite pretty, and in keeping with my most recent post, too!

The 24HCD event at the store went well. Around 2pm they forced me to go home, rightly so, and it's a gorgeous day so I'm happy to be here. In a few hours, perhaps I'll go to sleep. The t-shirts with the poster were printed by moi, in a crazy first attempt at 2-color silkscreening. What the hey was I thinking? Well, it kept me focused through the wee hours of the morning...