Circle of Peers

Alex Hughes, Vlad Kolenic, Peter Mengert, Van Jacksan, Lucas Chamberlain, Sara McMullin, Ben Schell, Rachel Murphy, Kathy Samek and Celestia N. Ward 

Recently I returned home from drawing caricatures at a 18 day fair in Miami Florida.

Usually I work alone so I  enjoyed the opportunity to work with this talented group of artist. 

However eleven artist living and working together for 18 days could be a reality TV show,  there is never a dull moment!

The Miami fair is an excellent combination of hard work and play.  On week days the fair opens late so we would go to South Beach in the late morning,  swim in the ocean till noon then go out to eat.   Usually we drew caricatures till about 1am then stay up  to unwind  and talk shop.  needless to say when i got home  I slept 14 hours straight. 

I believe peers play a very important roll in a artist life, these are the people you can talk shop with the people you share the same passion with.  With who else can you have an exciting hour long conversation about head shapes and facial structure. Peers seem to have a way of reappearing in your life some of these artist i first worked with in 1996. 

 

Snow man Digital Illustration

August Ride

This is the most recent painting I have finished it is a small 9 x 12 done in oil.

 For those of us who own horses there is nothing more relaxing then being back out on the trail with your horse and dogs.  I was trying to capture that feeling in this painting

Occasionally I will ride along the road and need to leave the dogs home for safety,  They are so heartbroken it is very difficult to do but it is good for the horses to get used to traffic.

Usually we are back on the trail and they are very happy dogs !  This is the first time my border collie Riley has made it into a painting.  

Digital Illustrations

Digital Caricature

Red Dun Filly

This is a 9 X 12 oil painting of a seven month old red dun filly we own. 

Plein Air

This plein-air I did last spring.  Unfortunately oil painting has become seasonal for me. 

I stay very busy with caricatures in the summer / fall and have more time to paint in the winter. 

Below is a photo taken of me in January at a paint-out in Grand Marais MN. It was COLD!

Funny Fish Illustrations

More Illustrations done with the Cintiq 12WX and Photoshop.

Digital Caricature

Cintiq 12WX

I recently purchased a Wacom Cintiq 12WX.   It's a pressure sensitive tablet that allows you to work directly on the screen so it has a very natural feel.

This is my first digital painting, it took about 20 hours but a good portion of the time was spent  learning how to work  the Cintiq.

Digital painting has some advantages  over traditional painting. It is much faster and easier to change your image which is ideal for illustration work.

It is exciting to be involved in the traditional oils that has been around for hundreds of years and a brand new style of painting. 

However I have no intention of replacing my traditional oil painting with digital.

A computer screen does not compare to my french easel, paints and brushes and being outside on a beautiful day. You cant beat that!

Photo shoot

We took about two hundred pictures yesterday some of them I will use for painting references.  

I think the light coming threw the dust is a really interesting effect.

The first photo is of my mare Duchess we are practicing a sliding stop.

The other photo is of my trainer Kate Lehman "in the cowboy hat"

This October has been excellent riding weather.

Daisy Duke

I met Daisy Duke "Catherine Bach" yesterday at Fond- du-Luth Casino

In Junior High I absolutely loved watching the Dukes of Hazzard! 

The casino hired me to pre draw these cartoon background that Daisy and Cooter would sign.

Then I would draw in the persons caricature on the left side of the paper.

Caricatures in Hayward

This summer I have been drawing caricatures downtown Hayward WI, near Anglers restaurant.  Its always fun meeting new people,this little girl is only 10 years old and can really sing. check out her music at http://www.youtube.com/leahmarlenemusic

Shirt Designs

These shirt designs I did for a company in Hayward WI.
They were drawn out on paper and then colored in photoshop.

Palomino Filly

This is an oil painting  of a yearling filly I own named Holly.

I just love the way her mane moves and catches the light.  A nice thing

about  painting palominos is that the sky plain reflects nicely off of them. 

Notice the reflection of blue on her back and mane.

Of course keeping palominos clean is another story.   To keep her main and tail bright white

like this  Is very high maintenance.  It can go from gorgeous to looking like a mop in no time at all.

Grand Marais paint out

The first week of February I joined a group of sixteen artists in Grand Marais, Mn. for a paint out.

Yes,  that's right,  painting outside in the middle of winter! 

We stayed at Camp Menogyn, a YMCA facility. 

The Art Colony put on a show in Grand Marais at the end of the week, they did a great job.

To view more photos and paintings of the week check out this link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59166013@N04/sets/72157625857347195/

The paintings I produced up there are still at the Art Colony,  you can view them at the link above.

These  two winter studies I did in preparation for the paint out.  Making sure all my winter gear was warm enough. 

I painted the same white pine from different angles,  this trail borders our property, so it's nice that I didn't have to walk very far.

Mall Doodles

This December I have been drawing caricatures at the mall in Rice Lake  Wisconsin. 

When there is no customers I  keep busy with these life sketches.    You always start  fast because you never

know how long your model is going to be in that position.  " usually not long".   Most of these drawings are finished from memory.

There is a new trend with teenagers.  they can stand around and text for a long time and remain perfectly still!  for an artist that can be a good thing.

Two minute sketch

In school we always started life drawing class with one minute poses.  Sometimes up to forty of them. It is an excellent way to sharpen your drawing skills.  

Now I make it a point to do warm up sketches before I start oil painting.

However this is a little difficult if you want to sketch horses,  they just will not hold still!

But if there is a will there is a way,  I set the slide show on my computer for 60 seconds .

If I am sketching a horse and rider,   like the one above I will set the slide show for two minutes.  It works great!

I still  find it very help-full to do oil sketches out in the pasture for the color and value information,  but I believe the photo's work better for shape information.

This is a quick oil sketch is of my mare "a Hollywood Duchess " and a local trainer Zeek Zacharias.  

The photo shoot went really well,  they look great together and the lighting was perfect.

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video from customer at Wilderness Walk

Rachel- Thanks again for the caricature drawing at the Wilderness Walk! Here is a link to the Time Lapse video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsM8fAsW9VE I also included a link to your blogsite :) Thanks again! Miss Kelly http://www.youtube.com/misskellyoj