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So, how exactly did my art end up at a film festival in NYC??? You just never know where your art will end up if you are open to new and different opportunities. Mine started way back in 2007 when I first met Trevor and Brittany, a wonderful couple who have become dear friends, on a mission trip to El Salvador with the non profit Airline Ambassadors. We were all airline employees at the time (they still are, Trevor as a pilot for American and Brittany as a flight attendant for Southwest) and visiting orphanages during Christmas time. I was painting murals with the kids and Trevor was distributing soccer balls and playing the "beautiful game" with them. We have stayed in touch ever since and both have started our own non profit projects. Mine is Moni's Kids, as some of you may already know (more updates on that in a future post) and theirs is Little Feet, a one-for-one company (think TOMS shoes) through which he donates one soccer ball for each one bought to needy children worldwide. Purchasing soccer uniforms through Little Feet also allows them to build soccer fields in communities and distribute uniforms to start soccer leagues. Trevor and Brittany started Little Feet after he kept seeing kids in poverty stricken areas using things like balled up plastic bags and t-shirts as balls and playing on dirt fields or trash filled alleys. They are now on a mission to spread peace and hope through soccer. Check out their facebook page.

But flying full time, starting Little Feet and now raising two kids was not enough for them. They also love art and artists and have started another business combining it all: Futbol Artist Network. It features art inspired by soccer and is a platform for artists who love both! I have to admit that I'm not actually a big soccer fan (I know, it's almost sacrilege as a German!), but when Trevor asked me to paint some of the kids who have received their Little Feet balls and showcase them on the Futbol Artist Network website I immediately said yes! Part of the proceeds help to support the programs of Little Feet. You can purchase the original painting or prints in several sizes on their site or mine.

So, what does this have to do with a film festival in NYC? Well, Futbol Artist Network was invited to have a showing of their work at the Kicking and Screening Soccer Film Festival at the Tribeca Cinemas this week (who even knew there was such a thing??) and Trevor asked me to participate. So, there is my pastel portrait of a young Kenyan boy smiling broadly after receiving a Little Feet soccer ball next to all the cool graphic paintings depicting soccer legends! I could not have foreseen this venue but am always open to new ideas to show my work and help children in the process. 

If you are an artist, check out their facebook page for new calls to artists. You never know where it may lead! 

This was the second time I had the privilege to watch William Schneider at work on one of his gorgeous portraits, but the last one was many years ago back in Texas. He was very good then but has only gotten better and added a bunch more awards to his name since then, including the Prix de Pastel, the top honor of the 22nd IAPS Juried Exhibition with his portrait "Queen of Hearts". It's almost impossible to sum up all that he covered in his 3 hour demo in one blog post, but I'll give it a shot. Here are a few points and interesting tips in random order:

• Bill breaks everything down into only two values: light and  dark and treats midtones as light.
• Put detail ONLY in either the shadow or the light areas, never in both (if a subject is backlit the details would be in the shadow aresa, but otherwise they're usually in the light because that's where the viewer is drawn to).
• Make ACCURATE shadow shapes, but not PRECISE ones.
• Be painterly! One of his favorite quotes is: "Perfect is the enemy of good" (I can't remember who said it originally) and "Don't insult the viewer by spelling everything out", advice from C.W.Mundy. 
• He likes "broken tone" to keep it loose like seen in work by Nicolai Fechin and Carolyn Anderson.
• Bill advises to paint "across structures", not follow their lines, i.e.when painting an eyelid, don't make a sweeping sideways stroke but use vertical strokes instead.
• He studied under Harley Brown (this is evident especially in how he begins his work).
• The most important elements he looks for: shape, value, edges, color temperature and design.
• Create flat "poster like" shadow areas but soften their edges.
• Use color and temperature to turn form, especially on the sides of the nose (not lines!). You'll see this in the photos below.
• Make interesting shapes and strokes in the background, too, keeping good design and composition in mind.
• He wears a hat while painting even when indoors (he says it keeps him from hyperfocusing since SQUINTING is the usual mantra and also helps him to see color).
• Bill uses a 5000 Calvin lightbulb to light his models and often likes to use two light sources (if there is North light from a window for example he will use a warmer light to emphasize the cool and warm light patterns even more).
• Instead of the usual mirror that most of us use to check our work in progress from a different angle, he uses a piece of black plexi glass with the backing left on. He holds it up horizontally against his forhead just above his eyes and glances up into it (sorry, I tried to get a photo of this but he was always quicker than my camera!). This lets him see his painting not only in mirror image but also upside down and with the colors muted so seeing the correct values and shapes is much easier.
• To determine whether your light source is cool or warm (not always as easy as its sounds) he holds a piece of white paper into the light and it becomes much easier to see the temperature of the light (I had learned this trick long ago but forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder, Bill!).
• He never blows excess pastel dust off his paper but "thumps" the surface instead.
• To catch the falling pastel dust he folds newspaper under his paintings and secures it with tape (you can see this well in the first photo).
• He twists papertowel into a point to scrape off any unwanted pastel.

I had to write all these little pointers out first, before moving on to the actual painting demo, because Bill would sprinkle them throughout and I had tons of notes!

Ok, let's take a look at how he started the portrait using Wallis sanded paper in Belgian Mist:

Now, please be aware that the strokes of color were put down FIRST before any of the drawing marks were on the paper. Nothing was on the paper when he laid large strokes of the orange down first (warm tones since that was what he observed in the subject's face due to the warm light source), with greenish (cooler) tones in the shadow area of the neck and a bit of blue indicating the shirt and hat. This was ground into the paper pretty well using his hands, covered with a glove to prevent bleeding from the sanded paper:) Unlike some pastel artists, Bill does blend with his fingers especially for skin tones because the smooth look is more true to life. BUT he only does so in the beginning and rarely anywhere except the skin. 

Only after he laid down these colors did he start the drawing using charcoal. This was a very long process with extremely accurate measurements taken at all times. For a portrait Bill positions his easel only about three feet from the model and uses the sight size method (for those of you who don't know what that is click here to get a short tutorial, but basically it's where you see the artist holding out his brush or pencil at arm's length and measuring the distances between certain points on the model with his thumb then transferring that same measurement to the paper).

He started by finding the correct angle and center line of the face using a clock face as reference (i.e. the line starts at about 11:50). He first measured all vertical points: for example from the chin to the corner of the eyes, then top of the eybrows to the base of the nose as compared to the measurement of the base of the nose to the chin and base of nose to bottom of lower lip as compared to bottom of lower lip to chin, etc, etc.

Then he moves onto measuring the horizontal points compared to the vertical ones: how does the distance between the corner of the eyes compare to the distance between the chin to the base of the lip? What is the width of the eyes? Check the angle from the outer to the inner corners of the eye ( they are never straight across from each other!). He draws a plumbline from the inner corner of the eye down to determine the width of the nose. Interestingly, Bill squares up the lines of the face as much as possible at this stage, even using a brush edge to help him draw the jawline in a perfectly straight line, but at the correct angle. I knew this about painting apples or rocks for example, but had not really paid enough attention to it in portraiture.

Looking at Bill's finished paintings I was quite surprised how much time he took to take all the measurements and lay down their markings. His work has such a loose, painterly look to it, but it only shows how important good drawing is to make a great painting!

Once he was satisfied with the accuracy of his drawing (which was really only dots and suggestions of lines, not real features), he looked for the darkest dark, the lightest light and the sharpest edge and laid those in.

This allows him to compare all other values and edges to these extremes. Note that in the background Bill used blue as a complement to the orange skin tones and, using the Munsell Color Theory, added yellow/green and red/purple in equal amounts  on top. 

After almost being done and taking a break he promised he would add two little strokes that would make it all come alive and this was the result:

Could you tell what strokes they were? Yep, the highlight in the eyes (which by the way are not white, but light blue in this case. Always pay attention to the color and value of those highlights especially when eyes are shaded and may not even have any) and on the nose! You can also see in this picture how loose and suggestive Bill's strokes are and how he used a cooler color (two actually, purple and green) to turn the edge of Mike's nose on his right side and a warmer one on his left. There are no discernible lines for the eye lids, just strokes of color. Notice, too, where he softened the edges and left others sharper.

Here is the finished portrait of Mike:

I love that wonderful stroke of blue under the shirt collar, such strong mark making all around. The smudged edge on the underside of the right side of the hat (our left), the sharp line of the top edge of the brim leading us straight to the model's eyes, the patch of bright blue on the black hat. A seemingly simple portrait with so much to look at. A feast for the eyes!

If you'd like to take one of Bill's workshops yourself, check out his schedule on his website. I guarantee you will learn a lot!

One last note: I loved the fact that Bill took the pressure off that most of us feel (even he?) to produce a great painting every time we hit the studio or, God forbid, start thinking about doing demos ourselves by letting us know that not all of his attempts turn out well, either. In fact, he mentioned that the great and wonderful Richard Schmid, guru to many of us, has had unsuccessful demos! Who knew? If even HE can mess up, we can certainly allow ourselves to do just that. The only regret we should have is not painting enough to begin with. That said, enough long blog posts for a while. I have some painting to do!

I have loved the freshness of Margaret Dyer's work for years and was so excited to see her demo at the recent IAPS convention in Albuquerque! The topic was "Painting the Figure from Photos", so first off I'd like to talk about that controversial subject of painting from photos. I was very glad to hear Margaret echo some of my own sentiments. After many years of her working from life she switched to using photo references to add more life into her paintings of figures. So often when you see portraits or figures done from life they tend to look similar due to the constraints this method puts upon the model (having to hold a pose for a long time). Personally, I LOVE painting lots of emotion, laughter, joy, exuberance, even goofy faces, especially in my children's portraits. Those emotions cannot be sustained over long  hours of sitting! So often artists are made to feel guilty if we work from photos, but we need to be true to our own vision of what we want to create. That being said, please, notice that I said that Margaret has years of working from the live model under her belt and that makes all the difference. If you start out only working from photos it will always be a hinderance and a crutch. Even as a young child I started drawing my siblings from life as they watched TV and I have continued life drawing classes over the years or just practiced it at home using my daughters as models (when they were little I waited until they were sleeping) or drawing myself in the mirror during my many, many hotel stays. Most of those sketches do not end up framed and that's ok. It's a practice that must be kept up no matter the end result.

Experience drawing from life will help you correct the mistakes the photos inevitably hold. Values, colors, edges, all tend to be wrong in photos and only regular obersavtion from life will let you fix those in your painting.

But photos do let you capture poses and spontaneous moments that live sittings do not and like Margaret I thoroughly enjoy taking advantage of that. And like me she is not a great photographer but knows that she can work from slightly blurred, imperfect photos. It is NOT about perfectly copying a photo but using it as a reference to create a dynamic painting which she pulls off successfully time after time.

One more event that helped Margaret make the switch to photos without guilt was seeing a Degas exhibit in NYC which showed his paintings next to the black and white photo references! Who knew that even Degas' famous bathers were done using a photo reference?

We started the demo by following Margaret and her model Norah around the hotel lobby where the convention was held and out into the gardens. Margaret had Norah move continoulsy instead of holding a pose, but at a very slow pace. She asked her to move in a full circle and had her doing things like fix her hair, set a table with water glasses, carry a tray or fold large swaths of fabric. I loved this last idea especially because by doing those motions of holding up the fabric, simply folding it and laying it on the table beside her the model was giving us many different poses with her body, hands, arms, head and neck postures. She would stand or sit to fold, the fabric would flow, the light would be caught shining through the fabric and highlighting different parts of the model. Neither the model nor the artist had to think about what pose to assume next, she simply performed her task in a very slow, circular fashion. Already having had a photo shoot on my mind with a particular model I am very excited to have learned these seemingly simple tricks of the trade! I don't have to have all of the poses in mind before getting started, but I can let it develop organically as the model moves around comfortably. That may seem like a "duh" moment to many of you but was an "aha" moment for me. It must be the control freak in me that thought I had to have all the answers beforehand:)

Margaret shot about 230 photos in about 20 minutes (by the way, we were all allowed to take our own photos of the model as long as we tipped her, so I expect to see many of these as finished paintings posted on Facebook!) and then explained her process of choosing ones to paint from. Typically she might pick about 10-15 out of the lot. The selection process was not about finding the perfect ones with everything in focus, but rather the artist looks for the light and dark patterns (light, middle and dark values) throughout the picture including the background, under a chair, etc. To help you see it she reiterated the same mantra we have all heard for years, but still always need a reminder to do: SQUINT, SQUINT, SQUINT! It blocks out all the unneccassry details and shows you only what's truly important. So, as you choose a photo ask yourself: Do the patterns make a compelling composition? Does it give you that immediate emotional response? When the whole class went :"OOOOHHHH!" at one such picture Margaret had her reference to work from!

She projected the photo onto the wall next to her easel and began the drawing with compressed charcoal, very, very loosely, with large gestural strokes all across the paper which was of a middle value. She emphasized drawing the figure UNDERNEATH the clothing, not just the outlines of the clothes! The first lines are done with a light touch, the refinement of the drawing with heavier strokes.

She has a 7 step process she always adheres to:

1. Drawing

2. Find the lighting

3. Black

4. Darks

5. Lights

6. Middle Tones

7. Punctuation

To find the lighting she looks for the shadows all over, not just the figure, but the background as well, outlines them and then fills them in using a value just a little darker than the middle tone paper. Any color can be used, only value matters!

I apologize for the bad color and light in my photos, but I hope you get the idea.

Next is black, yes, true black! She uses that as her darkest dark and lays it in which then allows her to compare all of the other darks to this one and therefore get the correct values. Then she finds her other dark values:

She starts each with any color she likes and as she works will overlay that with the oppsoing temperature so that each value area sings with a variety of color. She maintains that you cannot make the dreaded mud by overlaying warms and cools and vice versa as long as they are of the same value. In the picture below you can see where she added browns to her first layers of blue greens and it works because they are of the same value (if you squint they disappear into each other).

She dances back and forth building her darks until they are saturated and vibrate with color. Margaret actually prefers using a landscape set of pastels in her figures rather than a portrait set to get more vibrant blues and greens. These unusual color combinations is what set her work apart from more traditional figure paintings. This woman is NOT afraid of color which is why I wanted to learn from her!

Next up were the lights for which she used a lovely grey/green overlaid later with a warm lavender, then yellow, back to blue and warm it up again with a pink. All of those colors end up being of the perfect value and "reading" like flesh tones. They mix visually on the paper since Margaret never blends with her fingers.

On to the middle values, where she started with bright orange, toned down with green. She advises to use the middle tones to transition from darks to lights (for instance on the arm from light to shadow) and used such colors as lavender, lime green and orange. She also uses middle tones to turn edges. The only time she mixes values is where there is reflected light (for example on the underside of the arms).

Here is the finished painting with a close up showing her dynamic mark making:

Again, please forgive the awful lighting and incorrect colors. A better idea of the colors are at the top of this post. I have a lot to learn about my camera and taking photos in dim lighting!

There is so much more I learned from Margaret but wanted to whet your appetite here. I highly recommend taking a workshop from her, which I intend to do in the future. She is funny, easy going and entertaining. Check out her workshop schedule here.

I was too worn out each evening of the convention of the International Association of Pastel Societies to write a blog post about my impressions and the many things I learned, but I do want to share them with you. Since it would be too long to include everything into one post, I will break it up into smaller more easily digestible bits.

 First of all, I'd like to make a comment about the juror of awards for the 22nd Juried Exhibition Fred Somers (Terri Ford juried the Master Circle Show). This genuinely nice man and incredibly talented artist was the best juror I have ever seen! The awards ceremony took quite a bit of time because he made personal comments about each and every winning painting. And not just a few words, either. He explained why he chose to give an award to a piece, teaching all of us something in the process, and even told personal stories behind his decisions. The winning artists were beaming and rightly so. Every artist I know would have loved to hear the juror rave about their work the way Fred did! And he did it in person, live at the event. What a gentleman and inspiration.

The second day artist Duane Wakeham conducted a tour through both exhibits pointing out even more things to look for in great art and what artists should strive for in ceating it. Here are a few pointers I learned from Duane:

• Definition of a landscape: an arrangement of colors and shapes that represent a scene in a landscape (so always keep design and composition in mind).
• Make every square inch of the painting interesting by variations of color and strokes but without distracting from the focal area.
• Color has to keep its place in space. Pay attention to where you place a color. Does it make sense to be intense if it's in the background? Should it be warm or cool?
• The painting has to make sense to the viewer who may not be familiar with the scene or sees your reference photo. The piece has to have its own reality. Just because something was in the scene when you saw it, leave it out if it does not make sense to a viewer who has never been there.
• Don't just paint a picture, CREATE A PAINTING, make it YOUR interpretation, change things around, don't just copy nature.

With those points in mind Duane pointed out a few of his favorite pieces in the shows, sometimes contrasting two paintings of similar scenes but handled completely differently. For instance, comparing Marsha Savage's "Water Oak" (left) with Jane McGraw-Teubner's "The Mystical Tree" (right): they are both essentially paintings of a tree with a green/red color dominance, yet were interpreted completely differently by each artist.

Duane especially loved paintings with strong color (like Jennifer Evenhus' "Summer Pasture"):

and a confident hand, meaning paintings where the strokes were laid down and left alone, not overworked, where the artist added spots of color in just the right places.

He pointed out strong composition and emotional content, like Diane Rappisi's award-winning self-portrait "Time" (to which I related on a very personal level because Diane tackled the subject of making major life changes as we age and our children leave the nest):

Duane's talk lasted over an hour so there is no way I can show all of the wonderful art he selected for special attention here, so please forgive me for not doing so.

I will also not list all of the award winners here because you can look them up yourself on the IAPS website as soon as it is updated.

However, I would like to share one more thing I learned from the Gold Medal Winner Christine Swann. Her painting "Cold" of her son blew me away the first time I ever saw it on Facebook and was even better viewed in person (as mentioned in my previous post).

I could not figure out how she got such intensely bright highlights in his hair and shoulders, let alone those backlit red orange ears! On the second day I had the chance to chat with her and  Christine was kind enough to share her tip with me and others: she underpaints with concentrated watercolor dyes! My efforts at producing such intense brights always fell a little short using regular watercolor or even leaving the white of the paper and laying pastel on top hoping it would glow. I didn't know anything about such dyes and immediately went out and bought some when I got home. I cannot wait to try them out!

All in all, those two exhibitions at the convention left me humbled but oh, so inspired to get back to my studio and keep practicing my craft, because practice is what artists actually do, because we always consider ourselves to still be students, eager to learn more, to stretch beyond what we already know, to reach new heights and keep improving our skills. Conventions like the IAPS 2013 inspire us to do just that.

In my next post, I'll share with you what I learned in Margaret Dyer's demo about painting the figure in a much looser way than I'm used to.

Yesterday, Rich and I arrived in Albuquerque for the International Association of Pastel Societies bi-annual convention. I had neglected to reserve a room at the Hotel Albuquerque where the exhibits and convention are actually held so we ended up in a little casita which I found through airbnb.com. I can highly recommend Laura White's place to anyone! It's larger than we expected and very close to Old Town and the convention. I regretted not being around the other artists 24/7 but I also enjoy getting away from the crowds to a very quiet and quaint place. As an introvert (yes, I hide it well!) I get exhausted after hours of mingling and talking. Add to that the overwhelming visual stimulation by so many great pastel paintings all in one place...I need time and space to process!

There are two exhibits on display: one is the 22nd Juried Exhibition and the other one is the Master Circle Juried Exhibition. They had asked all the artists with Master Circle status to enter the latter one only. I was thrilled to have my piece "Choices" accepted. Once I saw all the other entries I knew I was not going to receive an award that night! That's not knocking my own work, but the other work was just amazing and made me realize just how much I have yet to learn! I was not the only artist to feel this way as I overheard several others voice the same sentiment. They said they just can't wait to run home and practice, practice, practice!

When I see work like Andrew McDermott's that is loaded with intense color where most people would never think to put it, or Deborah Stewart's popping abstracts (I wish I had signed up for her workshop!) or many of the other painters who have  a much more daring approach to their work I itch to go back to the studio and experiment with bolder strokes and color. I'm also itching to take more workshops with a select group of artists. I will make a list of my favorites and whittle away at it over the next few years.

There are simply too many artists and their paintings that I truly loved to list here, but I do want to show you the one piece that left me in awe, my jaw on the floor, the one piece I could study for days on end and still discover new things about it. I'm referring to Christine Swann's painting "Cold", which you see at the top of this post, but be sure to check it out on her website, too, for a better image. I had seen it online and loved it then, but there is nothing like seeing this masterpiece in person! The colors in the shadows, the greens and reds bouncing off each other, the INTENSE lights....all I can say is WOW! She won an award for both of the peices she has in the show and "Cold" won the Gold Medal Award! 

William Schneider won the Prix de Pastel, the top honors, for "Queen of Hearts" and I'm thrilled that I get to see his demo on Saturday!

Ok, back to the convention now!

The winner of my recent contest to win a set of 6 greeting cards featuring images of my artwork of THEIR choice is...drum roll, please...

Carolyn Hancock!

A couple of weeks ago I had asked people to sign up for my newsletter, blog or to "like" my studio page on FB in order to be entered into the random drawing, and Carolyn had done all so she was entered mutliple times and it paid off for her. I appreciate all of the new fans and thank you for taking the time to participate. I hope you enjoy reading my posts and newsletter anyway and if there is anything you find useful in it, please share it with others. As always I welcome comments, questions and feedback any time!

I'm off to the International Association of Pastel Societies bi-annual convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, tomorrow. It's my first time and I'm so excited! I have two paintings on display, will receive my Master Circle status, am signed up for demos by Margaret Dyer and William Schneider and am looking forward to meeting up with old friends and so many of the pastel artists I have admired from afar. Not to mention the candy shop that is the expo...Rich may have to hide the credit cards:)

So, again, Carolyn, congratulations and I'll be in touch to get your preference for the images you'd like on your set of cards!

Thank you, All!