Making a Mark with "A Wrecking Ball"(click image to see a larger version)
copyright WaltTaylor / CrackskullBob
Well if I'd only known that to make something happen I only had to blog about it then I'd have done it a lot sooner. ;) I'm very pleased to say that, following last Sunday's blog post about plein air painting while sat in a car in the rain, I think the English Summer may have finally arrived after over three months of grey days, cloud and rain. Today I can look out at a blue sky, the temperature is climbing and we had a few really sunny days last week!
Art Blogs
This week I'm featuring Walt Taylor and the drawings which he does for the Norfolk Virginian Pilot. We all know him as Wally or that elusive character Sparky Donatello (and he's in this picture somewhere!) who writes and draws for CrackSkullBob - the name of his blog. His wonderful annotated drawings document scenes of life as it is lived, culture as it is observed and the architectural heritage in and around Norfolk Virginia, Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach. Walt says in words and images some of the things other people only think. You can see all his images here and the rest of his images here . Here's a sample of a few more of his drawings for the Pilot.
.......and to change the subject absolutely and completely, I found Treicia Gibney's (blog: A Reason to Paint) her blogpost and image "Legacy Tree" very thought-provoking. Take a look at Treicia's work as well on her website - I particularly liked the work in Gallery 1 and Gallery 2.
Art and Comics
- Read why I never ever deal with graphic storytelling and comics on this blog - except for Wally's drawings and this one item on The Guardian Books Blog "Superheroes need rescuing from sexism". I never realised before quite how many blogs there are by women who are equally fed up with sexism....
- Some follow-on links associated with Still Life (and my blog post What is a still life?). I was getting a lot of hits for this post and investigated and found
- Marion Boddy-Evans at painting.about.com's has started the August painting project which is taking Still Life featuring fruit as its subject. She's provided a link to my blog post (hence the hits) plus full instructions and a gallery of paintings - for those submitted between 1-30 August 2007 only.
- I then found The Getty - arranging still life webpage for teachers and the lesson plans
- ...and Jos van Renwick who is producing modern dutch still life. His work is worth a peek and if you're interested you can read about his technique and see more artwork on his website and his blog Postcard from Holland.
- Various other posts which caught my eye this week include:
- The essentials I spotted that one of Carol Marine's blog posts contained this very wise tip. Just goes to to show that even good painters need reminders!
I have 2 words tacked to my wall beside my easel. One is "squint," and the other is "interpret."
- Drawing fur and commissions: For all the animal artists amongst you, Jeanette Jobson (of Illustrated Life) has collected a number of good links and tips from others about Drawing Fur and Commissions. (If you've got time do also read about how noisy Jeanette's rural life is in Newfoundland! Her word pictures are the best!)
- Portraiture: I've had David Darrow's recent article about "How to paint a portrait" on my list of things to highlight for a couple of weeks but Charley Parker has beaten me to it - so take a look at what he has to say in How to paint a portrait (David Darrow).
- Observing nature....and male behaviour: Do take a look at Ed Terpening's Observation 6: the anatomy of nature (on Life Plein Air)- and even if you're not big on nature you may well enjoy the observation Ed found in ”The Field Guide to North American Males“, by Marjorie Ingall about why males travel in packs. Nothing sexist about this - of course! OK - well maybe it's just balancing the scales a bit! ;)
- art videos will be back next week - I've run out of space again this week!
- I came across this blog post on Herself's Webtools (isn't that a great title?!) which tells you how to go about adding a del.icio.us link after each blog post - which means that both you and others can add it easily to their del-icio.us account - and share it with others. I tried it out and added it into my template - and it works! I always find it intriguing which websites get hundreds of links and which get none at all. My conclusion is that it's not always to do with how interesting a site is or whether it has got content which is excellent quality so much as it's developed a good profile on the internet through using the tools which are available to publicise and share links. Pause for thought!
- If you want to know more about del.icio.us then try reading this.
- Del.icio.us Bookmarklet Buttons here
- Firefox extensions for del.icio.us can be found here.
- My aim is to work backwards through my blog posts and tag all the links I've posted - this will be a looooooooong project!
Congratulations to Maggie Stiefvater, fellow Fine Line Artist, on achieving one of her other goals in life. Maggie has been featured on this blog from time to time (like here, here here and here) in relation to her approach to art and the business of being an artist. However, we at Fine Line Artists have known for a very long time that when Maggie is not producing art she is writing her novels. She's as business-like about her novels as she is about her art (dedicated time/writing targets/working to deadlines/etc).
As of this week she is now in the happy position of entertaining a very serious and detailed offer to publish her first novel from a very reputable publisher and, at the same time, choosing an awesome agent to negotiate the details on her behalf. She's got a projected publication date of Fall 2008 and I'm privy to a bit more information than what she has published on her blog (otherwise known as the juicy details) - BUT all I can say at the moment is that it's VERY EXCITING (and that's very much an understatement!).
...and I'd just like to remind her that she got her very first on-line writing award from me! This is what I said when awarding her the Amusing Musings Trophy as part of the Making A Mark Awards for 2006
Maggie Stiefvater has had a meteoric rise this year in terms of the development of her art and art business - most of which has been very under-stated in her blog Greywaren Art. I’ve written about her a lot partly because she's a friend but mostly because she currently confounds a lot of the doom and gloom merchants and some of the conventional wisdom about art, what to sell and how to sell. However I’ve maybe not highlighted her writing on her blog enough. She mostly provides daily blog posts and almost without fail demonstrates that the fresh eye which she brings to portraiture also applies to her take on the world as well. She has a very unique voice – in both words and images.Those with a unique voice - in both art and words - will be seen and will be heard. Is your voice unique - and do you stand out from the crowd?
Links:
Wow Katherine! It is always a pleasure to pop in here and see what interesting news and links you have for us - like a glossy art magazine but better. Tonight's visit held an extra surprise when I found that you had mentioned my work. Thank you, I feel very honoured.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interesting links. The still life painting lessons for teachers was really interesting and you can download each of the lessons. Great stuff!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments - it's always nice to share.
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