Drawing Tip ~ Flip it!

If you work from photographs and struggle with certain subjects, here's a tip that may help. For example...I'm not the best at free handing people, especially faces. I usually resort to tracing or if a perfect likeness is called for, I will use a grid. Several years ago I spent a great deal of time on Wetcanvas.com in the Drawing & Sketching forum and participated in the weekly drawing challenges. The reference one week was a photo of a little boy and girl having a big hug with each other. Loved the photo but it scared me to death. It was not only people but children and the faces were at very odd angles. I flipped the image upside down in my photo editor and worked from that. Flipping reduced the subjects to nothing more than various shapes and lines that made no obvious sense to eye. Then I proceeded to simply draw what I saw. When completed, I flipped my drawing over and surprise! It looked a great deal like the photo. Why couldn't I have drawn this with the image right side up? Probably fear and an untrained eye my brain didn't trust. I wish I could remember who suggested this to me because I would love to credit them. Give it a go. You might surprise yourself, too. 

'Sweet Tea' Goes Home



 

For those that follow my blog you may remember a challenging commission I took on last year titled 'Sweet Tea' . This past September the client was finally able to make the trip up north to take possession of the finished piece and I'm thrilled to report she was very happy with the results. Until then we had only communicated via phone and email so it was fun to have a true face to face with her and enjoy a good chat. Btw, this painting started life as 'Precious' but the sisters, who are all represented as children in the family portrait, actually held a title contest amongst themselves and it was changed to 'Sweet Tea'.

The painting was originally designed to hang in her Michigan home but because she and her husband winter in Florida they took it with them and she recently sent me photos of it framed and hanging in her Florida bedroom. What a nice surprise that the palette I chose goes so well with the southern décor, too! A few days ago I had a chance to talk to Marie, one of the eight sisters and an artist herself. (she's the one holding the paint brush in the painting) We had a wonderful chat and she also loves the painting. I'm awaiting the approval of only six more sisters.

Beach Babies & Gremlins

The Beach Babies are done! This is one of those paintings that I could sit and tweak until the cows came home but I think it's time to stop. I don't want it to begin looking overworked, overwrought, over-thought, etc. I hope it shows up correctly on screen. I'm still fooling around with my new monitor, trying to calibrate the colors, contrast, etc. Umm...looks like the colors of the water & sand are off on my screen but the babies look pretty accurate. I just wish I could know what my visitors are seeing.

Note: I swear...I have a gremlin visiting. I have had more things go wrong in the last few weeks, all mechanical in nature. The most recent 'happenings'...my computer mouse died. No big deal, right? Then the new one malfunctioned a day after I bought it and also had to be replaced. Two days later my computer monitor gave up the ghost. Fortunately my oldest son came to my rescue and found a great deal on a 19" flat screen to take the place of my poor little 15". All this made me nervous enough to call a local plumbing & heating contractor to come inspect my furnace as it's getting old and with winter coming that's one thing I can not live without. He'll be here next week and hopefully the news won't be too bad. Last night I took the time to sketch what I imagine my gremlin looks like. Nothing terribly threatening, just up to no good, throwing his wrench into things.

Beach Babies~Sketch

I've finally decided on a format for this commission. The current sketch is only 10" x 14". I'm going to go ahead and paint this but may wind up enlarging the sketch and redoing. I'm not sure I can work this small and include enough detail. I'll also be matting and framing this so I don't have to worry about keeping to any particular size. The hands will be the most difficult, especially since I changed a few things. I may have to borrow my neighbor's kids as models to sort things out.

I haven't been painting a lot these past two months but have been taking lots of photos for possible future references. Hopefully they will provide me with plenty of inspiration during the coming winter months. Fall in northern lower Michigan has been unusually pleasant weatherwise this year but I know it won't last much longer.