A New Leaf

So I think I would like to try something new with this blog for 2013.  I've been thinking about it since this summer, and while having a sketchblog has been good for my productivity levels, I've also thought that it hasn't been as useful to other people.  I like to comparmentalize so I split off other things to other blogs but splitting my attention hasn't worked out so well.  Maybe this year, instead of spending all my time writing for forums it's time to put it all together in one place and be useful for a change.

Everyone seems to be using this day for reflection, so maybe I'll start this off by looking back at my year.

I did a lot of children's illustrations in January and February, really trying to replace old work in my portfolio.  I did one illustration for Spellbound Children's Magazine and submitted several to the SCWBI bulletin because why not.  In March I picked up a job to do several illustrations for a self-published RPG book that has just come out, that ended up being 7 illustrations over the course of several months.  I'm looking forward to showing off a few of them.  For some reason March seemed to be the month for surrealism.  I did a lot of sketches of strange things that didn't make much sense.

Things really slowed down in April.  I was probably still working on those RPG illustrations.  In May I realized that Art Walk was coming up and started doing some more traditional pieces to sell.  June was mostly sketching and RPG illos and working on small paintings for Art Walk.  In July I did another illustration for Spellbound and started finishing and framing last year's paintings to sell.  I sold a few things at Art Walk and that reminded me that I really like plein air painting, especially in August when the weather is nice.  I finished 10 paintings between August and November.

In October I discovered Daily Spitpaint, which I did as a warm up for a bit.  I tried doing Inktober for a while but didn't get very far.  I don't know where November went.  The start of winter is always hard.  I finished a couple longer paintings and otherwise sat around being depressed.  At the end of November I picked up a job doing illustrations for a theme park proposal.  I needed to do 11 illustrations in 2-3 weeks and I basically lived, breathed and ate digital art until five days to Christmas.  I got news back from the SCWBI bulletin that one of my illustrations will be published in the January issue.

In addition to all that I showed up to almost every monthly Urban Sketchers meeting and did several nice ink sketches every month, and made about 75 comic strips for that comic nobody is supposed to know about

I also set out to do my first metric century on my bicycle so I also biked somewhere between 7 and 100km 6 days a week between May and September.  By the end of the summer, riding to Beaumont (about 40km) was a long daily ride rather than a significant undertaking.  I am still no thinner, but my legs are like rocks.  Fat stubby rocks.  And in November, tired of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I took up swimming.

What did I learn this year?  That I can really put the work in if I am sufficiently motivated, and what I need to figure out is how to be sufficiently motivated more often.  I've learned that I should play to my strengths because they're going to turn into opportunities that I could never expect.  I've learned that I should bite off a little more than I can chew because I can do more than I think I can.  I've learned that I really need a schedule and that I need to talk to a lot more people about my art.

I think I'm slowly learning to waste less time arguing on the net.  That's a hard one.

Anyway.  Tomorrow I'm going to outline some plans for 2014 and after that it's time to get back to work, hopefully with a new purpose!

For now, here's a composite of the major paintings I made in 2013.

Here's to many more!  Happy New Year, everyone.

Orchid

I managed to get a tiny bit of painting done at the Muttart in November.

A Lion Appears

Near the end of November I got contacted by someone who needed a lot of illustrations in a rather short time and I fell off the face of the Earth.  It was a great project and I got to draw fun things, but I can't show them to anybody so it really feels like I've done nothing but abuse my body for three weeks.  It was like a retreat to the monastery of sleeplessness and bad posture.

This is a personal sketch completely unrelated to the thing I can't talk about.  I have a few of these and also an acrylic painting I managed to finish up right before work got me.

Buffalo Jump Hills

Still playing with oils a bit.  This is a second go at this acrylic painting I did two years ago.  It's kind of recognizeable as hills now.

There's a few good things going with this picture, and a few other things I really ought to change.  Maybe I still will.  One can futz around with oils pretty much indefinitely if that's what floats one's biscuit.

Life Drawing

Last pose of the evening.  45 minutes, graphite.  I tried to work on my accuracy and drawing skills.  Some days it feels like I just can't draw at all.  Other days it feels like I can't draw because the model keeps moving. :/

Life Drawing

The weather sucks so it must be time to go back to figure drawing.  I thought I'd do some different things this time around.  I did all the gestures in ink or ink and marker.  Like all new things, most sucked and were not worth posting.  This turned out not too badly.

DSP - Three Wheels

I really wanted to draw a passenger leaning out of the car madly and futilely grabbing for the tire but I couldn't make it work within the 30 minute limit.

I apologize to the person whose canyon photo I referenced.  This picture is nothing but personal practice.

Fishing

Really just an excuse to stare at a lake.

Finally finished this one up.  Phew!

The Red Barn

All summer my guy and I trained to do a metric century bike ride. After trying out a couple of highway routes that proved to be absolutely awful for cyclists (no shoulder, shoulder that disappears, shoulder that exists on one side of the road but not the other, shoulder that is three inches wide and next to a curb... what kind of moron put a curb in on a secondary highway? Really now) we found one route that worked.

So as I've been riding on the overpass above this farm every week I've been staring at the barn thinking "OH GOD I'M GOING TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK hmmm... I should paint that thing. It looks nice. Would it be more of a quinacridone red or cadmium red middle? Shit here comes a pothole. Only 60 more kilometers to go!"

At the end of the summer I finally got out to paint the farm. It was very different painting it from the dirt road than looking at it from the highway overpass. Less spandex, for one. And many, many more thistles. After a pleasant afternoon of baking in the sun and sitting in a thistle patch, I tried out the huaraches at a food truck in a nearby town and then dragged this painting back to the studio, where I applied many changes to it. I think I'm finally having a breakthrough in painting.

Sketchcrawl - Bison Sculpture

After the Urban Sketchers group had lunch, a couple of us went back for another round of sketching.  We wanted to draw this crazy bison sculpture.  I don't know why I thought it would be a brilliant idea, in general trying to make art of other different art is a mistake.  Still, I'm glad I went back to get some more practice.

Sketchcrawl - Great Ape

Our Urban Sketchers group went to the Shaw Conference Centre the weekend after Hallowe'en.  While I was painting on the second level, a crew was preparing the hall behind me for some sort of party happening later that evening.  Eventually they dragged this plaster statue of King Kong (I assume) out of the hall and put it smack in the middle of the floor.  After I finished my watercolour sketch I had to draw the monkey.

Sketchcrawl - River Valley

Muttart Conservatory, painted from the Shaw Conference Center.  Now that I'm looking at it, it could have used some ink.

Oh well, all this stuff is still there, it's just covered in snow.  Next year I'll snap a photo and use this as the basis for a proper painting.

International Self-Portrait Day

Pencil crayon on paper.

DSP - Tomb Guardian

I love small rabbity creatures with great gnashing teeth ffft fffttt

DSP - Fire Temple

Today's speedpaint, the Fire Temple.

Daily Spitpaint - Riot

I joined the Daily Spitpaint, to get more sketching in.  I do a lot more work from life now, but not nearly as much idle creative play.  The Daily Spitpaint is a Facebook group which posts several daily topics and participants create a speedpainting in 30 minutes or less.  It's not only good practice, but it's fun too.

Inktober - Cement Truck

Went out for lunch with a friend, and when we finished I sketched some construction equipment across from her workplace.  This is a composite of two trucks because of course you can't start sketching anything without it buggering off halfway through the drawing.  And my small camera is broken so I never bother to bring it along when I'm biking around.

Inktober - Going Away Party

Some friends at a farewell pub bash for an old friend.

Candle Flame

The fall colours have been amazing, but I had a lot of trouble finding a good place to paint this week.  I went out on Sunday to the ravine and although this tree struck me right away, I couldn't commit to it and ended up further down the trail by the water.  I got one of my shoes wet crossing Whitemud Creek, and the other wet crossing back again because the lighting was crap from the other side.  After a half hour of sketching the creek was invaded by children and I gave up.

I came back on a weekday, this time determined to paint the first nice thing I saw and the tree was right where I'd left it.  So here it is, like a brilliant candle flame glowing against the hillside.

While I was sitting there, one of the biggest bumblebees I had ever seen decided to explore my paint bag, my shoe, and my leg all the way up to my kneecap.  I gave it a ride down on a fallen leaf, but it was not interested in being on the ground floor and it flew off with a sulky baritone buzz.  A perfect capper to what is likely one of the last beautiful days of the year.

Inktober - Sofa

My living room sofa, from life.