Variety is the Spice of Life

Okay, so something really exciting happened. As an artist, I am a member of several different art groups on Facebook. One day, a Dutch woman posted in one of them that she was interested in doing a collaborative art project with another artist, but didn’t have any details ironed out; was anyone interested? Well, the response was amazing! Well over a dozen artists responded! There were so many people, that at first she didn’t think she could ever accommodate them all. But then a solution presented itself. A few artists dropped out before it got rolling, leaving a total of 14 participants.

She ended up dividing a reference photo from Pixabay by Daria-Yakovleva into fifteen different pieces. Each person drew one section, the last section being the photograph itself. For a month, I painstakingly drew the most challenging piece I think I’ve ever done. February 19, I finished my piece! Above is the finished piece with everyone else’s portion photoshopped together to make the whole piece.  Below is my section.

One of the most interesting aspects (to me) of the project is how diverse the group is! The fourteen different artists represent SEVEN different countries around the globe! We all worked together to prove that sometimes, a whole really is much greater than the sum of its parts. It was a very interesting project, and I learned a lot about how I might tackle scary textures in the future.

Participating in this project are me (Tina Hickman), Luca van der Leeden (our fearless organizer), Afshan Ck, Carol Carnett, Cass Hanley, Erik Franken (our Photoshopper, who assembled all the pieces!), Hanne Krumwiede, Holly Hoffman Farmer, Jennifer Swartout, Linda Prezalar Mello, and Victoria Diaz.  Unfortunately, three artists had to drop out due to personal issues and other priorities.

I present to you, “Variety is the Spice of Life.”

Rosé

I’ve seen some work I’ve really liked done on toned tan or toned grey paper.  Basically, it’s just tan (or grey) paper designed for pencil work.  Many artists use graphite or charcoal on this paper to achieve a different look from the same drawing on white paper.  The most striking work I’ve seen has been charcoal and white charcoal (or perhaps black and white colored pencils) on toned tan.  When done right, it can really make a drawing pop!

Rosé is a French bulldog that comes into my grooming shop for baths, nail trims, and overnight boarding.  She’s a well-bred, sweet, energetic little ball of muscle, adorable as all get out!  I had photographed her one day in order to add something a little different to one of the Facebook groups that offers copyright free photos for artists’ use.  When I decided to experiment with toned tan paper, Rosé seemed like a perfect subject!

I’m not much for experimenting in my art, so logic says that I would only try one thing at a time and see how it turns out, right?  Well, apparently not.  Apparently I figured that if I’m trying out one new thing, I’ll just try a bunch at once!

So instead of using a grid with one-inch squares, I used three-inch squares, which requires much greater reliance on freehanding.  I used to freehand everything, so this was not a huge undertaking, but it is a significant diversion from my usual art the last four or five years.

And I may as well use a paper I’ve never used before.  That toned tan is awesome, right?  So I’ve seen a bunch of stuff done on it.  I know what I like.  I’ve seen the videos.  Let’s dive right in!

And charcoal.  Just because I haven’t really used charcoal before is no reason not to use it now, right?  But I didn’t like how it laid down on the paper, so I used graphite, too.  Apparently, you can’t mix charcoal and graphite, though it worked okay for me…

So in the end, I did not achieve the look I was going for, and I see some mistakes in the drawing, and I don’t like how the pencils laid down color on the paper, but I’m still pleased with the piece as a whole.  It was an interesting return to graphite, a medium I haven’t used in a few years.  For a pile of experiments, I’m quite pleased.  I am likely to try again to achieve the effect I’m looking for, perhaps with a different paper.  We’ll see what happens!

“Pears”

In January of 2015, I entered an art contest in the Facebook group Reference Photos for Artists – 2.  There are a number of free reference photo groups for artists, and some of them have weekly or monthly challenges.  In this particular group, they choose one photo, and all participants are to reproduce the photo in their own style with their own touches however they like in their preferred medium.  The winner got their drawing / painting featured as the cover photo for the group for the next month.

My framer had just gotten through telling me that my artwork was all starting to look the same, and I should challenge myself.  He suggested a number of things, none of which I wanted to do (all of which I ended up doing), including a still life.  I’d been wanting to try my hand at glass or metal, so when this challenge with a photo by Debbie Peaty came up, I decided to compete.  Hey, I wanted glass, and this certainly looked challenging!

Well, I spent four days on it, and in the end, I submitted a piece I was pretty proud of.  I lightened up the grey background because I just wanted to use the grey pastel stick I had on hand, and I greened up the pears because I just think pears are green.  I could see that they are yellow, but I wanted my pears green.  So I ended up with this:

The above piece took first place in the contest and was featured as the group’s cover photo for the month of February.  I had enjoyed drawing glass, but the entire time I was drawing it, especially once I understood the true shape of the glass bowl, I kept seeing something different from what I had drawn.  Something intriguing.  Something I wondered whether anyone else saw.  It nagged at me, as I suppose art should, until finally I put it down on paper.  I didn’t spend nearly the time or energy putting it down on paper that I had spent on the “real” drawing, but I did this little abstract piece.  It’s the only abstract I’ve ever done.