Miniature "Moses" - WIP 2

Here are some more in-progress photos from "Moses" the Serval. Keep in mind that this piece is 5" x 5". I like working in this scale, as it's still big enough to do lots of detail, but it's small enough to potentially finish a piece in a few days. I'm enjoying working on this one, and I think it's going well. My apologies though for the lack of quality for the photos... if anyone has advice for how to photograph artwork while in-progress, please let me know! Essentially what I am doing now is keeping a tripod up and pointed at a wall which has marks where to put the picture... and at each stage I put the picture up, shoot a photo, and then go back to work. The problem is, these won't be taken in natural light, and trying to edit them in Photoshop to all look the same (levels, color, etc) is a nightmare. Overall, it's taking me WAY too much time to do the photos, edit them, and then post them here, and I don't want it to take away from my actual work!
This first picture is the nose, which is very different on a serval - compared to most cats which have noses resembling house cat anatomy, servals have a large and smooth nose, very rounded and almost dog-like.
One of my favorite parts of this picture is where the hair swirls and changes direction on his muzzle. I will likely add even more detail to that part, as it's crucial to the realism of the hair.
More progress...
Even though the eye is penciled in (outlined in black) I will leave it for last. I love to do the eye, and saving it for last keeps my interest in the picture, and it really allows the picture to "come alive" at that stage.
More progress... I should be finished this piece soon, and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished!

Book and Briar Patch Demonstration - Cancelled!

Although I had not yet posted it (I got the phone call only minutes before I was going to post about it), I was scheduled to do a demonstration with another member from the Regina Federation of Artists at the Book and Briar Patch in Regina on November 29th - however, plans have changed! The book store is so busy with book signings that they have asked the guild if we could put off our monthly Saturday demonstrations until after the new year. And so, for those of you who knew about my demonstration by word-of-mouth, I won't be at the store on Saturday! My new scheduled time to sit at the Book and Briar Patch will be Saturday, March 28th, 2009 - but I'll remind everyone a little closer to the date.

Miniature "Moses" - WIP 1

This is the starting stages of the Miniature serval cat, "Moses" from a few posts back. I decided to go with some foliage for the background, as I figured the original reference photo of his cage wasn't all that flattering! The photos that follow are the first steps: 1) Transferring the sketch to the final copy, 2) Base layer on the background, and 3) Burnishing and Detailing of the background. This piece will henceforth be titled "Eye of Moses the Serval".

2009 Advertising Merchandise

Like previous years, I have created some neat things to give out to friends, family, and clients for this coming year. Through VistaPrint.com, I take the documents that I create on Photoshop and have them printed on various business promotion items. Shown below are the 2009 calendar magnets, a business card sized magnet with "Focus" on it, and a greeting card for this year's holiday season, with "Repose" on it. Do you want a magnet for your fridge? Leave a comment here on the blog, (don't forget your e-mail address) or go to BigCatArt.com and click on one of the numerous links to send me an e-mail. Mail me a self-addressed stamped envelope, and I'll send you a magnet for free!

The next miniature is...

"Moses" the Serval! This is the reference photo I'll be using for my next miniature piece. This is my own photo, taken at the Guzoo in Three Hills, AB. "Moses" is an adult Serval - one of the smallest "big" cats, the one that has gigantic ears! This cat loved having his photo taken, and reminded me of a model. He actually posed for his pictures, slowly showing each side, then looking at the camera, then looking away, then getting up and sitting on a log... it was so much fun! This piece will be done in colored pencils, 5" x 5" - and I'll take some photos along the way to show the progress!

A Goal Statement - In Writing!

And so, now that my massive list of updates are complete, with months worth of posts all occurring on one day, I'd like to end with a goal statement. The purpose of this post is to commit, in writing, to a personal goal that I would like to set for myself in my art career. Having it written, and seen by other people, will help me in achieving it - it will give me an accountability of sorts! Motivation is always an issue for someone who is self-employed, especially when working with something that really requires you to "feel" like doing it! And so, here are my commitments:

1) To work on my art five days per week*

2) To create at least one miniature (5" x 5") piece every two weeks, starting December 1st, 2008

3) To post on my blog at least once per week

*I'd like to specify that "work" can consist of actual artwork, or art-related activities, including working on my website, corresponding with clients, cleaning the studio, editing photos, etc. The goal here is to make a solid effort to do art-related activities five days per week

I'll be working on my large commission piece - the next cougar piece, as well as doing the occasional miniature piece, including some long-awaited dog eye ATC's that belong to a certain Aunt who has patience beyond anything I know! I'd also like to use some of my time to increase my advertising in the art world. Additionally, I'd like to take some time to dabble in carving - perhaps even entering a small piece in next year's "Reflections of Nature" carving competition! Lofty goals, I know, but I'm really working at beating this procrastination thing that plagues almost all of us artists! Thanks to all of you, my loyal fans, for supporting me through my journey!

Regina Federation of Artists - Fall 2008 Show and Sale

November 7th to 9th was the Regina Federation of Artists (RFA) Fall 2008 Show and Sale. We had a great show! Thanks to all of you who attended, and if you are reading this and would like to be invited to the show next time, please visit my personal website and send me an e-mail. I can then add you to my contact list and send you an invitation for our next show. Additionally, I'll post show information here on the blog as well. Sorry to anyone I forgot to invite!

This was our third show held at the fabulous Wascana Place in Wascana Park, across from The Willow and the marina. We had a great attendance, and some amazing new artists in our guild. The show was a great success, and we are already gearing up for the next one!

The RFA shows always have a "People's Choice" award, given out at the Friday night wine-and-cheese event. With all the amazing artwork at this show, I was sure I wouldn't win - but my fans (some new, some who have been there from the start!) really surprised me! "Focus" won the first place "People's Choice" award, and so was able to have the first place ribbon hang beside it for the remainder of the show. Again - a "People's Choice" award is a great one to receive, as it's a great feeling to know that the public in general is impressed with your work. I met some great people at the show, and had a great time socializing with friends and fans and fellow artists!

Eye of the Tiger Cub II - Miniature

The third piece in my series of five by five miniatures is "Eye of the Tiger Cub II", a colored pencil piece based on a cute little tiger cub at the Guzoo in Three Hills, AB. I had the wonderful opportunity to play with this little guy and photograph him, and am now able to work from my own reference photos for these pieces. This was a different style for me, as I have never done a close-crop of an eye that showed a whole ear but no muzzle or nose. It's not as cute or as eye-catching as the ones that have muzzle, nose, and whiskers, but I'm still happy with how it turned out!

"Eye of the Tiger Cub II"
Medium: Colored Pencils
Dimensions: 5" x 5"

Eye of Zion the Lion Cub - Miniature

This is the second in my new series of miniature pieces. These pieces will all be five inches by five inches, done in colored pencils. Zion is a lion cub who was born at the Guzoo in Three Hills, AB, in early 2006. In May of 2006, I visited the Guzoo and had the unique opportunity to play with Zion and take pictures of him. I had so much fun with him, and he was such a photogenic little guy! This miniature artwork is the first one inspired by Zion, and there will likely be more of them in the future! The piece was enjoyable to work on, and I'm looking forward to doing more pieces this size.

"Eye of Zion the Lion Cub"
Medium: Colored Pencils
Dimensions: 5" x 5"

Colored Pencil Workshop

For those of you curious how I do my colored pencil technique, I've posted a full tutorial with step-by-step images at my personal site. Visit my Colored Pencil Tutorial to give it a try!

Reflections of Nature 2008 - Bird Head Carving Competition

Every year at the "Reflections of Nature" competition put on by the Saskatchewan Wildlife Art Association, the bird carvers in the organization get together on Sunday morning to participate in a "Quick-Carve" competition - each person gets a blank piece of wood and has to turn it into a bird head pin (a thin carving that has a pin glued on the back - so it can be pinned onto your shirt). Everyone gets two and a half hours to complete a carving, including carving and painting. At the end of the two and a half hours, the pins are gathered together and judged, awarding a first, second and third. In the afternoon they are auctioned off to raise funds for the organization.

The night before the event, at the banquet, some of those crazy bird carvers managed to convince me to participate - even though I have never carved anything in my life. Insisting I couldn't possibly - I have no supplies - they said they'd bring everything I needed, just show up and join in! And so, having a few glasses of wine in me, I agreed. Come the next morning, I was maybe second guessing this decision a little bit! But here's how it started:This is Harvey Welch, a very accomplished and respected carver in the organization, showing me the ropes! And, using his fancy "buzz-tool" none-the-less! I had so much fun - even with the stress of having only two and a half hours to not only learn, but try to perfect (you know me!) a technique I had never tried! It was a blast, and after carving with Harvey's tools, I joined Cam Merkle and borrowed his paints and brushes to start adding color to my little pin. Finishing just a little over-time (I wasn't the only one, trust me!) we all handed in our pins for judging. And....That's my little bird pin in third place! I even beat Cam! (I swear this isn't bragging!) It was such a neat experience, and I really had a great time learning from some of these amazing carvers. It makes me want to dabble in it a little more! Here's a close-up:
Later in the day, the pins were auctioned off, and my pin went for a staggering $200 - to my "number one fan" of course! It was one of the highest priced auction pieces, and the highest priced pin that sold! It was quite an honor! I'm already looking forward to next year, when I'll give this whole pin-carving thing another try!

Reflections of Nature 2008 - Colored Pencil Workshop

At this year's "Reflections of Nature" competition and exhibition put on by the Saskatchewan Wildlife Art Association, I was invited to teach a workshop on my colored pencil technique. I was so surprised that the workshop not only filled up - but was actually over filled! There were sixteen of my fellow artists, friends, and fans who actually paid to learn my technique! It was quite flattering, really, and I had so much fun teaching. Here's a picture of me hunkering down behind the table demonstrating part of my technique:(Much thanks to my number one fan - my mom - who was not only my personal assistant at the workshop, but she was my photographer and moral support too!)

I taught the course by demonstrating one step of my technique by having everyone gather around the table and watch, then allowed everyone to try it themselves with their supplies and reference photos at their tables. I then walked around and helped out where I could, answered questions as they arose, and generally tried to impart some of my knowledge! Additionally, I had booklets done up with the steps and photos printed in them, so people could follow along or take them home to read later. Overall, I think everyone had a lot of fun. In particular, I want to show this picture of me and Kay, one of the wonderful people who took my class. Kay had never even tried colored pencils before - EVER - and she did so very well! I hope she (and everyone else that tried it out!) keep up the great work, and as I told them all - I hope to see more colored pencil works in next year's competition!
For those of you who would like to see the photos included in my step-by-step tutorial, along with the written "how-to" guide to my colored pencil technique, feel free to visit my personal site where I have posted my full Colored Pencil Tutorial. And keep in mind that I am always happy to help out if you have questions - just drop me an e-mail!

Reflections of Nature 2008 - Results

For those of you who don't know what "Reflections of Nature" is, here's a brief description. Every year in October, the Saskatchewan Wildlife Art Association puts on an exhibition show for wildlife artists. It is the largest gathering (and most impressive of course!) of wildlife artists in western Canada, perhaps even all of Canada. It spans the genres of wildlife photography, bird carving, paintings and drawings (also known as "flatwork") and junior events. Additionally, there are workshops, commercial booths, demonstrations, charity auctions, banquets, wine-and-cheese functions, and, of course, it is a judged art competition. This was my fourth year participating in "Reflections of Nature", and it was a great year. The show gets better and better with each passing year, and every year I leave the show feeling energized and ready to create more work for the following year!

This year's competition was a crazy mixture of emotions! For starters, my main entry in the show was "Focus", which you know from previous posts here on the blog. I expected it to do well, but past experiences at the show have taught me to never know what to expect from judges! This year was no exception to the rule. "Focus" took no ribbons what-so-ever. Not even a class ribbon or an honorable mention. Which, for those of you who know me and know the show - was somewhat surprising. But, as we all know - art is subjective, and the judging is even more so. Upon speaking to a judge at the wine-and-cheese function, it was explained to me that perhaps the anatomical accuracy was an issue in this piece... they were debating whether or not a cougar would have such a huge paw. Well (again with the "those that know me" bit) those that know my work will know that I usually measure precisely and take extra care in getting my sketch identical to the original reference photo. At no point do I make any portion up, or refer to multiple reference photos (which can lead to just this problem of anatomical discrepancy) and I strive for such an accuracy in the drawing that essentially, it is close to identical to the original photo. And so, this basically means that when someone questions anatomical correctness of my artwork, they are really just judging the conformation of the animal in the wild - like a dog show. Which I find amusing. Of course, I digress. It was great, as it always is, to get feedback from a judge in a competition of this caliber. So that was the not-so-happy part of the emotional roller coaster.

The biggest shock of the weekend came when I was looking for my miniature piece, "Snow Leopard's Eye", to see how it had done. I was curious if it had won the miniature division, and so I walked back to the miniature division boards and looked for it - and it was gone. Nowhere to be found! It took me five minutes of wandering around like a dork before I realized I had seen the second and third Best in Show winners, but had yet to see the winner overall - the Best in Show Open winner. That's when I headed for the front of the hall (where they put special boards to hang the Best in Show winners - so the public sees them first upon entering the show) just to discover that my little miniature piece actually WON. Actually WON the Best in Show Open award. Wow. So obviously this is the way-more-happy part of the emotional roller coaster! Here's a picture of the painting hanging on the Best in Show boards, with it's ribbons:
The next loop on the ride was the Special Competition #5, or the Poster Competition. Each year, they hold a competition to decide which piece will be placed on next year's advertisements, posters, buttons, etc - essentially every piece of publicity they put out for the show will have the winning piece of artwork on it. It's a big deal, so I brought out the big guns! I entered "Repose" - the tiger cub colored pencil piece - and held my breath! And when I attended the wine-and-cheese function, I saw a ribbon hanging by "Repose". And so, with the roller coaster going up, I started celebrating. Until a good friend pointed out that the ribbon was red... indicating second place... yup. All previous years had always awarded a first place only - no reason to tell someone they were that close to winning, right? They simply awarded the winner. Meaning I saw a ribbon and immediately assumed I had won. Wow, did I ever feel like a spaz. Of course, I had already told the owners of the piece that we had won, and we were all happy and celebrating, and then I had to tell them the not so great news. Yay. And so, my bubble wasn't quite burst - it was just pinched a little. It couldn't burst all the way, I mean... I had just won a Best in Show with my miniature! And so that kept the party going.

The most shocking and brag-worthy award of the entire show came late on Sunday afternoon, during the awards ceremony. For the first time EVER, the organization decided to do a "People's Choice" award, meaning that every one of the thousands of people who came in the door were given a ballot, and had the chance to vote for their favorite piece in the show. This could be ANY piece - a carving, a photo, a painting, anything. And so, I had really not given the idea any more thought other than "Oh, what a great idea that they are doing that this year!" as I just assumed one of the awesome carvings in the show would receive the award. And then they announce the winner: Christina Langman with "Repose"! My tiger cub colored pencil piece, which I entered in the poster competition and took second place, was actually the "People's Choice" - the public's favorite piece in the whole show. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I'M BRAGGING. I was thrilled, to say the least. A "People's Choice" is often a larger "feel-good" award than some judged awards, as it is a large group of people, all picking you as their favorite. It makes an artist all warm and fuzzy inside!

So the roller coaster ended, with me feeling dizzy and slightly exhausted, but overall very glad I got on the ride! And of course, looking forward to riding again next year!

Snow Leopard's Eye - Miniature

While preparing for the "Reflections of Nature" show in Saskatoon (put on by the Saskatchewan Wildlife Art Association), I had a unique opportunity to create a miniature artwork to enter in the competition. I had been invited to teach a workshop at the show to demonstrate my colored pencil technique, and in order to prepare for the class, I needed photos of my work at each step along the way - a teaching aid for the workshop. The solution was to create a miniature piece of artwork and photograph it at each little step. The result? A Best in Show winner!
"Snow Leopard's Eye" is a colored pencil piece, five inches by five inches. To view the workshop tutorial that was produced using this artwork step-by-step, visit my Colored Pencil Tutorial at my personal website. The tutorial has over 30 images taken from various stages of this artwork, including a detailed how-to on the eye!

Focus - FINISHED!

Focus is finished! The last touch of the picture was to add the snowflakes, both in the air (in focus and out of focus) and resting on the cat. I had a lot of fun with the snowflakes, and managed to quickly perfect the technique, even though this is my first time trying it out! The snowflakes that are out of focus give the picture a very photographic quality, as it's not something you would often see in a painting. I love how this picture turned out.
Below is a close-up of the finished cougar's face:

Focus WIP - Part 8

This picture shows the completed cougar. Below is a close-up of the whiskers, which were particularly challenging, as it was tough to keep them thin enough to look real. Of course, cougars do have large white whiskers, and this cat in particular had quite the impressive set of whiskers on him!

Focus WIP - Part 7

This image shows more progress on the fur of the cougar, including the intermediate stage of layering some base colors prior to burnishing. I enjoyed working on the muscle definition, as it really gave life to the cat. Less and less paper showing now!

Focus WIP - Part 6

I know it has been months since I have posted regarding Focus, but the picture is now finished! What follows is the next step from the last post, and the next posts will be done in the same fashion.

This image shows the progress as I started working on the body of the cat. I found the hair details on a cat this small (in relation to the overall picture I mean, not small in real life) was a challenge. I am used to working on a larger scale with my pencils. The challenge was to make the cat detailed, yet still looking like real hair that was soft and touchable. It required a lot of frequent sharpening of the pencils, to keep a tiny point to do little hairs with!

A Sincere Apology!

Although I'm doubtful a lot of people read my blog regularly, I must still apologize. As you can see, there is a HUGE gap in my posts, and there is really no excuse for that. I created this blog as a way to motivate myself to increase my production of artwork. As it turned out, I posted frequently for a few weeks, but then quickly got distracted. On top of it being summer (lots to do outside!) I had a bit of a stay in the hospital (I'm fine now!) and have purchased myself a beater car (which has consumed insane amounts of both time and money) but those are all entirely different stories, which I won't dive into here.

The purpose of this post is solely to apologize to you, my few and loyal fans, for leaving you high and dry with no updates or news. And so, in the next 24-48 hours, there will be an overwhelming amount of updates, and I am going to post them as I would have if I had kept my blog current. Happy reading!