Katie The KindHeart

I've been spending a lot of time on the "Art For Shelter Animals" project.  See more about Katie The KindHeart here. I plan to do more pencil portraits like this one of "Katie" for the shelter. I will post them here in the near future. See more about this project on my web log here. See more about this technique and materials here.

April 5th Drawing Workshop

I held a drawing workshop here yesterday. We covered a lot of ground! We did gestures, blind contours, and pencil and wash drawings. Students learn how to better control the tricky watercolor medium. I lectured on one and two point perspective. We discussed design and values and even had a session on figures. All in all, I think the students left here enthused and inspired with lots of material to study and work on until the next workshop materializes. Here is one drawing from each student. I'm very happy with the work! See one of my workshop demo sketches today on my Spirit Art Blog.

Anatomy Of A Portrait

Here is the sketch I did for this portrait. The first drawing shows the first two steps of my technique and the middle image shows the sketch with the watercolor wash added. This is my forth painting for the "Art For Shelter Animals" project. I decided to do an additional three watercolors, as the oils I did are still not dry. This beautiful girl, ID#D-26033, is named Sasha. The Burlington County Animal Shelter's website says; "What a pretty white German Shepherd Sasha is! She is good with kids, but a bit shy with strangers at the shelter. Her former owner said she is very loyal and is used to being around women and would probably need time to adjust to a home with men. Sasha is very intelligent and likes to play with squeak toys. Can you give this young girl a loving forever home?" See more about this project here on my web log.

Free 10 Week Photoshop Course!

I'm repeating this info. from my web log today, as I don't want anybody to miss out on this great deal! I just signed up for Creative Techs' 10-Week Photoshop Course by Jason Hoppe. My friend, Nancy Louie, alerted me to this incredible deal! This course is FREE, but since it is already in session and I didn't want to miss any of the ones that have already aired, I opted to purchase the full 10 weeks of recordings on audio file and PDF handout for only $50.00! Wow, how awesome is that! Now I can listen to all of them at any time and repeatedly if I need to. Sometimes (or I should say usually) this technical stuff takes some trial and error and review with me. Each new weekly recording should be active by the Monday following each Thursday class.

Feb 26: Week 1 - Photoshop Basics
Mar 5: Week 2 - Photoshop Layers
Mar 12: Week 3 - Selection Basics
Mar 19: Week 4 - Advanced Selections
Mar 26: Week 5 - Masks
Apr 2: Week 6 - Pen Tool / Shape Layers
Apr 9: Week 7 - Drawing Tools / Brushes
Apr 16: Week 8 - Retouching
Apr 23: Week 9 - Color Correction pt1
Apr 29: Week 9 - Color Correction pt2

The Hummers Are Coming, Oh Boy!

Our Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds are on their way! Check it out! http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html They've been spotted in Mid FL to NC! WAHOO!

Elephants Are Fun To Sketch

Thursday, February 26, 2009 - Frustration Remedy Sketches Ahh, Elephants!

From my Spirit Art Blog: "Seems like every simple task this week has turned into a major ordeal. Staying positive is hard when you keep banging your head against the wall. Putting all fragmented projects aside, I decided to do some therapeutic sketching to adjust my attitude. While I was drawing from photos posted online by my friend, Sally Vennel, simultaneously another FB friend, Abbey Brooke, IM'd me from Kenya. We chatted about elephants and cheetahs. I think my remedy is starting to work! Switching to something you love in situations like this can calm your nerves and heal your heart." Here's steps 1 and 2 of my sketching technique.



Thursday, March 5, 2009 - Finished Elephant Sketches

I'm gearing up for a drawing and watercolor workshop here on Saturday and Sunday. Part of what I will be covering is drawing techniques, including this pencil and watercolor approach. I drew and painted these elephants with permission from my photographer friend, Sally Vennel. Taken on one of her many trips to Africa, these particular elephants live in Botswana. Find links to all my sites on www.sandysandy.com.

Juliet, The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Portrait

I meet up with a long lost classmate from high school, Maria Czaplicki, on Facebook a month or so ago. What a wonderful age we live in! Blogging and social networking opens up our world to so many friends and experiences! Maria just got a new addition to her family, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. What a neat breed! From Wikipedia: "The breed is highly affectionate, and some have called the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel "the ultimate lap dog" or the "love sponge" of dogs. Most dogs of the breed are playful, extremely patient and eager to please. This breed is one of the friendliest of the toy group. Some Cavaliers have been known to exhibit traits in common with cats, such as perching in high places (the tops of couches, the highest pillow, etc), cleaning their own paws and can also show some birding qualities. It is recommended that care should be taken when walking a Cavalier off-leash, as they can single-mindedly chase a butterfly or rabbit onto a busy road or other dangerous situation without regard for their own safety if not properly trained." This inspired the above sketch done from her posted photo which I quickly sent off to Maria.

She loved the sketch! I followed it up with this painting. She picked it up last night at a local art show where I was demonstrating my sketching technique. Maria was going to give it to her daughter, but was talking about hanging it over her computer desk when she left! I don't think she is wanting to part with it! I'd be more than happy to do another painting of this precious angel of a dog for her daughter though! : -D

Koala Bear Sketches and Painting

It's been a couple of months since I updated this blog. This project is like my "summer camp" and for the last three years I have been posting a drawing everyday during the months of June, July and August. It has really helped me to develop a signature drawing style and technique. I often use this method to do a preliminary study before an actual painting, especially if it is something I haven't painted before. I thought you might enjoy seeing these drawings and the resulting painting I did.

A Victory for The Environment and Wildlife!

I am so psyched about the election results! I am looking forward to a new era of positive change in spirit and abundance.

Workshop A Big Success

"Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins." ~ Jim Rohn

Sept. 12 - 14th, 2008 WORKSHOP - Day One

WARM UP EXERCISE
I started today's lessons with a warm up exercise I came up with at the spur of the moment. Holding the pencil like a wand, I encouraged students to use their whole arm and wrist while making various scribbles on their paper. Everyone seemed to agree that this helped them to loosen up for the sketching to follow.



TWO MINUTE GESTURES
I have some wood bird carvings and decided to use them as models for our two minute gesture sketches. After the allotted time was up, each person turned their bird clockwise a quarter of a turn. Each participant did a dozen sketches, three birds, four views each.

BLIND CONTOUR DRAWING
This is a wonderful exercise that I haven't done in a long time. None of the students had ever done a blind contour. This teaches hand eye coordination. You can't look down at your paper while you are drawing. You must only look at the subject while the pencil is moving. This trains you to caress the object with your eyes. After this exercise, students followed along with handouts as we went on to drawing a hummingbird from my Six Steps to Sensational Sketches Demo.



MONOTONE VALUE PAINTING
After lunch break, we did a value painting of a lighthouse. I explained WET-IN-WET techniques on painting skies, grass, water and buildings. Here is my demo painting.

SEE DAYS TWO AND THREE ON MY 9/13/08 AND 9/14/08 WEB LOG POSTS.

"If you get into the habit of sketching, you'll never be bored."
~ Sandy Sandy

Art Instruction Blog

Last week I was contacted by Ralph Serpe; artist, writer, musician and webmaster, about having my "Sensational Sketches In Six Simple Steps" featured on his blog. He writes; "I own and maintain a very popular blog on Art Instruction. My site receives over 20,000 unique visitors each month, and I have a subscriber base of nearly 9,000 artists, all hungry for fresh new content." I checked it out and saw it was of very high caliber. Of course I said YES!

Please visit: www.artinstructionblog.com and check it out!

Comments about my demo on artinstructionblog.com:

"Sandy's six steps are truly simple to follow, and inspirational to beginners like me." ~Nzo-Nguty Etahoben

"Great article, I'm printing it out and stuffing it into my sketchbook." ~ Cindy Davis

"Thanks for the tutorial. It is great and clear. I was looking for something like this for a long time." ~ Aramond

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I did this sketch today from the wildflower bouquet Jerry got for me on Sunday. The stand was closed, but when Jerry told the lady, Mrs. Knight, who I was, she remembered me from a hummingbird presentation I did at her garden club. When he told her I was painting them, she marched out into the garden and cut these for me. I wanted to sketch them again to go with my special announcement today. Like summer, I guess I don't want to let go of my "SketchingEveryday" just yet.