More Art Contests

I have been entering contests lately for fun and to try and get some recognition. I am limiting to myself to what I consider the reasonably priced ones. Some of them can be pretty expensive! Of course those are the ones that usually offer the best prizes, so it's a catch 22.

Here are a couple I found that look interesting:

FALL 2008 ART CONTEST - "PORTRAITS"

INTERNATIONAL ARTIST MAGAZINE'S ART COMPETITIONS

WORKS OF CONTEMPORARY DRAWING AND WRITING ABOUT DRAWING ANNUAL 2008

These are just a couple that fit my areas of art work. There is a huge list of contest you can sift through on Artshow.com.

Red Bubble Promotion

To celebrate selling 100,000 items, Red Bubble.com is offering free shipping. The coupon code is ‘100000masterpieces’ – just enter this during the checkout process to receive the free shipping offer. Hurry! This expires at midnight (GMT) on Oct 30, 2008.

So now is a great time to buy cards or prints of my art and photography!

Some New Works and a New Gallery Site

I have completed a couple things recently, one just today in fact.






I had been working on this one for a long time off and on. I would get bored and did something else, but I finally finished it up, and am quite pleased with the results.






This one was just for fun, and gave me a chance to play with Pastel Chalk pencils. Those pencils are quickly becoming a favorite.

I have also found another fabulous site for selling prints of my work. It is called Red Bubble.com. It is free to sign up, and they offer tons of features to artists. It is extremely easy to navigate as well. I highly recommend Red Bubble if you are looking for an easy way to get your work out there. I now have much of work on my Bubble Site, in addition to my gallery on Fine Art America.






One site I was disappointed in is Artist Rising. It took 2 weeks for my gallery to even become active. I had to try consistently to get works to upload properly, and then it took several days for them to display because of their approval process. I found the whole thing frustrating. While I am sure many have had success with it, I would not recommend it.

As a side note, the portrait contest winners haven't been announced yet. I am still hoping for honorable mention!

Art Contests

I found an interesting art community website called A Singular Creation. One thing I like is that they run free art contests every month. The Art Showdown Contests all have different themes, and there is small prizes, normally $50 for the winner. The winner is featured with a small statement form the artist, but 4 pieces also receive honorable mention. Each artist can enter 3 pieces. See the Art Showdown Contest Rules and Guidelines.

This months art contest hit me right in the middle since the subject was portraits. I entered 2 celebrity pencil portraits, Tony Shalhoub and Elizabeth Taylor. I also entered my graphite portrait of the sweet little boy, Deaven. I was extremely pleased, and surprise, when, out of 299 entries, Deaven was chosen as one of the 16 finalists. The finalists are currently open for public vote, and will remain so until Oct. 6. the it goes to the final vote of the judges, and the winner will be announced Oct 10th. I hope you will check out all the finalists and casts votes for your favorites. There are some really nice pieces.

I honestly don't expect to win, but am hopeful for honorable mention. That would be a big enough boost for my ego. :)

This months contest is black and white, again another nice match for me. I plane to enter a couple original pieces, one of which I am trying to get done before the Oct 14 deadline. Check out the contest themes and deadlines.

Time Slipped Away!

Wow! I can't believe it has been so long since I posted. It has been a busy summer with work and vacations, so that is my excuse!

I have recently been experimenting with pastel chalk. I really like working with these. General's makes some in pencil form, and there are also pastel chalk sticks. They lay down very soft colors that blend easily. I have used paer towels and q-tips to blend them. I also like how they erase easily too! I have been using them on greay pastel paper, and the colors really stand out. Only thing is, there is no balck, so I have been mixing them with carbon or graphite.

"Daydreams" is the first work I created with pastel chalk pencils on white paper. I used a thin tip black pen for her eyelashes. For her skin tones, I applied the pastel challk to a paper towel and then to the paper.

I will be posting some other pasterl chalk works shortly in my gallery on Fine Art America. I recently added some high res images of some of my graphite portraits to my gallery there. they have a wonderful high res preview featrue that really lets you see the detail in a piece.

So, if you want to get into to color, but want something that blends easily, and don't like the waxy look of colored pencils, give these a try. Especially on colored paper!

New Artwork

I added my new art work "Sasha" to my Fine Art America gallery several days ago.




Sasha is the name of my recently adopted cat. I found out the name means "moon" in Hindu, and a cat with the moon seemed to be a perfect fit! I really wanted the moon to have some detail, so I based it on a royalty free high res picture of the moon. It was neat to be able to see all the craters on it's surface.

I added a little color to her blue eyes with some pastel chalk.

I also added some high res pictures of some of my older portraits and celebrity art to my gallery. Clicking on them in the gallery brings up a detailed high res preview of the pictures.

I am still trying to recreate my collection of digital files from my art, which were lost in the hard drive crash a few months ago. All the images I just added had to be photographed and loaded again.

Back Again!

Well, my blog has suffered again because I was on vacation. I had a fantastic time with my family. Unfortunately, it seems to be my routine to go out of town and come back sick!

Enough about that though! On to drawing news. I am working on an original, that is really coming along quite nicely. Sometimes pieces surprise me and wind up being easier than I expected. I am going to be very vague, so everyone can venture some guesses. It has an animal with unique eyes. It is set at night, with the moon at its back. I plan to render everything in graphite, except the eyes that will be in color. I think it will be a nice look.

I had a fun time drawing with one of my nephew while I was away. That has been our tradition in recent years, to draw together from the same picture. This time it was R2-D2 from Star Wars. Droids are a challenging subject! However, I kind of enjoying doing something with sharp angles and hard lines. It is totally different from portraits of people, that is lots of soft edges and flowing lines.

Well, that's all the news for now. Watch for a post about my finished original soon, and see if you guessed right. :)

New Page on Squidoo About Powdered Graphite

I was inspired recently after working with powdered graphite to create a Squidoo lens about it. it really is a great useful product, but I think many artists shy away from it because pencils are the old standard. On this lens you will find tips on working with it. I hope you'll check it out!


General's Powdered Graphite is my favorite to work with.

Busy, Busy

Well, I see I have neglected this blog for awhile, so thought I better show it some attention! So, here is my recent news.

I am working on 2 new original pieces. One is about half way finished and the other I just started. Both are in graphite, although I plan to incorporate some chalk pastel into one of them. I normally keep my hands in 2 or 3 projects at once. That way if I get bored or frustrated with one, I just move on to something different.

I am still searching for the perfect picture of Sean Connery. When drawing celebrities I try to find poses that are not common. I just don't like drawing from a picture that has been seen 1 million time in a publicity campaign. Although, there are always exceptions! Anyway, here is the picture I am leaning towards . . .

Most of my time recently has been tied up with web design. One project will be published within the next few days, and another close to the end of the month. The wedding business is also busy this time of year!

That's all for now, must get back to work!

New Original Graphite Work

I have posted an original entitled "Cover Girl" in my Fine Art America Gallery. I was hoping to capture the look of a vintage magazine, with maybe a little old Hollywood thrown in. It was a lot of fun to do, though I have to admit it didn't turn out like I wanted. I guess we are always our own worst critics though. :) However, I do like the contrast the carbon borders created with graphite drawing.

Finished Celebrity Portrait

Finally got Nicole Kidman's finished pencil portrait posted on my website. There are still a few days left in the current celebrity vote. Really looks like Sean Connery might be the winner . . . It ends May 31st.

I am currently working on creating some more original works and am happy to have a couple close to completion and ready for posting. Stay tuned!

A Rainy Day in the Neighborhood

Well, there has been lots of wet stuff here today, and very little sun in the sunshine state. :) So, I decided to include in this post, some suggestions for protecting pencil portraits from the elements, and helping them stand the test of time.

For those who purchased a pencil portrait:

Keep your pencil drawing from water and direct sunlight.
Well, these are obvious! Water is a given, it will cause irreparable damage, and direct sun can speed the yellowing of your paper.

When storing, framed or not, keep in a climate controlled area.
Avoid putting any pencil drawing in a basement or attic where they can be exposed to high humidity or wide ranges of temperature. If you plan to store your portrait without a frame, put it between two sheets of clean paper, and then two pieces of stiff cardboard. This will protect the drawing from any bending.

When framing your pencil portrait, frame it with glass.
Many frames come with the clear plastic rather than glass. However, glass always works better for pencil, since it will never stick to the graphite.

For Pencil Artists:

Pencil artists most likely are familiar with how to protect their drawings. However, if you draw steadily like me, you probably are starting to get quite a collection of drawings. Sometimes it can be hard to find places to put them! I really like the storage options available at Dick Blick. I have bought some of their flat storage, and it makes it easy to keep drawings flat, out of dust and danger of damage. Really though, anyplace you can keep your drawings stored flat and out of dust, dampness, and sun will work fine. One thing you could do, is line a drawer with archival paper and store drawings flat there. Keep paper between drawings to prevent graphite or color from transferring.

I also like portfolio binders to hold drawings, since they protect and make a nice presentation. Although portfolios won't work if your drawings are large or of different sizes. If you would like to show your drawings, but don;t want to risk transporting and presenting the originals, or, if there are different sizes, as I mentioned, there is a solution. Scan your drawings into the computer, or take digital pictures of them. Then, use a graphics program like Photoshop to resize all the drawings to the size of your portfolio, and make prints of them. This way, you have a nice presentation book, but the originals are safe at home.

Celebrity Pencil Portraits

I am currently working on my pencil portrait of Nicole Kidman. She was the winner in the last celebrity vote on my web site. The voting for the current list ends May 31, 2008. So, if you want to cast a vote, you better hurry! Currently it looks like Sean Connery may be the winner, although Harrison Ford and Nicholas cage are close behind.

I plan to add much more detail, especially to her hair and eyes before her portrait is finished.

I plan to have Nicole Kidman finished by the end of the month. I haven't been able to devote much time to her recently. I still enjoy doing celebrity portraits, but I have been trying to put more effort into creating some original pieces. Every once in awhile though, I find it relaxing to work on a celebrity portrait just for fun. I find them a great way to experiment with different graphite techniques too. There are still some I would like to draw, so I am sure I will eventually be adding more celebrity drawings to my site.

Just a reminder . . . Back Up Your Important Files

Not long ago I had suffered a loss. My computers hard drive kicked the bucket. It all happened quite suddenly and without warning. It started up fine and things were running normally. However, right in the middle of sending an e-mail, I received the dreaded "Blue Screen of Death." The screen was filled with lots of technical jargon, which I will by no means try to repeat. Suffice it to say, it was not good. The computer automatically tried to shut down and restart. Unfortunately, all that appeared was a black screen with the foreboding words "Insert boot disk." I knew then that it was toast.

What happened, I found out later, was the motor of my hard drive burned out. This probably happens more than we are aware. I had the computer for quite sometime, and was told I got longer life out of the hard drive than most. This doesn't change the fact that we become quite reliant on them, and use them to store so much of our lives - special e-mails, favorite pictures, not to mention important business files.

Fortunately, I had recently backed up most of the business files. I am sad though that all my other personal things might be lost forever. Many files we collect are irreplaceable. For example, family pictures, or the high res scans I had of my graphite pencil art. Obviously I can get replacements of the art scans if I still have the piece, but many of the originals belong to others.

I have a great computer guru working on the hard drive, but finding a replacement motor to match the drive isn't easy. The motor must match exactly, and since it is an older drive of odd size, that will be a challenge. Then, the new motor needs to be installed in a truly clean environment. At least I have my computer back with a new, larger 160 gig drive.

So, just a friendly reminder, to back up anything on your hard drive that is important to you. I am now looking into investing in an automatic back up system. Although at this point it is like "closing the barn door after the horses have left."

Don't let this happen to you!

Update July 14, 2008:

As I mentioned in the original post, the motor in my hard drive died. Despite the fact that the hard drive size was rare, I managed to find a drive on EBay to use as a donor. Unfortunately, once my computer guy got the old drive opened up, it turned out the drive pin had broken and scratched he disk surface. So, my worst fears was realized, and all information was lost.

I guess I will spend some time trying to recover all the copies of my artwork. hopefully I have some original images backed up on my SD cards . . .

New Portrait

I recently finished a new graphite pencil portrait. While this is not yet available for viewing on my website, I did quickly post the high-res pic on my Fine Art America gallery. Hope you enjoy seeing it!

A New Toy . . .

I stumbled across a great Squidoo page, and subsequently a great website by artist Marsha Robinette. (She also has a nice blog.) She is a pencil artist who works primarily with carbon pencil. I had never experimented with carbon, so on reading about it and seeing some of her fantastic work, I bought some and decided to give them a try.

They definitely are of different character then graphite. Carbon pencils are pure black, and shine free. They are also unforgiving, so you better be sure you lay them down where you want them since they don't erase as well as graphite. They come in different grades which are scaled like graphite with higher B numbers being softer and darker. In the pack of Wolff's carbon Pencils I purchased from Dick Blick were B, 2B, 4B, and 6B.

I still prefer primarily using graphite. Although, previously, when I needed something very dark in a drawing, I would mix charcoal on top of graphite. This reduced the shine and made some nice dark shadows. I did this in my celebrity drawing of 7 of 9 . I couldn't quite get the darkness in the shadows of her uniform with graphite, so I blended charcoal into the darkest parts. I have begun using carbon in much the same way. I believe I prefer it to charcoal because it is not quite as soft and messy, and gives a wonderful flat black tone. I especially like carbon for the pupils of eyes.

I doubt I will ever do drawings completely out of carbon, but I have enjoyed having it available to add a deeper tone to my drawings.

Site Updates

I finally did a little work on my site today. My real goal is to do a complete overhaul and redesign in the next few months, but so far, I haven't even had time to even get started! Been too busy at the drawing desk and the computer designing websites. So, pencilsandpixelsart.com waits for the moment.

Today I added small thumbnails of a couple of my original works to the "Original Works" page. There are also links there to my Gallery Shop so customers can view high res shots and buy prints.

I plan to have many more original works online ASAP. :)

Success!

Finally, I succeeded in getting three of my original pieces onto the Fine Art America site. So I hope you will take a look! Nicole's Gallery The piece "Daydreams" was my first attempt with Generals pastel chalk pencils. I found I really like them because they blend easily and erase! That is always a plus with me. ;) I do wish they had a wider range of colors. I used carbon pencils for the blackest black of her eyes, and used graphite to had some shading to certain areas.

The tips about getting my pieces digital offered, by fellow pencil artist Darla, were quite helpful. I also found that late afternoon sunlight can help immensely in getting a nice clear photo. :) Please be sure and take a look at Darla's blog, I am sure you will enjoy it.

I will be adding more art work soon, so stay tuned!

More challenging then it should be . . .

I am still struggling to get some of my original works ready to upload to Fine Art America. It should be much easier than this! I just can't seem to get a clear, high definition image of them. Unfortunately, the bed on my scanner, which does nice work, is too small to accommodate the paper sizes. So, I am tying to get some good digital pictures. This is harder than it sounds.

I have an 8 mega pixel camera, so there should be plenty of resolution. In the past, I have taken pictures in the late afternoon in indirect light, and they came out pretty well. At least, they were good enough for display on the web. However, there were always some issues with them. First, clarity, second, avoiding the "graphite glare", and third, edge curving. Since now my goal is to have a perfectly clear high res image to be available for reproduction prints, this creates problems.

First, the depth of field on the camera seems to never be quite wide enough. I always wind up getting some blurring on the images where the focus faded away. So, I need to take the picture centered, without filling up the entire frame. This of course cuts down on the resolution. Not an issue for web display, but since I want these to be available for print, I would like to squeeze out as much resolution as possible. Also, the focus needs to be right on, and crystal clear.

The second issue really involves the type of lighting. Graphite has reflective properties, so the lighting must be indirect, but bright enough to avoid needing the flash. That is a hard line to walk. Using the flash will just "white out" portions of the image. Direct sunlight creates the same issue, as well as the heat from the sun seems to love curling up the edges of my paper.

Third, is the edge curving in the final image. I am not sure if this is the nature of camera lenses, or user error. I will take an picture of a drawing laying perfectly flat, and holding the camera as steady and level as possible. However, when I load it onto the computer to crop it, the edges are never square. Sometimes it is worse then others, but it is frustrating. I wind having to crop off some edges of the image in order to get it "squared." I have had this issue with a couple different digital cameras, so it may be I just am not holding the camera as level as I think.

I guess I will experiment with some different lighting inside and see what happens. Although, in the end I may wind up having to get professional scans. If anybody has some suggestions, I will look foreword to hearing them.

Well, back to the drawing board. Literally, actually, I have a few projects I am working on. :)

Recent News on my Neglected Blog

Well, it is obvious I haven't been paying attention to this poor blog! I am going to try to do better! :)

I recently finished a graphite pencil portrait, which will be on my site soon. It is of an adorable little boy dressed in his Grandpa's over sized football jersey, and holding a football. Too cute!

I just recently created a gallery on Fine Art America. It is a great site for artists and those who love all mediums of art. I plan to have my original graphite works displayed there and have prints of them for sale. However, I need to get some high quality of them first. So, for the time being, I have some of my photography posted there. Be sure and take a look! I have some beautiful shots from Maui. Visit Nicole's gallery

I also do web design, and am happy to announce the launch of Savoir Faire Weddings new site. if you are interested in a web design contact me a nihwebdesign@yahoo.com.