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Monet at the Museum
Looking back on my visit to the Denver Art Museum (DAM) for the Monet exhibit, I wish I could do it all over again. I felt giddy like a child going on a field trip. Monet has been an inspiration to me in how he uses color and his mark making techniques. I’ve always admired how he learned the academic side of painting. Then deliberately choosing to deviate from the norm and break all the rules. Seeing his work in person is a real treat. I bought the museum’s catalog book and does not compare to his paintings in person. They are so colorful with a multitude of hues weaving…
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A Failure to a Vibrant Review
Last year I went to the Denver Botanic Gardens to take some pictures of their waterlilies. I wondered all around snapping a picture of anything I thought would be worth painting or using for reference. I came upon some lovely dahlias, one of my favorite flowers. Earlier this summer I dug through my photographs looking for something vibrant to paint and stumbled on those pictures. I has never painted a dahlia before and thought it would a great exercise for me. I started the painting as usual, a vibrant ink under-painting and layered in my darks. As I moved on to the blooms, I found myself struggling. Not giving up,…
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Blooming in Vibrancy: Waterlily Process Work
I had recently bought the Terry Ludwig’s Vibrant set specifically for one project. Waterlilies. I had taken pictures of these beautiful flowers when I was at the Denver Botanic Gardens last summer. These lilies were in full bloom with such vibrant colors. I was very excited to start this project when I received my new pastels; I knew they would be perfect for the intense colors in the waterlily. Under Painting Process Below I’ll walk you through my process of this piece, “Blooming in Vibrancy”. I began work on dark UArt 400 grit sanded paper. Using a dark paper it was easier to make the more saturated colors stand out.…
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Dior: The Haute Couture House from Paris
Inspiration from Other Artists I love going to the art museum. Especially when they exhibit things I wouldn’t normally be able to see unless I travel far from home. A few weeks ago, my mother and I went to see the Dior From Paris to the World fashion exhibit at the Denver Art Museum (DAM for short). We both loved it. If you don’t know, Dior is a haute couture fashion house. A literal translation of haute couture would be “high dressmaking”. I other words high end fashion made custom for you. A thing you need to know about my mother and I is that we love to sew. We…
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2019: A New Year, A New Life
I’ve had this website for along time now. I’ve been working as an artist for a long time too. I’ve had different jobs and have made friends in all sorts of places. Looking back now, I’ve grown as an artist and a person. At least I hope I have. I’m looking at this little island in this vast online sea I’ve created for myself. Years back I remember sitting in my Illustration Marketing class with wild aspirations of having a beautiful website with my artwork all over it and a wonderful blog others could enjoy. The only things that have really changed for this site are the designs, new artwork…
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Portrait Challenge Week 1 Dead Colors: Conclusion
The first week’s over and I’m already feeling better about my skills in portraiture. Limiting myself to a dead color palette allowed me to ease into my challenge without having to worry about the issues of a full color palette. Dead Colors The first week I limited myself to a specific palette: dead colors. Dead colors consist of pigments that are not naturally vibrant or lively hence the word dead. The ones I used were: Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Brunt Sienna, Brunt Umber, Payne’s Grey and Mars Black. For my first life painting class we created 5 color strings with these colors: warm greys, yellows, warm reds, cool…
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Portrait Challenge in Oils: Specific Color Palettes
Creating a Challenge for Yourself Portraits can be daunting. You have to get them just right. The slightest thing off and people will notice it immediately. They won’t know why, they’ll just know. That’s the problem when working with a subject people see every day. They instantly recognize it without consciously thinking about it. This is why so many artists obsess over painting faces. For it represents us; humanity has been infatuated with itself for thousands of year. Secondly, people’s faces convey the most emotion out of the entire body and are usually the most distinguishing feature. That’s why I’m creating a challenge for myself focused on portraits. Not just…
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Elven Maiden Process
Process Work for Elven Maiden I had a wild hair one day in June to do this elegant piece of a regal elf. I envisioned her taking a stroll through a garden with a soft light playing across her skin. So I set my camera up and threw a on dress with jewelry. I had a small thumbnail of what she should look like, which I ended up deviating. I took advantage of the north light from the kitchen slider. After a better sketch I set up an 18″x24″ UART 400 grit pastel paper. I wanted something large to work on but nothing intimidating since I hadn’t work this large…
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New Year’s Resolutions
A New Year a New Start. We all have big dreams for the upcoming year. You want to find your dream job. Build new and better portfolio. Get into an art gallery. Create more art. Try out a new technique. Attend more conventions or festivals. Sell more art. Form better habits. Get rid of bad habits. The list goes on and on. We tend to make these large resolutions for ourselves. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact we need a few large goals to aim for. It’s just we shouldn’t forget about the small ones too. The small building blocks is what makes up the larger goals. My large…
