The Joy of Digital (or "Why Take Lots of Photos") and an Important Announcement!

 

I've been meaning to make a little post on this -- specifically about the benefits of taking LOTS of photos.

I've created eight large paintings and several small ones from this same "photo shoot" of this herd of sheep I came across somewhere in North Texas years ago. And I still haven't exhausted the possibilities.

I must say, when the conditions are just right - the light, the subject, the time - you'd best run with it, and keep snapping!  Good fortune smiled upon me when I found these sheep.

On this public Patreon post you can read some tips on scoping for photo refs, more about how I found these sheep, and a little gallery of all the paintings (15!) I've done so far from them. ...Be sure to read all the way to the end, for my favorite features in a camera and a terrific digital camera reviewing site!

Now for an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Feedburner team announced that their email subscription service will be discontinued in July 2021. As a result, Blogger’s email subscription widget, also known as FollowByEmail, will be turned off. Specifically, the email subscription system will no longer work and subscribers to Google blogs will no longer receive email updates.

SO! If you're receiving this post via email, I thank you for your subscription, but you will no longer be getting these delivered to you from my Google Blog after next month. 

But don't despair! There's a way you can still get my Art Journal musings in your inbox! Simply follow my public Patreon Posts. Sure, Patreon is a subscription-based creative support platform, but you don't have to pay anything for my public posts, and just about all of my new work gets posted on my Patreon page, along with occasional art tips and extra info like this post.  CLICK HERE to go to my Patreon Page and right below the membership levels, next to a button that says "share" is a button that says "follow". It's that easy! (Browse around my other free posts while you're in there..)

Thanks so much for following my blog. Here's to many more years of following my Patreon, and to many more years of creative thinking!

On Judging Shows...

 

I recently had the privilege of being a judge and/or juror for three pastel exhibits and I wanted to share my experience with you! 

I love judging art! I feel like I have fairly good judgement when it comes to recognizing what is a strong work of art based on certain basic criteria which I will talk about in the link below. Plus, it's fun to have the power to decide the fate of an entry and to imagine how someone will feel when winning an award!

Read my comments on the six winners of the MidAtlantic Pastel Society on this public Patreon post, along with what I look for when judging artwork, my experiences judging the animal category of the Pastel100 and jurying for the Pastel Society of New Mexico.

Getting Ready for the WWAF - with free interior photos

 I'm Photoshopping my art into copyright free interior pics for the Woodlands Waterway (virtual) Arts Festival!

A friend told me about a couple of useful websites for copyright free photos. Unsplash.com and Pexels.com. If you do a search in these sites for "interior decorating" all kinds of interesting pics will come up, that you can sift through and find some with walls that will suit your artwork! And these sites really are copyright free and free to download the images! No attribution required.

Then, with the magic of Photoshop (or any photo editing app with the ability to adjust colors and create a drop shadow) you can "hang" your art in these beautiful rooms to stimulate the imagination of potential buyers!

Here are the above photos as I found them, before hanging my art...

 

I Photoshopped these at last Saturday's Virtual Open Studio day. I've been busy trying to do this with much of my current painting inventory to prepare them for the Woodlands Waterway [Virtual] Arts Festival coming up. (...Seems like "virtual" has become the world's favorite adjective these days!) 

(I've also been taking evening walks with the hubby while the weather has been so nice, so my time for these [virtual] tasks has been kinda short lately! But winter will be here soon enough. Gotta enjoy these temperate days, especially in south Texas!)

The recording of this Photoshopping will be available soon on my Patreon page (at the Bunny Buddies level.) Oh yeah, I haven't yet mentioned my new Patreon page on this blog yet! I'd love for you to check it out! I hope to make it my general blog/vlog with art tips and news, plenty of public posts, and all things Pastel! Right now it is anchored to my Virtual Open Studio Days (born out of the Covid stay-at-home) and my two main levels on Patreon have access to all the video recordings from the Studio Days. Lots of pastel demos!

I'm thinking I may slowly blend this blog into the Patreon page (as public posts) so I'd love for you to follow my Patreon page ("following" gets you the public posts, kinda like a blog.)