Sometimes letting your art "stew" can be a good idea.....

Top:  "Scout" from "To Kill a Mockingbird"
Bottom:  "Scarlet" from "Gone with the Wind"

Do you remember these broken china/glass hearts from about 2 years ago?  Well in case you don't-they're from a series dedicated to famous literary heroines.

You know how something just doesn't do it for you sometimes?  Well, I just started messing around more with these 2 broken china/glass hearts and I like them a lot better now.  They just needed some pizzazz.  I liked them so much they're hanging on the wall now in a grouping.  They were for sell but not any more.

I forgot that I had a black and white outer border on "Scout"  before.  It think that just had to go.

Little Closeup jewels and Winter vegie soup (for Nancy)

Did you ever look at a painting and notice that there is just one spot that by itself was independently beautiful?  It's like it could just have been the painting by itself without anything else around it.  Here are 2 of my quick paintings where I have zeroed in on my favorite parts.  They're both of Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City.  I, especially, love the way the first one turned out.  It was one of those that I felt was never that great.  So, several years later I went back in and changed some things.  I just really like how the lighting turned out around the pine tree. Plus I added little sprinkles of pink flowers and that added some delicate interest to finish it off.  The 2nd painting always worked for me without any later fixing.  Just wanted you to see these.  It goes to show you that if a painting isn't working all the way you might want to take out the trusty scissors and cut that part out-of course leaving enough to restretch it onto some frames, if large enough.  If not you'll need to mount it flat on a heavy duty plywood board or just foamcore board and frame.  Then, voila!  A new painting that you'll love.

Second of all-this part is for my buddy Nancy from the "Lemon Verbena Lady" blog.  Look, Nancy!  See the parsley that I dried out of the garden added to my soup today?  You would be so proud of me!

Fussy Fru Fra = Blaaaaa when painting leaves

 Step 8

Well, I'm back to the parrot painting.  Remember that, a while back?  Sharpies on canvas are a whole lot more fun, I think.  Anyway, here we are again.  Now the painting at the top is the last step.  Do you think I actually wanted the fussy fru fra to be the main picture at the top of my blog?  No indeed.

Step 5

Anyway, so last night I made a very half hearted attempt to paint some leaves in the background of the painting.  Remember it's a good idea to do the background first.  That way you don't have to be careful around the main subject matter.  Leaves take a special knack and, as you can see, from step one below that it is boring beyond words.  And why is it boring?  Because there's no movement.  It's static.  Well, as my teacher, Robert Rumel, told me, "Sometimes you have to ruin a painting to fix it"-I proceeded to do just that.

 Step6

To begin this process I pulled some natural sponges out of the drawer and began step two (ruination without a care in the world-good plan of attack).  When using a sponge it's real hard to get tight in your painting and I wanted things to loosen up.  As you can see I went to town on this and what do you see now?  Step three-movement!  Voila!  Now, I know this isn't the greatest but it's a better base than what I had before.  Now I can build on it.  Paintings are like sculptures in that you have to build up and build up.  That's what the Masters did.

Step7

Now I have something better to work with.  Oh, I put a green wash on the birds last night-being careful to allow warm and cool.  While I work every area I'm constantly keeping in mind how I can make each element become a "star".  I want subtle contrasts that will pop things out and create life and interest.

Side Note:  I want you to notice the effect of the under painting on the birds.  Now I'm going to layer, layer, layer and leave a small glow of the orange underneath.  It will make the painting breath life by not appearing flat.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

My finished calendar! Yay! I'm done!

Well, you guys-I did the actual calendar part 3 times!  First I thought it would be cute to have each month individually pinned with a colored pin (boooo, such a dud, dumb).  Then I thought I'd make it one piece and I just couldn't bare to not do pretty colors and designs in each square that I thought the numbers and letters could be written on top of.  Chris said, "How can we ever read them?"  I told him that he never looks at the calendar anyway.  So, never mind (in MY mind I was thinking, "Yuck.  This looks awful but, oh well, I want to be done with this!).

When I put the black letters on top you could hardly read them.  I held it up under the pictures and it looked so bad.  It competed with my design (this after instructing my friend how you need to have restful areas in a piece of art-duh) and then I continued putting the numbers on.  I screwed it all up!  I put 12 next to 23.  I sabotaged my own success because I really didn't like it.  Then I thought I would just cut out some canvas and patch them. Oh boy.  That was a lousy idea and I knew it.  So I purposely cut into it to ruin it.

For the 3rd time I started over (each time having to drag the sewing machine back upstairs-I knew the last time I took it down that I was jinxing it.  I would mess up for sure and have to drag it up again-which I did).  So, then, I went for simplicity but as meticulous as I could get it.  I was so afraid I'd mess up again I penciled in the whole thing first.  The pencil lines I had drawn on had to be erased.  You guessed it-it smeared the lead.  I had to wash it, blow dry it and then iron.  Whew!  It's done!

Love the newspaper ideas

 Julie Jacobsen from a photo by Eric Ostling in the Salt Lake Tribune

Once again I had fun drawing from a newspaper photo.  This one struck me as so beautiful.  Do you remember a while back reading about how if you make a mistake make it look like you meant it?  Well, I didn't make a mistake on this but I just didn't like the way her leg was posed.  So I blended it into the fabric.  I'm sure you can see that now.  The composition looks more pleasing to me.  Before it just looked awkward.  What do you think?

How to Fix Pastel Mistakes

I want to talk about giving your eye a rest.  I may have brought this up before but I'll touch on it again because I think it's very important.  If you don't have a peaceful area in your work then it's going to seem frantic.  In this drawing that I did of my daughter and her grandma's dog you can see a barren part where the sidewalk is.  It adds to the calmness of the image.  Part of the moment in time-casually walking the dog on a toasty summer day with nothing to rush you.  That's part of the beauty of grandparents' homes.  They're refuges against the storm of everyday life.  I hope that's conveyed in this drawing of Gracie and Sophie.  So remember to put a little "peace" into your art work.

The other photo has to do with a little tip I got off of another blog.  I can't remember which (sorry and drat) but it has to do with pastels.  I was reminded of it because whenever I look at this drawing I think of it's sister drawing-the one that is/WAS in pastels.  I say "was" because I happily ripped it up and put it in the trash.  I'm not an accomplished pastel artist, at all.  So, of course, the most important part of the whole drawing was my daughter's face and I smudged it.  Blaaaa.  It sat in a drawer in my studio for quite a while just waiting for me to discover how to fix it.  Here's the tip:

The packing tape that ate Chicago (bought by my husband at his favorite close out warehouse.  My son, Charlie, said it will probably last us the rest of our lives and I think he's right.  Notice the paper clip?  It's there for a reason-other wise you will NEVER find the end again.  Never means never.

  1.  Take a piece of clear packing tape and place it on the drawing where you want to remove the pastel.  CAREFULLY let it stick a little-a little is key here- and pull it off.  You might have to do it multiple times but don't be a dumb bell like me and scrape it on to make sure the tape is sticking because it will pull up the pastel paper also and then it's ruined.  Be patient and do it in stages.

  2.  Then spray the area with a spray fixative for pastels.  Be sure to buy the workable kind.  Then you can just rework the pastel on top of it.  Now I would test it out before you try it on your very nice drawing that needs fixing. You might hastily do what I did and that way you can spank your hands and start over.

I like the pastel pencils because they seem to have more control to them and, if you remember from my post about mosaics, I'm not into messy art as much as possible.  These keep your hands relatively clean.