Happy New Year!

Yup, it's New Year's Eve and I'm in here alternating between updating my website (still nowhere near done!) and drawing chickens. I have no life, but you already knew that... Just thought I'd write a quickie blog and wish everyone a wonderful 2007.

I took a bunch of pics today:

Gwen, Dusty, and Shylah


Dusty and part of Gwen


Shylah, with Gwen in the background.


Dusty's normal expression ("hey, whatcha doin?") He was informing he was done with breakfast and ready to be let out. He eats sooooo slowly that I have to pen him up alone when I feed him.

Feeling his oats.

He's going to be going home soon. I am happy with how he is now, he's a good horse to ride. I never did get the gaiting consistent, but with me having no gaited-horse experience and him just not being inclined to do it anyway, I think that aspect was doomed to fail. I am going to miss him, he's been fun to have around, and I definitely plan to go visit him and ride him where he lives (it's only about 15 minutes away) and I hope to get him AND Shylah out on the trail some time.


Gwen, the grand grump. She was actually rather sociable today, I was impressed.



Shylah can be hard to photograph, because she wants to be rather close. She's so fuzzy!




I set up all the tables and chairs for the shindig tomorrow, and walked into the room to discover that Olin had decided to make a centerpiece out of himself. Good thing he's cute! :-)

Large Red Pyle Old English Games

Large Red Pyle Old English Games
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on tan paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Large Red Pyle Modern Games

Large Red Pyle Modern Games
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on gray paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

back home

I am back from the annual pilgrimage to the homeland... In other words I'm back from San Diego. I've been there every Christmas in my life except for one. Most of Mom's side of the family lives there. I was born there, lived there til I was three. I remember bits and pieces of things (going to the zoo a lot, some things about the house, little earthquakes, seeing my relatives a lot, and that amazing cake at Anthony's restaurant!) I wouldn't want to go back though, not to live there. It's nice to visit but there are way too many people down there, and I could never be a beach bum.

Some pics:

Southwest planes are very photogenic aren't they?




The ocean, quite mesmerizing to watch.



I feel like this right now too (maybe even look that way as well)... too many sweets in the last couple weeks (harbor seals in La Jolla at the "Children's Cove." I played there when I was a kid, now people are not allowed, it's a big controversy).


So I'll be back to work officially next week but hopefully also fitting in some time over the weekend. OMG I so wanted to be done with the SOP stuff before Christmas. *sigh* I'm going to start a bunch of new things next week anyway or I'm just going to drag my heels forever. Wish me luck....

Merry Christmas everybody!

Whether you celebrate it or not, I wish you a Merry Christmas. May the season bring you joy, and may the new year treat you well.

Big Dog Paintings!!!!!

Okay yay, I can post them now, since presents have been opened and people have seen them! :-) These are portraits of my "dogs in law" as I call them (dogs belonging to my brother and sis in law). They were done as Christmas gifts, but also as a way to show the painting style, which is pretty vastly different than the drawing style.

These are not shown to scale. I should have photographed the two together but I didn't think of that. Well, I can still do that some time, it's not like I'll never see these again! The photo quality is not great (photographed indoors, problem with glare on paint) so I will be getting these professionally photographed some time down the road.


"Bonnie"
acrylic and ink on canvas
30 by 40 inches


"Buckeye"
acrylic and ink on canvas
24x30 inches

Large Golden Spangled Hamburgs

Large Golden Spangled Hamburgs
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on gray paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Large White Cubalayas

Large White Cubalayas
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on white paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Large Non Bearded Buff Laced Polish

Large Non Bearded Buff Laced Polish
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on gray paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Large Non Bearded White Polish

Large Non Bearded White Polish
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on white paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

winter? already?

Yeesh, time flies. I have been sooooo busy lately! Unfortunately I'm way behind on Standard work, there is no way I will finish by Christmas, possibly even by the end of December. But I'll try! I did finish the big mystery projects I have been working at so diligently, and am super excited to post those after Christmas. The website update is coming along very very slowly. You won't see changes yet, I haven't uploaded anything.

It's been brought to my attention that one topic I need to add to my commissions/sales info is that I'm happy to work out payment plans. As long as I GET paid, I'm flexible on the timing as long as it's pretty reasonable, and the buyer of course doesn't get the piece til it's paid in full. I've done this many times before, but this will save people the trouble of asking about it.

There's isn't a whole lot of excitement to report. I cleaned the front room today, at least mostly... I never got around to hanging the outdoor lights and probably won't. I need to start thinking about what birds to enter in upcoming shows but they are all such little mud monsters right now it's hard to find any of them particularly appealing. I need to go out and do that on a sunny day when they are cavorting around the pen, not a day like today when everything is gray and muddy.

I am almost ready for Christmas, I just need to wrap gifts.

And for your amusement, some photos. This is what happens when I'm asked to decorate cookies...

Bantam Golden Penciled Hamburgs

Bantam Golden Penciled Hamburgs
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on gray paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Bantam White Hamburgs

Bantam White Hamburgs
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on white paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Large Buff Cornish

Large Buff Cornish
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on tan paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Bantam White Faverolles

Bantam White Faverolles
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on white paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Large Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds

Large Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on gray paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Large Light Sussex

Large Light Sussex
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on white paper
for the Amercian Standard of Perfection

Bantam Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds

Bantam Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on tan paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Bantam Spangled Cornish

Without a doubt the hardest color I had to draw.



Bantam Spangled Cornish
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on tan paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Bantam Mottled Cornish

This was a pair of drawings that made me painfully aware of the discrepancies between the APA Standard and the ABA Standard. Simply because of the smaller size of the ABA book, that's the one I had on my desk for reference, and I realized nearly upon completion of the female that the description was oh so slightly different. @#$%!!! So I got to draw that female twice. I think I'll frame the first one and stick it on my wall. Boy it would be nice if somebody would fix all the discrepancies eh??



Bantam Mottled Cornish
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on gray paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Large Black Tailed Red Leghorns

And thus began the "bird standing on paper" minimal background, used from this point onward on all non-white birds. I should add that although it looks a bit plain in comparison to the others, when the image is shrunken down to a few inches tall for the book, it hardly matters, and these look SHARP framed!! That really makes them pop!



Large Black Tailed Red Leghorns
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on tan paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

In other news we got a Christmas tree yesterday and decorated it today. And I baked more cookies. I call them "chicken sandwich cookies" because they are sandwich cookies with a chocolate filling, cut out in the shape of chickens. The name sometimes throws people though. Chicken sandwich...cookie? Better than it sounds!

I finished drawing the tail on the male silver Phoenix, whew! That's tough! Still need to do his legs and background and the whole female, and the golden pair... I'd wanted to be done by Christmas but I think that's impossible. Maybe just the silver pair. It's going to be a very busy weekend and next week is pretty nuts too!

Large Rose Comb Rhode Island Whites

This was sort of the grand background that make me decide "hey, I'm putting too much time into backgrounds!" This one was gobs of work. So after that I made some changes...



Large Rose Comb Rhode Island Whites
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, ink
on white paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

Bantam Columbian Cochins

Bantam Columbian Cochins
8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on white paper
for the American Standard of Perfection

the evolution of a style, and a major undertaking

Okay, so I've been working on some paintings for a while now, which will be posted after Christmas. I hadn't painted for a year, and before that hadn't painted for probably more than a year, and never really learned how to paint anyway. Yes folks, an art major who never learned how to paint, how sad is that? It was like everyone assumed that art students knew how to paint, and most of them did. When I see detailed realistic paintings I am just blown away, because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do that. How do you DO that with paint?? Paint is this wild and crazy goopy uncontrollable thing to me. Colored pencils seem to be the natural extension of my hand and brain, and paint has always been a struggle and something I avoided and was never all that fond of anyway. But over the years people really liked the occasional painting that I did, and they certainly are much faster than the uber-meticulous pencil works, and of course when people express interest in buying them that sorta perks me up and makes me think I need to paint.

So I've been painting. These are not works for sales but they will be followed by many that are. And what started out as a struggle, trying to figure out how to get paint onto the huge canvases, has turned into something, and slowly, somewhat painfully, turned into my style. I have a painting style. What a relief! The funny thing is it involves a lot of drawing. I get the form and colors down in acrylic, let that dry, and work back into it with pens. It turned out really interesting, and I'm not entirely sure where this style came from.. I can explain it better when I can post the pics, but it's definitely influenced by the way I draw (outlining) and the work I've done in printmaking (using lines to create form and roundness). How fun. It was like once I started into it with pens it just clicked and became beautiful, whereas just the paint felt clunky and unfinished.

I'm also doing a very hugely major website revision. Haven't done that for a while so it's time, and I need to rearrange it in order to get the Standard images on there. I'm going to be removing some of the old or non-relevant work, and adding a TON of new stuff. I'll be changing the way the pages are set up too, and I hope that goes over well. I'll be putting thumbnails of images on a main page, and you can click on that to go to a page with a larger images and more info. Meaning each image will have it's own page. (ugh, what am I getting myself into?). I just think it's a way to showcase each image a little more and be able to write a better description of each one. It'll be a heck of a lot of work and it has to be done by early January, so between that and 47 million other things I have my work cut out for me. Anyway I've been sitting here staring at the computer for a while so I think it's time to call it quits for a while.

Bantam Blue Cochins

There is absolutely nothing exciting to write about right now, I'm just insanely busy.



8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on tan paper

Large Brown Red Old English Games

In the early stages of the job there was as much time put into the background of the images as into the birds themselves. Shortly after this pair (and one more I think) that started to change, at least on the non-white birds. I just couldn't put that much time into each piece.

Large Brown Red Old English Games:


8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on tan paper

Large Blue Sumatras

Large Blue Sumatras. This is all I'll post today, gotta go draw Phoenix!



8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on tan paper

Bantam Rose Comb White Leghorns

Okey dokey, time to start posting Standard art. I'm going to put these up in the order that I did them. So here's the first pair, Bantam Rose Comb White Leghorns.



8x10 inches each
colored pencil, graphite, ink
on white paper

the way things are going to work

I went up north this weekend to visit with friends and as a bonus perk I got to meet a super adorable little horse who I think is going to get romantically acquainted with my filly Shylah in a couple of years. He's a black and white medicine hat Gypsy horse and I think they would have a stunning baby, so some number of years down the road when I start thinking about adding another horse to the herd...might be something to think about. And of course I'm going to have to draw him when he gets older and turns into a studmuffin.

One thing about spending six hours alone in a car is that when I'm not singing along (um, probably not in tune) to the radio it gives me a lot of time to think. Perhaps this is why I like driving alone, I like thinking, and lately I'm thinking "how am I going to do this." And ultimately it comes down to money, and several things come to mind.

1) I can't survive on the income that I've had. I can't survive on the current prices that I charge. While I may, at times, cover time spent on the final drawing, it does not cover anything else (sketching, correspondence, research, scanning, photography costs, copyright registration cost, etc). So on a small piece there is essentially no profit. And as a freelancer, I don't have perks that normal job entails, like retirement for example! Solution: raise prices.

2) How many people out there are doing what I do? How many poultry artists are out there? A few.. Specializing in realism? Even fewer? I don't have a problem with saying I'm really good at what I do, and it's my extremely biased opinion that I'm probably the best at what I do. Translation: raise prices.

This not being snobby, this is not screwing the customer, this is business and making a living. Artists tend to have this phrase that goes something like this: "you can never cover the time you put into a piece." What a crock. You have to cover your time, you can't afford not to. If you were working any other job you'd cover all your hours (and even get overtime, hey nobody pays me for staying up half the night to get something done on time!). Think about some other professional... you think they're just going to give their time away because they enjoy the work? I don't think so.

The numbers only look high until you realize what goes into it, and all the things the artist has to do. Art doesn't just happen on its own without a huge amount of work and often some rather large expenses.

So here's the scoop: prices will be going up very significantly in early 2007, because my time and my work is worth it and I'm not going to undersell anymore. If you are looking for the best poultry art you can find, it's right here. :-)

Until the new prices are up I will continue to use the prices that are published on my main website, and a signed contract will lock you in at those prices regardless of how much things may change. So if you've been thinking of getting some custom art done it's in your best interest to book it by January!! ;-)

And there you have it. The plan is in motion.

on second thought

I think I WILL post the Standard images here too, since some people read this but don't check the website, and some people check the website but haven't noticed the blog yet. So.. I'll put em both places, a little added publicity can't hurt. No time today, maybe I can start next week.

I'll be at another Second Saturday reception at Asylum Gallery in Sacramento tonight. I'm bringing a few more pieces to put in the show. I had to drop the prices a bit to fit the requirements, and I hate doing that, but I'm hoping for some sales and going with the "get my name out there" theory today. We'll see...

splendiferous

The best chocolate chip cookies in the universe are indeed improved by using real butter and by roasting the walnuts. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Bless whoever invented this awesome walnut cracker.

permission granted!

Woo hooooo!!!! I get to put the Standard images onto my website now!! Now hold on, don't get all excited, this will take a while. It coincides with a pretty major website update (which I'm finding it hard to work on due to time constraints) so it's gonna be a little while til they are up. They will go onto to the main website, not the blog, and I'll post an entry when it's all done. Could be a couple weeks, but I plan to spend some late nights working on it!

December insanity

Wow, what is happening to the time lately? The day starts and then *poof* it's all done. Still poking along the Phoenix sketches, making tiny revisions. I think they'll be approved shortly, and then I'll do the final drawings. The composition of these four is quite awful. They are long horizontal birds that must be drawn in a vertical space, so they end up being REALLY small, with horrible amounts of background around them. I'm going to have to come up with something creative to fill the space, and unfortunately I won't be able to get the same level of detail on these simply because of size.

I've also been working a lot on two large paintings, which I can't post on line til after Christmas. I think it's all coming back to me, how to paint, but it seems pretty weird, not having picked up a paintbrush for about a year.

It's also that time of year to make fattening foods. Yummmmy.... so not good for me, but oh well. I did a batch of fudge on Tuesday, a new recipe of chocolate-peppermint fudge today (not sure it'll turn out), and I might make the buckeye balls tonight. Or tomorrow. And I promised to bring cookies to an art show reception on Saturday, so... gotta fit those in tomorrow too. There's one particular chocolate chip recipe I want to make. It uses lots of walnuts, and I have a big bag of whole walnuts that's been sitting on the kitchen floor for about a month, and I really need to crack them out and roast them because I think that will be amazingly good. Hmm, when to fit that in..

I spent some time outside sitting with the birds today, I haven't had a chance to do that for a while. Some of the pullets are molting. Um, that's strange. These are birds that are not even a year old. Could it be the weather? I don't know. This happened last year too. I hope to have some halfway decent birds to show by the time the shows start up in a little over a month, but it's hard to say. One might surprise me but overall I think they were better last year. I am thinking about cutting back but not sure what to let go.

Still working on trying to get the right gait from Dusty the Tennessee Walker. I ride almost every day, and it's just not clicking. Who'd have thought you'd have to teach a gaited horse how to gait. Well, I suppose not all of them need that.. I can get him to do it sometimes, a little bit, but he doesn't sustain it or do it consistently enough for it to be any sort of useful skill. I'm not sure what to do about that, not sure I'm capable of getting it right. I can usually get one pretty good attempt from him and then he just starts fighting me. He's also getting more fidgety about being saddled. Saddle fit problem? Eager to get going? He doesn't seem mad, just moves around a lot. Maybe I'll put a few pads on him and use my saddle, or try him bareback or something just to see if I can pinpoint what's going on. Seems like sometimes when you work with horses things get worse before they get better. I wish I had more time right now.

It's hard to complain about the gorgeous weather but we need rain. The pasture's hardly have any grass. Same problem as last year, and then I look at pics from two years ago and it was lush, green, and several inches tall already.

Okay, gotta go draw, or paint, or bake, or clone myself so I can do all three.

call to artists

Artists of the world: stop selling yourselves short. Stop undercharging. If you are good enough to be in demand and be a professional artist, you darn well better charge what other professionals make. How much do you need in a year? In a month? A week? Per piece? Stop working for peanuts, you aren't making it any easier for those of us who are being realistic about pricing.

Clients of the world: if you want an artist to produce an art piece for you, to spend days/weeks/months devoting themselves to your project, remember that person is a professional. Be prepared to pay accordingly.

Disclaimer: this is absolutely NOT directed at anyone in particular, this is something I see ALL THE TIME and it pisses me off to no end.

the things in my head

Sometimes I get to the end of the day with so much to say that I don't even know where to begin. It's been weird lately, and I hope some day to look back on this time and say "wow, I remember how worried I was." As the Standard job comes to an end (4 more to go) there's the big question of what's next. As my relatives are fond of reminding me, I could get some mind-numbing but high paying job, and spend the rest of my days bashing my head against the wall, wishing I was creating artwork. Most people in the world probably don't get it. They don't get this art thing. It's not about not wanting to work, it's about THIS IS SOMETHING I MUST DO, and holy crap you'd better believe it's hard work. Call it a calling, call it a passion, call it an obsession. Not making art is not an option. Full time art is the option. The only option I think I could live with. Success is a must. I refuse to quit. There are a lot of people who need to be proven wrong. ;-)

But then the doubts creep in again. The what ifs....

And then the confidence comes back. Arrogance perhaps. I'm good. Good enough to pull this off.

Such highs and such lows, in such short amounts of time. Yes, things are a bit strange right now.

I AM GOING TO SUCCEED. Just you watch. [crosses fingers?]

I'm a bit dismayed with what I'm finding out about galleries. There's one in Sacramento that I think has a lot of promise, but can I deal with a 50% cut in the sales? Or am I better off trying to sell on my own? Maybe a co-op would be a better bet, there are some in more remote areas that take a smaller cut. But they bring a smaller crowd, and probably sell less work. Or putting work out in stores? Smaller sales cut, but less exposure to people who go in with the intention to buy art. Hmm, which way to go.

I am full of ideas. Overflowing with ideas. Excited about ideas. I'm obsessed with chickens, and am determined to take the chicken art to the next level. Chickens in context. Chickens chickens chickens! Oh yeah and PET PORTRAITS (shameless plug).

I have requested permission to post the completed Standard drawings on line. We'll see...

I am working on the Phoenix (the last 4 drawings are all Phoenix) but progress is slow for the usual reasons, which I'll spare you. And I am doing some enormous paintings and wonder what I've gotten myself into, as I seem to have forgotten how to paint. No worries, I'm sure it'll come back to me. ;-)

I am opening an ebay store. Despite the costs, I think (hope) it will generate more sales than my website itself, and ultimately will be cheaper than putting things on ebay using the normal fees. If it doesn't work out, I can always cancel it, but if it goes well I'm going to pull the whole sales section off my website and transfer it all to ebay. I have a lot to sell, and that extra exposure may be just the ticket. I think I need to try every option of doing this on my own.

---

Oh! J.C. I finally remembered to put coconut in my oatmeal this morning, it was scrumptious! :-)

I need to get going on making the annual Christmas candy. Gotta get that done some time during the week I guess. Shoot, there just isn't enough time in this month!