"Balboa Lusitano" and the perils of cats and charcoal

"Balboa Lusitano"
detail with cat's pawprint

I was waiting for my turkey to brine on the night of Friday, November 28th.  I had about four hours to kill, and I was inspired to take out my charcoal for the first time in quite a while.  Working from a reference photo by Bob Langrish in one of my many horse books, I became lost in capturing the spirit of this fiery Lusitano stallion.  His bay coloring and fierce eye put me in mind of Rocky Balboa; Rocky IV had been playing in the pizza parlor earlier that day.  Hence, the title for this piece: "Balboa Lusitano."  I will probably almost certainly do some more work on it.  As you can see in the above photo, my cat Arya decided to take a closer look at this drawing.  I took the picture for evidence before erasing the paw print with a kneaded eraser, so I could photograph the entire drawing.

"Balboa Lusitano"
pen and charcoal
11x14

During the process of photographing, Arya came to investigate.  Most of the time, I love how she follows me around the house.  Most of the time.  I like it rather less when she gets her little paws (and claws) into my artwork and supplies.  She is terribly adorable, regardless.

Who, me?

On Friday, I became frustrated with the lighting at my desk job while working some more on my Suffolk Punch team graphite.  It's rather dim and yellowish light, and I literally could not see what I was doing with the lighter gray details.  So I decided to make this tracing off of the computer monitor to feel some sort of sense of accomplishment.  This revealed to me that my free hand drawing was not quite accurate in its proportions, but fairly close.  I might take some watercolor or acrylic paint to it and just have fun.

I was talking to my significant other about all that I had/have in mind to do: finish matting and framing my prints, acquiring more supplies, going to Greens and Beans, blogging, trying to become good enough to have an art show, going to other people's galleries.  He said that he had no idea that there was so much to art.  As one of my professors said, there's a reason why artwork is called Art. Work: yet I want to continue enjoying the fulfillment of my creative process.
 

Laser Reproductions, Matting, and Feline Interference

"Galloping Draft"
pen and colored pencil
11x13

Last month, I created three pen drawings which are some of the best work I've done in a while.  This was following the encouragement of some of my affiliates who passed by and admired my work.  These three, along with "Two Horses" are the works which I am planning to display and hopefully sell at the florist.  My tentative price per framed and matted print is $25; maybe $30 depending on how I end up matting them.

I went to Staples on the advice of an article on how to make your own prints here.  It's written by an artist who actually works in my area by the name of David Sullivan.  His most well known work is that portraying the Bethlehem Steel Stacks in Pennsylvania, and he works mainly in pen and ink.  He writes:

 "...Using laser copies is probably the best method to use if you're just starting out. It allows you to get individual copies and not be committed to high numbers, and it allows you to experiment with several different drawings to see which ones will sell, and which ones won't (without going broke in the process)."

He also cautions that if you intend to sell laser copies as matted, framed work, you should limit the venue to small coffee shops and the like, as a large gallery will not take you seriously if you bring them laser prints.  Since I am just barely starting out as a professional artist, this is definitely welcome advice.

I had no idea what I was doing when I walked up to the copy center with a brand new USB and a beat-up school folder with my drawings.  Thankfully, the woman at the desk was patient and helpful.  She scanned the work onto my USB, reduced the images by 75 percent, and centered them on 8.5"x 11" card stock as she oo'ed and ahh'ed over my drawings.  The resulting images are roughly  6.5"x 8.5" (my wooden ruler is warped, and I don't remember what she said to me).  They look beautiful.

"Grazing Belgian"
pen and ink
11x13

I wanted them centered because my intent is to mat and frame them before finally getting over to Greens and Beans.  When I went to Michael's, I quickly rued not selecting a larger image size, as there were no pre-made mats cut to the size that I needed.  Thinking swiftly, I decided to purchase heavy black drawing paper and create my own mats.  I was thinking poorly after an exhausting (but fun, don't worry) weekend of family get-togethers and cooking a second Thanksgiving dinner almost by myself, and chose a not particularly standard size of black paper (9x12).  This would lead to difficulties when I was attempting to create a mat for a 8.5 x 11 frame.

I will learn to properly mat artwork again; I think there was a lesson on that in my high school freshman drawing class, but I remember almost nothing.  What I decided to do was to take the measurements of the scanned image, mark the dimensions on the heavy black drawing paper with a white colored pencil, and using a straight edge and an Xacto knife, cut out the opening.  Simple, right?

Well, not so much.  My cat, Arya, otherwise known as the spirit of mischief, kept leaping onto my drafting table and my art supplies.  This was very distracting, and resulted in many interruptions as I removed the tumultuous tabby from the desk and reorganized my work station.  My finished mat certainly was not as straight edged as I wanted.  But, not all is lost.  I may be able to salvage the roughly rectangular cut out and use that to create my mat templates.  Next time I do make copies, I will make sure that either I am much more proficient in matting or that I choose a standard sized image.

"Gypsy Vanner"
pen and colored pencil
11x13