Birdbrain http://blog.redfeather-art.com (That's not an insult. Birds are crafty!) Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:02:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Courage http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1527 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1527#comments Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:02:31 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1527 About two years ago, an artist I follow on Twitter, David Sandum, organized a fundraising exhibition using Twitter to get the word out about the event and reach artists around the world. It was a tremendous success, and so he’s decided to do it again this spring. He asked me to participate again, which I was eager to do. I did something a little different this year. I like printmaking but I don’t get to do it all that often, so this was a nice reason to do a small (4″x6″) linocut print in support of the event. I printed an initial run of nine, with the first one going David. I’ve also given a few away to friends, and I’ve got a couple left if anyone’s interested in one. It was a fun project, something a little different, and for a good cause, so I’m glad to be involved once again!

Courage - Linocut of a Hawk

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1527 0 Figure Drawing, Week 4 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1524 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1524#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:56:06 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1524 More ten minute warm-up poses.

Female figure ten minute poses

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1524 0 Figure Drawing Week 2, pt 4 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1520 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1520#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:00:01 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1520 Another ten minute pose.

Male figure ten minute pose

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1520 0 Figure Drawing, Week 2, pt 3 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1517 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1517#comments Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:26:15 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1517 Twenty minute pose.

Male figure 20 minute pose

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1517 0 Figure Drawing, Week 2, pt 2 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1513 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1513#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:36:44 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1513 Continuing with the ten minute poses.

Male figure 10 minute poses

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1513 0 Figure Drawing, Week 2, pt 1 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1510 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1510#comments Sun, 04 Mar 2012 23:55:36 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1510 This page has a ten minute sketch from week 1 and week 2.

Fig Drawing Week 2

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1510 0 Figure Drawing Week 1, Part 3 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1503 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1503#comments Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:48:49 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1503 This page illustrates something that’s important for any artist to watch out for. Almost everyone will be subconsciously influenced by the edge of the page or canvas when they’re creating art. Sometimes it’s more obvious than others. One thing that makes abstract expressionism more difficult than people expect is that they’ll create this automatic border as they approach the edge of the canvas—something which is obviously artificial and rarely in keeping with the abstracted ideals of the style. More commonly, however, you end up with the situation with what I did here. Artists will subconsciously compress a figure to make it fit on the page. It’s really quite difficult to ignore the edge of the page and still draw the figure as you see it, until you just run out of room. Even knowing that it happens as I was drawing this, you can see how I squished it too much and—subconsciously again—made it fit.

Female Figures Part 3

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1503 0 Figure Drawing Week 1 (continued) http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1500 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1500#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:23:03 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1500 Some more from week one, still ten minute poses.

Female Figure Week 1 continued

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1500 0 Figure Drawing Week 1 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1497 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1497#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:08:26 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1497 I’m taking a figure drawing class this semester, so I’ve got quite a bit of recent art that I need to get photographed and uploaded. You can never have too much practice with figure anatomy! Everything for this class is charcoal done at 18″x24″. These in particular are ten minute poses.

Female Figure Ten Minutes

]]> http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?feed=rss2&p=1497 0 Designathon 2012 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1489 http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1489#comments Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:09:30 +0000 Pulsar http://blog.redfeather-art.com/?p=1489 Once again this year, I participated in Designathon at the PA College of Art & Design. I did the event last year for the first time, and it was just fantastic. I’d been looking forward to it all year, and this past weekend it was even better than last time.

Designathon is a 24-hour design marathon for the benefit of non-profit organizations. The clients present their graphic design related needs Friday evening at 6pm. The students have 24 hours to complete the work, and present it back to the clients on Saturday at 6pm. Students are broken into teams, and each team handles the work for one organization. Faculty members serve as team leads and advisors for the students and guide the process, while the students do the actual design work.

My team’s client this year was Manos House, a drug rehabilitation organization for teen boys, 15 to 19 years old. There’s also a private school associated with the group, called the Prospect Grove High School. The school was recently renamed, to help separate it from the rehabilitation part of the organization, and it needed a logo to go with the new name. Additionally, the organization was moving to a new location, which needed some signage. We were able to accomplish this, and do some other things that weren’t specifically requested. In addition to the school’s logo, the students also did one for Manos House itself, and designed a new diploma for the graduating students of the school.

The event was nothing but incredible. I once again managed to stay up all night (literally a once-a-year thing for me. The last time I did that was at the previous Designathon). Things were more challenging for me this year, too. Not only did I teach one of my regular classes Friday afternoon, but I also had a continuing education filmmaking class Saturday morning. So from 9 to noon, after having stayed up for over 24 hours, I stepped out to go teach that, as well. It actually went really well, with me being fueled by a combination of coffee, donuts and excitement.

I’m already looking forward to doing it again, whether that ends up being next year, or at some other point in the future. It’s such a positive event, to be able to help out the community and interact with the students in a faster paced environment outside of the classroom.

Prospect Grove High School Logo

Manos House Logo

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