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nmdart.com

4.26.2014

The Next (Big?) Thing

I look admiringly at people who are able to stick to size or style or medium over an extended period of time. I was unable to make myself stick to the same size for even a few weeks during January's 30 in 30 Challenge. I know that I am not alone in this. My studio partner paints both abstracts and landscapes. He is currently teaching an abstract class and told me that he always wants to do the opposite of what he is teaching.

Since February, I've been painting in watercolor. No acrylics. No printmaking. On March first, I put alcohol inks away too. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE watercolor. It is probably my favorite thing to paint with. But, for me at least, it is a bit like the thought of eating only your favorite meal every day. I still like it, but I have been dreaming of paint abstractly in acrylic, or working on a new printmaking series.

My watercolor show has been painted and all of the new pieces have been framed. I have two commissions to complete and then, I will begin my new series...

I've been taking photos with my phone while driving and occasionally riding in a car or metro. (Don't freak out. Traffic crawls here and I'm not trying to take good pictures. In fact, the worse they come out the better.) Here are images that are inspiring me to paint a series. I haven't decided what size, but not small. I have no idea if I will even be able to match the finished works back to the photos, but it gives me a starting point for expression!


















4.24.2014

Artists: Do you do your own framing?


I was back at the framer today to pick up the last two frames for Art:(un)Vale'd. Not counting the time it takes to go get the frames and glass, it takes me at least an hour to cut the mat and get it all put together properly and the dust cover and hanging hardware attached.

Doing it myself helps to keep the overall expense down, but I'm starting to wonder if I should just charge more for my paintings and let the framer do it all. I could have created two paintings in the last two weeks in the time I've spent framing. That seems like it would be a better use of my time.

I would love to hear from other artists who do works on paper. Do you do your own framing?

4.16.2014

From Photo to Watercolor: A Foray into Video & How I Did It


Facebook has made a lot of changes lately, one of which being that videos play while you scroll. This development makes video more eye-catching than a mere photo, so I thought I would try to make a video from my watercolor paintings.

Since I have a Macbook and all of my photos are already in iPhoto, I decided to see what my options were there. It was surprisingly easy to create a slideshow and then drag the photos into that slideshow. I was able to drag them into the desired order. It turned out that I could not get the title slide to look the way that I wanted it to, so I decided not to include the title via the iPhoto option. I went to Photoshop Elements and made a title slide and the other slides that have just words on them. You could also do this in a word processing program as long as you save it as an image file instead of a .doc file.

I imported these slides that I made into iPhoto and the slideshow. When you play the slideshow in iPhoto and hover over it, the settings button appears. I chose a song from my iTunes playlist and selected the option to have the length each slide is viewed to fit the length of the song. Then, I clicked "Export" on the bottom bar. (This process takes quite a while if you choose the larger files.) I uploaded the mobile version to my Facebook art page because many people were likely to view it on their phone. I uploaded the Medium version here.

I am sure that I will make more of these type of "videos" in the future. I think you should give it a try too!