Thursday, January 28, 2010

A little bit of art...

Ok, I know you are tired of looking at my ugly mug, so here's a bit of art.

I mentioned this artist in an earlier post when I drew the apple. That tutorial was on how to draw an apple, but until I get my new glasses, I have to hold stuff in my hand in order to see it. Imagine my surprise when I found out his new tutorials are on drawing the hand. Last night, just as a lark and using the tools at hand, I followed his newest Youtube tutorial and drew this pointing hand.

This is an excellent tutorial that starts out with three oval shapes and breaks the drawing down into simple shapes that anyone can draw. It is so non intimidating to draw in this way. I really didn't take that much time on it, but I did use the pause button on the video as instructed, and did some shading with a Q-tip. The pointing finger is shortened a bit too much, and the shading needs work, but all in all for a quick sketch, I'm pleased with it.

Several weeks ago, I was asked to participate in a Flickr art group called Collage Play with Crowabout. The group administrator, Nancy Baumiller, supplies an image sheet, which you download and print out and then make your collage using at least three of the suggested images. This week's images were ones that I did not immediately relate to, but after one unsuccessful attempt, I applied the "if at first you don't succeed" method and I came up with this.

It's done on a fairly large sheet, about 9 x 12, so I had lots of room to write (which is my favorite part of my style collage). The sheet had a cow, several signs (open, exit, road work ahead), an advert with Bill Cullen hawking Tenderleaf Tea, a vintage image of a boy, some fish and lots of stuff about Spam. No offense folks, but for a person who stopped eating pork about fifteen years ago, the Spam ads did nothing to encourage my creativity. But I kept looking at it and finally decided that it needed to be a cowboy collage. Having decided that, it dawned on me that I have always thought that, deep down, all guys want to be cowboys. I have lots of old Look and Life mags and took some images from a Roy Rogers ad for little boy's boots and toy guns and such.

I found an image of Sam Elliott (the hunkiest cowboy around) and some vintage images from a western wear website. All of these images lead me to draw a background of the setting sun and then I did a doodle type border frame. I glued down my images and altered them a bit, especially Mr. Bill Cullen.

Well, I could go on and on about my feelings regarding collage art, but perhaps that is a post for another day. Today, I'm staying close to the Weather channel and wondering if the snow that is in our forecast will really materialize.

So that's it for me today. Hope you are all having fun and being creative. Take care and hug the person closest to you. You'll be glad you did.

xoxo
Susan


8 comments:

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

Just great my friend! The point of the finger is truly reachin' out of the picture. It just wants to make me say...Uncle Sam want's you!!! Yes, I agree with the second marvelous pic...they all really DO want to be cowboys!

You have yourself a splendid day and may God bless it!!!

Anonymous said...

Good job! I'm going to have to check out the youtube video you refer to. Love the collage, too.

Kristen H said...

Great sketch! I find it easy to draw in a "shapes" method!
Your art journal pages are great!
Every time I look at them, I find more stuff in them. What glorious pieces!

xxx

Kristen

Pocket Full of Prettys said...

Oh my gosh, I think your hand is wonderful, very dimensional. And I think the shading is great too. I too think Sam Elliott is a great cowboy! :) YeeHaw! Hugs!

Jenny Stevning said...

Wonderful!!!

BlueRidgeLady said...

Wow!!! Loved the apple and the hand! Your collage is so creative, I like the theme! Good idea using a bigger sheet, more fun to play!

suze said...

Thanks for stopping by today. Love the cowboy collage...we have lots of cowboys here in OK...spurs and all! Yeehaw!!
Suze

FAQ said...

Wow that hand is awesome. I need to make myself take some of these tutorials. There is so much available on-line. I just can't seem to sit down and do it!