art

A Man and A Violin, Doodle #62

| Whitt’s End Art

man-and-violin

The prompt for today was saturation which could have led me in a lot of drawing  directions. The first thing which popped into my head was a picture featuring water. After all I live near a river and figured I could do a location doodle. To bland. I then pondered about what else saturates besides water. Somehow I ended up thinking about mu and all the concerts I ever attended. The music saturates the air with sound. The picture I drew was actually inspired by my days in junior high playing the viola.

I still love the sounds of a string instrument. One of my favorite musicians is the fiddle player from the Celtic Women. I  love the way her performance takes over the stage. Our lives need to be like that of a musician. Whatever we do in life needs to be a beautiful sounds which saturates others with joy.

Life is a Mystery, Doodle #61

| Whitt’s End Art

 

babyOn this auspicious day of March 2nd the prompt for the daily doodle is a mystery. No I mean the prompt was to draw something based on the word mystery.  I spent quite a few hours pondering this one.

The reason I chose the baby and the puppy was because to me life is a mystery. Science seeks to explain life away as a process but to me life is more than a process. It is a miracle wrapped up in a mystery which can only be answered by a faith in God.  I know there will be those who disagree but that is okay. I hope you enjoy my picture “A Girl and Her Dog.”

The Boston Terrier, Doodle #60

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boston-terrier

The doodle prompt for March 1st was to doodle something ordinary. Well what is more or ordinary or more comforting then the face of your favorite . Whole I currently don’t have a pet my son does have a Boston Terrier the one pictured is not his.

Daily Timeout for Art

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girl-with-flowers

The final theme for February was gold. I could have gone in a lot of directions with this one but instead I chose to go with a piece entitled “Golden Haired Girl and Her Flowers.” The piece is a simple one done in colored pencil.

A Cold Winter’s Day

| Whitt’s End Art

Over the years I have switched to smaller canvases. I don’t know if it because of my adult ADD and the idea a finished painting on a big canvas take a while to complete from concept to finished painting. Maybe it is the fact smaller canvases are cheaper to buy or find at the local thrift store.

Tip of the day. I often buy a small frame at the local thrift store, take the cardboard out of the frame and use it as my canvas. The upswing is it costs me $1.97 to get a canvas and a frame to put my finished painting in when I’m done.

Whatever the reason I switched to small canvases I still had a couple of larger canvases left to paint on which led me to today’s offering an acrylic on canvas entitled, “A Cold Winter’s Day.”

cold-winter

Don’t Take Art Criticism Personally

| Whitt’s End Art

Criticism, what are you gonna do with it, absolutely nothing? Well maybe not. If you’re like me when you create a piece of art and release it to the world the last thing you want to to hear is criticism. No artist wants there work panned but criticism should not be taken personally but creatively.

As an artist the first type of criticism  you deal with is internal. As an artist you know what I’m talking about Internal criticism is the little voice inside your head that tells you your work is not good,so why even try completing the piece, just scrap it and move on. This type of criticism is the easiest for me to ignore. I just press on, standing back from time to time, evaluating my piece, making adjustments and then moving on. There are times I will even step back from a piece and move on to something else until I feel my internal criticism has waned.

The hardest criticism for me take is the external kind. There were times in my art career where the fear of external criticism caused me to keep my creations from the eyes of the world. I still have those fears but now I have learned to hear the criticism, thank the people for their view and move on to the next piece of art.

The reason I can do this is because I no longer create art to please the masses. I create art which satisfies my soul and brings me the most joy. In the end no matter the outcome of the piece I can release it the world, realizing there are going to be those who don’t like the end result, those who love the end result and those who don’t care one way or the other.

So, if your concerned over criticism, don’t be, it is part of the process of having a creative spirit given to you by our Creator. An artist’s life like any part of life is not going to be easy but the rewards at the end of the road are worth the trials and tribulations or criticisms with which you’re going to have to deal.

As a teach shirt I once saw stated, “Keep on Arting.”

Daily Timeout for Art #57

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girl-with-empty-jewelrybox

The  picture for today is lovingly entitled, “Empty Jewelry Box.” The story behind it is a simple one. The theme for today’s drawing was minerals. Since diamonds are a mineral and also a girls best friend I decided to go the opposite route of simply drawing an empty jewelry box and a worried husband or boyfriend in the background.

Daily Timeout for Art #56

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birs-and-berries

The prompt for today, berries. I turned a bunch of ideas over in my head until I came up with the idea a bird eating some berries from a tree. While the piece titled, “Bird and Berries” did not turn out the way I wanted I am still satisfied with the end result. I have set a course recently to learn how to be more adept with colored and watercolor pencils. I have always used pastels and acrylics for their brightness of color.

No offense to all of you who use oil paints or inks but oils are hard for me to use and inks cost more than I can afford. I decided on color pencils and am trying get more vibrant colors in my renderings. I am also venturing out with my drawings because I got tired of doing just landscapes or abstracts.I hope you enjoy today’s offering it is my truly venture into doing a lifelike bird.