For the Love of My Scruffy Little City {....Knoxville, TN}

Lately, I've had a desire to sketch and paint local, urban subject matter.  In the past, every time The Preacher and I took a Monday Funday day-or-half-day off, we'd take a trip to the Smokies.  He'd haul his huge Nikon, and I'd drag along my portable studio...(an art bag filled with "just the essentials".  Only - the essentials keep multiplying.  hashtag Ihaveanaddictiontoartsupplies.)

After years of this personal art practice, after years of taking off on the occasional but pretty consistent Monday (I wish it was every Monday) I now have whole sketch books full of mountain and meadow scenes.

And suddenly, this week, I told The Preacher I want to tackle my town.

So we went and shot Knoxville all up this evening.  Since sunrise or sunset or overcast are really the only times sane photogs shoot, we checked our local weather and saw that today or tomorrow would be peak time, this week.

Tip:  You can only get to so many places during said peak time, when the light is luscious.  We will have to do this again.  And again.  Looks like my Mondays are all planned out for the foreseeable future.

You know I hate that.  Especially when it involves dinner out.

 (today's menu)

 (bathroom selfie - because you can't not.)

Disclaimer:  every shot here was taken with my iPhone 6 - not my big girl camera.  I just wanted shots for sketches and paintings today - The Preacher took the "real" photographs.

My town used to be called the "Scruffy Little City" a few generations ago.  Today, it is beginning to rival Nashville when it comes to music and art.

My town has the iconic:

...and the weirdly iconic:

And if you watch closely, especially on any foreseeable Monday, you might see a preacher shooting up the city, all dressed in Volunteer Orange:

(His wife will probably be in a random bathroom, taking a selfie.  Don't watch for her.)



This scene stopped me in my tracks, quite literally.  Not the one above, of the cute preacher shooting the town - the one below.

The Preacher kept walking darn near a block before he realized he had lost me to this:

Isn't that dreamy?  Now I have to go back and eat there.  Right there.  Nothing less will do.


The Preacher had to screech to a halt, and then sigh while making a U-turn on a sketchy side street, because I begged to be able to grab this shot out the truck passenger side window:

Stay tuned this upcoming Monday...

I will be out of the house and roaming my city.

"Trust" {...a face painting demo...}

In my previous video tutorial, I demonstrated that anyone can play with visual art.  You don't have to understand perspective or proportions or painting, and you can begin to create art for under $20, with a piece of paper, 4-5 colors of pastels, a piece of charcoal, and a water soluble graphite pencil. With just those tools, you can take off, and create layers and interest and whatever your heart desires.

Today, I want to share my (loosely stated) "process" for painting a face.  I say "loosely stated", because my process and my methods are loose and always growing and evolving.  I could almost say "this is how I painted a face yesterday" -  today will be different.

But I am a working artist (meaning:  my paintings have sold and do consistently sell, both originals and prints) and thus, I do have somewhat of a sort of, kind of process, and I'd love to freely share.

As usual, I can't create video content without sharing the things that have been on my heart lately.  So if you don't want to hear that part, just turn down the sound.  I won't be a bit mad if you do that.

But if you want to be encouraged to trust the Lord with all your heart, alongside a bit of art instruction...you might want to pour yourself a cup of coffee and sit down with me.

I've divided the original half-hour video into three parts, about 9 minutes each.  I sure hope you enjoy!

"Put A Bird On It" ~ A Simple Art Making Video {...using pastels...}

I am very close to having my video production workflow down-pat.  ::cheers, confetti::

Practice doesn't "make" perfect, in my opinion.  Practice is, itself, a perfect thing.  You can't ever get in too much art practice - or video production practice.

And, because I have spring on the brain, I made you a truly un-intimidating art video - with birds as the subject matter.  All you need is a charcoal stick (or willow stick), a water soluble graphite pencil, pastels in shades of ochre, white or cream, and blue (or any colors you prefer)...and maybe an oil pastel or two.

In this video, I show you just one of many techniques I use to create backgrounds that are richly layered and interesting.  Since I limited myself, for this video, to mostly pastels and willow stick (or charcoal) and a 20 minute time limit, this is quite simple to do.

Are you hearing the beginnings of spring, where you live?  Around here, there is already much more birdsong in the early mornings...

Enjoy.

PS.  I began this video wearing latex gloves.  But since I have the tiny paws of a kindergarten child, I can't ever find gloves that fit.  At some point, I ditched them.  (I know I'll be asked...just answering ahead of time...)