Some Plein Air, and an Experiment, cont'd

Been working on many projects in the studio, but also taking some time to do a bit of on-location drawing and painting with some fellow DIS members. This study is of a garden off an alley in my neighborhood. The place has always fascinated me. I finished this at around 12:30 pm. It is 5" x 7".

Yeah it's November in Denver and there's still green grass and living plants. That's creepy. 

I took this photo around 10:00 am, before I began the pen drawing which I then filled in with watercolor. Then we got hungry and left for lunch.

Here are a couple more, done a few weeks earlier. Both studies are approx. 3" x 4".

An update from the last two posts: I'm still completely off of Facebook (outside of checking on events) and

 only occasionally looking at Instagram.

 

What I've noticed in 20 days since the beginning of An Experiment :

 

1. Still feeling better mentally; much lighter and more content.

 

2. I'm now sleeping through the night, every night. 

(Prior to bailing on social media I'd gotten used to waking around two or three am and not being able to fall back asleep for an hour or so. Previously, I seldom looked at screens late in the evening and never checked my phone during the night, so the new sleep habits have nothing to do with that. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I don't think so.)

 

3. I'm reading a ton, compared to the last 6 months. That's no coincidence.

 

4. Still really don't want to jump back onto social media--it sounds less and less inviting.

I must be incredibly sensitive to Facebook. Oh well.

 

And that's about it--thanks for the visit!

 

Preliminary Sketches

I'm working away at a bunch of paintings for an upcoming solo show at Helikon Gallery.

One of my favorite ways to relax away from the studio is adding pen-work to my preliminary sketches for those paintings.

 The original prelims are most often loose, red-pencil drawings on toned paper. I do a bunch, and they simply help me in thinking out compositions.

But when hanging out at home, I like to sit on the couch, pull out one of the preliminary sketches, and then apply outline and value using a brush pen, white highlights, and pen and ink. It's meditative (like fishing!) and a great way to unwind from a day at the studio.

 You'll be able to check out all the prelims and finished art this coming June at the show, and I hope you'll join me!

 

And thanks for checking out my blog :)

The terrible Itch

http://tomsarmo.com/

Landscape thumbnail one

The two greatest things about my job (or maybe they're the worst?) are that the quest for ideas and images, and the prospects for improvement, are endless. So I keep searching for new approaches to art, and continuing my efforts to improve.

A commission has gotten me back on the landscape track. I love painting landscapes, but also enjoy drawing goofy illustrations. And I'm always fishing for a way to combine them. In fact, I want it so bad it kind of hurts.

http://tomsarmo.com/

Landscape thumbnail two
 

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 Landscape thumbnail three

I like doing works like the two above, and am most often happy with the resulting paintings, but they are not what I need, deep down inside.

While the majority of the art-buying public seems drawn to realism and/or impressionism, I'm not there, either in my buying or my creating taste. Yes the verisimilitudinous (?) aspects of light are fascinating and wonderful, but I'm getting a bit weary of it in art. Something different is needed to scratch my Terrible Itch.

http://tomsarmo.com/

Thought I was almost there with this one, done a few years ago, then other ventures called and side-tracked the landscape efforts. It's okay--looking back, I was nowhere near the mark.

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 Landscape thumbnail four

Am after it again, and I am excited.

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Here's a whole sheet of the thumbnails. Lots of media combinations here, from graphite and prismacolor to mixtures of graphite, brushpen, pen and ink, and white ink.

Not even close to what I want/feel/need out of this, but

the quest endures, and I'm scratching. Wish me luck.

And thanks for the visit!

Inktober Continues!

http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/

Inktober continues, and I've been able to keep up with an ink drawing or at least an ink sketch every day. I'd initially thought that most of the works would be scary or Halloween themed, but Inktober's taken on a life of its own for me. And that's fine--I prefer to be surprised. This peasant-bird, day thirteen, could be seen as sort of witch-y.

http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/

And this raven, from day fourteen is at least mad, if not scary.

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The door detail above is number fifteen, inked and ready to be available in early December. The surface is a piece of old sheet music, glued to wood.

I drew this bird while waiting to get a haircut on October sixteenth. Used my brushpen and some Prismacolor pencils that I carry in the car.

http://tomsarmo.blogspot.com/

Number seventeen really did come out of nowhere. That morning the atmosphere seemed charged and moody, and I was having trouble concentrating. Before I headed to the studio, I happened to look out the bedroom window at the neighbor's yard, bisected by a Catalpa Tree-branch. Compelled to draw it, I hope I captured some of the strange ambiance I felt.

And so it goes--Inktober continues.

Thank you for the visit!