“uhoh”

As you can see this week’s weekly smudge isnt quite art, in fact i am quite embarrassed about showing my torn lounge to the whole world (it usually has a cover over it but it was in the wash) but as you can see i just couldn’t resist posting this image of our dog “uhoh”.
Uhoh who has been appropriately named has been away on holidays for a few weeks, resulting from when we took our holiday and he decided to stay an extra couple of weeks with the Grandparents. We missed him when we got back and he actually has been pining for their two dogs so we have been considering of getting another dog to keep him company. (i am crazy i know) but i think uhoh would really like it. i really would like a Daschund as i had these growing up, but they arent that common and not sure if it will be too small for his pal, but i know if i see one i just wont be able to resist.

Anywho, my week has been used primarily on maintenance and enjoying a bit of down time. Even tho we have had holidays and wot not, i have also had a bunch of other work hanging over my head for the past few months (i am constantly saying to myself i gotta get to that) and any spare time i had was trying to get that done. Last week i finished it, and its a tremendous relief not to have that pressure and i get on with bits and pieces i have been meaning to do for ages. Things like tidying up my website and fixing up profiles and listings etc.

So my weekly smudge, well does my smudge on the lounge count from uhoh’s muddy footprints?

Its been a while since my weekly smudge has come around, apologies for that, my simple excuse is .. i am a mum, a cleaner, a partner, a designer, a web developer, a family member, a gardener, a friend an artist and a self representing one at that so with all those roles sometimes things get pushed aside and this has been one of them.
So without further ado, one of the things that has been a highlight this week is this book:

Anatomy for the Artist by Jeno Barcsay - link here

I picked this one up a couple of weeks ago at Angus and Robertson for those australian readers for only $20-. Its one of those things that i thought if i dont buy this now i will regret it later.
I used it this week for the first time as i was working on a painting and it was fantastic!
I have recently been coming up with my own ideas and paintings out of my head rather than coping a reference so doing a few sketches of some of the figures in here really helped get proportions right etc.
The book contains sketches of skeletons and muscles of all sorts of things like hands feet etc. as well as the full figure. So i would recommend everyone have some type of reference book like this it was invaluable.

Momentum
This week i also wanted to highlight a couple of artists i met on the australian art forum
Daniel Sanger and Michelle Giacobello who have an exhibition opening tonight in melbourne. The two met on the aaforum and discovered that they only lived a couple of blocks from one another, so they decided to get together and have an exhibition. They are both very talented and have unique styles and i wish them the best of luck with the opening night tonight. Please visit their blogs and checkout their fabulous work.

Halloween
Halloween isn’t really celebrated overly much over here, but in recent years i have noticed more and more items available this time of year so i think this will change as time moves on. I dont really know the story behind it but i figure its always great to have a bit of fun, so when i saw whole pumpkin at the shops i had to give it a go.

We bought a pumpkin, carved it up and last night put it outside the front door. The house accross the street had graveyards and a large skeleton out the front which was good fun and attracted all the goulies.
We didnt actually go trickatreating but Max did dress up in a dressup to talk to all the witches, aliens and monsters that came to the door. We surprisingly actually ended up getting quite a few. So next year the boys will be older and will be able to tolerate a few more sweets so we will definitely give it a go.

Here is a pic of max with our first pumpkin, Will was just fascinated with the face and wanted to sit in front of it and stare. Max was actually a bit worried about the whole thing and i think was a bit scared of the badies… so i told him that the pumpkin was to scare the monsters away when they try to come to the door. LOL that seemed to make it fun

Apologies for being a bit late with my smudge this week, its been one of those hard weeks with colds and life just getting in the way. I had to pick myself up dust myself off and get on with things so here i am Still standing.

A site i found myself spending quite a bit of time on during the week is

Bet Borgenson’s Studio. http://www.borgesonstudio.com/index.htm
Bet is an artist and author and has a wonderful resource on primarily the coloured pencil medium but she also has however other information which is valuable for growing as an artist. Of particular interest she has a “professional Q&A;” area which answers many questions myself and my artist friends have been asking such as pricing and prints and approaching galleries etc etc. Its well worth a read if you are considering selling your cp artworks on a professional level. Or read the general faqs for more information about cp medium in general.

Speaking of artist friends, i am yet to post about a new exciting group i am to be a part of which happened last week. A group of online artist friends: Rose Welty, Jo Castillo, Kasie Sallee , have formed a group for the purpose of providing one another with an area where we can critque and support each other in our artistic adventures. The way we have done this is by starting a private blog called Fine Art Friends. So i would give you the url but like i said its private I am excited to be among this group of artists and we are hoping it will grow slightly as time goes on and we become accustom to one another and we will be a great support for us all. I urge other artists to find some type of group whether it be via a forum or blog i find it so helpful in moving myself forward through my art particular with small kids i find it hard to belong to a community or weekly group. We have made no particular commitment to one another only to be there when we can so it suits all of us

In closing for today i wanted to send you this link which my hubby found its called

Instructables http://www.instructables.com/
Basically its a website which gives you step by step instructions on how to do things. On looking through the site it is just amazing the things which you can learn to do on the site. It has an art and craft section so take a look for a bit of fun.

Happy Birthday to my blog ! It was on this day 1 year ago i decided to create this blog and wrote my first post. I was hoping to write an incredibly witty and meaniful post on this day 1year later, the reality is i have a bad head cold which makes even the simplest tasks seem like climbing mount everest and i have 2 young boys to contend with who also have colds and a bout of conjunctivitis, and who are pulling at my leg and chatting away at me as i type. So, please to forgive me, i hope this post makes sense.

I will however, on this momentus occasion give myself a pat on the back for still being here a year later It hasnt felt like a year at all and I throughly enjoy hearing from my readers from all around the world when they come to visit. What i like most about it is i can read about their lives and struggles in life and art and find parallels in my own world which helps me find my way and progress to the next stage.

One of the goals of starting my blog was simply to keep a record of my artworks for myself and share it with others. I was hoping in keeping a blog would remind me of mistakes and keep pushing me forward. I think it has definitely done that and much more and i am very happy to see how far i have come in a year. I feel like my artwork has improved as has my marketing and networking skills and i feel like i am on the way to at least earn a small income from my art which was also one of my goals in order to be a stay at home mum with my boys.

So a big Thankyou to all my regular blog readers for supporting me know matter how long you have known me i hope you keep coming back. If you have any suggestions please let me know.

I will sign this post with this week’s weekly smudge while i am here.

As per my previous post today Keeping a Track of your Artwork i have been thinking and planning alot lately about becoming a professional artist. By professional i just mean creating art to sell rather than just have it for display in my own house.
So in thinking about this i looked into getting various materials printed for self promotion one of these being stickers. (i bought some little bags for people to carry their cards/ artworks away in these were just purple and brown paper bags) i wanted to include some stickers on them i also wanted stickers i could use for various other promotional uses.

I looked around for a basically short run cheap sticker option all of the ones i looked up in Australia turned out just to be too expensive for what i wanted as they only did massive runs like 1000 plus.

Then i came across this link from a blog somewhere (Apologies if it was a readers’ blog but i cant just remember where i got the link from)
Moo.com and on careful consideration (shipping is ALWAYS a major issue to australia) i decided to go with getting some Moo stickers. Left are some of my designs.

It only turned out to be $16- AU to get printed and shipped and for 90 stickers that price point didnt look too bad. Designs were of my choice so i could vary the artwork i choose, I added my url to the sticker and wham bam there you go a nice little promotional sticker. The website was easy to use and i would definately reccommend it for people looking for this type of option.
Here is the link for the stickers book, but they also have a range of notecards and other printing options.

Note: If you decided to do this yourself you may want to make sure you add your url and your name well inside the center of the sticker as to make sure it doesn’t get cut off in the trimming and edges.

This week is going to be very brief, i have my market on Saturday in Scone in the Hunter Valley NSW. I have to say that as i write this i am in a mild state of panick. We are due to leave tomorrow morning and i am yet to pack any clothes for either myself or the kids and that is just a minor thing on the list.

I still have to arrange:

• my printed portfolio for display,
• various bits of signage (which i am just going to print off on a laser printer),
• gather bits and pieces i need for the day
• cut, hinge and attach mats on 15 works some of which are going into frames,
• prepare a sheet for people to leave their email address or actual address for visitors who want more information or receive updates of my work,
• print out various bits of info i had planned to have available on commissions and coloured pencil artworks ,
• create and attach labels for the backs on artwork
• also create price labels
• and for the piece that is going into the show add my details for that
• updating my “work reference sheet” so i can see what works i have on display, what sells what medium they are etc etc(as i may have help at the market)
• plus i am sure there is more i am just forgetting.

This week has flown by, my time was taken up which was supposed to be spent doing all this stuff had to be used on actual design / web work so yes i am having a bit of a mental freak out LOL.

The rest of this afternoon i will finish off testing out my new mat cutter and ruler and getting the artworks sorted out (i think i am up for a late night).
So anyway atm my head is in the framing world which i am very new to but i am learning. Yesterday I picked up my framed horses eye, pear and white horse from the framers (gosh you just reminded me i have to take some pics of them framed!!) anywho… while they look ok i have to admit they dont jump out at me like i was expecting them to. I think i just didnt choose the right frame, and was totally influenced and daunted by the framers advice (i never really had anything framed before). As a result, i have decided unless its a specific thing that i cant do i i will just do my own mats and buy premade frames. This is also influenced by cost. My artwork at this time is not demanding extremely high prices, and adding another $80- per piece minimum for framing doesn’t really help anyone. Anyway, all in all i am taking it all as a learning lesson and have researched framing for myself

So for this week i am going to leave with you some framing links i have come across. Alot of them have free tutorials which are great

FrameCo – online video talking about framing and matt cutting showing you how.
Framing 4 Yourself.com - Step by Step showing you various framing techniques
Pawleewurx - More step by step instructions – he also has artwork and other interesting articles i will have to check out another time.

Ok, so i did say that I going to be brief, i just cant help myself can i… back to the matt cutting sigh…..

For this week’s weekly smudge i had a few things in my head to give you, one being to highlight the http://www.artbizblog.com/ website which i recently rediscovered… BUT.. Maggie beat me to it and posted today, basically the same thing i was going to say. Isnt it odd how that can happen?
This also happened the other week when i posted about the Remember the Milk website and Rose commented about how she was going to post exactly the same thing as i did. I just find it so interesting that we can all be off thinking that we are doing our own thing and really we are all just following the same circles round and round!!! Anywho, go checkout Maggie’s post and the artbizsite and while your at Maggie’s site also checkout her post re: How to Juggle and Other Parlor Tricks its an inspiration and one i regularly read if i am making excuses not to get things done.

Following your Goals

Also this week: We made our mark on Katherine’s Making a Mark blog regarding my Australian Coloured Pencil Resources website. I have made a few additions to the website as the week has gone on and had other artists contribute to the site. This is fantastic i hope it grows as time goes on.
Here is the link to Making a Mark – Who has made their mark this week.

My Website:
While we are talking about websites i have finally finished my new website. wOOT!
I am still in the process of adding images to my gallery tweaking information etc. but its now live so be sure to check it out.
http://www.belindalindhardt.com/

Thanks to the hubby for working on it for me its so fantastic it has a backend allowing me to add all my bits quickly and i will be adding more to the site as we have more time available.

Recently i have been receiving questions (which i am only too happy to answer) and reading comments from Australian coloured pencil artists regarding techniques and just general lack of interest from galleries in exhibiting cp works in Australia. Seeing as lot of my work does feature coloured pencils i thought it would be good to put together resource for us all basically to “get connected” in the hope of more and more people getting into the medium.

So i created a lens on Squidoo: Australian Coloured Pencils Resources . I have since remembered that Katherine has recently written a whole post about Do you Squidoo? So if you have no idea what i am talking about (cause i didnt) .. go check her post out.

Note: I am not attempting to infringe on Katherine’s lenses she has a fabulous resource, i don’t want to compete with hers, i just wanted to look available resources from an Australian perspective, and to try to get individual artists communicating together – greater power in numbers and all that.

Anywho, without further ado here is the link if you have any link recommendations please don’t hesitate to send them through i am hoping this little baby will grow and grow to a lovely flower one day.

Australian Coloured Pencils Resources - http://www.squidoo.com/auscolouredpencils/

On a side note, before you ask yes my website is coming, my hubby is the slacker not me and is apparently working on it this week. *nudge nudge* if your reading this honey, hopefully it will be up next week.

Today, its all about organising.

Here is bit of a piece that i have started on drafting film.

Why drafting film you ask ? Well why not? i have only done 1 other peice my White Horse on drafting film and liked the effect i wanted to give it another whirl, also to have some smaller pieces for the market i am going to. So when i started i struggled at bit as i needed to adjust my style and techniques from the last pear i did on paper. So this prompted me to write a little list of 5 things i like about drafting film. ( i have to admit this is not selfless act, i will now at least have a note of it so that i can remember for next time)

5 Things i love about drafting film

Here is the begining of my drafting film piece. More to come soon i hope.

weekly smudge! - things that have interested me during the week

This week will be a short one. Firstly on my current theme of TREES i have to highlight this artist Elizabeth Reed Smith. What is unique about Elizabeth’s work is rather what she doesn’t include rather than what she does, she uses alot of white and the outline of the trees on a dramatic background rather than drawing the trees themselves. I would like to give this type of thing a try one time.

check her work out at: http://elizabethsmithprints.com/

Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)
In the lifedrawing workshop i attended on the weekend the teacher gave us a bunch of handouts on various artists and techniques. She highlighted he various styles of old master works and what was good about them. One of the ones she highlighted was Raphael Sanzio who is a well known a master of line and tone as an ability to make his drawings deceivingly simple.

His paintings are well known but i was interested in his drawings … here are a few i have found online they are just beautiful check them out:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hi/hi_raph.htm