Art as a Gift

I made a painting for my husband a few years ago for one of our anniversaries.  Of course I forgot to date it (ARGH!!!) so I have no idea exactly when.  We’d talked about places we wanted to go, things we wanted to see and do.  He and I shared one dream – to go on an African Safari.  Of course, I want to go everywhere.  I was a National Geographic NUT when I was a teen and dreamed of being a photographic journalist (as well as a marine biologist) going on Amazon trips and Congo River rides…  I’m not sure I had really thought things through, see, I prefer cold weather to hot, hate to sweat and am not a fan of mosquitoes.

Still, I wanted to give this to my husband in the only way I could at the time – the African Safari, the elephants (his favorite animal).  I’m not one hundred percent happy with it, but he loves it and it has been a little focal point in our living room for years.  This was the initial sketch:

Initial Sketch

I spent most of the time on the elephants and the rest was just supposed to be the background.  The elephants were the focal point and stood for him (in the front) and me.  I don’t remember what image I used, if it was two elephants in one picture or if I just used different references.  I wish I had started keeping a blog about my art a long time ago, but alas…

I drew this on watercolor paper and the only thing I remember is that it was cold press.  It was about the 4th or 5th time I’d used watercolor in my life, so I didn’t know how to fade everything else into the background, to use colors to intensify the focus on the elephants.  The plants were barely referenced, the shadows weren’t great, I used a lot of heavy paint…  I made a lot of mistakes but it doesn’t matter because my husband loves this picture:

“Anniversary Elephants” by Rebecca Galardo

So if you’re thinking about someone that you’d like to do a drawing or painting for, think about their favorite things and just do it.  It doesn’t matter if you’re the best artist on the planet (no such thing, by the way) or if you’re a beginner.  If it’s someone you love and that loves you, most likely they’re going to love the gift 🙂  Go for it.  Be brave and put your artwork (and by extension yourself) out there.

 

#4 in the 100 Faces Challenge

It’s not great but not bad for 35 minutes!!

“The Jayne that doesn’t look like Jayne” by Rebecca Galardo

40 Minute Portrait of a Friend – Drawing Friends is FUN

I have been swamped recently with work which is great because it’s work I love.  I’ve been trying to make sure that I do other things as well because almost all of my work revolves around the computer.  If I didn’t make myself stop and physically get up I’d be staring at the screen all day and go blind.

One of the things I did was a new sketch.  I was tagged by a friend and fellow artist, Tina Terry, in a challenge to do 100 Faces in 100 Days.  I thought it was just the thing I needed to get my butt in gear with portraits.  My secret project is a portrait, but one I plan to spend 30 to 50 hours on, so doing little 30 to 60 minute portraits a day should really help with anatomy, recognizing distances, proportions and the subtleties in shading as well as in other places to getting faces right.

I grabbed a profile picture from a friend of mine on Facebook, and only after about 20 minutes in did I realize I completely failed!!  Not at the piece, but at the challenge!  It’s 100 Faces in 100 Days, and my friend’s profile picture has very little of his face!  No wonder I jumped at the opportunity to draw him (well, that and he’s an awesome guy).  Whoops.  See for yourself:

“Justin Masked” by Rebecca Galardo

Still, I got my art in for the day.  40 minutes with a 2H Goldfaber (Faber Castell) pencil in the Daler-Rowney Cachet sketchbook.  So I guess I’ll start the #100facesin100days Challenge tomorrow!

Capturing a Camera in Pencil

In June of 2011 I really wanted to start focusing on drawing more realistically.  Despite my adoration for Danny Gregory and my gratitude for his books and support of the every day artist, I wanted at this point to get back to the pencil.  I wanted to strive for more accuracy in my work.

I took a book that had long been shelved down and started going through it again.  The classic that had been given to me by my mother when I was about 13 was Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  I remember it was both incredibly fun and somewhat tedious back then.  I had so many varied interests that it didn’t take long before I’d lost interest in doing the book work – maybe a month?  I’d done a lot of the drawings and gotten through about halfway, but hadn’t finished it.  I still haven’t finished it.  Hmm…  I guess that one will go on my book bucket list.

Here is me doing one of the exercises

Me Drawing on the Bed

Just looking at this picture I cringe.  It’s not good lighting, good posture, good way to hold my pencil, etc.  But it was fun.  I have certainly learned a lot.  Sure you can do fun and great drawings from in bed.  But you’re doing yourself no favors if you can work within a better set up.

I chose a beat up old camera we’d bought at a flea market somewhere for like $5.

I wanted to try a slow pace but to also not go back over and over the same lines.  My years of drawing with pen and ink had increased my confidence and I quickly turned this:

Just started…

Into this:

The bed was just a crappy outline and there are issues with it.  But for 45 minutes and for having just that day picked up a pencil again?  I am still happy with this drawing 🙂  It makes me feel great.  I love all the wonky lines and imperfections.  Even in trying to capture something realistically you have room to play.  That sketchy quality doesn’t take away from the art or attempt or even an ability to tell what the item is.  It only adds a fun and charming aspect to the work for me.

“Ruby” Sketch

When I was 19 I was living in an apartment with my ex, a friend and his sister.  I’d never had small animals and had gotten two turtles early.  Then I got two rats, two hairless female Dumbo rats.  One was Chloe and the other, an albino, was named the oh-so-unoriginal but still pretty name, Ruby.

The other day on Facebook I was nominated by a fellow friend (and a really great artist, Amy Lehr Miller) for an Art Challenge that is going around.  I’ve seen artists like Adebanji Adeola Alade (find him on Facebook here) doing it and when she nominated me I felt special to be in the same challenge.  Not that it meant I was anywhere near that caliber!  It just felt neat.

So I sat down with a picture of my long gone friend, Ruby, and started to draw.  I thought I’d have at least an hour and a half, but unbeknownst to me my husband was making dinner plans with friends and after 25 minutes I had to give up the drawing and run out the door.

Here it is:

“Ruby” by Rebecca Galardo

I’m pleased with it, though the lines of the cage are wobbly and I was interrupted while doing the inside of her ear.  I might try again, but honestly it was just a fun sketch to do.

I chose her for a couple of reasons: I wanted the first post of the artist challenge to be special, I wanted to push myself to draw an animal (I don’t) and didn’t want to start with one of my cats or dogs (fur intimidates me when it comes to pencil) and I love rats.

It was drawn with a very old (like at LEAST 17 years old) Faber Castell B pencil in the gray Cachet sketchbook by Daler Rowney.