How do you know when it is done?

Submitted by Tracy Felix Fraker
I have been asked this by many students in my acrylic painting workshops. I think the answer will vary based on the medium you are using and the goals of your artwork. It will also be a personal decision based on your understanding of composition. 
1. Short answer: you are satisfied with it.
2. Long answer: 
Critique the composition and correct
Review the way your eye travels the painting and be confident of your focal point
The work is ready for presentation - meaning does it need smudges cleaned up, edges are addressed and sheen is uniform or to your liking.
3. The painting either moves your method forward (you learned from it... you are inspired to do another piece based on what you got from this one) ... or you met the goal of pleasing a client in the case of a commission. 
4. Be discriminating in who you ask for a review of your work. Family members love you but don't always know what you are trying to accomplish, or what you need beyond a compliment.... or worse feeling the need to find a recognizable image in a non-representational painting.
5. Know that some paintings will "fall off the brush" and others may take many passes and corrections. I will set a work in progress in my family room and live with it, until I know what to do next. The more advanced the painting becomes the slower my process goes. (usually) So I don't go into it unless I know what it is I want to accomplish.

I have heard this one too... It's like when you are having dinner. You just know when you are done.

See the comments section below? How do you answer this one?

Update!

by Angela Bandurka

Just wanted to let you all know that the book that we mentioned in the post, Another Amazing Customer has been printed and is now available for sale at the Edmonds Bookshop, 111 5th Avenue, Downtown Edmonds.

Go grab a signed copy today! Support local artists :)

Meet Joe: High-school Sophomore and self-taught artist!

by Angela Bandurka

This morning our regular customer, Joe, came in to look at some watercolor paper and we got to chatting about the artists that Joe admires. We shared one of them in common - Mary Blair, the late, amazing Disney artist (think "It's a Small World").

This young man has ambition and pride in his work, it's just refreshing to see in someone this young. He has dreams of becoming a writer, illustrator, and eventually start his own animation company!

Anyway, he allowed me to share some of the art he's most proud of. I don't want to share his last name as he's a minor, but I bet we'll see more of him in the future. Thanks for letting me share, Joe!

Here is my personal favourite:

Snow Shy

Sam the Dragon

Little Dragon

Another Amazing Customer!

by Angela Bandurka

Isn't it incredible what you discover about strangers when you start talking to them? They cease to be strangers and you start to see the unique things about them that never cease to amaze.

At ARTspot, the customers who come in and stay and chat are infinitely fascinating - and Eliza Wyatt is no exception. 

This beautiful willowy soul came into the shop last week to buy a fountain pen and ink, and I commented on her cool corset. This led to a long discussion about clothes, lifestyle and interests.

Turns out, Eliza is a writer and illustrator. And her books are available online - for FREE! I asked if she wouldn't mind if I posted her link so that everyone could benefit from her hard work.

Why do they give away their books for free? She and her partner, Christian Leffler, put it best themselves:

The Forever Series: An epic fantasy series of love and immortality.

Have a free book.

No, you don't need to sign up for anything. I don't want to know your email address. No account, no DRM, no expiration date. Take it. Go on. In fact if you like it, email it to your friends with our blessings. Just don't print or sell it.

We do this because as readers ourselves, it's important to us that people discover fiction that they can be enthusiastic about. The book we're offering is the first of a series of fantasy novellas (books about a hundred pages long) for readers age 16+. There's no trick ending, no cliffhanger. You can find the next books in the series in our shop-- each ebook is a dollar. We also sell printed books, if you'd like a solid copy. - See more at: http://theforeverseries.com/#sthash.Pf1YJDqg.dpuf

The valuable little sketchbook

By Mike O'Day| ARTspot ARTist

Nothing is worse than opening up a bag of clay, grabbing a hunk, and being completely clueless about what you’re going to do with it. I constantly had this problem every Wednesday night when I first started at Sculptors Workshop, until I discovered the solution to this conundrum. Bring my sketchbook! Although the sketches were originally made for paintings or linocuts, I found that any of my drawings could be the inspiration of a sculpture.

My sketchbook is a valuable little tool that I occasionally refer to when I’m stuck. Anything from a good song lyric to a crow flying overhead can send me scrambling to record a fleeting image before it escapes. A lot of my scribbling can be awful, or just plain odd (what was I thinking???), but I’m not trying to impress anyone, and they basically are just inspirational notes.

Sometimes it can be quite difficult to transform a quick gestural sketch that I love into a sculpture. I gradually realized that the best method for me is sculpting solid (as opposed to slabs or coil building), and then hollowing the piece out. Other times the sketch can be a reference point, and the sculpture can head in a strange new direction.

Working out the problems of a big complex sculpture on paper is a great way to avoid headaches. The “Ship of Fools” sketch page shows how the idea evolved, the details, and even how the sculpture will be cut into pieces and hollowed out. But as you can see from the finished piece, I added the head of a mysterious being, and I decided to change the position of the guy with the telescope on top of the world. Sketchbooks-don’t leave home without ‘em!

From Cardboard Spaceships to Cheetalopes

Blog by Mike O'Day. 

ARTspot is proud to represent Mike's work at our store in Edmonds, WA.

How does a kid who loves to draw and make things out of cardboard with mom’s steak knives, eventually buy a kiln and try to scratch out a living making Cheetalopes?

Fast forward to college, where the art students were separated into two groups: Commercial Artists that were prepared to sell their souls creating ads for banks (I actually got to draw an occasional illustration!), and Real Artists that painted nudes and were prepared to live perpetually in mom and dad’s basement.

After 4-5 years of selling my soul (but not living in the basement), my wife Chris and I headed from St. Louis to LA, where, on a lark, I answered an ad to draw caricatures on historic Olvera Street. This is a tourist destination, so I spent two years honing my skills drawing thousands of people from all over the planet. I also learned that school kids on field trips would gladly pay $1 for a kinko’s copy of Bo Jackson, M.C. Hammer, and Vanilla Ice.

When son #1 was born, I quit the carefree life of a caricature artist and began the role of stay-at-home dad/freelance illustrator/home improvement guy. Changing diapers, creating humorous illustrations of Michael Jordan for Inside Sports, and hanging sheetrock became my full-time job. After son #2 was born and they both started school, I began teaching art at the local co-op where I met a potter named Julie Perrine.

Julie invited me to check out Sculptors Workshop which was ruled by our benevolent dictator Rose Morgan. Two years later, my sculpture “Red Plant Man” won best in show at the Edmonds Arts Festival. Unfortunately, my streak abruptly ended the next year. After purchasing a fellow members kiln, and setting up shop at home, the rest is history.

I still like to occasionally make stuff out of cardboard now and again.

You can always find Mikes ceramic sculpture at ARTspot. 

From Mike O'Day Blog originally published April 6th, 2013
See Mikes work at his website: http://odayart.com/wordpress/about/

Battling Post-Show Blues!

by Angela Bandurka

There is something that happens to me every time I attend one of my show's receptions that I've come to expect and am trying to work though.

In the interest of finding others who might feel this way and will just feel better knowing that they're not alone, I am putting it all out there. 

The months leading up to a show, I work hard at creating a new body of work, something that I feel good about putting out there, that is cohesive, and that makes me feel something (whether it's nostalgia, calmness or self-satisfaction). This is always fun, exciting and envigorating.

To prep for a show's reception, I create advertising - print media (which can be expensive to produce), facebook events and posts (free!), and email newsletters.

The day of the event is usually full of errands: getting wine and snacks (when necessary, and it usually is), making sure I have a stock of business cards and any bonus items ready (for this recent show I made calendars of my work to give to anyone who bought a piece).

Prepping myself for a reception is another thing that takes way longer than it used to. Most of the time is spent trying to figure out what to wear that fits in with the "brand" of who I want to be as an artist, and then because I have taken so long to do this, I am running behind, feeling less than attractive as I run out the door with the wrong shoes, no deoderant or some other fashion faux-pas.

Last night, as we were running out the door, my 8-year-old (whose Dad was meeting us at the gallery to get him) came up to me with a guilty expression, saying "Mama, I'm sorry but something may have happened to your umbrellas." He and a friend were using them as swords and ruined them both. "No time, kid! Get in the stinking car and while I appreciate you coming clean, we'll talk about this later."

At the reception, I hang around awkwardly, not sure where to stand or what to do with my hands as I smile at everyone and say hi. Hoping upon hope that I don't look too desperate or awkward. When I see a friend I run over to them gratefully, happy to have a moment where I don't look so painfully insecure.

By the end of the night, my feet are killing me because I put on heels (see "wrong shoes" above) and I'm hobbling to the car as fast as I can without toppling over. I get home and decompress by turning on TV and trying not to self-hate too much (OMG I can't believe I said that to so-and-so, and I should have talked to that one person more and People were just being nice about my art because I was standing right there and I am sad that so-and-so didn't come...). That monkey brain is the enemy!

Knowing that this happens every time, I try to remind myself that: A lot of my friends DID come, and that the reception was well-attended, and the gallery owner was so nice to me and was very complimentary! I also remind myself that I'm lucky to be a part of a gallery at all and that I'm fortunate to be able to create my art and do what I love. It also helps to know that the next day I'll feel much better and that this is just a result, most likely, of all the build up of prepping for the night.

Maybe next time I won't be as depressed afterwards. If it does, I'll have my cry, go to bed, wake up and start prepping for the next one :)