Sketchbook

Copyright Elisha Dasenbrock 2010.

This is one of the 3 paintings I am currently working on. She is on a full sheet and she is from my Thailand series. I want to make most of her body look like a statue because statues are everywhere in Thailand. Buddha statues are all over the place.  Although I want most of her body to resemble that specific part of the culture I want her face and hands to be warmer and show the live and exuberance of such a precocious child.

The other two paintings are dog portraits. One is for Joe’s sister. I forget why, but I know it’s a “if you do this I will paint a picture of Redgy” deal. The second is a commissioned portrait for someone as a gift.

I finally finished this painting. I am very happy to have it off my board because now I get to focus on my Thailand paintings. It did not turn out how I expected, the great thing about the unexpected though is that you learn a few new things. For instance, did you know hair makes an interesting resist? I did not until this week.  Joe loves this painting and keeps giving me the puppy dog eyes in hopes that I will cave and give it to him.

I am now offering 5 and 10 pks of postcards on my Etsy shop.  I uploaded this painting as well as one new abstract that I did not add on Monday.

In very exciting news: I found out that I am going to be featured next week at Empty Easel. I am thrilled that they picked my work. This week has been a little rough. Work was tough for me and left me with very little energy the last couple of days and that in turn allowed doubts and other things to creep in. The week started off very well though and I did get quite a bit accomplished. I mean, I did finally finish this painting.  The email I received from Lisa at Empty Easel was a perfect book end to this week.

Next week is going to be a bit hectic due to the holiday and my work schedule.

I am excited to announce my very first give away. While I dream of giving away goodie bags loaded with awesomeness, you are just going to have to bear with me and we will start small together.

For my very first give-away your prize will be my oversized wall calendar. This way you get many lovely images (if I do say so myself, and you know I do) and you get something for the new year.

Now for the rules.

First answer this question (in the comments, not just in your head):   If you could own any painting which one would it be and why? If you would post a link that would be even better. Although it won’t help your chances of winning it will make it much more enjoyable for us all .

How this works: I will put the number of comments into a random number generator, whichever number that baby spits out will be the winner (if I can’t figure out how those work then I will have The Man pick a number between 1 and the yet to be seen number of comments, not fancy but it works).  I will then ship the calendar to you.

I will most likely do a top 5 comments as well. You won’t win anything, but it’s an extra way for me to thank you all for participating.

I will start, I would love to be able to look at this Pasini every single day.  It has that quality that just makes me sigh. Everything is in place and it all seems to hum together. Don’t even get me started on the gorgeous spot of teal. In real life it is lovely.

The winner will be announced next Wednesday! Good luck!

(p.s. I’m so excited.)

(p.p.s. Sept. and Nov. will have full size images by next Wednesday)

These are the three newest paintings in my Etsy shop.  I will mainly be posting new paintings on Fridays, I just couldn’t wait this week. The format for these posts will include a small “teaser” thumbnail and a link to the store instead of all the paintings I add.  Also Etsy has their site set up so that for every item a store sells the store must pay a small fee. This allows the item to be active for 4 months, then Etsy takes down the item and charges another small fee to put it back up. Because of this I will only be offering my paintings on here for 1 cycle.  If they don’t sell then I will be moving them over to Ebay or at the very least keeping them on my Flickr account under Originals For Sale.  Any postcards or prints will most likely be up for multiple cycles, but I won’t necessarily renew them right away.

I am now painting abstract.  While this is not a permanent change, painting abstract images allows me to challenge myself and experiment with out a lot of pressure. It also allows me to offer paintings at a greatly lower price because they are smaller, faster to create, and not my typical style.

In other news I opened an Etsy shop! I am very excited about this and I have been working all day and most of last night on it.  With this shop it will be easier to buy on-line so stop by and say hi!

My friend Kristen asked me for links to blogs I read, so of course, I thought I would post them here for everyone to enjoy. (This is not all inclusive and don’t forget the links that have earned permanent status on the side bar.)

With out further ado and in no particular order:

Ginny Stiles has some pretty good tips and I like to look at her sketchbook pages.

• http://ginnystiles.blogspot.com/

Myrna Wacknov is always trying something new and I love her ideas. It’s fun to watch her process.

• http://myrnawacknov.blogspot.com/

I like the look of Donna Zagotta’s blog and she has interesting things to say.

• http://donnazagotta.com/blog/

I love looking at Errezart’s work. I found this blog on Illustration Friday.

• http://errezart.blogspot.com/

Another blog from Illustration Friday. I really love the illustrations here. They are so simple, yet perfect.

• http://gellatinouslaser.blogspot.com/

A fellow AAART Allumus

• http://www.jasonseilerillustration.blogspot.com/

One more IF discovery.

• http://joebluhm.blogspot.com/

Finally two business blogs:

A recommendation from Sharon of ArtBySAW

• http://www.bootstrappingblog.com/

I don’t remember how I found this one…

• http://ittybiz.com/

Heart Land of America: A Mid-West Landscape

Collection of Harry Kuper Jr.

Step 1: I laid out the drawing and dropped in some paint for the sky. For my reference I am using a photograph taken in Clinton County Illinois.  Joe loves to take photographs for me and he captured some very beautiful midwest scenes while we visited my family. For the drawing I break up the photograph by drawing the lines vertically, horizontally and diagonally.

Step 2: I applied friskett, using a toothpick, to the areas Where I wanted to preserve the white of the paper.

Step 3: I did my main washes and worked on the sky a bit more. I threw color on the fields and worked around the painting.

Step 4: I added the tree line, worked on the sky, the foreground and the fields in the middle.

Step 5: Finally I added the house and barn details, adjusted the values and added the foreground before removing the frisket of the tall grass.

This painting is the first in a series of the midwest.

I took a break from finishing my landscape painting to knock this little sketch out.  I am planning on doing two small figure/portraits and one larger one as well as thinking about two smaller midwest themed paintings.  I am also working on the post that shows the process of the landscape painting.

Note: Originally posted on 8/22/09 at blog.limitedpalette.com

Spring Follows Winter

This painting was not up for very long on deviantArt before I closed that account so I thought I would add it here. This was started and finished in 8 hours for a charity event. Art 4 Art’s Sake is a yearly event that hosts artists for a day so they can create a painting that is then auctioned off at the end of the night. The public is available to view the process for the two hours before the auction and talk with the artists. All the proceeds go to the non-profit gallery in Dixon, IL, The Next Picture Show.  My painting sold for $345.

Note: This was originally posted 5/10/09 on the blog at blog.limitedpalette.com.

This Too Shall Pass

Explanation: The last few months I have felt the loss of my mom more strongly than I ever have. It’s been a knot in my chest. The depression that has accompanied that has been very difficult to shake.  While I was much more productive the last semester of school than I had been since I was diagnosed with severe depression almost three years ago, many people did not see that. These people focused on the surface. These people do not really know me and they judged me by their own standards and just what was obvious.
Many times when I am depressed people will try to cheer me up and say, “Just do it,” or “Let that stuff go,” “You are only focusing on the negative.” Sometimes while trying to motivate me they will add, “Everyone else can do it, why can’t you?” None of these help. I say things just like that to myself all the time. Being depressed makes me really angry. I just want to work on my paintings and live up to “my full potential.”  When I try to take care of myself, i.e. make sure I get enough sleep, people think I am just being lazy. People think I am just being lazy quite a bit actually. That is the most common judgment.
I chose the bright white light on my should to represent these accusations and judgments. I wanted the light to be harsh, unrelenting, and biased.  I wanted to show that by being in the dark of depression that the harshness of these allegations is painful, a shock to the system, and impossible to accept. I have to pull away from that light because the judgments are not fair and they are being brought on by people who do not understand.
The bare chest is to show vulnerbility.
The shadows represent depression and grief.
The painting as a whole shows these emotions and public reactions to it.
I chose this subject because it has been a huge part of me for the past few months and also because it’s really the only way I can express the depression to other people. I may try to tell someone, if I am close with them, but even then I can not fully explain how I feel. I know that the depression will pass, just as it always has in the passed. Art is nothing if not a way to express one’s self.

Note: This was originally posted on 5/5/09 on blog.limitedpalette.com.  Recently I read a quote by Edward Hopper, “If I could express it in words, I wouldn’t need to paint.” That is exactly how I feel about this painting and the emotion behind it.