Stacy Weitz Minch

I decided to start getting instruction in the academic drawing process at the atelier I drop in at for open drawing. I think it will help train my eye for accuracy, which is something that is important to me artistically. This figure is obviously much less developed than what I usually come up with in two hours of drawing (and don't check it for accuracy. This is about 10 minutes of blocking in the figure, and a little help from the instructor). I spent a full hour and a half or more developing an envelope (basically a boxy outline of the space the figure fills) around the figure :P It feels somewhat non-intuitive to me--I think I often approach a drawing from the opposite direction: from the inside out, focusing on the angular relationships within the figure first, and then working out from there. So it will take some getting used to, but I'm sure it won't hurt to stretch my brain to try it another way :)

I gave it one last shot, but there lies my poor nephew's image in the garbage can. I'm not sure how many times I will have to attempt to paint something in shades of white (aka gray in all its minute variations) before realizing that they are SO much more difficult than they initially look. And then there's that squishy newborn head... ;)  I'm sure it wasn't effort wasted. Every time I get out a paintbrush is worth the while. But I've found it's much better to just toss something out rather than continue laboring over a painting that will just never work. I used to have a harder time with this (I think because I used to paint or draw so much less frequently). Now I don't mind it so much because I'm determined to keep doing this for a while. There will be plenty of opportunities for a redo in the future :) Two steps forward, one step back--or something like that...

12x9", pencil on paper, 1/26/16 My figure drawing from last night. I'm still fighting the tendency to blow my drawing up larger than it should be :/ I think I did alright with keeping the lower half of the body to size, but the head and shoulders definitely seem a little top heavy--shoulders too broad and starting too high, and thus head a little large too. I like his face, though. It looks quite a bit like him :)  It's strange how as I step back and evaluate my drawing, I'm aware of the proportion errors, and I erase over and over, but end up doing the same thing when I get into the drawing--there must be different parts of the brain firing. Gotta get that in sync. Brains are wild and wonderful things ;)

4x6", water mixable oil on linen panel, 1/25/16 I got to a place with that last painting that I recognized as burnout, so I decided to take a little break from it. I left it alone for a couple days, and when I still didn't feel like touching it by last night, I decided to do this quick little study of a California Clementine to cleanse my palate (that's punny ;). I spent about 30 minutes on this one. And while this is probably only interesting to me, here are a couple of paintings of Clementines I did around this same time last year :)

Okay, th e further I get, the trickier this little baby becomes--and at this point, I'm doubting whether I can pull it off, yikes! One paint stroke at a time...

8x10, water mixable oil on canvas panel, 1/30/16 I recently had the chance to meet this sweet little guy. He's our newest nephew, and I don't know what it is about newborns, but snuggling a newborn is just about the closest to heaven I think I'll get in this life :) Anyway, I'm sort of the resident photographer on my husband's side of the family, so I got to take lots of photos over Christmas, and this one was just screaming to be painted. As usual, it's always more difficult than it looks--all those subtle temperature changes in that purply newborn skin!  We will see how this goes, but I figured I had better get a photo before I continue because, well, it could really go up or down from here :P

12x9", pencil on paper, 1/19/16 Last night's figure drawing. I decided to sit and draw this week, so the proportions may be slightly off ;) This guy was the most consistent model I've ever seen. He barely shifted his position at all, and got back to basically the exact same stance after each break. Amazing.

A few months ago, I got this idea in my head that I should aim to exercise for 30 minutes a day, and do some type of art for an hour a day. I've found that the days go a lot better when both of these things get done, but it's so hard to find the time. I feel like it shouldn't be, but it really, really, really is. It seems if I make time for one, the other gets neglected, and the past few days, well, neither one has happened much. Thankfully, I did find some time on Sunday night to take another shot at this Sargent sketch. I'm finding this one to be really difficult--maybe because it's all line, and I can't lay in some big masses to see if they're correct. It's really helpful to be able to visualize those large areas.  The last time I tried this one, I definitely made the width of the head (from the back to the tip of the nose) too narrow. And this time, I think I overcompensated and made it too wide (not that you can tell very well from the

6x6", water mixable oil on canvas board, 1/15/16 I've been drawing a lot of people lately, and let me just say that strawberries are much easier to draw. Thank you, little guys, for not looking totally deformed if my line is off by 1/32 of an inch. It's kinda nice ;). 

12x9", paper on pencil, 1/14/16 I decided to censor this guy a little bit for the web, because it just seemed like there really should be a fig leaf, loin cloth, or some strategically placed drapery or something there for this particular pose and angle ;) I'm getting more used to drawing at an easel (as opposed to holding the sketchbook on my lap--which is something I want to get better at doing because I definitely paint at an easel), but I still have the tendency to make the image bigger than it should be (you can see my original sight-size tic marks on the left size of the paper, and that my completed image is quite a bit bigger than I initially plotted out). I read somewhere that when Sargent was painting the initial lines for a portrait, he would always block the head in slightly smaller than life size, to offset the tendency to draw larger than life--so I guess it's not just me who has that problem ;)

12x9", pencil on paper, 1/13/16 It happened to work out this week that my Wednesday night was free instead of my Tuesday night, so I was able to attend a three-hour portrait drawing session instead of the usual figure session.  Portraits are so challenging, which is probably why I find them so interesting. As I went along, I was trying really hard to get the full value range, but it just wasn't working out with my pencils and fine grain paper. I guess next time I will have to keep my materials in mind and not try to go so dark if I'm working with the same stuff--probably caused myself some unnecessary frustration. Overall, though, I'm okay with how this went, especially considering I haven't tried to attempt a portrait longer than about 20 minutes in a very long time. It's always a learning experience, and I hope I never stop learning as an artist--though I hear the curve gets more and more gradual as time goes on ;)

5-10 minute sketch of my almost-2-year old boy. Not a great drawing by any means, but have you ever noticed that they never stop moving? Ha.  My goal right now is to draw for at least a few minutes every day, even if my efforts don't result in something worthy of hanging on the wall. Life can be crazy with little ones (and it's surprising how difficult it is to find even those 5-10 minutes :/).  It seems we've all got a case of the January blues around here, and if we can just make it through this month in one piece, I think we will be alright...

A couple quick sketches (probably about 10 minutes each) from some Saturday afternoon TV time at our house :)

Raphael I've been thinking I should address this topic in some way, because I've gotten so many questions about it (ever since I took my first figure drawing class at age 16)--from family, friends, neighbors, etc. Disclaimer--these are my personal opinions, and you are more than welcome to disagree :) I am a member of the LDS church. I have been all my life, and when people find out I am an aspiring artist, I am sometimes asked (in hushed tones) if I (gasp!) draw nudes. Answer: Yes, I draw nudes. And I have absolutely no problem with it at all. Now, I do not think we should all go walking around nude at all times (or even a majority of the time ;) However, there is a time and a place for these things. I don't hear much condemnation from my fellow Mormons for those who have found themselves changing in a locker room. Or taking a human anatomy class in college. Or becoming doctors or other medical professionals. Or even skinny dipping at scout camp, for that matte

12x16, water mixable oil on board, 1/6/16 It was really hard to get a photo of this painting. If I expose for the sky, the building is too dark. If I expose for the building, the sky is too light. So the clouds/sky are probably slightly blown out in this photo because I tried to find something in the middle. I've loved this building ever since I saw it. It was such a tragedy when it burned down, and I'm so glad that it's a living building again. The grounds look really gorgeous, too. Looking forward to getting a peek at the inside sometime in the near future :)

I'm not so sure that anything about this drawing is accurate :0 And I don't even want to look at it straight on. I guess four weeks, two colds, and 1600 miles of road tripping with the fam has taken its toll on my mental acuity, haha. The good news is that it would be hard for me to do worse next time.  :P And the pose was so pretty...

I'm taking this little painting a little bit at a time. If I work on it too long, I start to get impatient (painting architecture feels so tedious to me).

My friend Inez has been encouraging me to paint the tabernacle for a show that's coming up in February. So I'm giving it a try--this is my second attempt at the building, and I just started laying a bit of color on tonight.  I find I really don't have much interest in making buildings precise and accurate. Maybe I should make myself try to care? Or then, maybe I should just roll with it :) I'll probably go with the latter (for now, anyway). When I'm drawing a face, I really care about accuracy, and I find it incredibly rewarding to get it right. But when I'm drawing a building, I'm finding that I'm more interested in the overall feel of the image (maybe tells me something about how I view the world?) and less about the nit-picky details.  And really, what I 'm finding most interesting about this image is that sky! the warmer blue against the cooler purple-gray of the clouds, and occasional brilliant white. The sky is the fun part :) Tomo

Another painting of the Provo Tabernacle is under way (oh, and "hi" from my little pose-able art dude on the windowsill ;). I thought I would give this subject matter another shot--especially since I recently ran across this really sweet iPhone photo of the building I took this past August when the clouds were just so perfect.  Sometimes it feels like everything I paint I'm painting for the first time (which is probably just about true, unless I'm painting apples, strawberries, or pomegranates. I've given all of those a few tries). But I thought it would be nice to do another attempt at this cool building and see if I couldn't improve upon some of the things that I might have improved upon in my last painting if I had known then what I know now (how's that for a run-on sentence?).  Wish me luck ;)