Stacy Weitz Minch

6x6", water mixable oil on gessobord, 2/29/16 I caught my kids' cold this weekend, so I haven't been feeling very well. And when the cold medicine wore off at about 5AM, I found myself awake and sandwiched in between two sleeping kids on our queen sized bed (I don't think it's recommended for 4 people ;). So I decided to just get up and go do a little painting while the house was quiet (it didn't last long!).  This painting was done from a photograph that I found on morguefile.com. I have a hard time painting from photographs. There's just not enough (or maybe too much?) information to create a feeling of three dimensional depth, and I guess I just don't have enough experience painting from life yet to successfully add (or subtract) the info that would pull off the illusion. So it may not be a masterpiece, but hey, at least I painted. With a cold. At 5AM! Painting is one of those things that the more you learn about it, the less you feel like

6x4", oil on linen panel, 2/27/16 I have a few pictures of my sister Rachel that I would love to make into beautiful paintings someday. She's just so pretty, and being around her always makes me feel like painting :)  Well, I'm not necessarily feeling up to the challenge of capturing her radiance full color just yet, so for now, here is a small value study in just burnt umber.

I wasn't really feeling it last night (maybe I used up too much creative energy noodling on my guitar yesterday afternoon?), but I plugged away at it anyway. I think the right leg is a little bit short. I was having a hard time drawing those legs because the model was having a hard time standing very still (which is understandable--I sat for a portrait session this week and sitting in the same spot for multiple hours is hard enough). But it was a good exercise for developing my drawing-from-memory skills, anyway ;)

It's pretty near impossible to get a two year old to hold still so you can draw him :) :) but I try anyway (a little Thomas the Train on TV helps a bit)! I've had a hard time motivating myself to do much in the way of art this week, so I'll take the inspiration when it comes (each of these sketches was probably a minute or less). It's been kind of a crazy week at our house, but ask me about that later :P I have noticed a change in my sketches since I've started learning the "chiseling-away-at-a-block-of-stone" drawing method. I'm focusing more on the general shape and not getting as caught up with the details (which usually ends up in some very very bad sketches when you're trying to capture the motion of kids!). It kind of reminds me of tuning a drum (I played the snare for a couple years back in elementary school). You tighten one nut, then go across to the one directly opposite, then go to the one that's evenly spaced between, etc.

about 11x7.5", pencil on paper, 2/23/16 My figure drawing from last night. This one was the 8th drawing since I began getting some instruction in the sight-size academic drawing process. It's starting to make more sense :)

8x10, water mixable oil on canvas panel, 2/21/16 (sorry for the glare--just couldn't find an angle that didn't have it) I've been apprehensive to attempt a copy of a Sargent painting. He's so brilliant, and his drawings are hard enough to copy :P But I admire his skill so much, and I guess I was feeling particularly ambitious or fearless or something last night and decided to just go for it.  I don't think I was using quite the right color mix for the skin tones--his seemed more saturated somehow (I'm thinking maybe he was using yellow ochre? versus my cadmium yellow med. It seems like ochre has some serious tinting power). One fun thing about "drawing" with paint versus pencil or charcoal is that you can manipulate the "line" from both sides, if that makes sense...  Anyway, it was a fun experience, and I'm not totally horrified with how it came out (which I thought I probably would be). Of course it doesn't look exactl

4x6", water mixable oil on linen board, 2/19/16 Just a one-hour study of an orange from yesterday afternoon. I've really been focusing on drawing lately, and I have to say, paint feels like a stranger.  I can't say I was 100% pleased with how this turned out, and I was getting a little frustrated with my lack of time and the stream of constant distractions I had while working on it. I had a babysitter over, but that doesn't always curb all of the demands of life with little ones (especially since I paint in a corner of the family room, where I am readily accessible ;) And really, an hour isn't very long to paint something, even if it is only a simple 4x6" still life.  I think my sense of color has definitely gotten a little better over the past year. It seems like I would look at an orange and be pretty bewildered by the color I was seeing--then end up just relying more on what I thought the color should be and try to make it work. But I'm

I read in Richard Schmid's book  Alla Prima  that his teacher would sometimes scrape off a perfectly good painting he had done, and say something like, "Do it again. Doing it well once could be an accident." I didn't understand that the first time I read it, but I'm starting to get what he meant. What I like about this structured training I'm getting a taste of is that it is helping me to be more conscious and deliberate about what I'm doing (which can be a little painful, I'll admit). I think that usually when I draw, I just go with my instinct and almost let my mind go. Sometimes I finish a drawing, look at it and wonder, "how did I get here?" And I don't even know (similar to how sometimes you pull into the garage and barely remember the drive home). Drawing on autopilot, I suppose... where when I get a good result, it almost does seems like an accident, something I couldn't reproduce if I tried. So here's to being mo

2 hours, pencil on paper, 2/16/16 Last night wasn't quite as frustrating as the previous figure session. There always seems to be an ebb and flow to life, and I guess you just have to learn how to be okay with the ebb as well as the flow.  It turns out I was using a 2H lead in my pencil (instead of the recommended HB), so that might partly explain my extra light marks on the paper... I guess I had just assumed it was HB when I got the pencil since it seems to be the standard, but I really should've checked that ;) I got a little farther with this drawing than I have since starting instruction, and even began throwing a little (flat) shading onto the figure. A further step is to use the contour lines of the figure to indicate value (which the instructor was starting to show me here). So we'll see how the next session goes--the ebb and flow of life might suggest that next time I will spend half the time drawing an envelope, ha! I'll be ready :)

12x9", charcoal and white chalk on gray paper, 2/13/16 I've been meaning to try out some charcoal pencils I was given a little while back :) Truth be told, I've never drawn much with charcoal--and certainly not from life. I think we might have used the big charcoal sticks some (though I think we mostly used conte crayon?) in the one semester of figure drawing I took at the local MT university back when I was 16 ;). Too long ago to remember very well.  And then, of course, I've attempted a few Sargent copies in charcoal lately, with finicky results. I find charcoal to be so tricky to use, because it really doesn't erase very well--at least not if the charcoal is on very thick. So if I make a wrong mark, it seems it's there to stay :/  I like that you can get a much broader range of values with the charcoal. I was using a soft pencil (4B) here, and I think this delicate subject may have been better suited to a harder pencil--things to remember in t

The thought that kept running through my head as I was working on this drawing was: "Why do I torture myself?" Ha! No, but really.  I have to remind myself that one of the reasons I find art so interesting is that it IS so challenging. Maybe someday it won't be AS challenging. But for now? This is just plain hard (and frustrating).  I do LIKE drawing. I do (sometimes ;).

5x7, water mixable oil on linen panel, 2/10/16 Just a quick 40-minute study of some potted tulips I picked up the other day. They smell sooo nice and are making me anxious for spring :)

Last night's figure drawing. It was a tricky pose with the arms up in the air like that (and I probably should have drawn in the chain he was holding onto for reference ;), but I think I'm starting to catch on a little better to the method. I still feel myself zoning in on one area a little too much, which can end up causing the figure's stance to not match very well left/right, top/bottom, etc. I think that will get a little better when I'm more efficient (quicker!) at capturing the gesture of the entire figure before it has shifted.

11x8.5, vine charcoal on paper, 2/7/16 We've been taking care of sick babies the past few days (crossing my fingers I don't catch it, but I've been sneezed and slobbered on enough, I figure it's inevitable). I put a copy of this John Singer Sargent charcoal drawing on my easel yesterday, and I've been working on copying it little by little when I have a minute. It's nice that I can just pick it up and do a little bit at a time :) I don't have much experience with charcoal, so I'm really just playing and figuring out how it works. It doesn't erase quite as well as graphite--but then again, that could be the paper, too. I don't know. As usual, I can see from the comparison below that I'm trying to enlarge the features--and everything else. I always, always do that! It's so much easier to see when you take a picture of it. I guess I could avoid the problem by gridding the image out more, but I really just want to figure out how to

Yesterday was a bit of a long day. My baby had a rather phlegm-y cold, so we couldn't venture out to any of our favorite haunts. Instead, we filled the time with online games, daytime bath time, movies, Sculpey clay, PBS children's programming, a brief outing to look at the frozen lake and break up the monotony, and a little watercolor painting. All this, and... no naps :P (plus, in the midst of it all, I even managed to deep clean the oven and sew half a sparkly pink dress for an upcoming dance competition for my girl--super mom :).  I don't get out the watercolors much anymore (and couldn't say I did yesterday either--this was done with kids' watercolors and paintbrushes ;). What I love and hate about watercolor is that you can't backtrack. Each stroke is there to stay, and largely unpredictable (but then again, maybe that's just me). Sometimes you end up with some happy accidents (and maybe even happy yellow!--but not this time. This was done wit

Quick 15 minute or so sketch of my sleepy little girl (who from day one has persistently refused to fall asleep in her own bed ;). I wish I had had just a few more minutes to work out some of the perspective and proportion issues, but she rolled over, so it is what it is. We've had a cold going around here, and it makes for some clingy kiddos. Sometimes (pretty often, actually) a few minutes is all I've got--carpe diem ;)

About 11x7.5", pencil on paper, 2/2/16 I haven't heard what happened with the groundhog yesterday, but it still feels like winter to me (just ask this poor freezing model!). I think this drawing went more smoothly than last time, and I'm glad I've started receiving instruction at these sessions. It's really cool to be learning a drawing method that masters of the past (and present) have used to learn their craft. I had reached a point in my drawing where I felt like I wasn't making much progress (and I know that the rate of progress tapers off the more you do something, but I want to keep that forward motion going--I'm not where I want to be just yet ;). It definitely helps to have another pair of eyes on my work to help break me out of whatever funk I might find myself in while drawing. Sometimes you're a little too close to something to see it clearly.  I'm just really grateful I've found somewhere to draw this past year or so

We had a busy weekend. My husband took his scout group camping in the middle of a winter snowstorm (yikes--but don't worry, they ended up crashing in someone's basement!). And I had an assignment to teach a lesson at church (public speaking is not my friend--talk about stress-eating the Costco blueberry muffins my husband brought home after his camp out on Saturday night). So, I guess what I'm saying is there wasn't much space in my world for being creative this weekend ;) But last night, after things had quieted down a bit, my cute little almost-two year old boy brought me a pencil and asked me to "Draw mama, draw daddy." I love when they start making the connection that things you put on paper are representative of things in the real world--my daughter went through a stage wear she was constantly asking me the same thing: "Draw mama, draw daddy, draw Clara." It reminds me of my childhood--my mom used to keep me entertained at church by dra