Stacy Weitz Minch

It's the last day of 2016, and I don't have anything exciting to share (still working over that unfortunate little Sargent copy I started last weekend, which is no easy task--who was this Sargent guy anyway!!!? ha ;). But I just wanted to say thank you, 2016, for all you've brought into my lowly little life. There have definitely been some ups and downs, and I'm not so sure what the New Year will bring--life is funny like that. But I have a feeling that 2016 will be a year I will keep near and dear to my heart for a long long time to come. I'm almost a little sad to see it coming to a close :') Oh, and because every post needs a picture or two, James Charles. I happened across a couple of his things while Googling Solomon J. Solomon the other day. Happy accidents :) I love the simplicity and vitality of these sketches. And I very much admire an artist who can capture a child's likeness from life. They're such wiggly things ;) This is just bea...

Quick 20-30ish minute watercolor sketch after Sargent. Done with the brown, black and red, and a touch of yellow from a $0.97 cent tray of kids' paints (sometimes I can sneak a little something in while entertaining the little ones, ha). I like watercolor. Drawing with watercolor can be pretty haphazard, and you never quite know what'll happen. But I think that's part of its charm. This is around 6" square.

This was probably a little under an hour of sketching, and it's not as good as I would like it to be. Ha. But it's something, and something is a lot more than nothing (especially when school is out for winter break!). I got a little lost in that jumble of hands, and didn't do a great job of varying the line through that area either. But I really love this painting and this artist, and I should probably do more of this kind of sketching. It's a little more enjoyable (manageable) than trying to control that paint :/ I just finished reading Solomon J. Solomon's book about drawing and painting a last week. It was really good. He describes a lot of mistakes that people make starting out, and well, they're all me. He must have had a crystal ball or something. I like to have faith that I can overcome all my faulty tendencies. But sometimes it's hard to believe, especially when I look around and see all these people doing amazing things. It can be a lit...

I have to very deliberately make time for this stuff--even for things like this quick 30-60 second sketch-of-a-moving-target you see here. It's worth the effort, but in the process of always being in a hurry, I've become rather good at starting, but not so good at finishing. So I'm having to learn to slow down and get out of this "you only have an hour" mentality (not that it isn't true--an hour often feels like a gloriously luxurious amount of time in my world ;).   I want to be a good finisher, but I'm still a big believer in sketching like mad.  98.5% of the time, a quick sketch is nothing interesting (I could show you page after page of hideous things in my sketchbooks). But there's something so urgent and zealous about the process--it helps me refocus and get back to seeing the whole picture when I get a little too wrapped up in the little things. So here's to sketching while simultaneously learning to slow down (I almost feel a fresh...

Well, happy holidays! I took a break from the internet and social media train for a couple days over the weekend, and that was nice. Started working on this portrait copy...and it's not going too well, ha. There are a lot of balls to juggle here. I probably should have drawn this thing out more carefully before just throwing paint up on the canvas, but I didn't (I drew with the paint--I'd like to be able to paint people from life, and get it right. But maybe I still need a little scaffolding ;). So I'm trying to correct the drawing (let's see how many errors you find in this drawing? fun game!) at the same time as trying to mix those  flesh tones (also not going too well, ha).  What a mess. I feel like this blog is becoming a series of unfortunate attempts. Sorry, readers. I'm definitely not sticking to my comfort zones lately. Oh well. I remember the first time I tried to paint a landscape, I immediately decided I couldn't paint landscapes (and did...

This is the part where I get really discouraged and think, "I will never finish this thing."  The part where the adjustments are so minor that only the most astute observer would notice them. The part where after 3 hours of staring at this stone face, I can't see an ounce of difference in what's on the page since I started.  I think doing the Bargue exclusively this month has been a little mentally exhausting. And this week there haven't been any figures or anything to break up the monotony, so I'm just tired. And I'm coming down with a cold.  So I called it a night a little bit early tonight and that's fine. I'm sure I'll be a little bit happier the next time I post about this bearded friend (hoping that will be the finish. I'm optimistically shooting for finishing this by the end of 2016?). We'll see.

I'd like to get a better handle on the anatomy of the eye, and this seemed like a good place to start... and I was ready for something at which I might be able to feel somewhat successful. These aren't extremely careful copies--maybe 5-10 minutes per eye. Also didn't space my grid too carefully, ha :P But I'm just trying to get a better mental map of all the different lines/planes of the eyeball. They're complex little things.