A Person, Artist, Software Engineer, Geologist.

Once in a while I take photos of a work in progress.  This is for me as well as others as the work moves from stage to stage.  And it is done in stages with defined processes for each step.  On this walkway overpass up in Spruce Pine, I've done both an ink / marker and an Ink / Wash on the same piece. This is the finished watercolor of the work.  To start the process I did an ink drawing of it and then took a tracing from that.  It's the tracing where I did another ink drawing but this time on watercolor paper. Tracings of a work is done with standard tracing paper.  I get mine from CheapJoes.com and use the 8x10 size as that covers most of my needs.  The tracing is done with a 0.3 ink pen (Winsor & Newton Fineliner).  Once I have the tracing I can then use it for other paper or to do another work of the same subject. The tracing is just a start as I still need to get it transferred onto other paper.  For that you need a very bright light...

 Life is never still, at least I don't think you would want it to be.  That's why so many of us (i.e., retired care free people) travel.  Keep seeing new things and places.   Well the Hurricane so far inland was a new thing and one I would have rather forgone but life is what happens.  Life keeps moving. Except a still life is forever and captures a slice of time frozen in a painting.  This is from a wooden bowl of pears onboard our ship during dinner one nice.  Again, just thought it looked nice. Enjoy.

 Just back from our trip abroad as Asheville continues to recover from the hurricane.  This trip has been planned for a long time and we almost didn't make it because our dog sitting business will be closed for a while. But make it we did and now we are back. We love Amsterdam.  What a fun place to visit.  So many things to too and do there.  The weather was not the best but it did not have an impact on our visit.  Just bundle up. Got some quick painting in while on the boat (i.e., Viking) as we moved from port to port.  This painting is of a garden at a heritage site of windmills.  I thought it looked nice. Nice time on the trip to de-stress from what was happing back home.  We were fine back home but not everything is well with many others.

 If I play around long enough my style will appear.  I'm guessing that this is kind of it.  I'll keep working on other techniques in watercolor but for now this appears to be my style. I do like it and others appear (to my face) to also like this.  Not every one of my paintings is a success.  About 1/3 so far, but when they do I am rather pleased that anything good comes out of it at all. I do love color.  Color is happy and outdoors is full of color, be it the west or back east with the greens.  Color color color. Also doing some painting on hot press paper and see how that goes. Later......

It's easy to paint something like you have done before, so once in a while I step out of my comfort box.  In this case it's a landscape but it's a busy landscape.  Lots going on and hard to do.   So it's back to basics.  Photo : check, drawing : check, Paint : check.... and it kinda works out.  Yeah it's more or less the same style but looks alright (at least me wife likes it). I remembered to take a couple of photos while I was working on it.  This photo shows my setup and process with my iPad and drawing from a photo.  Not working on an easel, just on my desk. One last thing.  I have a number of frames squired away for my work as framing a piece can really make a huge difference in how it looks.  I also have a mat cutter and some extra mat board so fitting my work to a frame is not too hard. Anyway, enjoy.

 It's been quite a while.  Yup, I told some time off from art because of ..... pickle ball, summer, travel but more of all, I was very unsure that I could produce art that I myself liked.  Slowly I got back into it and started to "get" a style in my watercolor.   Ink I can do but I wanted to have COLOR.  Watercolor is tough and very tough for me as I was looking for a style to call my own.  I bought a small journal to take with me on hiking the CT / MA section and did some painting.  That was not the breakthrough though. For the first timeI painted with other non-painters in the same room!  Very scary!  It was on a trip down on Dewee's island off the coast of SC.  I had just gotten a new small W&N Cotman watercolor "landscape" set to use and took an afternoon off from fishing to do some work. The results where very pleasing to me.  It was the break through I was looking for.  Not every one was a winner but my style was comi...

I've been trying to draw / paint these barns for a couple of years but never felt or got them right.  This time I think they turned out right. So What went wrong before and what's right now with this drawing?  This time, the light was right.  It's coming from the upper right and the shadows just looked right.  The other thing is the corn field on the left had to "be in season", otherwise it's just a plowed field.  I had taken other photos from different angles but they never felt right.  This angle has the road, power lines, corn field, etc. all leading to the right.  The shadows on the lower right helps fill in that corner (don't forget about the corners!).  The last part is trying to draw (ink paint maybe) the trees in the background.  Not so easy when they are kind of a blob is green shades. So yeah, it's composition that is king.  Many times I just don't see it until the drawing / painting is finished and when it's right it feels goo...

Still working on "my" watercolor style.  Lots of videos that you can watch, lots of books (I know as I have them) but it all ends up in your own hands as to what style is yours. I tend to only do some art when I've given up all hope of producing anything so my expectations are really low.  That is when I have freedom and not the self-pressure I put on my self. This is my latest watercolor that reflects a style that I did with my "Kat" watercolor.  Kind of interesting and I like it. As it turns out, I got a bunch of frames from friends that I did the "Kat" watercolor for as they are moving back to Scotland and where cleaning house.  The "Kat" painting is going to Scotland too!  Anyway, I thought the frames where 8x10, but No, they are 8-1/2 x 11, and old size.  So I put my mat cutting skills together to try my hand at double matting.  And it turned out great!  It uses up double the mat but the results are great. Here is another watercolor with...

I have not forgotten about my Ink & Marker art work, but boy color is sure pretty.  Here is another Ink & Wash watercolor I did from our trip through Germany.  So many options for subject matter out there.  The old buildings, rivers, hills and history.  We just loved it. Everything is in stone and timber.  Lots and lots of old stonework in the small villages next to the rivers.   I'm working on more watercolors and see where they lead me.  I know that I need to practice, practice and practice some more to keep getting better.   I just love these little 5 x 7 watercolor format, but I need to try some 8 x 10s as well and see how they turn out. Well it almost Christmas time here and the temps are getting colder with the latest front passing through.  More time for artwork as playtime outside is limited by how much I want to stand the lower temperatures. One thing that keeps me going is the PadCast of "Ask An Artist".  I've been list...

I'm getting better at it (or at least I think I am). There are many different styles of watercolor painting and I've been looking at many of them, trying, just tying to get something that I like and turns out I can do. The style I really like is the "Ink & Wash" style of painting where an ink drawing is filled out with watercolor.  My latest turned out pretty good and I'm looking forward to giving my hand another go.  I took a bunch of photos from Bobbie & my river trip in Europe this fall so I've got a number of subjects to draw (sorry about the pun) from. I've been busy with other things for a while as I've had a number of AT hikes to get done (in PA now), an island trip and then the big EU  river trip where we ended up getting a tad of COVID.  Now winter is here I have fewer fly fishing outings and more indoors time to get some artwork done.  Also, the PodCase "Ask An Artist" has new Episodes too.   Till later....

 I had been a software engineer for so very long, but that well is empty and I've moved on.  I've got time on my hands and thus I picked up a pencil and brush.  I went back to my youth and wanted to give art a shot. Art has been go to me now.  I found a niche and I and other like my work.  I'm still working on finding another style and that my be a longer journey.  Until then people ask me if I sell any of the work.  I've given some away, sold other specific pieces (because the subject, house, cat, etc.) for the cost of the frame, but other than that, I have not tried to sell my work.  Letting go a piece is on a case by case basis. I will let non-profits use some of my images for their benefit and I'm find with that.  It's not bout the money for me, it's about me being able to create something that people (and myself) enjoy. I ran into (via email) another artist that does beautiful landscapes.  Such colors.  And she, like myself als...

We have walked and driven by this barn almost every day since we moved here as it's only a couple of houses away and you have to pass it getting to our house.  Most of the time the light is higher in the sky or full light in the morning.  I've always thought of it as just a boring type barn as it does not have many features but last week in the evening it looked just right so I snapped a photo of it. This is the result.  Just a pretty picture of a barn.  Not fancy, scary, falling down or anything.  Just nice. It's a working barn and a couple of horses live in it when they are not in the field during the day. Sometimes it takes looking at an object hundreds of times to notice the one time it looks different.  Then to capture that moment if you can. Enjoy.

I've not been just sitting around between drawings.  I've had 2 art on-line classes from Elephant Academy out of the UK and playing with watercolor (dang, still can't get it right).  So after a bit I get back and do another drawing.  This time of a barn here in Mars Hill, NC. It's almost like an endless supply of barns around here (it's close to it with > 10,000 barns). But I like to go back and play with watercolor.  I don't know if it's the color or working to find my style in it that I'm after. Intermixed with all this is that Summer is here.  Everything is green and that means more time outside hiking and fishing and warmer temps.  Vitamin D here I come. I've got a few more photos that I've taken to draw from and I'll get them done but in between summer and watercolor.  It all takes time. 

I'm almost 100% (well 96%) recovered from my broken shoulder last October (I've been very lucky recovering so much) and I think in the next few months I'll make those last few remaining percentage points, but the drawing continues. Been trying to get more drawing done from photos I took when I was last in Park City working on the yard for reducing water usage.   Here is the resulting drawing that was just completed.  It's an 8x10 of the big mine in Thayne's Canyon from a different angle.  I thought that it turned out great.  The perspective from the ground and the little bit of a wide angle gave it that bowed in look towards the tower.  the stairway is awesome as are the power lines running though it.  It just turned out great. This summer I'm going to take a number of my PC / mine drawings to my son and daughter still in Utah for hang in their homes. Enjoy.

We have many friends back in Park City.  We lived there for 30+ years before moving to our NC House.  One a year we get back to PC to see the kids and fix up our rental house (and reduce H2O usage, etc) and it's during this time we catch up with old friends. Among them is Doug and Nancy that live in a restored miners house above Old Town Park City (like the Last house above Main Street).  Very nice old house and fabulous yard where they can see the whole of downtown.  It was during the last trip where I snapped a photo of their house that I wanted to draw from. And this is the resulting drawing.  Great yard, house and with the fine filled ridge line in the background.  I do these drawing from time to time of someones house and then give them the drawing (framed).  It would mean more to them than myself and it belongs inside the house itself. So enjoy Doug & Nancy and thanks for taking Shay and myself hiking and to lunch when I was out there.

Last week my wife had a book event at a book store in Winston-Salen, NC.  It was with another author Greg Howard, who's book got banned in at least 1 school district. A good time was had by all at the event.  Greg and Bobbie now share the same editor (for Bobbie's latest book).  The bookstore was a very nice indie bookstore with wonderful (aren't they all) staff.  I ended up buying a couple of books for myself before we left. The facade was an old brick building and made a nice subject for a drawing, so I did one.  It was at night.  That gave it an even better look.  It's not large, jut 5 x 5 inches, but just a nice little drawing. As always, enjoy.

Early on I bought a book by Austin Kleon - "Steal Like an Artist".  Since then I had also bought another of his books - "Show Your Work!" and I've taken it to heart.   This drawing is of a "Sinclair" gas station in Summit county close to where my son owns a couple of lots.  It's an old timey type of station where the pumps don't match, the building old but with a unique style and there is a "real" Sinclair dinosaur on the roof.  Just one of those sights on a back county road trip. So here it is in a drawing.  My drawing is rough, simplistic and has an illustration type style to it, done only in grays.  When I first started these, I thought they where next but I didn't feel they were "Art" as it was the style I could do.   But I showed my work to others. I thought the response would be that they where nice but simplistic (they are) but art?  I didn't know.  I had fear (read the book - Art and Fear) that they where jus...

Mostly it's barns and mines, but today it's a light house somewhere in the northeast.  It's a little different as it's more of a setting rather than a single building.   I could continue to do barns and mines (not done with mines quite yet) till the cows come home but I'm looking for other subjects.  I've taken a number of photos of "other" objects, landscapes, etc. that I'm interested in and drawing those.   Not so easy to change a bit as change is always different.  Different == Scary, but not always.  I just need to do it and move on.  Not really moving aways from my drawing just learning more.  More is different more is fun more is ..... There are a number of drawings and studies that I've done that I've not posted.  They are for myself, my practice and understanding.  Not for public consumption, thus no posting.  I'd rather not display my learning steps and failures (yet I know, Art have no failures but it sure feels like it to...

I don't always (well maybe never) have interesting posts but I try to come up with something if only to show my latest drawing. This latest drawing part of my "Mine" series from the Park City, Utah area.  This is labeled "Master Control" as it's part of an (?) electrical panel in an old mine building.  It's been stripped of parts long ago with only some panels remaining that have been adorned with "local color".  Still an interesting subject for a drawing. On a different topic, I go back and forth between drawing, watercolor and different styles.  Still looking for another style that I can explore and like (and others like too).  I need to bounce some of my artwork off of others to validate a path I'm exploring.  Most times I don't as I know what I've just done is working or not, so it's only the ones that pass the "me" test do I show others. Winter is finally arriving and that limits the hiking / fishing days as the t...

I like to show some of my "Work in Progress" photos, so other can see how I work and steps involved.  For my drawings, there is a process that I follow which involves: Taking a photo of what I want to draw. Add it my "To Do" list in the "Art" photo album on my iPhone / iPad / Mac. Crop (if needed) the photo for what size I'm going to draw (landscape/portrait, etc).  (Edits on the iPhone are non-destructive so I can always revert to the original) Setup my iPad and my paper on my table and start drawing.  Ink pen first. Then grey markers, till done.  That's it. Take photo of finished drawing and name and place into my artwork photo. Maybe show on Facebook, but otherwise update my ToddBlackley.com site. Repeat. They are not all winners of course but my "Good" rate is about 80%. I'm getting good at this process for my drawing and getting quite a few drawing under my belt. Park City Mine Series I've got my Barn series and I've been...