Month: November 2021

The Professional Dog book on Storyberries, Thanksgiving and holiday box details

A Creative Life, art exhibit, art gallery, art techniques, artist book, artistic inspirations, children's book, creative thinking, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, pet portraits, printed books, sketchbook, Sue Draws Dogs, The Professional Dog, visual thinking, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

Lots to share: The Professional Dog is out in print and as an ebook on Storyberries! In a bit I’m sharing my creative process for my holiday box project. But first, because people tell me they’re enjoying it, I am continuing to feature 3 dogs from The Professional Dog per week so here’s this weeks…

The text in the book, which is also the title of the original artwork, is below each of this weeks featured dogs.

The Librarian’s dog is a learned dog.
The Mayor’s dog is a magnificent dog.
The Nurse’s dog is a nice dog.

Here’s the ebook on Storyberries.com

https://www.storyberries.com/bedtime-stories-the-professional-dog-abc-alphabet-books-for-kids/

I wanted to share somehow that my original artwork for The Professional Dog is smaller than the finished book. So I did a video look at all of the original artwork for The Professional Dog. Each original dog portrait is 2.5 x 3.5 inches and was made by hand using ink and gouache on board. The finished print book is 6 x 9 inches and as faithfully as possible reproduces the colors and details in the original artwork. I did this because the reproductions do enlarge the details in the artwork. Below is a photo showing a bit of what I’m saying … perhaps you can see both the small original art and the book reproductions?

I’m still learning how to put video in these posts but here’s the link to the video https://youtu.be/3hAOKBosDDU

You could say that Thanksgiving was a nicely quiet event considering it was just my spouse and I and a giant veggie lasagna. But it really felt like we’d hosted a come-and-go party all day as we were in contact with friends and family via text, social media and the voice phone! It was such a fun day and we both went to bed tired-happy feeling like we’d been talking and partying nonstop! We joked that we could get used to partying like this – there was a lot less to clean up afterwards! Lol!

After the holiday I delivered all of the original art for The Professional Dog to the Aurora Gallery. This project was a big one that encompassed multiple months of intense work and it all – all 40 dog portraits – fit into a 5 x 7 x 4 inch box! (Another benefit of making the original art small in size)

Here’s the box of original artwork sitting atop the signed books wrapped in paper for protection during transfer to the Aurora Gallery.

Even though everything is done now including the portfolio page for The Professional Dog I will still be posting the dog portraits in sequence over the next weeks. People have told me that they’re enjoying them.

The Thanksgiving event held by the Caplan Art Designs Gallery also began the day after Thanksgiving. Below is another attempt to include a video in this blog. This video was made by the Gallery and is shared by permission. In case I’ve not gotten the video embedded in this post like I think I do – the video camera pans around a nice large room filled with art by the Caplan Art Designs Gallery artists. You see some of my larger works right at the start. Many of my works are small and not captured in the video. My last post included images of my artworks in this event. Over the weekend the Gallery posted more videos on the Gallery’s Instagram and Facebook pages that showed more of the event! There were many sales of my artwork and of the other Gallery artists work!

And now for the full details about the holiday box project! Back in very early September the Caplan Art Gallery gave certain artists an 8 inch cube to paint in our style. These boxes are to be in a special holiday exhibit opening the first Thursday in December.

Immediately when I got my box and over the next 4 days, I began the process of putting 3 coats of gesso on it even though I didn’t know what I would create.

While the gesso dried over that first week I brainstormed in both my sketchbook and on my legal pad. First I listed over 20 things that I could think of that are square or cube shaped. Then in my sketchbook I played visually with the various items listed to see what might be fun, how I might approach it. During this time my spouse and I had a dear friend come over to our outdoor patio to visit and have dinner. I told her what I was brainstorming and she liked the idea of dice.

At that time I was still in the middle of creating the dog portraits for The Professional Dog so it felt natural to think of dog shelters and dice, the chances for pet adoption, the many names for dogs … so in my brainstorming with my friend and my spouse we thought “what are the odds you’d find 21 dogs named Chance”?

My sketchbook became focused on dice-dot portraits of dogs.

I also rummaged about the house and found some game dice I could use as a model.

Using a ruler I calculated the size of the dots in relation to the size of the cube and I made measurement marks on the gesso using a watercolor pencil. The watercolor pencil marks will blend in and dissolve when I paint over the marks with acrylic paints.

Since the cube is a sculpture and will likely be handled by humans or sat upon by cats I decided from the start to work in acrylic as that’s a permanent waterproof media. I also planned to (and did) varnish it so the dice could be protected and easily cleaned.

I painted a different dog portrait on each dot on my dice using black and white acrylics mixed to form a range of greys. And yes, some of the dog breed research and practice I was already doing for The Professional Dog was applied to this project too.

After painting each dice-dot with a dog using black and white acrylics I painted the body of the dice with white acrylic. Every bit of the gesso got covered! Below you can see the entire dice in 3d plus each dice face separately so you can enlarge it and see the portraits.

I hope you had a yummy and fun Thanksgiving too. I look forward to catching up with some of my fellow bloggers and hearing about your creative projects but some of my days this week might resemble this…

… even if it does I hope you have a delightful week! See you next Monday.

Professional dogs, books, Thanksgiving art and some about the holiday box!

A Creative Life, Abecedarian, art exhibit, art gallery, artist book, author illustrator, book design and layout, children's book, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, drinks in art, fine art, graphic design, greeting cards, handmade papers, illustrated gifts, illustrated recipe, pet portraits, printed books, publications - publishing, published art, small things, Sue Draws Dogs, The Professional Dog, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

Here’s news about The Professional Dog and all of my projects that I couldn’t talk about in my last posts! First, this weeks sequence of dogs.

Below is a closer look at the artwork of each of those dogs with the book text beneath.

The Kayaker’s dog is a kind dog.
The Lawyer’s dog is a laudable dog.
The Lender’s dog is a lucky dog.

As I mentioned in another post I tend to work first and talk about the work later. This means all of the artwork is finished for The Professional Dog and I could work hard this past week on the book layout. Here’s a photo of me at my laptop doing the book layout.

I wanted this book to be able to be shipped by Christmas so I focused on getting the book design done – and uploaded – which altered my posting about the artwork itself or about my creative process surrounding the book but I think that’s okay. If you have questions just ask.

But here’s the cover for The Professional Dog and a link where you can preview the entire book and order a copy if you wish.

https://www.blurb.com/b/10926040-the-professional-dog

There’s a lot still to do for this project but the publication on the 16th of Nov was a big deal. There are 40 portraits in the book and this is the most pages I’ve created for any of my books so far! So I’m celebrating! Wahoo!

Because I made portraits of my friends dogs I plan to keep posting each dog in alphabetical sequence so that each dog gets to be featured and each friend has a chance to share the portrait of their dog if they want to. Mainly it’s just a bit of cheerfulness from me over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Speaking of small cheerful things: I took some more of my books, mug mats and postcards to the Aurora Gallery at their request.

The Caplan Art Designs Gallery did a studio visit and selected some artwork from my studio stash for the special Thanksgiving event the Gallery is doing Nov 26, 27 and 28th. Each of the artworks Caplan selected are autobiographical. I’ve been sharing details on my Instagram page for each of these pieces but generally speaking each painting is about some aspect of my life here in the Pacific Northwest. Like the time we went hiking in Forest Park and my bootlace broke and we discovered a wonderful coffee shop that also sold bootlaces! Or the Rainier cherries we enjoy eating by the sea. Or the fine dining we’ve enjoyed…my feeling is reflected in my choice of dog breed depicted. And the bookstores… There are many more artworks selected by the Gallery than I’ve included below but perhaps this gives you the idea? The Gallery event happens the 26th, 27th and 28th in Portland Oregon.

Why were the above artworks languishing in my studio? They didn’t fit neatly into a theme or a unified whole for any of my exhibits. And also they were still there because I forgot about them. This is an example of when it’s helpful to have someone outside my head – in this case a gallery owner – look at things with fresh eyes.

Another example of the value of “fresh eyes” is that my spouse looked at my digital book layout of The Professional Dog and caught a major mistake I had made before it went to print!! (I had one out of alphabetical order 😱) I thank her on the book info page seen below.

The Professional Dog by Clancy

And now for what we’ve all been waiting for (drumroll please) the Holiday Box Project! The Box Project exhibit opens at Caplan Art Designs the first Thursday in December. That’s why we artists were asked to wait to post and to only do a “teaser” post now because the Thanksgiving gallery event happens first. We artists were each given by the Gallery a solid brown wooden box, 8 inches cubed, some time ago so we’d all have time to create art on them. Below are before and after photos of my box.

I’ve titled my holiday box “All The Chances” – what are the odds you’d find 21 dogs named Chance? Anyway, are you teased? Lol! I will tell more details about “All The Chances” including about my working process after Thanksgiving.

It’s been a super busy week (no time for Creativity Chats or for much cooking creativity either) and frankly I am very tired from all of the activities. But at the same time I’m very happy! So I’ll rest up and share more this week on social media and on next Monday’s blog post.

I hope your week is a good one. Thank you for your many kind comments and your support! I am grateful for you and for the blogging community! Happy Thanksgiving!

Professional dogs, artist books, unmentionables and hamburger

A Creative Life, art commission, art exhibit, art gallery, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, business of art, children's book, creative thinking, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, Fine Art Commission, public art, Sustainable creativity, whimsical art, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

My new childrens book, The Professional Dog, is progressing nicely. I’ve been thinking of this as a fine art dog portrait album inspired by the idea of the 19th century parlor game The Minister’s Cat. My book concept is an excuse to talk to my friends about their dogs and see if I can do 40 portraits of dogs whose owners are people I know. It just so happens that I know people occupying an alphabets worth of professions! How fun is that?! Anyway, here are three of the dog portraits together.

Below the larger portrait is the text I’ve written for the book.

The Helper’s dog is a hopeful dog.
The Inventory Manager’s dog is an insightful dog.
The Judge’s dog is a jolly dog.

Besides keeping on my work schedule for The Professional Dog I’ve been working closely with two of my galleries. We’re doing fine art commissions and studio visits in prep for the upcoming gift giving season. It’s beginning to resemble Santa’s workshop around here.

For example I created, then delivered, an art commission to Aurora this week for someone’s holiday gifts (shhhh!). Then while I was in the Gallery I got to see a glorious display of my own work! That sight inspired and encouraged me to keep making my stuff. https://auroragalleryonline.com/

The Aurora Gallery does such a good job displaying my wide variety of differently sized things – artistbooks, greetingcards and fineart – I love it that someone can see my books and around the corner nearby in the art gallery they can see the original artwork in the books!

Since we’re not talking about the fine art commission I just did for the Aurora Gallery here’s the art studio dachshund keeping mum with me.

And as I mentioned in my last post we’re still very definitely not talking about the Caplan Art Designs upcoming holiday box project.

Also there’s another event upcoming at Caplan Art Gallery that… well, we’ll talk more about that later. (There is a hint on my Instagram page about that however 😉)

Suffice it to say that I was extremely busy this week, working in both short and long bursts, on several projects I can’t talk about publicly.

Thank goodness I can talk about my childrens book project The Professional Dog! The book is farther along than my posts make it appear. And I’m excited about this book! I believe kids need fine art in their lives too so I’m taking great pleasure in making an album of fine art paintings and producing the work in such a way that while being an art object itself – as in I am personally making an artistic reproduction of my original artwork – my finished book will be affordable and will also withstand little hands with grape jelly on them!

I’ve been so slowly posting about this work because when I run out of time in a day it’s the online posting that drops off my to-do list. Creative work comes first. Talking about it comes later.

Similarly there wasn’t time for one of my Creativity Chats this week. I wrote notes for it though.

Food got simplified this week too. I threw ingredients for this recipe from a blog I follow called In Diane’s Kitchen into my slow cooker, pressed buttons and went to work in my studio. The reheated leftovers were even better the next two days.

And you bet your sweet bippy that I am still taking the time, up to an hour or so every evening, to read books and have hot chocolate before bedtime. It’s the way I keep calm and carry on during busy times.

My secrets to maintaining this level of creativity? In the mornings 5 or 10 minutes daily playing around with my sketchbook. In the evenings 30 minutes to an hour playing with books – print books I own as well as ebooks from my local library. (I especially love cozy mysteries, fiction, short story collections, poetry…)

And between those daily just-for-me fun times I play with whatever project is at hand. I just charge ahead with my project in my best imitation of a child arriving enthusiastically at a playground.

Yep, those are my secrets to a sustainable creative life which could be distilled to “Play and have fun every day come heck or high water!”.

I hope your week is a playful one no matter what else is happening. See you next Monday.

Professional dogs, clutch pencils, fountain pens, writing and drawing

A Creative Life, art gallery, art techniques, artistic inspirations, children's book, creative thinking, Creativity Chats, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, pet portraits, Sustainable creativity, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

More progress this week on The Professional Dog, my latest childrens book project. Here are three together and like I mentioned in my last post perhaps you can see how the colors transition from one piece to the next?

Here are closer looks so you can see the details. I’m creating each portrait using ink and gouache on board. The text I plan to use for the book is below each artwork.

The Guidance Counselor’s dog is a generous dog.
The Guitarist’s dog is a gentle dog.
The Hairdresser’s dog is a happy dog.

This week a friend dropped by with a surprise! Her son had made the pencil I’m holding in this photo!

The pencil is a lead holder aka a “clutch pencil” that extends then holds 2mm lead by clutching the lead in its jaws so to speak. This gift pencil is thicker than the clutch pencils I’ve used in the past! Right away I drew with it in my sketchbook. It is nicely balanced and the thickness does make it easier for my hand!

This new clutch pencil has now joined my fountain pen in daily use. Both have thick barrels which are easy to hold for durations of time.

To play some more I used my new pencil to draw a portrait of my pencil. Then I added ink and gouache. I’m thinking this might be a fun image for a thinking-of-you note card … for my Zazzle shop eventually.

If I’ve made you curious about clutch pencils aka lead holders there’s a good blog here with juicy details https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2015/10/02/why-use-a-clutch-pencil/

One of the many things I like about both clutch pencils and fountain pens is the environmental friendliness of them. Both are refillable so there’s no trash to throw away! Below are a few of my favorite books about using pencils and fountain pens.

I think the creative writing process benefits from visual drawings and vice versa. If a writer can draw a floorplan in which the story action happens sometimes that will help the written descriptions flow more easily. If a painter can write a verbal description of what they see in their imagination that can help the visual image flow better.

I’ve been thinking on this topic, the helpful cross-training effects on perception that comes from playing with words and pictures, for about a week. So almost the second the house was quiet and workmen had ceased hammering and sawing I did one of my Creativity Chat videos about this topic of seeing. https://youtu.be/4ljLOhgK30o

Creativity Chat: seeing https://youtu.be/4ljLOhgK30o

As I mentioned in my last post I’m still waiting for the go-ahead from the Caplan Art Designs gallery to post about my holiday box project. I varnished it this past week and will deliver it to the gallery soon. Here’s my art studio supervisor dachshund waiting … and wearing a sweater because it’s cold.

The food creativity this week now that the kitchen is back (Yay!) was a lentil stew over basmati rice. Yum! Here’s the recipe I used: https://mydominicankitchen.com/slow-cooker-lentil-stew/

Here’s hoping your week is full of fun play with words and pictures. See you next Monday.

Professional Dogs, puzzles, holiday box and figure ground relationships

A Creative Life, art book review, art gallery, Art Word Combinations, artist book, artistic inspirations, author illustrator, books, children's book, creative thinking, dog portrait, Dogs in Art, fine art, Gifts, illustration, life of the mind, mental health, mundane and magical moments, pet portraits, small things, Sustainable creativity, visual thinking, words and pictures, writing and illustrating

I got my Covid19 booster shot and thought of the relationship between individuals and community. That brought jigsaw puzzles to mind. Quite a number of people were getting vaccinated the same time I was and it got me to thinking of how each one of us fit into the local community in some interlocking way.

After getting the poke I had to stay for 30 minutes to make sure I wasn’t going to have a reaction. Since I was thinking about puzzles I got online and shared some jigsaw puzzles I’ve designed that are on my Zazzle shop.

Puzzles on Clancy’s Zazzle shop – https://www.zazzle.com/collections/puzzles_with_art_by_clancy-119829479077078759

Then, after sharing the puzzles, I kept thinking about the mechanism of human perceptions. When working on a jigsaw one shifts back and forth between looking at the colors and patterns on the puzzle pieces to looking at the shapes of the pieces themselves. Somewhat similarly we – well, most of us – shift back and forth between seeing ourselves as an individual person and seeing ourselves as part of a much larger community.

That got me thinking about optical illusions and the ways design, specifically the design of narratives, the design of governments, can dovetail with our perception mechanisms and our behavior choices in a which comes first the chicken or the egg sense.

I sat in the medical center waiting area trying to remember – without using Google – the name of the guy who did the pioneering work on the perception of figure-ground relationships. I tried to remember the name of the optical illusion that illustrated this figure-ground discovery and the name of what the switch of perception in a figure-ground relationship is called.

I didn’t remember the guy’s name but I did remember the book I had at home that would tell me! So when I got home I looked it up: Edgar Rubin is the guy, a Danish psychologist working in 1915, and Gestalt Switch is the name of the perception change he studied. The book I looked this up in once I got home is called Universal Principles of Design by Lidwell, Holden and Butler.

I felt fine when I got home. My arm was hardly sore. I did feel a bit tired and decided on a day of indulgence. That means spending most of the day reading! My spouse documented the occasion – see below. The next day I was tired and had a slight headache. While I did do some work I mostly read books the next day too.

I’m reading “The Book” by Alan Watts slowly as there is a lot in it to think about. I read, fairly quickly, two wonderful fiction works that pair well with lap blankets, a warm dachshund and hot tea: The Nature Of Fragile Things and A Psalm For The Wild Built. Both of these titles feel like a hug from a dear friend.

Despite both my spouse and I getting our booster shots and being busy rearranging furniture and stuff for workmen to make house repairs I did manage to get some illustrations done for my in progress childrens book project “The Professional Dog”. Here are three together.

Below are closer views of each of these illustrations along with the text line I plan to use in the book.

The Fireman’s dog is a friendly dog.
The Framer’s dog is a famous dog.
The Gallery Owner’s dog is a gallant dog.

I did not have time to do one of my Creativity Chats this week. Also, since one of the home repairs is happening in the kitchen – there are no creative approaches to food that could be discussed or depicted here with glee. (I’m so looking forward to having my kitchen back!)

As I wrote in my last post my 8 inch cube shaped holiday box project for an upcoming exhibit at the Caplan Art Designs gallery is finished except for the final coats of varnish and we’re still waiting for Gallery permission to post publicly about it. Below is my art studio supervisor dachshund waiting very patiently. Mostly.

In addition to jigsaw puzzles and the figure-ground relationship shift of mind I’ve been thinking of how I use that mental shift method with words and images to stimulate my creativity.

For example when I began my holiday box project I listed, in longhand on my legal pad, over 20 items that are square or cube shaped. After making that list I worked in my sketchbook playing with images related to these words. (I’ve posted some of these in a past blog post) Below is a photo of part of my handwritten list – and I trust it doesn’t give too much away. 😁

I’ve also been thinking of figure-ground type shifting we do in other ways: inner life/social life, old/young, self/family, indoors/outdoors, leisure/work, mind/body, survive/thrive… I could go on listing these kinds of interrelated mental shifts but this is enough.

Anyway, of that list of shifts physical and mental health are important to me for both living-well reasons and to my creativity. Also important to me is the topic of doing a really good job of growing old (there’s a wonderful essay by Bertrand Russell here).

The main reason I create my artwork is because it makes me smile. I post publicly because it may give a friend a smile. And my friend Liz Gaffreau recently posted this which in turn made me smile. That’s why we’re here, I think, to love people and to be loved. That may sound somewhat purposeless – but this purposeless loving is the very attitude that leads to being creative, to playing well with oneself and with others.

This blog and my Creativity Chats on my YouTube channel are more of my small efforts to playfully encourage creativity in both myself and others – it’s one of my ways to participate in a creative community. I want the poets, the novelists, the painters, the quilters, the creatives of all kinds to be as well – physically and mentally – as possible. I want this because it is by play, by stories and beauty, that we all will get through difficult times. Mere physical survival is not enough. If I can encourage a poet or novelist to keep writing then perhaps their words will also help someone else keep going. Other writers work certainly helps me keep going. Each effort of creativity is a butterfly effect of sorts.

So, yes, my work feels urgent to me. It’s the shape and color of my jigsaw piece.

Please take good care of yourself this week. See you next Monday.