2011 Kickoff

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I am excited to kick off 2011. We all seem to start out a new year wanting a fresh start. So we make plans. Learning from our mistakes and building on what has worked for us. And for some that means finding a starting point and going for it. I have so many plans and visions, so many things that I want to do. I am feeling such a energy in the air within the art community and in my studio.
I have laid out the brick work that I will build on in 2011 and keep building on for many years to come. I know that spring time is always a great time of the year. There are always lots of calls and great opportunities. This year I plan on being there.
I know I still have a lot to work on. I am going to watch the deadlines for the shows I want to be in better. I am going to make time in my studio, and yes, I am going to get the knack of this whole social marketing thing. So, follow along with me and see how far I am going to go this year.
I look forward to the Kat Project moving on in 2011. Don't for get to send me your favorite faces at www.facebook.com/katcarrier.artist Its going to be  great year one day at a time!

Brothers
This is #9 in the Kat Project 101

Having a great time with the Kat Project

I started this project on a whim. Thinking it would be a great way to make myself paint everyday. It worked. And I am enjoying it more everyday because people are getting involved. telling me what they think and now sending me pictures. I love it and hope to get more. So for today let me show you 6/101 Kim. She is also the one who gave me the suggestion that led to the Kat Project. Thanks Kim

Enjoying the Day

This is a lot of fun. I thought of this project as a way to get me producing art daily. And as we know the more you use a skill the better you get. Thats true too. But, to add fun and enjoyment to anything that you do in your life is truly a blessing. I am also finding that it is fun to get others involved. sending me pictures of the face that are special to them. Like my friend Diane's little Diva. she is #3

Does 50 mean I am old?

This week I am turning 50. Is that old? I just read an article about starting your art career when your over 50. Then I realized they were talking about me. So I look back and think were did 30 and 40 go? And really I think that I have spent more time looking back this week at what I should have done that using that time to do what I need to do to be a full time artist. Thinking to myself " Oh my gawd I must be old I am 50, my AARP card came in the mail. Now the world must know." To tell the truth I don't feel any different today than yesterday. I tell myself that I learned a lot during the 30's and 40's . And now I have more determination everyday to reach my goals, because yes I am getting older and I want to get all the ideas out of my head. (not that the voices wont keep filing it up) Yes I am 50 and I have more freedoms, less excuses and a burning desire. So, today I am going to finish up my last 4o yr old painting. Because watch out next week a fabulous fifty year old artist is coming.

Where do you start?

Have you ever gotten yourself into a place were you just don't know where to start? So many ideas so little time and you start one and move to another and forget to come back? I know I have. And with the best intentions I look back at years of not knowing were to start. Instead of just starting. I have found that for my art I need to make a place that I can go to with no distractions. So if the Phone rings and I walk to the kitchen I don't find myself doing dishes instead of doing art. My house will still be there tomorrow maybe a little messy but when I grow old I wont regret leaving dishes in the sink. I will regret not get all the ideas that fill my mind on paper for that will live on forever.
We set aside time for all the things we do in our life's that need to be done. and a few that don't. Now I am learning to put my art on the top of that list these days. I go to my studio and stay there for the time that belongs to my art, to myself. this is what I do for me. Some days it works and some it does not. But I am finding that the days it does work are starting to grow together. and that makes me feel better about the time that it doesn't.

It's a learning process that I am getting better at everyday. Next time you come back I will let you know how it's going. Till then it's time to paint.

Staring the New Year

We all go into the new year wanting to make it better than the year before. Just as I go into every new painting wanting it to be better than the last. But, we can't get stuck not moving because we have so many thoughts on our mind that we don't know were to start. I have found that if I always have unfinished work around me I can flow from one thing to the next. and sometimes I never pick up any of that work, I just get a new idea and continue. Because I am never wondering what I am going to do next.
I carry a small mole skin with me and whenever a thought comes to me I write it in words and sometimes sketch or doodle it. then I can flip through the pages and all the ideas come back to me. I just know for me, I create the best when I have nothing in my mind but the art that is there at that moment.
The biggest challenge is to start and to keep staring everyday. Really Jan 1st is no different than July 1st. Each is a new day a new start. Don't save it to start the year with a bang, Start each and every day as if this day will truly be better than the day before. We all have the same 1400 minutes in a day. What will you do with yours?

7 Drawing tips for capturing souls on paper

Published (27 Dec 09)
By Kathleen Carrier

“Captured souls” is my on-going series of drawings. Hell, It’s my passion. The techniques I use range from traditional to bits and pieces of things I have learned along the way. Let me share a few:

1. Find a pencil that fits you. I have tried them all but I keep coming back to mechanical pencils. And I am talking about the ones that you can buy at any office supply store. I like .05, .07, and .09. They’re great because you don’t have to stop and sharpen them. Now they come in self feed type so you don’t even have to click the lead. Some might say it’s a little anal retentive to cover an entire 16x20 piece of paper with the .05, but that’s what I do. You decide what fits your hand. And there are times when other methods will work too.

2. Choosing your paper is important. I like Bristol which is a thicker paper. I do take my pages out of the sketch book while working on them. Vellum smooth is the smoothest paper I have found and, Strathmore makes a great one. Your pencil just glides across the paper.

3. Next you have to draw in a ruff out-line of your subject as starting point. I think most people who draw understand this point. When I say souls I am talking about your subject. And you will know it as soon as you see it; it’s something that you need to capture on paper. If it does not catch your heart. Then don’t draw it. Find that one that is you. Your muse. Even if it changes from time to time, everyone has a muse… find it. Mine is people.

4. Developing darks in your back ground. I am not saying to fill in the back ground first. But shade in parts that are in the back ground. Then take a light pencil and lightly shade the lighter tones of your drawing. For me it would be the faces. Developing as you go, getting darker. It’s at this point that I tend to move to the left side of my drawing and work my way to the right, (I am right handed) so that I have no worries about smearing my work. Laying in heavy with my pencil at this point adding bulk to my work.

5. White to Black. If I could teach one thing to anyone. This would be it because just by chance in talking to an artist friend of mine he said this, not necessarily directed at me but, about his work as it being the most important thing. It suddenly clicked in my mind and I can say it’s the one thing that made my art go from art to pieces of art that you can feel the passion in. He said that in every drawing you must have black and white and that you must have 10 shades in between! Think about it, we don’t live in a world of grays, do we? Try it do you have a drawing sitting that just does not speak to you? Try to add some black and white see what happens.

6. Another thing that really helps me is to turn my drawing upside down and draw that way for awhile. Especially if I am just filling in spaces. I am not focusing on the drawing and I am giving my mind a rest from looking at my drawing. So that when I turn it back upright I see it in a new light and maybe see something that I might have missed.

7. This one I think most people do after the completion of a drawing. I put it away for a day or so and then bring it out one last time. I would like to say that I’m completely satisfied and make no more revisions to it, but it seems I always find something. But I have made a deal with myself. That’s the last time that I will touch it, I know myself all too well. I can look at drawings from years ago that have won awards or that have been sold because people love them and I still see one more thing that could have been done. So, I’ve decided not to second guess my art, after this one last look.

So there you have 7 quick thoughts that I use in my life, take what you like and leave the rest. If it works for you pass it on, and maybe there will be another soul captured today.