Renaissance Man, or, A Faire to Remember

My kilt and wings

A couple of weeks ago, the family and I went to the  Texas Renaissance Festival and had a great time. My wife and I dressed up a bit, the kids went all out, and I got to spend the day experiencing fresh air like a true Scottsman.

Selfie with the fam!

This past weekend, while the wife and kids were in Oklahoma visiting the inlaws, I decided to take another trip up to the fair for the Yule celebration. Because I was on the bike (Azula) and also because it was 41F that morning, I did NOT wear my skirt. I bundled up nicely and even so, I was cold enough that I’m sure I could have been a glass cutter.

Me and Azula at the fair motorcycle parking lot

I fought procrastination the whole morning. I bought the ticket online the night before and all morning long I regretted it. I kept trying to convince myself that I shouldn’t have spent the money, that it was a long ways to go in the cold on a motorcycle, that it wouldn’t be as much fun by myself.

I couldn’t have been more wrong about any of it. I had a lovely time walking around, looking at the sites, meeting and talking with so many beautiful people, and eating some really good foods. It was a wonderful opportunity to fuel my creativity tank.

Link to all the photos I took at the fair that turned out good.
I created a page to upload all of the pics I took that turned out good

The link above has all the photos that turned out good, and the link below will take you the youtube for the video: https://youtu.be/PFl-V3zS_j0

Painting Class: Fire Hydrant Finale

Tonight in Painting Class I finished up the fire hydrant example I have been working on. We talked about pushing the colors, using quality materials, atmospheric perspective and the whole lot. Immediately after I turned the cameras off, I decided to ink it. I'm really glad I did.

The class is online and free at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19435761
The password for the class can be found in the current newsletter here: https://www.artisticbiker.com/newsletter

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In album The Classroom (1 photo)

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Daily Drawings

A couple of years ago I committed myself to the first 200 drawing challenges from the Everyday Matters group on yahoo. I made it to 152 before I let myself get distracted. The purpose of the group is to point out that it's the every day matters that make every day matter. The mundane is what makes life special. Today, I decided to pick it back up and look for other sources online as well so that I will be challenged to draw every day. It is how I want to start and end every day.

There are about thirty that I haven't posted, but you can find the bulk of the previous drawings here: https://www.artisticbiker.com/the-gallery/every-day-matters/

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In album Daily Drawings (1 photo)

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5 Minute Nudes

NUDITY ALERT
Duh! :)
I have this continuing project that I like to do called 100 Days. The premise is that if you want to get better at anything, do it every day for 100 days. It doesn't matter what you want to get better at: drawing, painting, public speaking, dancing, making love, WHATEVER. Do it for 100 days in a row, even if only for a few minutes, and you can't help but improve. After the 100 days, take a break, try something else, or just do it again, especially if you are trying to improve your love making…

On Twitter, I'm tagging it #100DaysArt because 100days was already being used by another group and the nude drawings were freaking some people out. Speaking of nudes, back to the point. This time around I'm drawing 5 minute nudes. I find that I am not satisfied with my ability to capture the figure quickly, especially a dynamic figure. So I am limiting my time to capture as much detail as possible. The nudes are "figure models" from around the internet. I have found a few good sources such as posespace.com where the nudes are purely artistic and in common everyday poses. I have also come across many other sites that I won't list here, but let me just say "artistic nudes" searches bring up some interesting poses and closeups.

Anyway, just to get the G+ album caught up, I'm posting the first 37. I'll make this a weekly posting so you can track the progress with me. There will be rough spots along the way, but in the end I believe it will make me a better artist.

*Please note the dates written on each one as Google didn't load them in order. If anyone knows how to sort photos in an album, I would LOVE to learn.

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In album 5 minute nudes (37 photos)

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Drawing Class 8: 2b or not 2B

Tonight in Drawing Class I gave a brief explanation of what all those numbers mean on the ends of your pencils, why you would choose one over the other and why it matters. I touched briefly on the concept of surface "tooth" and grain.

To illustrate the point, I used one of Boy2's toy cars with different pencils clipped to it to draw lines across a page. This demonstrates how the darkness of the pencil varies while the working pressure remains relatively constant, thus preserving "tooth".

The class is free and online at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19418035
The password to get into the class is in the newsletter here: https://www.artisticbiker.com/newsletter

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