Saral Transfer Paper

Katherine from Making a Mark asked me in the comments section of my last post how do I transfer my drawings to my support. I thought why not make a post about it in more depth to the reply that I gave Katherine.

This work in progress is the third drawing that I had prepared for my artist in residence stint at Wilpena Pound a few weeks back, which I ended up not using due to running out of time. Because I wanted a detailed drawing so that I didn't have to concentrate so much with so many tourist looking over my shoulder, the Saral transfer paper is ideal. One thing I have found out though is to make sure a light hand is used when transferring the drawing onto AS Colourfix paper or the lines can be hard to cover with pastel. I found this to be the case with any method of transferring a drawing because I believe I dent the paper slightly or break down the grit with the marks that I make.

There are two other ways I transfer as well by making my own 'carbon paper'.

1. Tape drawing to a window with the drawing faced against the glass. With vine charcoal, trace all lines that I can see that is showing through from the light behind the drawing. Remove drawing from window then face the charcoal side down onto the AS Colourfix paper and proceed to redraw the drawing so that the image transfers.
   
   
2. This last one is the method I use the most but perhaps not as ideal for a lot of detail to be transfered. I have a large sheet of paper and rub pastel dust that has fallen into the gutter at the base of a previous painting onto it. This makes a nice carbon although it can be rather messy. I do like the grey tones for the transfered drawing and find them easier to cover if I am using pastels in a particular area lightly.

Getting back to the Saral transfer paper, it can be used again and again. There are five colours.

• Graphite
• White
• Blue
• Yellow
• Red

For the artist that works with a great deal of detail and strives for realism, I can truly recommend this product to them.


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technorati tags: draw, drawing, artist, art

Water Course, Wilpena Creek WIP two

Installment two of this work in progress after a long busy period in my life then to end with the worse bout of illness that I have ever had for a very long time. Anyway moving on from what is past, this pastel is now coming along nicely.

It is funny how you see things wrong when an image of ones work is put up on a monitor. That distant flat middle ground in front of the hills needs to have the values checked. Something does not 'mesh' there and I will let you know what I end up doing if I adjust it.

Yes you do see a little pool of water. I don't think I will place a lot of water in the bottom of the creek, just a hint of moisture to give some interest to the composition.

Until next time, take care!

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technorati tags: landscape, pastel landscape, pastel, artist, Australian landscape, Wilpena Pound, photorealism

Launching ImageKind

What a shock, two posts in one day ! Well I did think launching my prints with ImageKind deserved its own post . Much to my own surprise I have already sold two so you can imagine I am as happy as a pig in mud.

If you are reading this in a feed reader it would be good if you visit my blog to see what I am talking about. You will see two additional items in my column that gives you easy access to my available prints at ImageKind. If you love my latest work and wish to buy a print, you only need to click once on the top ImageKind button in the column and you then can make your choice of print size and even have it matted and framed if you wish. Now how easy is that!

You don't like the recently finished painting; well you can also choose to click on an image in the second banner at my blog and take a closer look at the details about the artwork or even choose to "buy my artwork" to see all of the prints on offer.

I am not sure if my blog will be slower in loading with these extra widgets, so please let me know if it is the case and annoys you. I can always revamp how I display some of the other items that I have further down the column.

Don't forget, Christmas is just around the corner and framed prints do make a lovely gift.


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technorati tags: prints, imagekind, landscapes, pastel, art, artist

Timeless Land, Melrose

Timeless Land, Melrose
Approx 34cm x 48cm
Pastel on burgundy Colourfix Paper
Copyright Susan Borgas
Sold

This is the second painting that I had promised to show you. It is of my recent work in residence at Wilpena Pound.

After a workout yesterday (puff puff) wrapping the framed painting safely for the post, it was sent off for a destination interstate today.

As you can see the work is a little different to what I have done in the past yet it is still all about my beloved eucalyptus trees that I do so much enjoy working with.


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technorati tags: pastel, trees, landscape, art, artist, flinders ranges

Water Course, Wilpena Creek WIP

Water Course, Wilpena Creek WIP
Approx 34cm x 48cm
Pastel on Terra Cotta Colourfix Paper
Copyright Susan Borgas

I do enjoy working from a detailed drawing with this one no exception. I guess that is the realist painter in me that seems to have me by the jugular and isn't going to let go. I will never become a photorealist artist because I don't have the desire to spend anymore time on a painting than I already do.

Anyway I don't think that I would get paid for the hours that I would have to put into photorealism work. So many viewers of my work in real life are surprised that up close to my pastels, it is in fact not like a photo, as they thought when standing back, but made up of many marks with some more realistic than others; depending on what I want them to see in focus.

Between finishing two paintings started at Wilpena Pound and cooking for shearers on the family farm, I did manage to start this work in progress (WIP) since I have returned home. Amid packing paintings for shipment, more cooking for shearers and a funeral of a dear artist friend on Monday who has been my mentor from the very beginning of my journey with art. You can see some of his work here. I also have a shopping day Tuesday in readiness for our sons wedding later this month and because of all of this the next few days will have spasmodic posts to this blog. This isn't a promise but may get the odd photo up on SnapShots during that time.


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technorati tags: pastel, landscape, artist, artist, photorealism

Brachina After Rain

Brachina After Rain
Pastel on Colourfix Paper
Copyright Susan Borgas
Sold

It feels strange to be posting again to this blog after such a long break and hope that my readers will be back with my absence forgiven. I must say that the exhibition was a great success with many sales made.

This pastel painting was one of my works in progress while working at an exhibition that I am involved with and of course the reason for my absence. This painting has to be scrutinized yet to make sure all is well with it. This photo was taken in a hurry so that I had a post for you today and any adjustments and a better photo will be placed on my website when I update it. The darks in this photo are over saturated to what they are in real life.

There is also a second pastel painting that I also managed to bring near completion and will be shown here in due course.

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technorati tags: pastel, landscape, artist, art, pastel painting

Willochra Creek, Southern Flinders ll - Revised

Even though this large work was received very well the one thing that held it back from being sold was the cool greens. The scene in the Southern Flinders were at the time very fresh with new growth; it still wasn't what the viewer really wanted. I have now revised this and made the changes to add warmth to the scene. Still a 'green season' but not so many cool colours that it originally had and have to admit that I like the revised version better myself.

Well tomorrow is the day my husband and I will be leaving for our holiday, hence no post for awhile on this blog. We are also blessed with continuous rain today and because our family farm is well and truly looking for moisture for the crops, I will not complain about trying to do the final packing when it is so wet underfoot.

Also my Arts and Stuff with Susan Borgas website is now up to date. Gosh I hope that all the links are working properly because making a site easy for you to browse does require some extra effort on my part.

If you are a regular visitor to this blog or even a new reader and like what you see it would be ideal to subscribe to my blog by email updates or RSS feed alerts so that you know when I am posting again. Don't know how? I have written a post here that will help you out.

On that note I will raise my glass to you all and hope that you are back with me once this blog is back to regular posting once more. Cheers!


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Wilpena Golden Glow

Unframed: 280mm x 410mm

Watercolour has wonderful transparency qualities with a mind of its own for the inexperienced artist.

Watercolour isn't one of my strongest mediums to work with but chuffed how this painting turned out when painting it in and around my jobs over the last few days; in fact the flow of paint helped relieve a lot of stress rather than add to it.

The countdown is well and truly on now before my husband and I leave for our holiday..... two more sleeps then we meet up with two other families with their caravans in tow. Hopefully I will be all packed in time to head down that road with our own caravan in tow. (for some overseas readers the link will explain what type of caravan I am talking about )



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technorati tags: watercolour, watercolor, artist, art, medium

August 14, 2007 edition of Arts and Stuff Carnival

Welcome to the August 14, 2007 edition of Arts and Stuff carnival.


I am so pleased with the entries I received for this carnival with more artist submitting a post. I have to admit there were plenty of music posts as well but unfortunately this blog isn't about promoting music. Nor is it about art that may offend my readers so those that do, they are wasting their time and should submit to a carnival more appropriate with the subject matter.

There will be more carnivals on this blog but I am not going to list the new date just yet. The next two months this blog will be sadly lacking in posts although once it is all back to regular posting, I will announce a new carnival date so please be patient with me on this matter.

So there you go; any artist out there reading this you will have plenty of time to put a post together and submit it to my carnival. It is VERY easy to do! carnival submission form

Art Creativity

Vishal k Bharadwaj presents Vishal vs Apartment posted at allVishal.com.

Lexi Sundell presents Creative Explosion posted at Energies of Creation, saying,

"A rollicking post about a creative explosion of pixels as the images of my acrylic floral paintings are repurposed in an obsessively enjoyable new project."

Matt presents Build your right-brain playground posted at EverydayChange.com, saying,

"Kickstart your creativity by building a "right-brain playground!""

Harriett Hilton presents artistic musings: Myspace As Artistic Expression posted at artistic musings, saying,

"An article about how the urge to create is so strong people will use unexpected tools as a new form of expression."

Lucynda Riley presents Fall Mini Pumpkin Wreath posted at A Crafty Nature.

Digital Art

Diane Clancy presents Studio Artist Demo posted at Diane Clancy's Art Blog, saying,

"This is a 22 step creation of a digital painting in Studio Artist to show you a demonstration of how to use this innovative art program. Each step show the digital image at this step so you can easily see this process."

Miscellaneous Art

Ryan Haigh presents Affordable Artwork posted at The Big Chase, saying,

"BlueFlip art is a website that features a great amount of prints from talented artists at an affordable price."

Neil Ransom presents Protests and Painted Walls posted at Kate and Neil's Official Website, saying,

"What do you get when you add politics, teens, and an endless supply of cheap spray paint? Find out in San Cristobal, Mexico."

Paintings

cest.la.vie presents Recently finished: 'Away From Me'. posted at creative evolutions, saying,

"This is a new blog, and I will be using it to post completed paintings and track my own evolution as an artist after a recent career change. For now, I would like to share my recent work: "Away From Me"."

Lexi Sundell presents Summer Awakening posted at Energies of Creation, saying,

"This painting of glowing sunflowers is celebration of summer light before fall comes to take the gardens."

Photography

mctiller presents Screencast Photoshop Tutorial: Making Black and White images out of Color images posted at MCT Images, saying,

"A screencast tutorial for making black and white images out of color images in Photoshop."

My pick for non visual art

TherapyDoc presents Holding On and Letting Go posted at Everyone Needs Therapy, saying,

"Uh oh, it's not visual art, but it is stuff and no doubt, entertaining."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
arts and stuff carnival
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

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arts and stuff carnival, blog carnival.

My daughter who has a camera exactly like mine decided it was time that I had some photos of myself while working at the easel. Picking up my camera she did exactly that and this is one of the photos that I found when I downloaded my card to the computer.







When I pulled this pastel out I decided it needed some more work done before framing it for the up and coming exhibition. I am much happier with the final result because before it was lacking the darks in the foreground.

My regular readers would have noticed that I have been spending quite a bit of time away from my blogs. This will continue leading up to when my husband and I leave for the Northern areas of Australia. It will also mean that while I am away, this blog will not be updated.

Some of you may remember from an earlier post that I wanted to learn how to put 'home movies' onto a DVD. Well I have been doing that with quite a few hiccups along the way although progress is happening. On that note I am off to start a new project and while the computer is busy converting and burning my next home movie DVD, I will be busy in my studio touching up another pastel.

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technorati tags: pastel, landscape, Susan Borgas, blogging, blog, DVD

Gallery

Click for 693kb image

The Painters of the Flinders Ranges exhibition that I am involved in will be held in this large shearing shed near Wilpena Pound in September. It is not a working shed anymore and belongs to the National Parks. It is hired out for a range of functions; the exhibition being one of them for a period of four weeks.

This photo was taken last year and as old as the shed looks it makes a very good venue to present our artworks representing the Flinders Ranges. It is really great listening to the positive remarks as visitors walk through the door. Even though the shed hasn't had sheep pass through it over a number of years, the lanolin smell from the wool still remains.... oh and the sheep poop aroma as well.

Tess arrived in the mail safely from New Zealand Tuesday just in time for Malcolm's birthday yesterday (Wednesday). Malcolm was thrilled to receive this gift with plans to frame it as soon as he has finished cutting out moldings, mats and glass for myself. Wendy if you are reading this I can't thank you enough for your effort that you have put into the drawing of Tess. What I see on your blog is what I received and can recommend your work to anyone that wants a portraiture of their pet.

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technorati tags: exhibition, photo, image, snapshot, dog, shearing shed, birthday

Copyright plus a Giggle

After a full on day in the office I am going to quickly do a post here now to share two links with you.

The first one is Copyright Explained. Check it out as it does answer a lot of questions about copyright which we need to be responsible about, especially when publishing information on the internet.

Ok the next link is for a giggle and if you have a mischievous nature you can play ticks on your family and friends. An example is as follows....

˙ʇǝuɹǝʇuı ǝɥʇ uo uoıʇɐɯɹoɟuı ƃuıɥsılqnd uǝɥʍ ʎllɐıɔǝdsǝ 'ʇnoqɐ ǝlqısuodsǝɹ ǝq oʇ pǝǝu ǝʍ ɥɔıɥʍ ʇɥƃıɹʎdoɔ ʇnoqɐ suoıʇsǝnb ɟo ʇol ɐ ɹǝʍsuɐ sǝop ʇı sɐ ʇno ʇı ʞɔǝɥɔ ˙pǝuıɐldxǝ ʇɥƃıɹʎdoɔ sı ǝuo ʇsɹıɟ ǝɥʇ

Well you could stand on your head to read it!

Here is the link so that you can do the same.... Flip

I better post this so that I put my own family out of their misery and the mystery solved with how the upside down text is done.

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Bloglines and Google Reader

Do you know what a Feed Reader is? Simply they will keep you up to date with your favourite blogs or websites without actually visiting the site. There are other readers around but two that will often come up in conversation are Bloglines and Google Reader.

Why bring a Feed Reader to your attention now? I mentioned in this post that my blog is going to suffer with updates not happening on a regular basis. Not all of us are into some of the geek side of blogging but rather than having you popping back to my blog to find no updates it is so much easier for you to be alerted that a post has been made by a Feed Reader. This way you won't be wasting time loading my blog or any other favourite blog for that matter who has not updated.

Take a look at the first image which is part of a screen print from this blog and you will see a square orange button. By clicking on this button (in my column) a page will come up with a drop down menu for you to choose a Feed Reader that you would like to use. If you haven't signed up with Bloglines or Google Reader and you would like to use one of these, you will need to register with them, which is an easy process.

If you want to add this blog to your Bloglines Reader simply click on the button that you see below the orange one.



Firefox makes it easy to add feeds to your readers as well. Click on the second image so that you get a good view of it. This is the address bar in Firefox. You will see the orange button to the right and once more this is how you can add Blogs or Websites who provide a rss or atom for your Feed Reader.

Would you rather get an email update instead? I have made that easy for you as well. You can subscribe to my blog by placing your email address in the box provided then click on the 'subscribe' button. You will see this facility in my column, which also can be seen in the first image that I have provided so that you know what you are looking for. Your privacy will be respected and you will not receive any spam mail. It is also easy to unsubscribe. If you choose to receive email updates from me make sure you verify the first email that FeedBurner sends you so that they know you have entered the correct address plus this is an extra precaution that it is you that has submitted the email address.

For those that are familiar to Feed Readers you might be interested in a script for Greasemonkey, which is a Firefox add-on

This script is Google Reader Preview Enhanced v1.07a and is the best thing I have come across for a very long time. You will need Greasemonkey installed to use this script.

What this script does it allows you to view full feeds in Google Reader. I have tested it and it does work, in fact very well indeed! I do use full feeds for my blog although there are those that do not because their posts are scraped/stolen and used elsewhere without permission. I wrote a post called Full or Should it be Short Feeds? with my thoughts bearing in mind that I do understand why blogs do use the short feeds. Anyway as you will see by this last image, even though I use full feeds I can actually see my blog in all it glory by clicking on the preview button at the bottom of the feed.

Also I will bring to your attention that the icon of a monkey at the bottom right of the image is the Greasemonkey add-on for Firefox. Another script for Greasemonkey allows me to smile at you as well with the use of emoticons!

Well I think I have given you plenty to digest in this post so until next time.......

Related Posts

• Business Card

• Full or Should it be Short Feeds?

• emoticons

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technorati tags: emoticons, bloglines, google+reader, rss feeds, atoms, greasemonkey, short feeds, blog, blogger, firefox

Business Card

A new business card was on the agenda for today with pamphlets and other administration work yet to be done for my main exhibition that is held at Wilpena Pound each year during September with a group of artist. The focus of this exhibition is promoting the Flinders Ranges and of course ourselves as artist but gee there is a lot of work involved leading up to the opening.

Why do I need to start so soon? In a months time I will be heading off with my husband and a caravan in tow to Central Australia for twenty five days along with four other people doing this same tour. After this trip there will be a week home then three weeks will be spent as Artist in Residence at Wilpena Pound.

This blog is going to suffer because of my work load as there is also farm administration work that I have to do, which means spending time in the office. SnapShots will fair much better over the next month because I do have many photos to share with you.

Somewhere in amongst this I want to free up some mini video tapes for our trip and yet to learn how to go about this as they still have our previous holiday still recorded on these tapes. Oh and tidy up a couple of paintings plus frame works that are waiting to be done. My husband and I both do my framing and because we are fussy we do spend time making sure the final product is presented the best way possible. I also have to pack for the weeks I will be away from home as well because it will be more involved this time as we are tenting as well as caravaning when our camping party heads into Central Australia.

Getting back to the business card you are seeing a front and back view. Yes there is two different email addresses with a default one for 'info' that has an auto responser when making inquiries while the other one does not have an auto response attached to it, which can be a little friendlier for those that stay in contact with me.

I laminated the cards although I printed a few off that do not have the text on the back and left these free of laminate. I will carry these in my pocket at all times during the exhibition so that I have something to write on, for example an appointment or some other information a potential client may need. The laminated cards will be left on a table along with all the goodies us artist provide to the tourist who visit our exhibition.

So there you have it; hopefully my head wills stay above water and I won't go around the twist in the mean time trying to get all my jobs done.

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technorati tags: art, artist, art exhibition, business cards

Stone Jug - Sketch

I have always referred to this item as a stone jug. Maybe it is pottery but one thing I do know it is a great shape to draw and has been part of my kitchen for at least thirty years.

There are some highly skilled artist out there that do incredible work using charcoal, carbon and graphite, not necessarily all together.

J. D. Hillberry is one of these artist that I honestly thought the drawings were computer generated using software like Photohop until I started reading the tutorial properly. There is also a second tutorial by J. D. Hillberry here as well.

Do you know of any good online tutorials using charcoal, carbon or graphite? If you care to share them please leave the links with a comment in this post.


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technorati tags: sketch, sketching, draw, drawing, art, artist, graphite

Tess and Secret Art Business

Tess - 8x10 inches on drafting film in coloured pencil -

Copyright - Wendy Prior
With permission by Wendy Prior to publish on this blog

In my last post I mention that Wendy Prior is using a reference photo from my SnapShots blog and drawing a portraiture of Tess with coloured pencils on drafting film. Wendy has given me permission to post the completed drawing here and hasn't she done a magnificent job! Pop over to Wendy's post called "Tess, completed" and click on her thumbnail to see a larger image of Tess and while you are there, leave a comment as I am sure Wendy will appreciate it.

My husband Malcolm was quite taken with Tess's eyes when I showed him the first stage of Wendy's drawing asking if there was any further updates as each day passed. With this the idea came to me to buy this portraiture of Tess from Wendy if she hadn't sold it as a gift for Malcolm's birthday later this month. Thankfully I was in time and Tess will be posted tomorrow to my sons address so that Malcolm doesn't find out. Just as well my husband doesn't surf the internet nor use a computer or he will find the emails Wendy and I have been sending each other as well as Tess plastered all over the internet.


Yes Tess is plastered over the internet! Take a look at these two threads at WetCanvas and you will see what others have to say about this coloured pencil drawing.

• Animal and Wildlife thread

• Colored Pencil thread

Gee I nearly was caught out as Malcolm just brought Tess in to see herself on the internet. Bit of quick thinking to bring up a image without Malcolm reading any text going on here.....phew and he was so busy trying to keep Tess calm that he didn't get a chance to see Wendy's post before I clicked on the thumbnail of Tess so that the large image came up. Did Tess see herself? No she was so busy trying to get my attention that the laptop was ignored.

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technorati tags: dog, coloured pencils, colored pencils, art, artist, draw, drawing, wetcanvas