Sketch of CJK

Sketch of CJK, student __________NFS
Continuing with figure drawing demos for the students I teach....we will do Chicken Clinic's with oils soon!
I have had a "distracted" week, and am getting ready to go to Kansas again tomorrow....
Whwe!...I mean, WHEW!
Lost my operating system last week and learned that I am very dependant on my Outlook calendar! I need to know how to sync it with .....what?....an iphone or something???? at least my laptop.
This week I missed appointments, and art deadlines, broke my cell phone and lost phone numbers (grrrr) and ALMOST missed a family friend's wedding, (son bailed me out with the gift and details!), and have fallen way behind ....but worst of all, we learned that

my sister's husband is very sick, and we have a big battle ahead....SOON.

To those who do, PLEASE PRAY, if you will....

Strider_dog, sketch

Strider___a sketch for client approval

Strider's family gave me some photos so that I can paint him! Trouble is, there is no photo exactly like the pose they want, so I am combining elements from different photos and hoping that it looks like him! I like this kind of work, because it is more interesting than just copying a photo.

HERE IS SOME NEW NEWS!

-My entry in the American Plains Artists National Juried Show in Lincoln, Nebraska was awarded THIRD PLACE...

-There are still spots in my one day workshop in Rockport, TX, Thus. Oct. 21...a FULL day of "Studies and Sketching"

-My whole Colorado Sketchbook is being sold on ebay...Oct 23 is the end of the sale...GO SEE IT!

-For you football fans: the Round Rock Dragons play Leander Lions in Texas 5-A High School ball Friday night...please pray for the Dragon QB...my favorite player :)

Aspen Stems__sketch, trees, lesson,

Aspen Stems__#22 from my Colorado sketchbook__auction REAL soon

The thing about sketching is VALUES. It's a "art term" meaning "lights and darks". This sketch has light values, whereas yesterday's sketch has middle to dark values. Another way to describe this is that it is "high key"...the values being high key mean that the painting or drawing has a lot of light...low key means it has a lot of darks...Even though this one is high key, the sketch has enough darks to hold it together.
I learned something on this one...not sure I can describe it, but these trees were backlit, and I wanted to create that impression...One way would have been to make the background very dark so the leaves would appear lighter...but keeping it high key almost makes me squint at the brightness of all the white paper...so I left it this way, and I think it looks backlit, anyway!


Sketching workshop, Rockport, TX, coming this fall. Let me know if you are interested!vvaughan8@yahoo.com

What Rain Looks Like__sketch, rain, houses

What Rain Looks Like__sketch #21 in my Colorado sketchbook to be auctioned REAL soon

See the hail sketch I posted yesterday. As that bad weather moved on, it left us a classic western summer sky. Weather geeks like me can tell when it is raining "over there" just by looking at the clouds. They become rather "smeared" at the bottom, and the features blend together...it is hard to explain, but when you see it, you know it....sometimes it is EASY to see the line of rain if the light is behind it, silhouetting, the sheets of rain against a light sky...like this sketch above .

We get skies like this each during hurricane season on the gulf coast...I will be there in Rockport, TX this fall teaching a couple of workshops...we WILL sketch and paint! For info: vvaughan8@yahoo.com

Sketch #7- Down the Canyon-mountains,

Down the Canyon- from my Colorado Sketchbook to be auctioned soon!
The past few days in Colorado saw rain. Each day at about 2 pm, the rain would come down the canyon from this north direction. In southern Colroado, the summer is short at 9,000 feet. Snow stays till April or May ( we have had snow there in July!). June is WINDY, July is dry, and late July begins the "monsoon season", when it rains almost every day...here we are!

Sketch #4__Play Day

Play Day at Rainbow Trout Ranch___from my Colorado sketchbook...sketch #4

Click to see some detail on this one! To get to our place you have to drive past the Rainbow Trout Ranch. ALWAYS a great place to sketch and photograph, I stop there a lot. This day there were a bunch of new riders trying their hand at barrel racing and poles. My friend Pat wondered who the "dudes" were and who were the greenhorns...I pointed out that the greenhorns bob around in the saddle more, and tend to ride with elbows flapping....my demonstration of it was better than the written description ;)

I am halfway through my 30 page Colorado sketchbook. Pretty soon I will post them two at a time, because I am getting too many....I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: Sketching is something every artist NEEDS to do. We have gotten away from it as cameras are SO easy and convenient these days. Shooting a picture is fine, but will not help the artist improve. (since I hear from a lot of artists, I want to encourage y'all to keep doodling and sketching OFTEN!)...

We are enjoying cool rains every afternoon...a nice break from the Texas heat at home....

My Colorado Sketchbook__p1

Blanca Peak___from my sketchbook______ask
From the bayou to the mountains! Our usual family vacation is in Colorado at about this time every year. Here is a sketch from my sketchbook of my favorite "fourteener" in southern Colorado. Blanca Peak can be seen for miles, ANYWHERE you happen to be in the San Luis Valley.
Not all of us are here, but the kids with their work and summer obligations will come and go at different times! This was our year to open the cabin, and we found that the garage/shop area was home to some packrats this winter, so we have been cleaning up a lot. It's been funny because these creatures carried things all over the place! What does a pack-rat need with 80 small pieces of pvc, 13 packages of hinges, and old paperback novels? They carried these things from their usual places into the far reaches. But they must have eaten well, by the looks of their droppings!

Desi, Jazz and Toby

Desi, Jazz and Toby____for Monica! My great Cowgirl Up! hostess!

OK, This was a quickie for Monica, the wonderful museum volunteer who put us
up in her lovely guest quarters at Cowgirl Up!. She was showing me the
photos one night and didn't notice that I sneaked them into my shirt so that
I could sketch them when she was not around...It took me a few days of
catching a minute here and a minute there, but I finally finished this
little sketch of her "family".

I like staying with Monica, because EVERYONE in town knows her and loves
her....then they think I must be nice if I am staying with her! hahaha

Don't forget I am teaching a workshop in Fredericksburg on June 14 - 17 and
we will focus on DRAWING. email me if you need more info vvaughan8@yahoo.com


And get out to Marble Falls any Thursday thru Sunday till April 18 to see
selections from my Last Year on the Farm
paintings. If you have a group that wants a special personal viewing with
me, e-mail me and we can work it out!

Lab Sketch

"Lab Sketch___from my sketchbook

It was a baseball weekend, though my guy sat the bench with an injury. While I sat at the gate, taking tickets all day Saturday, I had a moment, some new pencils and an old sketchbook handy. This one is a little bit over-done, but I am posting it, anyway!...As I am working on large paintings for Cowgirl Up!, a big western show in Arizona, I think I will showcase some recent drawings for the next few days. The large paintings are taking me longer to complete, and I am not too fond of the "stages", but prefer to show them finished. So I will post the drawings till I have a finished painting to post! No doubt, there will be a few ball players to sketch, along the way this week!

Parked

Parked___from my sketchbook

I was waiting for my friend to get there so we could work out, and outside the gym was this guy standing with his hand on the "no parking" sign...It was a quick sketch, because I didn't want him to notice me drawing him....I am glad I did this one, today, because I didn't get to sketch what I had planned to sketch, today: another ball game. But it was SO COLD, I stayed bundled up the whole time...Round Rock is supposed to get a few inches of snow tonight! What an unusual winter we are having in Texas!

Lion Lounge

Lion Lounge_11x14 pencil on acid free paper__$250 (click to enlarge)
I hope some of the kids and teachers who saw the start of this drawing will send me a note of "howdy" if they see this one finished. I did a demo for the Federal Junior Duck Stamp group in South Carolina on Tuesday. The talk I gave while drawing this was all about the importance of sketching. I spoke about "seeing" the easiest elements: line, shapes, values, and built the drawing with values rather than "outlines"....I will be teaching this thoroughly at my next big workshop in June (5-7) here in Texas. Ask for info! vvaughan8@yahoo.com
This morning I was leaving the house to go pick up my new tennis racquet at Golfsmith in Austin, TX. As I was leaving, my daughter called about a big fire across the highway from Golfsmith. The police had just passed her on the road and she snapped a few pics with her cell phone. She was passing it as we spoke, and said it looked like the building exploded. Just then my son called and his boss had been nearby at the same location and heard that an airplane crashed into the building!...It is all over the national news. I decided to save the errand for later. A few hours ago I went to get the racquet and snapped my own picture of the building you are seeing on the news today. The real damage is around to the left...This was an awful day in Austin, but many are thankful that the evil intended did not pan out to the extent that the pilot intended when he flew the plane into the building...

Dean

Dean___from my sketchbook
I have been in South Carolina at the Wildlife show and busier than I thought I would be! I hope you enjoyed the break from hearing from me every day...As I have done the past 4 years, after the show I joined artists Joe Garcia, Adele Earnshaw and Melanie Fain at ACE Basin Wildlife Area south of Charleston. The place is wild and remote in the heart of the low country and at the edge of where sea meets the low country. It abounds with ALL KINDS of waterfowl, alligators, bald eagles, and armadillos, otters, and more. We spend our time there unwinding from the four-day show, painting, and photographing this amazing area. But the main thing we get to do is teach a full day workshop to South Carolina's Junior Duck Stamp winners. We had a group of over 20 people this year (including a few teachers and parents), who watched demos, and listened to us share our thoughts on art. A great group this year, they asked many questions and seemed VERY interested in what we had to say...Dean (above) is the Game Warden and property manager at this wildlife area. He is a biologist and a REAL EXPERT in ALL THINGS "wildlife" in this part of South Carolina. When Joe and Adele went to visit Adele's new gallery in Charleston one day, I tagged along with Dean on a drive all around the islands and wetlands. Poor guy had his brain picked for almost 3 hours, answering my questions about everything from anhinga birds to hurricanes to the ancient rice field trunks on the property....while he visited with us I sketched him on the couch...

Couple of Chicks__chicken sketches

Boggy Creek Chicks____from my sketchbook
I went out with our painting group, Plein Air Austin, this morning. We met at Boggy Creek Farm, a small organic farm in the middle of east Austin, not too far from where I grew up. The most amazing thing this morning was when I first stepped out of the car and walked up their path, the smell of tilled earth met me and BOY did it feel like home! I had a whole lifetime of memories in that one little breath, and realized that not only did it smell like my childhood, but also those 30 years on the farm. You see, the farm I just moved away from was within 6 or 7 miles of my childhood home, and it's all in the same 10 mile radius of Boggy Creek. Huge century old pecan trees, black dirt, crisp air...ahhhh!!! I was a bit overwhelmed by it all and ended up chatting with the artists and doing a few sketches of the local chicks. I still have my clucking skill and kepth the poultry interested in me while I sketched them.
Speaking of agrarian things, I was recently interviewed by CattleNetwork.com. It's a nice take on my farm story. click link way below to read it!
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Jolley--Five-Minutes-With-V--Vaughan--Cow-Country-Artist/2009-10-23/article_FeedByproducts.aspx?oid=928643