Equus2 Studios

Mystery drawing revealed!

2012-01-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

So, I got some stuff done. And we're playing a guessing game of what it could be over on Facebook. :) Someone has come up with a tail...and I'll confirm that. Other than that...that's what people have come up with. I'm still staying mum on what it is.

I'm really digging how it is turning out. I thought this was going to be tougher or slower than the hydrangea drawing was...and I am pleasantly proven wrong. I think this one will be done faster than the hydrangeas because it's not totally dense drawing work and because I'm not worrying about how colors will work and what pencils have to be used. Graphite pencils are like wearing an old sweater in the studio. I pick them up and the magic just happens.

On the hydrangea drawing front, I have prints now available! They are on both eBay and Etsy and are reasonably priced which is nice. I'm so happy with the quality of the print and they are the same size as the original drawing. I'll be doing a 750 limited edition print series of these guys.

Hydrangea Prints on Etsy

Hydrangea Prints on Ebay

I have a frame and matting on order for the original which I believe will look great. Once I get the original in it's new frame, I'll have that available for sale and if I happen to hang on to it for a while, I'll get this into some juried art shows too this season. :)

I might be a little slow on posting drawing updates because I'll be really busy soon...with stuff not art related. We're getting a new puppy who is a cousin to my current dog, Lars (who is the puppy drawing in progress I have been working on. He's 4 now.) He'll be here Saturday! So, I may be spending free time with wrangling puppies than with my pencils. Hopefully, I'll get some studio time when both of my monsters are sleeping. :)

Introducing Ocean!!!!

(photo thanks to Pauline Karalia, Lars' and Ocean's breeder)

Moving along...

2012-01-09T06:05:00.000-08:00

Well now that the hydrangeas are done...back to my usual theme of horses and dogs. I dug out Lars' portrait and worked on it a bit over last week. It was a light work week so I just got myself refamiliarized with it.

I'm excited to start on my next project which will be canine. Like I said before, I want to balance out the ratio of equine to canine art. After Lars and my new project, I'll go back to horses. Then I'll probably alternate between canine and equine art. I can see myself getting hung up on canine art alone, especially since I'm no longer into horses myself. But, I'll be making sure I keep things balanced. ;)

I have a game plan to work on two pieces at once and keep the productivity from getting stalled. The Lars portrait is destined for my walls even though I'm fully planning to create prints and cards from his image. My plan is to work on him over the weekends when I get time. I honestly don't look at drawing as work...it's escaping for me. ;) I could draw everyday and it would totally work in my life. What I'll be working on during the week will be the projects for shows and for sale. At some point, Lars may become the week work...and most likely when I hit the home stretch for that drawing. But, I think this will keep my drawings moving forward. Recently, someone had asked me if I work on two projects at the same time. I usually don't (as we all saw with the hydrangeas) because it would take me forever to complete both. Where it may take me 2 - 3 months to finish one....it would take me 6 - 7 months to finish two at the same time. This is going to be an experiment and we'll see how this new outlook on how I work does.

We have a title for the hydrangea peice!!

2012-01-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

I jumped the gun yesterday with my blog post and I should have just waited until last night. We have a winner from my Facebook Page "Name that drawing!" contest for the hydrangeas.

Congratulations to Debra Totten who came up with the name "Ocean of Petals" and that was the top voted name with 6 votes. Deb will be getting a free pack of note cards featuring the drawing she helped name. :)

I want to thank all of my fans for suggesting great names and then for voting on the name they liked best. That was a lot of fun and we'll do that for all of my artwork from now on.

Got Hydrangea Cards??

2012-01-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I do! I got some of them printed up last night and I was really thrilled with the color saturation on them. I've got them up on Etsy and the Ebay listing will be coming soon too.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/89736462/note-cards-flower-blue-hydrangea-floral

I'll have the drawing available as a framed original and a signed and numbered limited edition print series soon. :)

Packing up the colored pencils for a while....

2012-01-03T07:41:00.000-08:00

Because the hydrangea drawing is completed!!! This is the first drawing I have completed since... 2003. 0.0

We're still waiting on a name and voting will wrap up in a day or so. I'm dying to get this framed. I'm also dying to make cards and prints from this. I might see if I can make prints myself. But if not, I'll trot on down to my print guy and go from there. :)

Hope you all enjoyed watching this progress. It was a lot of fun to draw! :)

Like I mentioned on my Facebook page - Now back to our regular programming of equine and canine fine art. :)

Help me name the hydrangea work!

2011-12-20T10:29:00.000-08:00

Since I've getting so close to the end of the hydrangea drawing...I've got to start thinking of a name. I admittedly suck at naming my work. I'm having a little contest on my facebook page to help me name this piece. Come on over and become a fan of my page. You'll see the link to my page over there on the right. Make your suggestion on what you think would be a great name and I'll add it to the poll for the fans to vote on. The winner will get a free 6 pack of blank note cards featuring this drawing.

Don't be shy and give me your best ideas! :)

Rounding the Far Turn

2011-12-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

I've actually gotten a lot done on this since you guys have last heard from me. I've even gotten more progress done since I took this photo yesterday morning. That corner down in the bottom right is about 2.5" by 2.5" in size. I know it really isn't that much...but when you work in the detail I do, it can feel like a 6 x 6' rug. :) I do see the light at the end of the tunnel for real now. And, that is more exciting than I can say. It's been an obscenely long time since I did a piece from start to finish. It almost feels like a personal growth journey for me now. The fact I did something and really stuck it through without putting it away for months (and yes, years) is a big deal for me. I think the days of monster sized drawings may be few and far between in my art career. First, I don't want to have originals that are cost prohibitive for my collectors because of the epic period of time it takes me to complete them. Second, they will take me an epic amount of time to finish them. So, anyway...this is still on the projected mark of being finished by the end of the year. :)

Other things on Equus2 news is I overhauled my eBay stuff. I have an official eBay store now that will have full inventory. I got really tired of trying to relist stuff and have things come and go. I felt like it looked as if I didn't have anything in stock. I also didn't want someone to miss an opportunity to make some of my art theirs when an auction closed and some time passed before I put it back up for sale. So, without further adieu:

http://stores.ebay.com/equus2studios

Hopefully this will make shopping at Equus2 a little bit easier for my fans. :)

In the back stretch!

2011-11-30T09:47:00.001-08:00

I'm more than half way at this point. This is exciting because there's an online colored pencil juried show through Primsacolor I would love to get this in. The deadline is the end of the year and I'm certain I'll make it. I've only been working on this about an hour or 2 on weekday mornings and I think I'll up that so I can get it done. I think I'll miss this piece when I finish it, it's been a lot of fun to work on.

I think for framing, I'll go black on black like I did with 'Viola'. There's a lot of dark in this little piece and I bet the black will make that contrast pop nicely.

I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to work on after the Hydrangea piece is done. I'm actually trying to be strategic about my next work. Lars' baby portrait will be worked on off and on until it's done. Even though I plan to make it into cards and limited edition prints...he's really for me and my wall. I would love to enter him in juried art shows. But.....almost all of the shows I've been looking at, the entered work has to be for sale. That ain't happenin' with the Lars drawing. So, he's going to be priority 2 for the time being or I get enough stuff in my "inventory" that I can work on him guilt free. I also have the rottie drawing that's not completed in my portfolio. He's going to be on hold too because I'll then have a glut of rottweiler drawings. I think I need to diversify the breeds I'm doing so I can be more of an "every dog owner's" artist. I also want to balance out the canine art with the equine art. I have 2 dog portraits for the 8 horse drawings I currently have. So, after the Hydrangea is done...I have something in mind. Something that I'm pretty stoked about. I haven't decided if it will be in color or black and white yet...I may even venture into "mixed media" territory of both graphite and colored pencil on the same piece. I'll figure that out when I get there. And yes....I'm going to keep it a secret until I start work on it. :)~

2011-11-16T23:10:00.001-08:00

Admittedly, I am not a good blogger because I let way too much time pass in between posts. That's probably not the best way to build a following. I have a couple of things I will post when I'm on my laptop instead of my phone. And also when it's not 2 am.

I think the less frequent posting works with my style and speed which I create. If I posted every time I drew something...it would be like watching paint dry. So, I bet the amount of time I'm taking is okay.

I'm getting close to the less difficult half where the drawing mellows out into the blues.

Okay...now time for some sleep!!

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Progress 10/31/11

2011-10-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

Well, after getting a little over an inch of snow over the weekend...working on summer blooms has therapeutic effects for the artist.

I am getting close to the half way point. Hooray! I'm learning something as I work on this...the less I think about the actual drawing process, the better things flow. I know that doesn't make any sense, but that's how my brain works. I can't explain it...I just let my mind do what it needs to do and the art becomes easy and it just happens. A lot of people find it weird that I listen to audiobooks when I'm working. I find that the "thinking too much" side of my brain latches on to the book...and the art side of my brain takes over and works uninterrupted. Before I could download audio books easily to my iphone/ipod...I would listen to LOUD music with earphones. It's amazing I can still hear. LOL But that would drown out the "thinking too much" side of my mind and it worked well. At least now, with audio books, I can multi-task! Make great art and get caught up on my reading as well! :)

The color streak continues

2011-10-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

I had intended to head back to the Lars portrait after last week's colored vacation. But I made such progress (well, at least progress for me) I decided to go a little while longer on it. With the colored pencils I can make more of a statement it seems with less detail than the graphite pencils require. So, I'll carry on again this week of my hydrangea odyssey...and I just might carry on until it's done because it's so small. (4 x 6".)

So, without further ado:

Oh, some people on wetcanvas have asked about the indentation they see...and I'm assuming they're talking about the sketched outline I made. That was purely unintentional and was made with a sharp, hard pencil. Won't do that again...it's making it hard to lay down color in the micro-canyons from the pencil. It's a royal pain in the butt. I'll use a softer pencil next time.

Once I get this piece done, I'll be offering it up as prints and cards. I would like to enter this in some local juried art shows under "art of Rhode Island" and stuff like that. It's been ages since I've had a "recent" work and it will be fun to try that scene again. Once I see if this little gem makes it way into the shows, I'll offer the original up for sale too...framed and matted.

OH! I have to say I'm sorry about the lag on me noticing comments to my posts!! I'm not used to people interacting on here! :) I'll make sure I check in here other than making posts to respond and chat with my readers!

In your face blue hydrangea

2011-10-19T08:40:00.000-07:00

I'm making this hydrangea drawing week! I have been making some decent headway despite having a head cold. Stuffy sinuses aren't fun when you're bent over something. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do. I do see that colored pencils tend to develop faster than graphite...and I'm not 100% certain as to why that is. I would like to have half of my work become colored pencil work and half graphite. I think the more I work in color...the more comfortable I'll get. I'm definitely becoming more familiar with how these pencils work, lay down color, and feel.

I have to apologize for how dark the pic is...it's seriously gloomy and rainy outside. My natural lighting isn't as great as it usually is.

Getting closer to that eye...

2011-10-11T08:27:00.001-07:00

I'm getting near the spot I consider the turning point of Lars' portrait - his other eye. It looks like once I complete that area, the bulk of the intense detail work will be almost done.

When I work on his or other drawings I've done with a lot of detail work in one sitting sometimes the detail becomes my focal point. It's almost like pointillism and a Seurat painting. When I hit that point, I have to put the drawing away and sometimes for a day or two. It's sort of like I have to reset my brain. When I look at it again after a day or so, I see Lars again and not a bunch of weird shapes and shades. My head works in a weird way when it comes to drawing...but it works obviously.

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Now you can get more than just prints....

2011-10-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

with my art on it. I just opened up a Zazzle store where you will eventually be able to get t-shirts, mouse pads, iPhone/iPad covers and much more with my art on it. I just added a widget over there on the side so you can easily access my store from here. I hope you get a chance to check it out and see what neat things you can get with my art on it. I'm really excited about the possibilities of Zazzle. I might have to buy some shirts with my own images on them. :)

Let's see what's on the drawing table right now - Lars' portrait is coming along nicely:

And I have been chipping away on the little hydrangea drawing I've been working on:

I can't wait to get this on some Zazzle merchandise!! I bet on a black shirt, that will look wonderful!

More Lars progress

2011-09-27T22:08:00.001-07:00

Hopefully, I'll get to his opposite eye this week sometime. This is moving along at a decent clip actually.

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Technicolor!!!

2011-09-21T22:23:00.001-07:00

Hydrangeas for something completely different. I'm slowly remembering the feel of colored pencils. They play totally different than graphite both with how you lay down color and how you take it off with an eraser (that's a very important tool in my tool box with my drawing technique.)

This is a small piece. The paper itself is about 5.5 x 8.5" and the image will be about 4 x 6".

That's new for me too...usually I go big.

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The forehead appears...

2011-09-14T04:34:00.001-07:00

The more I work on it the easier it gets to jump right in. When I just recently started work back on Lars' portrait, it would take me an hour to just to get my groove to think about making a dent in it. Now I can tap in and make progress almost immediately.

When I walked away from the art in the late 2000's and then recently came back, that was my fear. I was afraid now I was older, the flow wouldn't be there anymore. I felt it some when I started this...but I wasn't as consistent with working on it as I have been now. But this time, I feel more comfortable in my artistic skin.

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Gonna go see the print guy on Monday!

2011-09-07T18:22:00.000-07:00

So, Monday, I am going to go and hook up with my awesome print guy in Wakefield. I'm going to bring him a little something different to create a new limited edition print series and note card series. Here's the "little something different" -

It's a little something different because a) it's in color and b) it doesn't have fur. :) I'm excited about this print because I love the colors. I do enjoy working with colored pencils and it's something I don't do anywhere often enough. I do find them a little bit more difficult to use because of they're waxy and hard to erase if you blow it.

As for the second piece, I was looking through some old files for the art stuff, and apparently I did have Beau the Print Guy take a capture of it way back when. I'll check with him and see if he still has it in his files because I don't have it (or my Sammie print) on the CD of images he gave me.

Here she is, my little Desert Princess! Both of these series I'll make 500 signed and numbered prints and when they are available, I'll give a shout out on here, Facebook, and Twitter. :)

Puppy portrait 9/4/11

2011-09-04T22:30:00.001-07:00

I was able to carve out dome decent time this week for drawing. As I draw, little tips and tricks are starting to come back to me which make things easier and ultimately faster. Here's where I am as of tonight.

I have all of my prints up on Etsy now. Most of the prints are up on eBay and the same goes for my note card series on both Etsy and eBay. I'm also toying with the idea of taking the cards and making an "Arabian collection" and "Dressage collection of the individual cards I'm offering. I want to do that in a couple of weeks. I am encouraged as I'm going to have my first art sale in years on eBay and I have someone watching a print. I hope this is the start of an exciting journey. I am so happy over social media and things like blogs to let people know about me and my art that weren't around 8 or 9 years ago when tried doing more with my art.

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Equus2 is back on eBay!

2011-08-24T21:15:00.000-07:00

Who is the man behind the portrait??

2011-08-22T13:07:00.001-07:00

If you guys are wondering who that little puppy in the portrait grew up to be....

This is who! (photo by Leslie Mattuchio)

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What's on the drawing table tonight...

2011-08-21T19:49:00.001-07:00

After much too much time, I finding my way back to art. I just realized I had this unfinished portrait of Lars stashed away in a very safe place. So safe, I forgot where it was!

Slowly but surely, little by little is added.

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Lars portrait update!

2009-11-13T13:15:00.000-08:00

I think I have come up with a name for Lars' baby portrait - "Futurity." I like that...a lot, especially with the promise he is showing as a working dog. One friend in obedience says he will be my OTCH dog and another in agility says when we get our act together, Lars will be brilliant. No pressure there on my end. LOL

I have been looking through my stash of prints and I have been adding them somewhat daily to Etsy. I didn't realize I had so many kicking around. I have also decided to purge my portfolio of older things that have never seen the light outside of my portfolio and they will go on Etsy as well. I have a drawing of an Arabian filly I think I will take to the giclee guy for prints too. Then I'll list both the prints and the original on there.

But anyway! Here's where "Futurity" is now...and I took these with my phone, so the quality it a little "meh" when you blow them up. I would recommend to leave them at the size on the blog.

He's got his "ear fluffies" now that totally defined Lars as a baby. :) I'm a little bit further along that this now...but not much. I'll take some more photos soon!

What's Cris working on now...

2009-10-26T19:47:00.001-07:00

Here's what's been occupying my artist's alter ego - baby Lars as his breeder Pauline captured him at 5 weeks. Puppies don't get much cuter than that! I know...I started with his nose and I don't sketch things out. I'm kind of weird like that. My brother once told me I draw like an HP Printer.

Then I move outwards and viola! He has an eye. I start all of my drawings differently. Sam's portrait, I started with his ear and then worked down. I don't know why I started with the nose...I was rusty.

This is the most recent photo I have on my computer. It is farther along than this now and I have to get those photos off of my camera. Now that I have the ear done and I won't risk smudging things with my right hand, I'll move up and to the right. It takes me forever to make a drawing, but this one is moving sort of fast.

I'm off to start making some listings on etsy.com. When I was selling prints 5 years ago, I was all about eBay. From the sounds of it, Etsy is where it's at for selling art and all things handcrafted. I'm going to check it out and see if I can drum up some business!

So I took a break....for about 5 years...

2009-10-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I did art and I did it only for myself and friends. Anything I drew either ended up on my walls, on the walls of my friends and family, or in my black leather portfolio. It was nothing more than just a hobby and I was cool with that.

About 5 or 6 years ago I was at a crossroads in my life. I had started a little business called The Garden Consultant which is now my day job of landscape designer in 2000. But at the time my husband was active duty Coast Guard and there was this risk that we would move....far away from New England. So, I was trying to play it smart and formulate "Plan B" in case that happened and I would have to abandon the landscape design. Plan B was maybe I could be an artist and that would be something could move well. I attempted to do both until back surgery ended my husband's career in the Coast Guard.

The art waffled along as the landscape design career started to mushroom with the economic boom of real estate and the mid 2000's. Soon I didn't have time to spend more time drawing and drafting stuff...I wanted to be outside with my dog, Sam, or out gardening at my new house. But I think there was something else that pushed me away from drawing. I had taken on a couple of commissioned pieces for portraits of a couple of different dogs and then a horse. I learned that art for me is something I want to create on my own. I hated the idea of I had to draw something for someone....something that I had absolutely no personal connection to. Something that didn't tug at my creativity of "I must draw that." The first commission, I did know the pooches so that was doable for me. The other dog, I didn't and I just barely finished it for the deadline. I never started the horse one.

So, here we are....five years later. I hadn't picked up a pencil for art since 2004...I have a half finished drawing in my portfolio. I haven't touched it in 5 years. I just didn't feel the need to draw and I never delved into way that was. I do think commissions killed that desire in me for this long. Sam (the dog in my profile drawing) passed away this summer at the age of almost 11 after being sick for a long time. A couple of days after he died, all of a sudden the idea that I might draw again hit me. I don't know what or where it came from...maybe Sam telling me to get my drawing butt in gear...maybe it was the stress that had lifted. I had stuck a photo of my current Rottweiler, Lars, on my file cabinet when he was about 5 weeks old. I had always thought that some day I may draw him but the desire was never strong enough - until this fall.

I had picked up the pencils and a piece of my bristol paper and wondered was my gift still there and could I tap into it again. Much to my relief, it was and I have been chipping away at Lars' little fuzzy face. As I have gotten older (or maybe being an independant military wife) I have gotten more fearless about stuff and figured what the hell about starting up sharing my art beyond my walls, friends' walls and my portfolio. This time around, I don't expect my art to become my career. I just want to have fun with it, use it for fun money with Lars and the working/showing we do. It's nice not to feel that pressure like I did 5 years ago and I know now where I want it to go and do with it. I'm really excited about where the internet is and social networking that's out there today with my art versus 5 years ago. Not to metion, I'm way more business savvy now too. So, if it does well and takes off, great. If it just funds the dog stuff, that's great too. This is supposed to be fun and my creative outlet that doesn't haven't anything to do with landscape design.

I will be making updates on a weekly basis along with my other biz blog and the black and tan blog.

I hope you guys all enjoy!