New Institute for Higher Learning in the Arts Opening Soon

It’s almost official. A logo has been designed and the board has approved it. We have elected our klass president. I am polishing my pencils, and waxing my watercolors for the first day of school. It will be here before you know it. We decided to call our art institute BARK University or BARK U. based on the response from the 3 blog readers who gave me feedback when I asked for an opinion on a name for my new school.

Since I made myself Dean of WaterCOLOR, I got to choose my 2 favorite complementary colors for our school colors, Permanent Rose and Leaf Green. We don’t have any problems finding a mascot either, Pace volunteered. Our campus will have several locations. The main campus will be in my home studio in San Marcos, other campus’ may include a local farm, a bullet train in Kyoto, a barge in Central Germany, the beach in Encinitas and of course there will be a location in Italy. I may have to take a field trip to Italy soon to find the perfect location.

I hope you like our logo

Art Studio Assistant

Pace is fully adopted now and I’ve put him to work as my studio assistant. I am having difficulty convincing him to file my papers.  He seems to prefer to sniff my paints, lick my watercolor paper and critique my work. He feels I should paint more animals and not too many flowers. 

Since I need marketing advice on what type of subject matter sells I am taking the beagle’s advice and painting animals.

I am working on this boho elephant, using lots of thin glazes of watercolor + raspberry ink and white paint.   

Beagle Sketching

After a visit with my friend, Nancy Holtz, the pen sketching artist, I decided to use the pen she gave me to sketch my beagle of a certain age, Socks. 

Nancy effortlessly ink sketches what she sees without drawing in pencil first. The thought of not using a pencil first brings me back to my sad memories of 3rd grade when my teacher took away my pencil. The teacher said my writing was too small and that I needed to use only a crayon until I enlarged my writing. I ought to talk to someone about this as my stomach churns at this memory.

The new pen beckoned to me. Nancy received this pen a Pentel Hybrid Technica directly from Cheap Joe when she took a class from him in North Carolina. In my book, this is like receiving a gift from the guru of art supplies. 

Many of you dear blog readers know my house is filled with a pak of dogs including 2 beagles. Socks is our beagle emeritus and deserves to have his beagle poses documented for posterity. So yesterday I over came my fear of not sketching with a pencil first and sketched him with "the pen." 

The first sketched resembled chicken scrawls and I wanted to quit. However, I remembered I tell everyone that drawing requires practice. I had to keep drawing. Today's sketches were better. Then I invented the beagle project; 25 Sketches in 25 Daze to keep me going.  

Would you like to join me and find a subject you can sketch for 25 Daze?