smellyrhino - Smelly Rhino Studio

smellyrhino

Jun10

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yea yea yea, I heard it all before…

Posted in: Rebecca Salcedo, acrylic, art, artist blog, mixed media, painting blog, resolutions, smellyrhino, take action

In studio all week. Painting in Progress…

For quite some time, 2 years, actually, I have been kept away from any sense of normalcy when it comes to a workday in my studio. My desire to learn more about this internet/blogging/social networking/online selling world of ours has made, well, an addict outta me. It was innocent at first. I thought, “well, I’ll just learn this stuff real quick like so I can do my own marketing!” Did I mention that was 2 years ago?

Monday, I decided to alter this freakish course of action because the perceived outcome wasn’t lookin’ good for my art career. I have no inventory!

So, I intervened on my own behalf, and legislated a self-imposed computer ban in my studio. I had to add (to myself) that I also have to BE in my studio (or it wont work). he he

Today was day two and I have made a lot of progress. I even wrote in my journal 3 mornings in a row! I know, unbelievable.

I told Eric I needed a little push toward that manifest destiny thing. I work on it constantly by saying aloud all the weaknesses I’m dealing with so that he can regurgitate them back to me at strategic moments. It’s my own way of holding myself accountable.

I asked him for help and he gave it to me!

He said, “Ok, well, first of all, no computer during the day. You can get online at night while you’re hanging on the couch with me! Pretend your boss is there and you can’t surf!

The other thing: Stop making lists and plans. Just paint. You need to just paint without worrying about all that other stuff for a while.

You are doing what they do in the corporate world…lists and schedules and planning, it’s like Dilbert, for crying out loud! Nothing gets done this way at the office either! That’s why they wrote a cartoon about it. Just allow yourself to let loose and be creative. Let yourself see some progress that makes you feel good. This is your goal, after all. You are having anxiety about it, but once you start to see progress, this will pass.”

I was listening this time.

Well, the reward the past 2 days has been real progress on a painting and a nice feeling of satisfaction after focusing for a change on what I really want to do.
He is really smart.
Mar24

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#16 The New Yorker; 31 days of rhinos

Posted in: 31 days of rhinos, Rhino art, Uncategorized, art, art history, art techniques, artist blog, ink, prismacolor markers, rhinoceros, smellyrhino

#16 Ode To The New Yorker; 31 days of Rhinos
Prismacolor on Bristol Smooth paper

#16 in the series, yet another ripoff of one of the iconic images of the 20th century; The New Yorker’s highly hatted Mascot!

Since 1925, when the New Yorker began publishing it’s famous magazine, cartoons have been an integral part of it’s legacy. So much so that most identify the magazine with it’s cartoons! They recently compiled a book of all All 68,647 cartoons ever published in The New Yorker! That’s a lot of cartoons!

Cartoons, in fact, have become such an important part of our culture, that their influence on us is barely fathomable. Consider that many of our greatest cartoonists perhaps were inspired by The New Yorker growing up, and that alone makes it formidable. Great cartoonists, illustrators and satirists abound here!

Regrettably, and it pains me to say this, but Wikipedia is down today, so I can’t give you a fun wee history on The New Yorker and it’s indelible mark on art history. Perhaps I can add some more tomorrow. For now, below are some of the greats.

Roz Chast is one of many to influence us, and it’s great to have a female cartoonist in the mix, because it seems that not many women take the path of cartoonist. Roz first contributed to The New Yorker in 1978 and became a staff cartoonist in 1979, and has contributed over 1000 cartoons to the magazine. [from CBSnews.com: " Editor David Remnick wrote that her cartoons convey a comic sense of "domestic anxiety." ]

Robert Mankoff, is currently the cartoon editor of The New Yorker. He captures that cross section of American business and politics with his humor, as well as every day life in the US. Robert is also the creator of The Cartoon Bank, which is the largest cartoon licensing business in the world. So, if you are a cartoonist, maybe you should start there!

Charles Addams, adored by many as the creator of the Addams Family, spent most of his career drawing for The New Yorker! It all started as the Gothic, dark, bizaare, macabre but humorous cartoon in the New Yorker, which resulted in the beloved TV series and 2 movies! Aren’t tidbits fun?

James Thurber, humorist, cartoonist, writer. A distinguished figure of American Literature, He wrote “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, and others, which put him in the history books as more than just a cartoonist!

Saul Steinberg, among the most prolific artists of the 20th century, appeared in The New Yorker for nearly 60 years! Now that’s a career! Visit his site and be awed by the archives!

Their cartoons were political, controversial and funny. Satire at it’s best! Maybe not that well known to the average person, but if you grew up with this magazine, you were influenced by them! And, well, maybe you do really know a few!

The New Yorker has had a profound effect of US Popular Culture since it’s inception, and I think it is fitting to mention in my 31 days of rhinos series.
Mar14

3 Comments

#12 Negative Space; 31 days of Rhinos

Posted in: 31 days of rhinos, Rebecca Salcedo, Rhino art, art history, art techniques, humorous blogs, ink, negative space, smellyrhino

“Look, I’m trying to be positive, but you’re in my negative space!”
#12 Negative Space; 31 days of rhinos

Pencil and Ink

If you haven’t ever heard of drawing negative space, it’s probable that you haven’t taken an art class.

This should be one of the fundamental exercises for a beginner. In fact, I remember first drawing negative space in an 8th grade art class. My teacher made us draw from our desk, the view around his head, as I recall. Then, the space around other objects, like chairs, and some more organic shapes. It was eye opening to find that I could render an image by drawing the space around it! The important thing he was always telling us was, “Stop fretting over not being able to draw a chair!! Drawing is about shapes, the shapes that make up the subject, and the shapes that make up the background. The Subject is your positive space, and the rest is your negative space. So, just draw the shapes around your subject, and you will have the chair you are trying to draw! Eventually, you will begin to understand how a given subject is formed and it will become easier and easier!”

[wiki excerpt "Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image. The use of negative space is a key element of artistic composition. The Japanese word "ma" is sometimes used for this concept, for example in garden design.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

In a two-tone, black-and-white image, a subject is normally depicted in black and the space around it is left blank (white), thereby forming a silhouette of the subject. However, reversing the tones so that the space around the subject is printed black and the subject itself is left blank causes the negative space to be apparent as it forms shapes around the subject, called figure-ground reversal.

Elements of an image that distract from the intended subject, or in the case of photography, objects in the same focal plane, are not considered negative space. Negative space can be used to depict a subject in a chosen medium by showing everything around the subject but not the subject itself. Usage of negative space will produce a silhouette of the subject.

The use of equal negative space, as a balance to positive space, in a composition is considered by many as good design. This basic and often overlooked principle of design gives the eye a “place to rest,” increasing the appeal of a composition through subtle means. The term is also used by musicians to indicate silence within a piece.”]

When I went surfing to see what was online, I found lots of great articles, blogs, tutorials, and the lot on drawing negative space. Here’s just one: Using Negative Space Drawing

The inspiration for the sketch came from a photo by the remarkable photographer, Nick Brandt!
I found his site through a neat blog called Nothing Relevant (which by the way, has lots of relevant on it!)

Although my cold is gone, I’m still fighting a very bizarre fatigue that has been making me nearly unable to function. I taught a little workshop on Saturday and did a fun run with a friend on Sunday. These are the only activities I have been able to accomplish, literally. I hope to be back on track tomorrow.

See you then!
Mar12

3 Comments

#11 Sumi-e (Japanese Ink and Wash); 31 days of rhinos!

Posted in: 31 days of rhinos, Rebecca Salcedo, Rhino art, artist blog, asian art technique, humorous blogs, illustration, rhinoceros, smellyrhino, sumi

You don’t like this knock-off? So Sumi-e!!!

#11 Sumi-e (ink and wash); 31 days of rhinos
India ink on watercolor paper

Another mediocre example of a complete knockoff from a sumi-e painting found on Wikipedia. I added the “indigenous ghost rhino of the Valley”, naturally.

[wiki excerpt "Ink and wash painting is an East Asian type of brush painting also known as wash painting or by its Japanese name sumi-e (墨絵). Ink and wash painting is also known by its Chinese name shui-mo hua (水墨畫, Japanese suibokuga (水墨画^?), Korean sumukhwa, Vietnamese tranh thuỷ mặc'). Only black ink — the same as used in East Asian calligraphy — is used, in various concentrations."]

Ink has the oldest history perhaps next to charcoal. as we talked about the other day, pigment mixed with water and slapped on a substrate..doesn’t get any simpler than that! Well Wiki says it dates back to the Tang dynasty in China about 600 BC! Wow, that’s old. But, charcoal still has it beat by about 30,000 years. Ink is very practical, and it even worked to mark criminals and village idiots’ foreheads. Still used today on college campuses! Pretty practical, indeed.

Lots of fun, and quite similar to watercolor. It is best if you lay it down in washes of extremely light to dark, as you would watercolor or colored pencil, if you will. 1) Lay the ink, let dry, add another layer. 2) lay ink and pull the color with a bit of water to manipulate, blot if desired, and let dry. Continue to add layers until completion.

If you haven’t yet experimented with watercolor yet this month, now is your chance..or play with a little ink. Simple calligraphy brushes can be dirt cheap, often in multi-packs. Practice dragging the brush around the paper with a drop of ink in there, making a rich heavy line. Then, add some water to your brush and pull some color away. Let some lines dry completely before going near them again. Although you will still get some movement, the original ink has already permeated the paper. Experiment to see the different looks you can create! If you add an India ink pen for accents on a wash, it will dry waterproof and stay put if you wash over it again, which is cool (although, it wouldn’t really be true Sumi-e at that point; more like Sumi-e-Gandi?).

Click here for more on Japanese art

To read all about the art of Ink and Wash, start on Wiki here and then explore! (it seems like I am endorsed by wiki, but I just like the ease of access)

See you tomorrow!
Mar11

5 Comments

#10 Pastel Pencil; 31 days of rhinos

Posted in: 31 days of rhinos, Rebecca Salcedo, art techniques, humor, life drawing atlanta, pastel pencil, rhinoceros, savingrhinos.org, smellyrhino

My horn is my temple, not yours, so go cut off
your own face, jackass!

#190 Pastel Pencil; 31 days of rhinos
Pastel on black paper

This picture was copied from a very important site that you should visit! SavingRhinos.org. One reason I am featuring Rhinos is to raise awareness that they are endangered and mean people in places like Yemen and China don’t seem to care that there are only a literal handful left, because they want to butcher them for their horns so they can have some super dust to snort or eat and make themselves feel like a man or some ridiculous medicine ritual. Stupid people are everywhere! I wish they would evolve brains! Saving Rhinos is on Facebook, too!

Pastels rock! Pastel pencils give some versatile fun on the go. You don’t have to get your fingers dirty, so they travel well to figure drawing groups. Not that you will often find me in life drawing, because I live out in the burbs and will always find a good (lazy) reason not to drive into the city at night! But, once in a while, I show up and surprise my friends!

To further attest to my total laziness, I even know where all the sketch groups are (especially with my laptop handy) and I still don’t go!

If you live in Atlanta and want a really fun life drawing experience, try Mellow Mushroom’s Drink and Draw in Decatur, the first Monday of every month! Two models, a husband and wife, dress in the own private stock of super hero costume-ry (or fetish-ry, not quite sure, but I like to make up words). We get to draw them while eating some of the best pizza in the city! See you next month!

For those living dangerously, you may still be able to find Dr. Sketchys at the Clermont Lounge!

So, a relatively minor mention of pastels. It’s basically pigment with a binder, like historically gypsum or chalk. We often think of pastel as chalk, because it has chalk in it. Just don’t use it on the sidewalk..that would be really expensive.

Pastel may have been first mentioned by Leonardo DaVinci in 1495, although the French didn’t actually invent the word until the mid-1600s. I suppose the Italians had a name for it that didn’t stick.

I’ll delve more into pastels on another day, because I want to emphasize sketching everyday, and life drawing or figure drawing as often as you can. My friends are really good at sketching and I’m usually pretty embarrassed in their company, because I take way too much time to do things. When I try to hurry, well, this piece above is an example of overworked and unfinished…
One thing that is nice about this blog. Letting go. Letting myself just get it out and not be perfect. Writing takes as half as long as the Rhino Art most days. But I want you to know that you will feel a sense of accomplishment to allow yourself to be imperfect! Too much perfection goes unfinished, if you catch my drift.

A friend a mine, Jessica Cook (who is showing in Austin at the market there in May) quoted someone today…”Perfection inhibits progress!”

So, go sketch something tomorrow. (Maybe I’ll get back to these drawings someday to perfect them!)

Find Life Drawing in your City:
I Googled to find this site to find a local meet up! Don’t know if it’s good, but you can try! Find a Meet up

Other life drawing opportunities in Atlanta:
Atlanta Artist’s Center has several weekly opportunities for live drawing and painting. Click here for Sketch groups

Marietta area find figure drawing at the Cobb Museum

I really hope that my Artist friends, after reading this (as if) will not leave me alone the next time I say “I might make it”.

See you tomorrow!
Mar10

5 Comments

#9 Collage; 31 days of Rhinos

Posted in: 31 days of rhinos, Rebecca Salcedo, art history, art techniques, collage art, humor, humorous blogs, illustration, smelly rhino, smellyrhino

#9 Collage; 31 days of rhinos

Media: acrylic, ink and paper on canvas board

I’m coming back from the dead. I am taking Sudafed though, so I will dismiss later anything that didn’t make sense this week as drug induced fuzz.

Today’s Rhino will appeal to the more contemporary audience, I hope. Collage art is no new thing, though. It’s been commonly referred to in Modern art since the early 20th century, but it’s been used since before Christ!

If you are some kind of art purist and can’t appreciate anything other than Oils (for example), you may be mocking collage art right now. Well, hopefully you will read some history and visit some museums to find that as an art form, it’s been used by some of the greatest painters in history!

-[wiki excerpt- "The term collage derives from the French "coller" meaning "glue".^[1] This term was coined by both Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso in the beginning of the 20th century when collage became a distinctive part of modern art.”]

You may remember from our quick lesson in cubism that Pablo and George were very aggressive and liked starting movements and genres and techniques…nuff said. I wonder if both their egos fit in the same room? You don’t see me complaining. I’m so glad they met!

There is just so much information to give you on this subject, like that the ancient Chinese and Japanese used it, and that a lot of collage exists in the form of large scale installation art, and that Kurt Schwitters, a well-known collage-er (hehe) utilized various woods in his collages! Neat!!! The techniques and uses are as wide as the ocean and can be humorous, serious, political, non-sensical, abstract, breathtaking and more…whatever you can imagine (or randomly place!)

So hold your heads proud collage artists! You are not cottage crafters, you are in good company! If you are a collage artist, you will find yourself in good company with a boatload of artists of great fame, especially these (and, again more that are too numerous to mention)

David Hockney
Pablo Picasso
Kurt Schwitters
Marcel Duchamp
Henri Matisse
Nick Bantock (the writer—remember, The Griffin and Sabine Trilogy?)
Click to learn more on Collage art.

…and now for something completely different
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Terry Gilliam, whose animation genius depended on cutouts for creating the treasured and immortal Monty Python! –Not exactly “fine art” to hang, but you wont forget it!

So, ready to go try one? If nothing else, it lets you have a little fun!
See you later.
Mar5

7 Comments

#5 Watercolor Cubist Rhino; 31 Days of Rhinos

Posted in: 31 days of rhinos, Rebecca Salcedo, Smellyrhinostudio, ampersand aquaboard, caveman, cubism, smellyrhino, watercolor

Watercolor: So old, a Caveman could have done it!

#5 Rhino; Watercolor & Cubism; 31 Days of Rhinos
Watercolor on Ampersand Aquaboard

So, I wasn’t quite ready to let go of the Cubism. Today, an easier medium for Cubism is Watercolor, pretty much the oldest painting medium, since all it is are pigments which are delivered to their substrate using water. Simple as that! Even a caveman can do it!

Watercolor painting is perhaps the oldest art form but it has been best documented since, of all times, the Renaissance! And would you believe (you would if you knew me) that Albrecht Dürer, the greatest (in my opinion) print maker of ALL TIME was one of the earliest proponents of the medium. Even though he is best known for his wicked wicked etchings, such as Melencolia I, he was quite a dandy botanical painter! Botanical and wildlife illustrations are where the traditional foundations of watercolor lie. During the Renaissance, especially, hand coloring woodblocks made easy use of watercolor pigments.

But, for it’s largest spread, I think we can thank the gentle landscape and flower loving British, for it was primarily in the 18th century England where the medium found its home and became beloved by most. Partly due to class structure in England, watercolors found a home among well educated women. Maybe it was like playing piano or embroidery. If you could paint, then you must be good for something! And, my land, if watercolors don’t just deserve all the credit!

Mapmakers, military, archaeologists, every civil engineer and scientist in fact, could just carry a a the most modest little pack of watercolor cakes, a brush and a tube with paper. Easy peasy. Just add water!

If you aren’t using watercolor or you think it’s a tough medium, you’re right. At first. If you are used to oil, you will bleed that crap all over your page and get frustrated. But, it only takes one quick lesson, or a cheap magazine article to get you started! Just remember, where there is wet, the paint will follow!

This painting was done on Ampersand Aquaboard, an interesting and forgiving surface, which allows you to scrub, and play and play and play. Start with paper, though, for it is cheap and you get lots of do-overs with a pad!

Good brushes are big on my list, too. Synthetic brushes don’t hold water as well as natural, so get a couple of good natural brushes, a large filbert ($15-$50, but worth every penny until the day you quit painting) and a couple sizes of rounds, for sure a 10 and maybe a little one. That’ll get you started. Can’t wait to hear how you did!

This may be the only time I post a pic other than my own this month, but it is worthy of supreme mention, especially because my divine hero Albrecht Dürer created it AND it’s a Rhino! yay!

Isn’t it beautiful? He was beautiful! He really thought of everything, and if you didn’t click above on Melancholia, now would be a good time!

Any hoo, Watercolor had other strong supporters, but you can go to Wikipedia to read all about them, and it gets really good in the 20th century with Kandinsky, who totally rocks my world with modern abstract expressionism (a mouthful) , and another of my great loves, Edward Hopper, that king of color blocking!

So,
Cavemen
Albrecht Dürer
The English
Kandinsky
Edward Hopper

yup!

[excerpt Wiki stuff Watercolor (US) or watercolour (UK) and also aquarelle, from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork, in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric, wood, and canvas. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns. India, Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions. Finger painting with watercolor paints originated in China.]

See ya tomorrow!
Mar4

2 Comments

#4 Cubism; 31 days of Rhinos

Posted in: 31 days of rhinos, Rebecca Salcedo, Smellyrhinostudio, abstract, blue rhino painting, cubism, smellyrhino

#4 Cubism; 31 days of Rhinos
Acrylic on Canvas board

Sorry for the crappy photo, but it got late and the daylight got away from me. Alas, I am out of bulbs that will let me take a decent shot! I’ll try to fix this one tomorrow, but by then, you’ll have moved on!

Why did I paint an abstract Rhino? Because I AM PICASSO!!!

So, about Cubism…If this was a normal post, I would have entitled it “War, and other abstract concepts” Well, Cubism is definitely abstract. In fact, it may well be the first deliberate attempt to create abstract art.

["Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The first branch of cubism, known as Analytic Cubism, was both radical and influential as a short but highly significant art movement between 1907 and 1911 in France. In its second phase, Synthetic Cubism, the movement spread and remained vital until around 1919, when the Surrealist movement gained popularity.

English art historian Douglas Cooper describes three phases of Cubism in his seminal book The Cubist Epoch. According to Cooper there was "Early Cubism", (from 1906 to 1908) when the movement was initially developed in the studios of Picasso and Braque; the second phase being called "High Cubism", (from 1909 to 1914) during which time Juan Gris emerged as an important exponent; and finally Cooper referred to "Late Cubism" (from 1914 to 1921) as the last phase of Cubism as a radical avant-garde movement.^[1]
In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism’s distinct characteristics.”] – Excerpt from Wikipedia, again, potentially unreliable source! LOL

Picasso had like 20 words in his name..totally useless trivia, I know! His Dad had him in art school not long after his first word uttered was pencil! Must have been a little like Tiger Woods. He was uber talented, really smart, cute and Spanish, and his ability to paint realism with style and quality got him known. His work is obviously as famous as it gets, ok, actually, he is the Number One Figure of the 20th Century! You would think that abstract art and Cubism wouldn’t take any work at all, and it should be perfect for the non-artist. To pull it off well, though, you have to understand your random, geometric patterns; and placement and color or value are important here! (Don’t use mine as a good example. HA)
Weird.
Picasso was a lucky guy, he had fame and money, and an entourage of interns to help him complete his work. It is rumored to be true (if you ask any art historian), that Picasso signed a lot of his students work..he pretty much signed everything he liked in his studio.
Why? Because He was Picasso!

A little about the co-founder, George Braque, that guy got around in style movements! I think he must have been good at everything! He was trained as a tradesman painter by his generations of fathers before him, but had to take off to found a new style! But, it took a while to decide where he wanted to be as an artist. He was an early impressionist, and then took part of the Fauve artist group (no relation to the Quarterback, I think), and made friends with a lot of really cool painters of the day, like Matisse! The Fauves used loose abstract strokes with bright colors to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Braque was friends with Cezanne too, (remember, one of the great Impressionists), and it was Cezanne’s work at the 1907 Salon the most impacted the direction of art in Paris, leading to the birth of Cubism. That seemed like such a great time to be an artist. I wish I had a time machine and lots of handiwipes to take with me!

This rhino was painted in less than 30 minutes. I could do a lot better, and maybe I will, so there! But, I have been trying to create quickly as part of that daily practice I’ve been talking about. (Jesus Rhino #2 took half the day, believe it or not!)

So, thanks for the great memories Pablo and George, and special thanks to that Impressionist Cezanne for the putting the nugget out there…

ps. again, mostly ripped off from Wiki, delivery modified!