Daily Drawings

So I've been quite faithful at drawing every day and it's having a positive effect...I'm creating other projects too.  I've begun a commission of two paintings that will live in NorCal.  I'm also noodling around with a new set of Lukas watercolors.  You can see all of the above pieces on my Flickr site.  Everything I create [that I want to share] lands there eventually.

Where To Start?

Daily Drawing 1/1/2011

Honestly, how difficult could it be to start talking to you about my art life?  The fact of the matter is that it IS difficult.  And it's not because I'm shy or have nothing to say.  That's just not the case.  I have a lot to say and so many things that I want to accomplish that my creativity goes all gridlock.

I spend a lot of time looking at other artist's work and researching mediums that I haven't tried.  I spend very little time actually creating.  So to get my creative juices flowing I have set three Intentions for the New Year.

{ONE}Draw every day and post drawings five days a week on my Flickr, Facebook and Twitter pages.

{TWO}Reduce my "research" by 50% or more.  When I do find something that I love, post it here.

{THREE}Create Two [as in 2, deux, dos] new paintings each month.

If THAT won't get me off the freakin' computer and jump-start my creativity, then I suppose I'll just sell all my stuff and take up shuffleboard.

D3 [or] Denton's Daily Drawing

I've seen other artists do this over the years and I've been encouraged most recently by Chris Piascik. I've been drawing a lot more recently trying to get my brain and creativity jump started.  Most of what I've been doing of late is letters and numbers and I'm thinking maybe they'll make a cool collection.  What do you do to spark your creativity?

Pringle of Scotland

I stumbled onto this video today...absolutely hilarious.  And I love it so much that I wanted to share it with you.  Thanks to ArtAtHeartUK for finding it first.  This is a great example of how effective humor can be in advertising.  Art by David Shirgley and animation by James Newport.





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In College Again

I just had this realization that I'm back in college.  Not literally of course, though I wish I really were.  I told my wife recently that if we hit the lottery or some other windfall that I want to get a fine art degree.


But I digress.  I constantly beat myself up about how artistically scatter brained I am.  I have so many things I want to try and I am constantly moving from one style to another.  One medium to another.  Then it hit me this morning that I'm back in college.  I work very hard at learning new skills, studying other artists, honing my techniques, etc.  What I'm lacking is the structure that college forces upon the learner.  To give myself the structure and motivation [not that I'm not intrinsically motivated] I have started a list of intentions, goals and tasks.  Many of them are business related but many others are art skill and  technique focused.


So here I go again...off to the student union for a cup of coffee...[figuratively speaking] then over to class.  If you [yes I mean you] are an inspiration to me...something that I use as part of my new college world...I'll let you know.


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treasuring (jessica gonacha swift)

A little blog love here. I get a great deal of artsy inspiration by regularly visiting "treasuring (jessica gonacha swift)." I love her style and interesting color pallets. I could easily spend an afternoon reading through her old posts. [must use time management skills]

She is also involved with some creative friends in an inspiring blog and video blog series but I'll save that love for later. Go look...I don't mind.

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30 Years Later

I bought my first SLR in 1980. It was a Pentax XG7 and I loved it. I wanted to attend the Ford Institute of Photography but life had different plans for me. I used it for years but eventually moved on to an easier to use point-n-click, then various digital cameras.


I worked at the Shutterbug camera store in Coddingtown and the most expensive camera we sold was a Nikon. Needless to say I coveted that beautiful thing but it's price was always out of reach. Fast forward 30 years. Last week I found an almost new Nikon D40 on Craigslist for a very reasonable price. Ironically it cost about the same as my Pentax did in 1980.


So now I can make much better photos of my art...yay.




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Clear Goals for 2010

I love being creative.  It's fun making stuff...art or whatever.  And I love figuring out how to do things myself.  For example, I like to stretch my own canvas and I learned how to silk screen this weekend.  More on that in another blog post.  

Where I get myself into trouble though that I research everything and I over analyze.  Oh...and I blog surf WAY too much.  Shouldn't an artist be obsessed with making art and tend to struggle with the business side of things?  Not me.  For whatever reason I spend too much time looking at other's websites.  I research business models.  I look at how other artists are marketing.  And the net result is that I don't create enough.


So here are my goals for the coming year.  Notice that I'm not calling them resolutions.  Resolutions tend not to be measurable.  Goals are more action oriented.  In no particular order:


ONE: Be creative every day.  Creative is defined as doing something artistic or otherwise meaningful that only I can do.   
TWO: Be more organized in my home, art and work life.  In my home and office life that means getting rid of things I don't use.  There is way too much clutter in my life and it gets in the way of doing things I like to do.
THREE: Manage my time intentionally. I l.o.v.e. reading other artist's blogs and Etsy shops. And that's okay...I get great artistic energy from looking around the creative world.  But what I will begin to do is limit myself to  four 15 minute "blog blocks" per day.  The rest of my time will be focusing on the tasks that I need to be working on.
FOUR: Build a business that I love.  This means that I need to stop treating my art as a hobby and build it as a business.  I can [and must] still enjoy it as my hobby but I want to build it into a business way of life.  It is time to stop regretting that I didn't pursue an art career when I was young.  


These four items are only a starting point...goals.  The actions required to meet these goals will also be written and acted upon.  


It is going to be a good year.


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Sand Dollars

I love my life in Arizona.  Having said that, I miss the Northern California Coast.  I grew up in Sonoma County and spent a lot of time at the beach near Bodega Bay and north.  The beaches are so different there than in southern Cal.  The sand is much rockier and there are huge rock outcroppings up and down the coast.


I am starting a beach series of images drawn in ink.  This picture is the first of what could end up being dozens.  I plan to make my originals available.  They are not colored but they stand well on their own.  The colored versions are done in Photoshop and very customizable meaning if a client wants to fit a scheme they have in their house, I can do that.


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Art Geeked

I am officially GEEKED!  My sons might just say I'm a geek but that's a different story.  In this case I am 'art geeked' about a package I got in the mail today.

As you can see by the picture I received my Speedball Deluxe Screen Printing Kit.  Do I know anything about screen printing?  No.  Okay...I did a little bit of screen printing in a college art class in 1981 [yes, I said '81...as in the year].  


Anyway, my mind reels at the possibilities of things I can make.  The first thing my rock star son said was "can you make t-shirts"?  Yes, I suppose I can.  And I probably will, but not the kind he's thinking.  I'm more interested in creating simple prints and cards.  Being able to screen print means that I can create a large run of a print.  Of course I could always print something using my awesome Epson 1400 13"x19" printer, but there's something special about a handmade print.  Each one is unique unto itself.


Aren't we all!?
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Back In The Swing

Our family took some time off to attend the funeral of our nephew.  Kyle was only 15 and his death took the wind out of my sails a bit.  We've been back for a couple of weeks and I have forced myself to be creative.

The first piece I did was not typical of the things I tend to paint.  I'm not at all in love with it but I put something on canvas and made a go of it.  It's called Queen Anne's Lace in Orange.


Last night I painted a very small canvas... 4"x4".  I got the canvas for free at Jerry's Artarama on Black Friday.  I ended up going back to my pen/ink roots but I loved the outcome.  It gave me a hundred ideas for more small sets of paintings.


This one is called "Coffee Tree" and it makes me happy.  It's good to be happy.  The sides are sky blue and the front is light blue.  The image was hand drawn with Faber-Castell ink pens of various sizes.  You can also see it here with more photos.

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December Daily Drawing - 3

A quick post today but a doodle is still drawing...right?  I have to fly to Michigan unexpectedly but I will keep drawing and post my work when I return.


Original Abstract Art Paintings
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December Daily Drawing 2 - Sprouting Notes

DDD2 Sprouting Notes
Originally uploaded by DentonLoomis

Day 2 - December Daily Drawing

Wee little music notes sprouting from the soil. As these drawings simmer I may take some of them and expand on the concept. I also plan to print these on watercolor paper and color by hand.

Peace to you!

December Daily Drawing - 1

Inspired by HelloJenuine I have decided to start a December Daily Drawing project.  


The goal is to draw and post something every day this month.  It's a great way to keep the creative juices flowing and not to slack off from doing something that I really love to do anyway.  


You'll forgive me [i assume] for starting a day late and for the occasion where I might post a painting rather than a drawing.


I will post them in all the usual places like here, flickr, Twitter and Facebook.


Have fun and keep in touch!


Original Abstract Art Paintings
Denton's Etsy Shop

Artist: Eric Daigh

Sunday morning is bliss.  We sleep in late.  Read the paper.  Slowly enjoy our coffee.  And we watch CBS Sunday Morning.  Because we record it we can watch it with leisure.  Sunday is the best morning of the week.


Every now and then CBS Sunday Morning does an art-focused piece.  They do such a nice job because they take their time.  They talk to the artist.  You get a real chance to see their work.  Last Sunday they did a piece on Eric Daigh who uses push pins to create portraits.  Yes...push pins.  Using red, green, blue, yellow, black and white.  Up close to one of his portraits it's like standing too close to a jumbotron, but when you back away....it's magic.


The CBS website doesn't seem to have the video on Daigh so be sure to take a look at his website.  He talked in the interview about how he accomplishes his pieces.  It's very technology based and though it spurs my curiosity, it's a little too paint-by-numbers.


Original Abstract Art Paintings 
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Redesigning My Blog

I can absolutely drive myself nuts and waste a bunch of time playing with the layouts and colors on my website and blog.  I have made a conscious effort to update my blog to more accurately represent my style and I ran into a couple of tools that you might find helpful if you are doing the same.


My Blogger layout is a topic for another day, but as for color you may want to take a look at these:
MySpaceDev offers a very large selection of colors and their hexidecimal codes.
ColorPicker will give you the hex code for any color you can find on using their color selection tool.
And just for fun ColourLovers will give you the hex code for Crayola Crayon colors...quite fun.


Have a colorful day!


Original Abstract Art Paintings
Denton's Etsy Shop

Color Splash

Time to confess a guilty pleasure.  I am a big fan of Color Splash, a makeover show on HGTV hosted by David Bromstad.  Once I found the show it took me a few months to catch-up on all his previous episodes.  The show focuses on color [duh] and solid design concepts.  The cast and crew of the show always seem to nail whatever concept David is trying to capture and they have fun doing it.  As an artist I look forward to the custom art pieces that David creates in each episode.  


Quite often they are abstract in style...right up my alley.


Original Abstract Art Paintings
Denton's Etsy Shop

Handmadeology

Like most of the things I find online I don't remember how I found Handmadeology.  I'm glad I did though.  Every artist and crafter stuggles with the business side of their work.  Handmadeology has tools for promoting your site and even some time management ideas.  I have attended one of their webinars and I was able to implement a single idea that has improved my twitter traffic and traffic to my Etsy shop.


Every day I learn a little bit about how to get my art before the eyes of people who want to see it.  


Now I just need to minimize the time I spend looking at other artist's work.




Original Abstract Art Paintings Denton's Website
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ReadyMade

One of my favorite magazines is called ReadyMade.  It publishes six issues a year and focuses on making things yourself.  It has a very arty-crafty slant and gives me inspiration in every issue.  It's also a keeper, meaning that I like to save the issues and go back to them again and again.  Awesome






Original Abstract Art Paintings Denton's Website
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Odd Succulent

Sometimes my doodles lead to odd things.  Many times.  This started on a flight to Northern California to visit my family.  I love that it makes me thing of geckos.  I've played with ink drawing all my life.  I don't do pen&ink anymore...just too inconvenient.  I'll likely created prints colored with watercolors...and maybe a pendant for fun. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Original Abstract Art Paintings
Denton's Etsy Shop

Painted a sweet little piece today that was inspired by a song. It's the most representational piece I've done lately and it was rather fun. Two sweet loving birds on a wire. You can see it at my Etsy shop.

Hope your day is EasyPeasy!

Original Abstract Art Paintings - by Denton Loomis
Commission a Painting - by Denton Loomis
ABSTRACT ART SALE

I started a new line of art recently and have everything [all 2 pieces at this point :-)] listed on Etsy. This all stems from a Facebook message I got from an old friend. She sent me a pen and ink drawing I did for her in 1982. I had forgotten how much I love that medium. So I started drawing and BAM I'm off on a new artistic tangent. Very fun...though I'm certain I have AADD [artistict attention deficit disorder].

Have a look at EasyPeasyDesigns on Etsy.

Original Abstract Art Paintings - by Denton Loomis
Commission a Painting - by Denton Loomis
ABSTRACT ART SALE

This weeks featured painting is …

Title: Cypress Afternoon [shown above]

Size: 12" x 12" - Acrylic on stretched canvas

Regular Retail: $125.00

FEATURED PRICE (through 7/12/09): $95.00 plus shipping

The above sale price on Denton's Featured Contemporary Abstract Art of the Week is availableTHROUGH 7/12/09 ONLY. To receive the special sale price on Denton'sFeatured Art of the Week you must contact him by email at denton@dentonloomis.com . If the piece has sold I will happily create a similar piece specific to your needs.

Original Abstract Art Paintings - by Denton Loomis
Commission a Painting - by Denton Loomis
ABSTRACT ART SALE

Art of the Week - June 29

This weeks featured painting print is …

Title: Winning Streak [shown above]

Size: 16" x 20" - Acrylic on canvas panel

Regular Retail: $130.00

FEATURED PRICE (through 7/5/09): $100.00 plus shipping

The above sale price on Denton's Featured Contemporary Abstract Art of the Week is availableTHROUGH 7/5/09 ONLY. To receive the special sale price on Denton's Featured Art of the Week you must contact him by email at denton@dentonloomis.com . If the piece has sold I will happily create a similar piece specific to your needs.

Original Abstract Art Paintings - by Denton Loomis

Commission a Painting - by Denton Loomis

ABSTRACT ART SALE

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Jerry's ARTarama

I just discovered Jerry's Artarama. I had looked at them online and I love the fact that they have free video lessons. However, I didn't realize until yesterday that they have a store in Arizona.

I went there this morning and WOW do they have it all! It's about the size of the Michael's store near me but IT'S ALL ART SUPPLIES. How cool is that. I probably spent an hour just wandering around in amazement. They have a large frame shop too.

And the prices....wow again. They have a sales flyer on their website and there is no doubt something on sale that you would want. For me today it was SOHO acrylic paint. I've never tried that brand and I bought a few tubes.

I hope you can Find a Store Near You!
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Original Abstract Art Paintings - by Denton Loomis
Commission a Painting - by Denton Loomis
ABSTRACT ART SALE

Contemporary Abstract Art of the Week by Denton Loomis - Week of 6/22/09

Detail of "Distant Dream"

This weeks featured painting print is …

Title: Distant Dream [shown above]

Size: 19" x 30" x 1.75"

Regular Retail: $250.00

FEATURED PRICE (through 6/28/09): $215.00 plus shipping

The above sale price on Denton's Featured Contemporary Abstract Art of the Week is available THROUGH 6/28/09 ONLY. To receive the special sale price on Denton's Featured Art of the Week you must contact him by email at denton@dentonloomis.com . If the piece has sold I will happily create a similar piece specific to your needs.

Original Abstract Art Paintings - by Denton Loomis

Commission a Painting - by Denton Loomis

ABSTRACT ART SALE

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The Frugal Artist

One of the struggles I have is my battle between wanting to paint with the devil-may-care attitude that my abstract style yearns for and the cost of materials.

I recently painted a piece as a present for a friend and I used nearly entire tubes of paint in the process. What a rush! I felt released and decadent and eager to please. It was an experience that led me to understand that this is the attitude I must have in my creative process. Without it my work will look and feel restrained. Nobody wants that!

So for now I am careful when buying supplies and make sure that I am getting the best deal no matter what grade of paint I buy. I save significant money by building my own supports in both canvas and hardboard. More on that process in another post.

Original Abstract Art Paintings - by Denton Loomis

Commission a Painting - by Denton Loomis

ABSTRACT ART SALE

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