Lizzy D's Art Blog|My art, projects, and life in general

Back while I was in college, I took a Basic drawing class. This class had a teacher by the name of Leon Parson and he showed no mercy when it came to critiquing our drawings. There were days I actually went home in tears after hearing one of his critiques – he was not easy to please and I wasn’t the only one that felt his wrath. For our final, he gave us a hand written test of what we learned. I don’t remember how well I did over all but I do remember one question on that test. Did you change your Major? I later found out that why he was so harsh was because he wanted to filter out the students that couldn’t handle the cruel reality of an occupation in art. I remember looking at that question with my pencil in hand and thinking “Jerk” and with a smirk on my face I written the answer “No”.

Twelve years later to this weekend I had my art on display at LepreCon in Tempe AZ. And to my luck I got a personal critique from one of the Guests of Honor artist Darrell K. Sweet. And he showed me no mercy! He gave me a critique that would make my old professor proud and then some! I was told to draw more, to use references, to see with my mind and not my eyes, and pointed out all the flaws in my art. I drove home in shock and stupor as I felt what he told me tattooed itself to my brain. It was not at all what I expected but I knew I needed to hear it. It was one of those moments where I had to make a decision. Whether to keep going in art, and improve myself by pushing myself harder, or to throw in the towel and give up.

Later that evening I went back to the convention to have my art critiqued by the other guest of honor John Picacio. His critique was different from Darrell Sweet’s. He spoke of similar things but he asked me what I wanted to do with my art, and to tell the truth I did not have a straight answer for him. The next day I took my sketchbooks in for a critique (since the art I had on display was my portfolio and was already torn apart by critiques) and showed them my sketchbooks. They spent almost an hour talking to me and amongst each other about what I can do to help my art. I was told I from both artists I had to choose a direction with my art. So once again I had to decide. That stupid question I had to answer 12 years ago reemerged in my mind. I know my art isn’t the greatest, but I also know it’s not the worst and it can become something more if I work at it. So once again I will answer that question. Did I change my major, my choice of occupation; did I give up my dream? And with a smirk on my face I type the answer, ‘NO! ‘

Those two artists gave me the strength to get up and make my art better than ever. Though my path is not yet clear, it does not mean I don’t have a path to follow. For those budding artists that find themselves getting merciless critiques from their professors and feel like it’s too hard to handle know this – yes the world of art is hard to handle – but every critique you get is a gift, nothing more, whether to accept that gift or not is up to you. The more critiques you get the stronger you will be in your persistence. Never think that the artist or professor is critiquing harshly to bring you down – they want you to succeed.

And so without further ado I now have my finished Dandelion Fairy for you. Out of all my pieces, this is the only one that got a direct compliment from Darrell Sweet. He liked the dandelions because he could tell I had done plenty of research on them.

Danelion Fairy

I also have this piece to show, A Simple Act of Kindness.

It got one of the harshest of the critiques from both artists but John Picacio said he really liked the concept of the piece and the emotion that it gives.

Sorry for the absence; as the summer progressed it became harder and harder to find the time to do anything with my art or anything online.  So I decided to just wait until school started again for my son.  Now that it has, I can get back to work.

This has been the project I have been working on recently. I’ve had this fairy in my sketchbook for a while and wanted to do something with it.  I am starting out with watercolors then using acrylics for brighter colors.  So far so good I think. J

These Fashion fairies were one of the summer projects I started and had to stop until school started once again.  I actually redid the Lily; here is the first one;

It wasn’t what I had in mind in the first place though it does look good it wasn’t what I wanted, I’m happier with the second one.  Now the Hibiscus, if you haven’t recognized it yet, was originally done for a fundraiser for Haiti at Jerry’s Art-o-Rama.  At the request of one of several people I made another one, though slightly different.

Coming up this weekend is CopperCon , it’s here in Mesa so if you are in the area come check it out.  They are not having an art show or art auction, but they did offer several panel spacing in the dealer’s room for artists to show their work. I’ll be displaying some of my original art there. CopperCon runs Saturday thru Monday, Sept. 4-6.

This time around I’m going to try to post more blogs and try to keep you updated on my art.  I must warn you though, I may forget; sometimes I get so into my art that nothing else happens – including keeping the house clean.

With the help of my wonderful husband my website is finally complete! I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband he sacrificed a lot of time into the website and to help me get started with this blog and other things to help get my art out there! So please take a look around and tell me what you think.

If you are in the Tempe, AZ area, today is you last chance to buy a raffle ticket to win a drawing or painting at Jerry’s Artarama. One raffle ticket is $5 and 5 tickets are $20.

I am now starting to get art ready for the Leprecon coming up in May. I have some finished art but there some I need to start on or redo. I’m a little stressed about it but at least I have a plan, normally I don’t have one of those. Here’s a sketch of one of my “plans”:

What a week!  And this next one is going to be about the same! My sister came to visit from Idaho this past week.  It was wonderful seeing her again, but I also had to be a mom to a sick little boy. He got Pink eye and a cold at the same time. But we were still able to have fun and bless my husband’s heart he sacrificed his time to tend to Marius so I was able to hang out with my sister. I owe him big!

I finished this contest piece that I posted about earlier:

I call it Sisters, the three women are related and the main characters of a story written by a fellow artist.  The man who create these ladies has some really neat stuff if you are into martial arts you should check him out at commando massacres.  As for the contest, I got third place.

I am now preparing for the Art-A-Thon that is coming up on Saturday, March 20^th at Jerry’s Art-a-rama on Rural Rd in Tempe, AZ. I’ll be there at 11:00 so if any of you are in the area, stop on by!  Here is a sketch idea of what I’m planning on painting there.