Figure Drawing Session: 9/26/2011

More studies. Worked on foreshortening and back studies, tonight.

Latest Painting: Cliffs

"Cliffs" is an original 9" x 12" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

Nude Study: 15

Starting to practice from memory. The initial drawing was done several weeks ago at my figure drawing session. I'm trying to see how well my values worked and if I can translate them to deeper pen/ink strokes without having to resort to a photo or any other reference.

Latest Painting: Everywhere at Once

"Everywhere at Once" is an original 14" x 18" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

Nude Study: 14

Wanted to play with a bit of foreshortening tonight. For foreshortening, it is imperative that, in addition to getting the shape correct, the values of the shadows layers need to be correct. If the shadow areas are off, then the perception of the body part coming towards you/away from you is incorrect.

Nude Study: 10

Another Nude Study.

Nude Study: 9

Another study of the female form. I love the female form and drawing with pen/ink. With pen/ink, there's such a nice range of values that can be achieved.

Figure Drawing Session: 9/12/2011

Tonight was the first night for the current figure drawing session. During the summer time (mainly August), the figure drawing session at the Burlington City Arts is discontinued until more people are around. So, tonight was the first night.

Now that I'm more into drawing people, it's also time for me to get back to live figure drawing. These are my attempts for the night. For the most part, they are all 20 minute poses.

Art Hop

This weekend was the 19th year for the SEABA Art Hop. The Art Hop is a large festival where a lot of local artist show their work along Pine Street in South Burlington, Vermont. Friday night is usually the big night with a lot of music, artists, etc. The crowds are generally pretty good.

So, last night, I had my paintings hanging in the hallway of the Maltex building (on the second floor). I made sure that I was there between 5:00 - 8:00 (pm).. later, if there were going to be a lot of people to talk to. I also brought some mailing address cards to see if I could start to collect contact information for mailings.

Now, for the most part, the Art Hop is more about exposure than sales. There are rarely any sales at this festival. It's a great way to get new artists to show their work and to make contacts. So, I wasn't expecting any sales for this weekend.

However, around 8:00, I was noticing that there wasn't a lot of people that were showing up on my floor. Matter of fact, I probably talked to about 40 or 50 people for the entire time that I was there. Some of the people mentioned that the first floor was jam-packed with people. So, naturally, I thought, they'll be coming upstairs. They didn't. When I decided to leave around 8:30, the outside street was JAMMED with people. Lots of places you could barely walk. The building that I was in was almost devoid of people. The buildings across the street had a ton of people.

So, that means that, if I'm going to do this again, next year, I need to get my work into one of the business buildings rather than the Maltex. 'Course, I need to think about this over the next year. Exposure doesn't equate sales. It only equate sales in places where people are planning to spend money.

Nude Study: 8

Decided to start adding more cloth to the drawings. I think that they tend to lend more interest.

Latest Painting: Parallels

"Parallels" is an original 9" x 12" oil painting created on a 1" stretched, high-quality canvas. The painting is presented as unframed (Sides are painted).

All Artwork is copyrighted to Doug Hoppes Studio and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the permission of the artist. Sale of this item does not transfer its copyright.

Male Study: 1

Starting to incorporate male figures in the study. Need to check out the muscle structure.

Customers Remember the day of their purchase

As I'm trying to figure out ways to market my work and increase my sales, I came across a set of books written by Jack White. He has a number of books about the "Magic of Selling Art", etc. In reality, there's is no magic, but he has a lot of good common sense suggestions about various ways to market your artwork, present it, close sales, etc.

So, reading one of the books, he started talking about the "Day of Remembrance" for people purchasing your artwork. I was thinking in my head... "yeah... right... it's just a product". However, more I read and the more I thought about it. He's right. I may be selling a painting, but whomever purchases it, will remember the day that they purchase it. I remember the days that I purchased each one of the paintings in my house. Couldn't tell you about the day that I bought groceries or my tv, etc. But, I do remember the day for each one of my painting purchases.

I remember one special instance around Christmas time. This was when I first started mixing landscapes with abstract shapes and doing everything in oil. I remember that, at a local Christmas art fair, one of the vendors' wife came by and saw my work early on. As with everybody I meet at shows, I make sure that I talk to them (Need to do a better job of listening, but working on that part) and be my friendly, charming self. Later that day, her husband came by and said that his wife saw my paintings and that he should take a look. We talked for a bit and he picks out two paintings. His wife comes back later and then, sighs, when she has realized that he picked out my two most expensive paintings. However, it was his Christmas gift and I thanked them as I wrapped them up. So far, typical sales story.

The Day of Rememberance bit comes later. She saw me at this same show the following year. Asked me how I was doing and had to mention that her husband still loves the paintings. Whenever anybody new comes to the house, he talks about how he met the artist, how the artist works from his pen/ink sketches to come up with the concept, and then takes plein-air paintings or photos to compose the painting. He talks about how I showed him my sketchbook to see how it all started, etc.

I realized, that for me, it's my typical way of doing work, but it's incredibly fascinating to people who don't think my way. I also realized that my talking about how I do things is kind of like a "show" for them and they get to relate that story to anybody who questions them about the painting.

For me, it was when I first started mixing landscapes with abstract shapes and doing everything in oil. I remember that, at a local Christmas art fair, one of the vendors' wife came by and saw my work early one. As with everybody I meet at shows, I make sure that I talk to them (Need to do a better job of listening, but working on that part) and be my friendly, charming self. Later that day, her husband came by and said that his wife saw my paintings and that he should take a look. We talk for a bit and he picks out two paintings. His wife comes back later and then, sighs, when she has realized that he picked out my two most expensive paintings. However, it was his Christmas gift and I thanked them as I wrapped them up. So far, typical sales story.

The Day of Rememberance bit comes later. She saw me at this same show the following year. Asked me how I was doing and had to mention that her husband still loves the paintings. Whenever anybody new comes to the house, he talks about how he met the artist, how the artist works from his pen/ink sketches to come up with the concept, and then takes plein-air paintings or photos to compose the painting. He talks about how I showed him my sketchbook to see how it all started, etc.

I realized, that for me, it's my typical way of doing work, but it's incredibly fascinating to people who don't think my way. I also realized that my talking about how I do things is kind of like a "show" for them and they get to relate that story to anybody who questions them about the painting.

Now that I know this, I can see of ways of working it into my sales procedure to make sure that the customer remembers when they purchase the painting. This may, then, lead to repeat sales and another addition to my customer base.

Nude Study: 1

Another nude study. While I'm waiting for my print supplies to come in the mail, might as well get some more drawing/painting work done.