I have taken a break from updating this site for personal reasons, but I am working on updating my ETSY shop now in preparation for an art fundraiser I want to host both online and offline this summer.
The proceeds from sales will help me to pay some unexpected medical bills and prolonged unemployment due to a fall which resulted in a broken femur and surgery. I am currently working on creating a post for another site, it will either be Go Fund Me, or Fundly where donors can make monetary contributions instead of purchasing art. A lot of people have aske dhow they can support me during this time, and these are two great ways to do just that. Stay tuned!
About a century ago (well I exaggerate a little); I was a college student studying art at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. I had a brilliant and successful art teacher named Steve, who demonstrated how the practice of art making and the hatching of new ideas could be brought to life. He taught me many useful things, such as how to keep an art sketchbook pasted with photos of art work by artists I admired, and how to write about my art in a way that expressed my unique artistic voice. Above all, his most important advice was that I should draw every day. At the time, that task seemed quite difficult. I was always an inpatient artist as a student and I often rushed through the drawing stage to hurry up and get to the painting. Now that many years have passed since my graduation from McDaniel, I can truly see the wisdom of his advice.
With hindsight, I realize that he was so right about drawing every day. I no longer rush art work and I have learned to love drawing, whether it becomes a painting or not. In fact, I have embraced his advice of a daily drawing habit and I have worked on several art challenges for both human portraiture and pet portraits on my Instagram account. One of these challenges is called 100 faces in 100 days, in which I drew a pre-selected photo of a celebrity using only pencil and paper. I did not add in a lot of detail or shading and I limited myself to 45 minutes a day.
At present, I am struggling to carve out time for drawing. Sandwiched in between working, and other responsibilities, I am striving to make time at least 1x a week to draw. This time, I am focusing on making simple graphite sketches in my sketchbook, mostly portraits or figures.
The most important take away I can say about drawing and getting good at it, is that it really helps your art practice to flourish. For instance, once you have the drawing and composition mastered, you can enjoy the next step more fully, whether its collage, painting or some other art form such as graphic design or sculpture. With an accurate drawing, you won’t have to worry about continuing to fix it and can fully embrace your next steps.
If you want to put this idea of drawing as a practice into effect, you are in luck! I will be teaching two drawing classes at Delaplaine Art Center this Fall. The first class, Drawing for the Absolute Beginner, is tailored on those who have never taken an art class, and need the basics such as shading, measuring, and drawing techniques such as contour and blind contour drawing.
And the second class is for more seasoned artists who want to learn how to draw a portrait. This is a great class for those who have always wanted to draw portraits but don’t know where to start. I will teach you construction techniques such as using shapes to construct, the Loomis Method and anatomy to give you a solid foundation to build upon. Check out this links to learn more: https://delaplaine.org/class/?id=25-2-DR06(Drawing for the Absolute Beginner) and (Advanced Drawing: How to Build a Portrait):https://delaplaine.org/class/?id=25-2-DR07.
Are you in a creative slump or want to try out other forms of art media? Then, my course, Drawing, and Painting: A Mixed Media survey is the perfect fit for you! To learn more about this wonderful course, visit https://www.frederick.edu/. Go to the schedules link and select, ILR Fall Schedule 2022 to view a detailed description about this course.
In this course, I will provide you with detailed art demonstrations, with different art media provided each week. We will draw and paint our way through different art styles such as Impressionism, and even abstraction. The wide variety of art media and styles will stimulate your creativity, and provide a space for you to create in a judgment-free learning environment. Beginners and seasoned artists are welcome, no experience is necessary, although some experience with drawing or painting can be helpful. This is an in-person, noncredit course at Frederick Community College.
I wanted to share some exciting news! After several months of the art show circuit, I am back on track and will be exhibiting my oil paintings, acrylics and some watercolors at a 1-day
pop-up event, hosted by Leslie Ruby. I will be selling my artwork and be demonstrating how to draw portraits in pastel. This event will be part of a group of artisans and makers who will be displaying their creations at Sky Stage in Frederick, MD, hosted by the wonderful Leslie Ruby. Here is a link to the website for Sky Stage in case you aren’t familiar with the location: http://www.skystagefrederick.com/. Hope to see you there!
I have been adding some of my new miniature oil paintings to my Etsy Shop at https://www.redbubble.com/people/jsjschmidt2017, and the reproductions are available at my Red Bubble shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/jsjschmidt2017. The original oil paintings include some of my favorite subjects, Canada Geese, and water lily gardens and most of them, measure about 4 x 4 inches. They are priced starting at $25.00 each and make a wonderful addition to your bookshelf, desk, bedside table, or cubicle. All of my paintings come with a small easel for easy display. The first photo here gives you an idea of the scale of some of my paintings. Thanks for stopping by!
I have decided to start posting my newsletter on my blog, since becoming a homeowner, rather than sending out individual emails to my mailing list. Anything that helps me to scale back is something I am embracing these days. This month’s newsletter features some pages from my sketchbook entitled, Draw Every Day, Draw Every Way, by Julia Orkin Lewis and my featured topic is making time for art.
It has been a super busy season for me, managing the daily tasks of life, plus buying a new home, and various other things, so I haven’t posted as often as I would like. Meanwhile, I am researching articles that I think would inspire future blog posts that would be of interest both to artists and nonartists. While I am working on that, enjoy a peek behind the scenes into my latest pet portrait custom art order, which is inspired by a portrait of Elizabeth 1.
Hello Friends, After posting the blog post, Administrative Aspects of Being an Artist: Writing a Newsletter, I realized that I had posted the images of my newsletter as a slide show. I realized that it would be nearly impossible to read the newsletter in this format, so I am re-posting the newsletter as a jpeg so you can read the newsletter if you wish. My apologies.
Hello Friends, I apologize for my lack of blog posts lately. This past year I had several art shows such as the Frederick Coffee Company in Frederick, MD, as well as my Studio Sale at my home. These events were great opportunities to share my art with others and connect with faces both new and well known. However, I really got behind on some of the administrative aspects of my art business such as cataloging, adding new items to my commerce shops, and keeping up with my profit and loss sheet. I also created lots of new portraits in my 100 Faces in 100 days challenge which took up a lot of time. This past month, I also had some new tasks to take on while my mom has been recovering from shoulder replacement surgery.
So now I am trying to catch up on these neglected tasks. as a result, my posts might be less frequent and you may see some blog posts from my archives. I hope to be more caught up in these administrative tasks by next January so I can post more often. Today I am featuring a blog post which showcases my latest email newsletter for Art of Schmidt. This issue has a short segment about my latest painting series, Voices,
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
and Visions, in which I illustrate poetry, quotes and song lyrics in mixed media and acrylic. Thank you for stopping by! If you would like to subscribe to my email newsletter for Art of Schmidt, just send an email request to jsjschmidt2@gmail.com.
features some pages from my sketchbook entitled, Draw Every Day, Draw Every Way, by Julia Orkin Lewis and my featured topic is making time for art.
so you can read the newsletter if you wish. My apologies.
Art of Schmidt 