Painting Class/Apples and Hat Box

Oil painting is taking over my life right now! The new semester has begun and will keep me PLENTY busy. I haven't painted with oil paints in over 25 years, and at that time I had only taken an 8 week lesson. So this newest attempt is liking starting from scratch.

In our Wednesday night class, we painted a still life with apples and other objects from the presentation table. After three hours mixing and applying colors, here's what I came up with:



We will spend half of our next class working on the painting again. I would truly appreciate your candid critique and feedback that will help me take this to the next level. Please, please, please post your artist critique in the comments!

And, on a fun little note, here is hubby hanging out with our one kitty last weekend. She's so comfy on Dad's shoulder!

Charlotte's Web - Illustrations for a Local Theater Production

How lucky can I be to have the opportunity to draw the infamous Wilbur from Charlotte's Web?! The theater program at the local community college needed promotional material illustrations for their April performance.

I have to admit, I had to google Charlotte's Web to recall the full story - it's been quite awhile since 3rd grade. ;) Web photo searches of pigs, rats, and spiders provided for an array of drawing references.

The Final Illustration: The "terrific" pig gazes at his favorite spider, Charlotte, while Templeton slumps on the barn post. Plenty of "white space" reserved for promotional text.



The Sketch: "Some Pig" came out of my pencil after quite a few rounds of 'sketch and erase'.

Revisions: After consulting with the publications director, we downsized Wilbur a wee-bit, and moved up the pig-sty dirt to allow for logos, disclosures and text at the bottom.

To Print: the final flyer produced by the college's public relations department.



Close-Ups:







If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy:

* Illustrating A Dog-Gone Cute Christmas Card - the process of drawing Shelby and Santa

* Bzzzzzz.....Bumble Bees for Sparkle Magazine

Thanks for visiting!

Influenced By Berthe Morisot - A Series of 4 Oil Stick Paintings

Learning to use oil sticks in last semester's drawing class was so fun!

For our final project, we were challenged to select and learn about a master artist, study their work to learn how they created their compositions, then develop a series of four of our own still life's that were influenced by what we learned.

My Artist: Impressionist painter, Berthe Morisot
I was drawn to Morisot's paintings because of the fancy hats and loose brush stokes of her work.

My series of four oil stick paintings depict a bust of a lady wearing colorful hats:









And, here's the process of creating the fourth and final in the series:








A Bit About Morisot:
Morisot was a woman ahead of her time. Born into an upper-middle class family, she pursued a successful profession as an artist at a time when society frowned upon a woman of class having a career. She was the only female in the elite circle of French Impressionist painters. Because of her social class, her painting subjects were limited to domestic scenes, women and children. Outside landscapes were painted at her family's summer property. Many of her paintings portray her daughter, Julie.

If you enjoyed this post, take a peek at my final project from last Spring's semester:

• Teapots - created in subtractive chalk

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my "Creative Time" blog. In a few weeks, I'll be posting an update to my neighbor's duck carving of a Hen Mallard that's she creating for the WARDs world duck competition in Ocean City, Maryland. So, please stop in again. soon!

Meet the Duck Junky - a talented duck carver!

Meet my neighbor, Deb. Otherwise known as "The Duck Junky". She started carving ducks in 1993 and has been swimming in blue ribbons ever since.

We'll take a peek at her awards and studio, then follow her progress over the next few months as she carves her next duck, a Hen Mallard, that she'll be entering in this year's WARD World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition at Ocean City, Maryland in April.

Deb and her ducks in the local newspaper:

Where it all happens. Notice the name above the door.

Ahhhhh, and all of those incredibly gorgeous colors of silky ribbons. Well-deserved after hours upon hours of time spent carving and painting to perfection....

Deb's accolades include:
Best of Show for her East Caroline (2 years!)
First Place for her Hooded Merganser in 2008
First Place for her Harlequin drake sea duck in 2009
...and several other blue ribbons at WARDS World Competition, she relays so humbly.

You'd expect nothing less than lots of duck heads gracing the shelves of her studio.

Which one of these is the real one?





The toolbox.



Grinding and sanding.



Carving the details.



The new project - a Hen Mallard.



Next Steps....The Duck Junky will be laying out the pattern and begin rough cutting the wood block. Stop back and share in her progress. It will be fun to cheer her on as she prepares for April's competition.

Please post any duck carving questions you have for Deb so I can be sure to post Deb's answers to them in future posts.

Thanks for visiting!

Illustrating A Dog-Gone Cute Christmas Card!

Ta-dah!...presenting "Shelby and Santa"! A dear friend asked me to create an illustration of her dog to include in her Christmas card design this year. I couldn't resist the opportunity.

It may seem an easy task to just put the pencil to paper and out comes the drawing. But, it takes some time to mull over the illustration, jumbling it around in your head for weeks, penciling rough sketches, contemplating it some more, re-sketching....until you finally feel like the illustration is working.

With that said, I thought it would be of interest to post a blog about how this fun illustration came to be.

First, about 20 photos of the adorable canine subject, Shelby, were sent to me as reference material. Here's a peek at two:





After looking at the photos and getting a feel for Shelby's gestures, colors, facial expressions and more, my next step was a bit of mulling over how to approach the illustration.

What should the dog be doing? Is Santa in the sketch? Is she under a Christmas tree? Is she unwrapping a present? sledding? hanging out with snowmen? under the mistletoe?

Then, rough sketches over a few weeks helped me work out a composition that flowed:

Santa holding Shelby in his lap didn't seem to work, but I wanted to portray a warm, friendly interaction between the two of them:

This one seemed too flat and stagnant, but I'm liking the paw/hand idea:



Shelby's face seemed too rigid and the position too stiff:



Hmmmm...now I'm sorta liking this approach. Shelby giving a sweet, backwards glance:



Ahhhh, and now it's got a good flow going. A doggie-pat on the head, and a pet down the back. Who knew that Santa was a dog lover?!



If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy another one of my creative process posts:

* Mulling over Madison

Merry Christmas to all!
And, as my dear friend noted, be sure to leave a little doggie treat along with the milk and cookies on Christmas Eve....just in case Santa brings Shelby along for the sleigh ride! *woof*

Stuff Your Stockings - Note Tablets Make Great Gifts!

Super cute note tablets are a great idea for those last minute stocking stuffers. Four Kugler illustrations are available.



Sip some tea with Strawberry bunnies...



Your petter sitter will smile...



A warm-hearted friend will appreciate...



And, of course, for the cat lover...



My online shop is not quite set-up yet, so good ole' fashioned email and snail mail will have to do for this year! If you are interested, just send me a message.... cherylkuglerart@gmail.com

A Toad!...Should I Kiss Him?

When raking leaves, you can uncover some funny surprises. This cute fellow was under a pile of leaves that I was gathering out of our basement window well.

So, ummm, should I kiss him?

Your thoughts are appreciated! ;)

Imagine...Saturday in the Park

Saturday in NYC's Central Park was a tad rainy, but still full of color and artsy fun.

Strawberry Fields forever in memory of John Lennon.



Romantically arching, Bow Bridge.


The mandatory dog blog meeting. The story told was that Emma the Basset so very much wanted a granola bar stashed in the glove compartment of her owner's car that she caused $3,000 worth of damage trying to get to it. Sounds like a basset to me!

Her sidekick, Olive.

Sounds of a soothing sax.

NYC Central Park Sax from Cheryl Kugler on Vimeo.

Belvedere Castle.

Rich, green hedge apples on a sill.

The Dairy.

Anyone for a game of checkers at The Checker House?

One of many reliefs in the park.

Colorful words at the Alice In Wonderland statue.

My brother and Mom strolling out of the park.


If you enjoyed this post, stop and visit the post to my last road trip:

Home on the Range, Where the Deer and the Buffalo Play

Sketches/Sand Hills Buffalo and Dad

My sketch book traveled along with me on my recent trip out west to see buffalo. I figured that if the opportunity presented itself, and I didn't have my paper and pencil with me, I'd be kicking myself. Lucky me, I did get two sketches in along the way!

Buffalo in the Nebraska sand hills.

Two days of driving with Dad.



Much of the travel time was spent talking with my Dad. A great memory!

Be sure to check out the "artsy" photos and story about the buffalos on my previous blog post:

Home on the Range, Where the Deer and the Buffalo Play


If you liked this sketch, check out my previous sketch post:

Ted E. Graham, The Seagull

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.

Vampire Soup!? - Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Found this devilish little soup can in an adorable country store called "In Grandma's Attic" in Kinzers, Pennsylvania. Having just finished reading the "Twilight" series of books, it was too tempting to pass up.



I haven't heated up any of the soup yet to see what vampires could possible find appealing!...although the tag indicates is good ole' Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup inside.

The unique label is created by Justina's Sweets 'n Treats.