First Friday, June 4th at the Dana Gallery. See you there!

I wanted to post a quick announcement that one of my drawings "Grizzly Study" will be on display at the Dana Gallery this month as part of the 2010 Celebration of Missoula Artists.


The First Friday celebration for this year's show kicks off Friday, June 4th at around 5:00 pm.  The show runs through June 12th and is showcasing over 100 Missoula artists. I hope to see everyone at the First Friday event.


And for those who didn't see my previous post, I am thrilled to announce that my drawing "Grizzly Study" was awarded this year's Artist's Choice Award.

Artist's Choice Award!

"Grizzly Study"

Artists Choice Award
2010 Celebration of Missoula Artists

To kick off the good news recently, I had a drawing accepted into this year's Celebration of Missoula Artists at the Dana Gallery in downtown Missoula. I submitted three drawings and "Grizzly Study" (pictured above) was juried into the show. Being accepted was a huge honor and helped buttress my confidence that pencil drawing has a place among the wonderful art in this year's show. This isn't the end of the good news, however.

My wife and I have recently returned from a 5-day horseback trip along the Rocky Mountain Front and I received an e-mail from a friend asking why I wasn't at the reception at the Dana Gallery. She went further to say that I had won an award at the opening. Stunned, I replied to the e-mail with questions and decided to check this rumor out myself the following morning.

We arrived at the gallery the following morning and I was amazed to see a blue ribbon hanging on the frame of my drawing. I'm sure the look of disbelief and general bewilderment helped the staff conclude that I probably needed some kind of explanation of what I was staring at. It turns out that my drawing had been chosen from among the 114 artists accepted into this year's show for the Artists Choice Award.

It might seem strange, but I'm sort of glad that I wasn't actually at the opening night reception because I would have probably fainted. I am completely overwhelmed by the recognition the piece received and am honored to have a pencil drawing selected from among the wonderful pieces in the show. I'll provide details on the First Friday reception in the next post but couldn't wait to share the news!

More anatomical sketches

Continuing the trend of facial features, this week's work included the ear, nose, and the first version of the mouth, which I'll be working on more, most likely with the nose as well. The sketches are a based on drawings from Stephen Roger Peck's excellent book, Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist and from Giovanni Civardi's Complete Guide to Drawing.

The Ear

I haven't studied ears much and was quite intrigued by the complexity when first looking at the ear but how well Peck's book described how to simplify the ear to just a couple of basic structures (middle part of the sketch below). Placement on the head is also important and I was able to go back to Leonardo's notebooks for some good tips on this.

The Nose

The nose is a strange organ. There are numerous facets comprising the nose but basically. The nose can be difficult to figure out without a simplified understanding.

The Mouth

The mouth is also fairly challenging in that no one will notice it unless it's wrong. Peck's book gives a great three-step approach (indicated below) that helps avoid being confused by the masses in the lips.