American River College Shadow Box Show

Here are some images of work that I displayed in a recent show at American River College. The show was a look back at some of my favorite drawings and sketches that I've done since going back to school. The show was arranged to look like a studio - lots of sketches pinned up everywhere, an in-progress work on an easel, a clay studio of a human head, etc. It was a lot of fun to arrange.

 

Pen and ink

Cut and glued construction paper

Pen and ink

Graphite

Colored pencil

Cubist Drawing

Here is a cubist-inspired piece that I've been working on for a drawing and composition class. The idea was to look at a still life and take inspiration from the shapes without actually depicting the object - in this case, a toy violin. We were also instructed to use value (light and dark) changes to make shapes recede or come forward.

It was a useful exercise to practice making three-dimensional shapes, and also create a composition without a clear focus. I think that I tried to play with perspective too much in areas, and ended up kind of painting myself in a corner in a few places where the lighting - which intentionally has no clear direction - and perspective ended up fighting each other and leaving certain areas flat and unactivated. Overall I am pretty pleased with it, though.

Hello there! I'm going to be doing a printmaking demonstration at the 2016 Sacramento ArtJam on August 26, 2016. If you've come to my website after seeing me at ArtJam, you can contact me here or via my email (mamarchol at comcast.net). You can also reach me on Facebook.

This space is going to get a lot more active, real soon. Drop me a line if you're interested in my work!

Con-Volution 2015

Here are a few of the pieces I showed at the 2015 Con-Volution gallery. The con was a lot of fun and I met some very talented artists while I was there!

Here is a detail from an 8-inch by 8-inch scratchboard I did. I'm finding that photographing scratchboards is pretty challenging as any tiny bit of lint, fuzz, or cat fur shows up in stark contrast to the black ink, plus the sealant which gives such a nice semi-gloss surface when viewed in person becomes annoyingly shiny when put under camera lights. Once I work out the kinks I will post some larger photos of the three scratchboards I completed for the show.

All in all though I am quite happy with how this one turned out. There are a variety of textures - metal, plastic, fabric, fur - that look pretty convincing to me, and I like the three-dimensional feel of the stitching and rivets (the cast shadows were made with a Pigma pen).

Johnny 5 here turned out fairly well, too. He's supposed to be bursting through the door, The Shining style.

Heeeeeeeeere's Johnny

This last one was a little 2.5-inch by 3.5-inch card that I did in 30 minutes or so for a Artist Trading Card (ATC) free raffle. A fellow cat-lover won it so she found a good home. One of the many benefits of attending Con-Volution!

On the topic of Con-Volution, there were a lot of fascinating panels this year, including a scholarly talk on the history of new wave science-fiction, practical stuff like how to use social media to market your creative endeavors, and weird stuff like... well you probably had to be there, but there was a game where ten panelists had to describe how they would murder each other, with the most creative and funny respondents advancing to the next round.

Fun stuff! Looking forward to next year.

Oh, and if you're at all interested in having a pet portrait done, please drop me an email! mamarchol at comcast.net, or you can follow the email link in my profile.

Works in Progress

Here are a couple of works in progress that I've been laboring away on. The first is a scratchboard:

5" x 5" scratchboard

It's been interesting experimenting with different ways to get an appropriately scaly texture. The chalky looking white lines are from transfer paper - the piece started off fairly planned out, but I've started ignoring/erasing a lot of the lines and just doing what flows and looks balanced.

The second is for a printmaking class:

~16" x 22" plastic foamboard

The white spots are where I've carved out the surface, and the red and black is where I've colored in the design. When the carving is done, the board will be rolled with ink, a piece of paper will be placed on top, followed by some felt pads, finally followed by some pressure to get the ink to stick onto the paper. "Pressure" may involve pushing on it with your hands, various hand tools, jumping up and down on it, and/or running it over with a minivan. I'm both excited and somewhat nervous to get to the printing stage - after you spend hours thinking up an idea, inking it, then carving a piece, you often don't want to run it over with your car, let alone douse the thing in ink.

I'll probably just stick to jumping on it. For the first one, anyway.

Selected Works for Con-Volution 2015 Gallery Application

The selected works are shown below with medium and dimensions described underneath each individual picture. Feel free to click on them to get a larger view!

 Australian, 6" x 4" Scratchboard

 Study of Le Chinois, 8" x 12" Graphite

Knotted, 3" x 5" Scratchboard

Study of Prometheus Still, 8" x 12" Graphite

Study of Mr. Spock, 8" x 12" Graphite

Hello and welcome to my blog!

This is a good place to drop me a line if you are interested in my work. I am currently a student at Folsom Lake College and I would be happy to take commissions. Currently my focus in on pet portraits, but my interests are expanding to include portraits of people, landscapes, and a variety of other subjects.

Some of my work is in the Student Art Show at Folsom Lake College - click here for more information. Please check it out! It is a very nice gallery and all the student work on display is fantastic. There's an article in the Folsom Telegraph about the show that includes a few short sentences from myself - click here.

I'll be posting examples of my work on the blog, both finished products and works in progress, as a way of documenting my progress as an artist and as a means to share what I've learned with others.

Thanks for stopping by.