# Ask the Artist
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 19, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216 "2012-03-19T12:41:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/1 "2012-03-19T12:41:58Z")
I paint in oils, acrylics, poster paint ($2/pint, it’s a steal!), and watercolors; I draw with graphite, charcoal, and dry pastels. I do portraits, nudes, landscapes and still lifes, plus a fair amount of abstract doodling. I work from life and from photographs. I sell original work and giclee prints. Sometimes I win awards, sometimes I get rejected. I went to art school, but only learned a fraction of what I needed to know while I was there.
Anything you’re curious about? LMK!
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/2 "2012-03-19T12:43:09Z")
Pix or it didn’t happen!
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/3 "2012-03-19T12:46:28Z")
Pix of what?
That’s hilarious – so the first thing people want to know is whether or not they can judge the artwork?
That makes me laugh.
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### Author:  [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/4 "2012-03-19T13:01:46Z")
> [@fessie](#):
>
> Pix of what?
>
> That’s hilarious – so the first thing people want to know is whether or not they can judge the artwork?
>
> That makes me laugh.
I think it’s reasonable.
I wouldn’t hire someone until I’d seen some of their work. Anyone can claim to be an artist on the internet, and I know this will come as a shock, but people have been known to be less than truthful. Yes, appalling isn’t it?!
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/5 "2012-03-19T13:16:49Z")
Okay. Here’s some recent work (and I’m not posting high-quality pix publicly b/c people have been known to capture & save & print stuff that’s not actually theirs - appalling, isn’t it :D)
[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/78193878@N08/6996528775/in/photostream/)
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### Author:  [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/6 "2012-03-19T13:25:59Z")
Have you ever consigned any of your work? If so, how’d that go for you?
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/7 "2012-03-19T13:26:41Z")
I sell in a gallery in my city. Is that what you mean?
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/8 "2012-03-19T13:28:58Z")
I also work on commission. Typically that means copying someone’s photograph(s) for them.
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### Author:  [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/9 "2012-03-19T13:33:07Z")
> [@fessie](#):
>
> Pix of what?
You, spread-eagled and naked, of course.
The fruitbowl is nice, a little hard-edged for most tastes, but well executed. I prefer it to the orange tree, which looks a little bit idealized to me, or the portrait of the bearded man–I actually like the photograph you were working from a little better than the rendering you did from it. What are you interested in? Representing subjects? Interpreting them in some particular way? Inspiring your viewers somehow? Would you say the work has one central unifying goal?
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/10 "2012-03-19T13:37:49Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#):
>
> You, spread-eagled and naked, of course.
>
> The fruitbowl is nice, a little hard-edged for most tastes, but well executed. I prefer it to the orange tree, which looks a little bit idealized to me, or the portrait of the bearded man–I actually like the photograph you were working from a little better than the rendering you did from it. What are you interested in? Representing subjects? Interpreting them in some particular way? Inspiring your viewers somehow? Would you say the work has one central unifying goal?
The bearded man (that’s my Dad) wasn’t done from a portrait, I did that one live - and he was eating when I started drawing him. Then he sat up & smiled when I took the photo. I’ve drawn well over 1,000 people live, but I don’t have photographs of many of them because I do them at art fairs & there’s usually a line of customers waiting, so I just give them their drawing & they go.
My approach varies quite a bit, it just depends on the relationship with the subject matter. Sometimes I’m aiming for “tight”, sometimes looser and more interpretive. When I hang a show, I gather similar work so that it makes sense – but in my house/studio, I’ve got all kinds of work.
Unifying goal ---- hmmm …
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/11 "2012-03-19T13:41:02Z")
You know what, I think it’s important to work very representationally at times, because that’s a skill-builder. And a lot of people prefer that kind of work, which is fine. I’m making a living at this, I can’t be indifferent to what people enjoy.
But when it comes to actual art? My own person aesthetic? That’s about magic. It’s making a connection and riding a wave. I’m still learning about/expanding on that - my work’s getting looser all the time. And yet there needs to be a foundational backbone, or else it’s just meh. I didn’t post those, I haven’t shown them yet.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/12 "2012-03-19T14:22:34Z")
\*Very \*nice–kinda Cezanne-y, and you have a really good grasp of bone structure and shading, which not many people do. I have a friend who is a terrible, terrible artist, and I have to make all kind of “_ooooh!_” noises at her work.
I am–was-- a good second-rate Sunday artist. Pen or pencil, I was terrible in paint. Portraits; I could never do still life or animals. Went to the Phila. College of Art (as did my Mom, an excellent landscape painter). But I have not picked up a pencil for a decade, which I regret. I am too busy not making money at my writing to not make money at my artwork . . .
Oh, right, question. Is this strictly a relaxing hobby, or do you make cash-dough?
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/13 "2012-03-19T14:25:56Z")
Where do you get your supplies?
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### Author:  [@Vita\_Beata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vita_Beata)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/14 "2012-03-19T14:31:05Z")
👍 I like your work, especially the colors and shading, and I’m also enjoying Eve’s comment, "I am too busy not making money at my writing to not make money at my artwork . . . "
What is your favorite subject matter? Still life? Portrait?
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/15 "2012-03-19T14:33:45Z")
> [@Eve](#):
>
> \*Very \*nice–kinda Cezanne-y, and you have a really good grasp of bone structure and shading, which not many people do. I have a friend who is a terrible, terrible artist, and I have to make all kind of “_ooooh!_” noises at her work.
>
> I am–was-- a good second-rate Sunday artist. Pen or pencil, I was terrible in paint. Portraits; I could never do still life or animals. Went to the Phila. College of Art (as did my Mom, an excellent landscape painter). But I have not picked up a pencil for a decade, which I regret. I am too busy not making money at my writing to not make money at my artwork . . .
>
> Oh, right, question. Is this strictly a relaxing hobby, or do you make cash-dough?
Thanks, Eve 🙂 I was glad to see you’re back @ the Dope 🙂
Yep, I make actual cash dough selling my art & prints & doing commissions.
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/16 "2012-03-19T14:34:50Z")
> [@garygnu](#):
>
> Where do you get your supplies?
Used to go to Pearl in Chicago, but they closed :mad:
Now I mostly go to Prizm in Indianapolis, or Dick Blick in Chicago. Or Hobby Lobby/Michaels.
Cheap Joe can be a good source, too. They’re just online.
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/17 "2012-03-19T14:37:04Z")
> [@Vita\_Beata](#):
>
> 👍 I like your work, especially the colors and shading, and I’m also enjoying Eve’s comment, "I am too busy not making money at my writing to not make money at my artwork . . . "
>
> What is your favorite subject matter? Still life? Portrait?
Thanks Vita Beata 🙂
I really don’t like doing still lifes all that much. My favorite subject is landscapes. Portraits are second – I often wish I had a photographic memory, because people will strike poses, just casually, that are SO fascinating. Impossible for me to capture those fleeting moments, though.
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### Author:  [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/18 "2012-03-19T14:38:09Z")
I like pencil, too, Eve. I hope you have a chance to get back at it 🙂
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/19 "2012-03-19T18:16:46Z")
Are you starving?
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-artist/616216/20 "2012-03-19T18:23:20Z")
What were you formerly known as?
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