P3: Month 1 retrospection

September 15, 2012By Alice Ratterree

Accountability drives the commitment to blogging daily practice. With accountability, I’m driven to make sure the Petite Painting Project keeps moving forward. After all, it’s OUT THERE, not just in my own world….PUBLIC. So here’s the honest truth: I confess and accept that I am human, and P3 will fall by the wayside from time … Read More

Freelancing: What’s in it for me?

September 7, 2012By Alice Ratterree

There are plenty of resources out there about how to put a price tag on our work. Some metric is lying around out there that perfectly calculates time spent on a project, education and training, taxes (eek!), and just good old fashioned supply and demand (although the truth is, as illustrators, we all offer something completely … Read More

Materials

August 29, 2012By Alice Ratterree

Materials, from Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland “The materials of art, like the thumbnail sketch, seduce us with their potential. The texture of the paper, the smell of the paint, the weight of the stone – all cast hints and innuendoes, beckoning our fantasies…But where materials have potential, they also have … Read More

Draw (and paint) what you see, not what you know

August 28, 2012By Alice Ratterree

This is the view from my kitchen window. I love seeing only the tops of houses. It was my favorite thing about city living too – dwelling a few floors up, no ground in sight, only rooftops, windows and sky. like being in your own almost weightless world. The trim around my window is white … Read More

Creativity while travelling

August 28, 2012By Alice Ratterree

The Petite Painting Project travelled last week. For seven days I was out of my usual creative space with two small children in tow. It was almost next to impossible, but I did it. The posting slowed, but I kept coming back to the paper each day and here’s what I learned. If I don’t … Read More

Adding Ink to Watercolor

August 16, 2012By Alice Ratterree

“Painting is poetry that is seen and not heard.” Leonardo da Vinci Ink and watercolor are an elegant and often ideal combination. I love the softness of the watercolor paint and the crisp black of ink. Both mediums respect and support the other’s strengths. The ink pen relieves the watercolor of so much detail duty and … Read More

Patience with Foliage

August 14, 2012By Alice Ratterree

It is really hard to have patience when trying to capture foliage. There so much out there with such variety of distinct personalities that if that is the only subject you focused on, you would have enough work to tackle over the course of multiple lifetimes. I didn’t really have the patience this morning with … Read More

The flower keeper

August 12, 2012By Alice Ratterree

Our front yard hosts an enormous, borderline obnoxious, hydrangea bush that sports hearty bulbs every year. In addition, the back yard invites our neighbor’s hydrangeas to escape through the fence and live with us for a season. My mother in law has this magical ability to pick these flowers. Well, let me clarify that, because I … Read More

Petite Painting Project

August 10, 2012By Alice Ratterree

The prevailing lesson I walked away from the conference was ths: I must spend less time on more drawings. I have been agonizing over individual pieces, trying o make them p.e.r.f.e.c.t. when I just need to keep my hand moving daily in a forward direction. The portfolio pieces will arise out of this daily exercise. … Read More