Here’s her take on trying to learn the french curves tool:

• Hard to master. The ink kept creating dots whenever she’d start or end a curve.
• Didn’t seem to be as useful for small scale curves. Might work well drawing large curves where it’s harder to keep a steady hand.
• Much easier to draw curves by hand. (Keep in mind that she is a rather proficient freehand artist.)

Having never successfully used the french curves I acquired back in art school, I was curious about french curves and how they are used today (if at all). After some time on the web and chatting with my designer friends, I found that most folks either did not know how to use french curves at all (many had them tucked away in a drawer since art school) or chose to either draw curves by hand or on the computer. Interestingly enough, my friends who sew or do wood working were the only ones who still used french curves regularly. Perhaps engineers and architects still use them as well?

Here are some interesting things I found while researching french curves:

• Instructions with illustration on how to use a french curve (looks like it’s from a textbook)
• How to use a french curve for sewing (general suggestions)
• Using French Curves and Circle Templates with Wacom Cintiq (combining hand tools with the computer)
• French Curves and Watercolor Flowers (student art project with lovely pics)
• French Curves, Sharpies and Patience (amazing art done with french curves)

Charcoal Still Life: Head Sculpture

I drew this charcoal still life many years ago for my Drawing & Perspective class at the Art Institute.

The original artwork is about 24″ x 36″.

We were studying positive and negative space while sketching from real life objects.

It was one of my first attempts at drawing with charcoal…I found it to be a very interesting experience. Definitely easy to create shadow and definition but very messy and not easy to correct mistakes.

"Puppy" by artist Jeff Koons

I’ve always admired public art and American artist Jeff Koons’ “Puppy” is one of my favorites.

The “Puppy” topiary sculpture is a steel structure covered in beautiful flowers. Modeled after a West Highland White Terrier, the statue is 43 feet tall and includes an internal irrigation system.

After traveling the world (Germany, Australia and New York), the “Puppy” is now a popular tourist attraction in front of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, in Bilbao, Spain.

Jeff Koons has created hundreds of art pieces including giant brightly colored balloon animal sculptures. Here’s an interesting tidbit: the movie Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian included Koon’s “Balloon Dog (Red)” sculpture as one of the pieces that came to life.

Golden Rectangle Art

In art school, we explored the idea of the golden rectangle, a fascinating concept.

In this piece of art I created as a student, I incorporated several design principles we had studied including repetition, texture, triadic color scheme, and contrast.

The backgrounds and cutouts are all colorized photographs/scans.

Digital art that is a combination of photographs, scanned sketched designs, and Photshop’s various tools.