Thursday, November 29, 2012


Below are some very nice examples of student work for our charcoal landscape drawings. The transition from light to dark on these are great. These drawings are copied from the works of other artist. I think it is important to copy other peoples work that you like. It helps you understand value, composition, placement, technique, and probably other useful stuff I can't think of right now.








Friday, October 26, 2012

Every year Lorain County Community College puts on a wonderful family fun venue called Family Fest. It is a time where the community is welcome to bring their kids and explore the college. There are all kinds of fun things to do like bouncy houses, crafts, Fab Lab, music, and food. Art Fest goes on concurrently with Family Fest in the Stocker Arts Center. Here you will find art instructors working on art and showing there technique. 
Black and White photo of me taken by David Brattoli

The image I was working on in Pastels

Diane Marrapese working with clay. Diane is a very talented potter and up and coming photographer who also has a blog at dnorasartstudio.blogspot.com. You can see too of her photographs at the first annual Fall Pen Ohio juried art show in Hermitage, Pennsylvania.




Images of Marian Popovich, another talented instructor at LCCC. As you can see in the images above, she is very gifted in more than just pottery.


These jewelry pieces are wonderful by Lauralee Hutson. 



Check out some non-credit classes and learn the art of painting making artistic beautiful eggs by Bev Bolwka. You have to see them in person to appreciate them more.



Chalk walk went well, the kids enjoyed it. Unfortunately I didn't get out there when they were drawing.


Wednesday, October 17, 2012


I started this drawing as a rough sketch to make sure the measurements and placement of the objects were correct. The rough sketch is where you make your mistakes, it's where you have all your pencil and eraser marks. When you are done with the sketch you just need to transfer the drawing onto a finished piece of paper. Put transfer paper in-between your rough and your finished piece of paper. Lightly transfer your drawing down. Now all you have to do is build up your values and lines.




Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Though it is a beautiful painting, I feel this particular work is off balance. The right side is heavy with objects where as the left side has a beautiful fog like feel. It’s almost a mystery to what is beyond the fog. The birds lie almost center to the canvas and there is nothing to the left. In my opinion I would like to see a little more of the background to hold the balance.


This is a great painting showing wonderful softness in the background and harder sharper quality in the foreground. The haziness and light in the background sets the mountains farther in the back and the darker subjects in the foreground bring the painting to a 3-Dimensional design. The river is winding it’s way to the back which leads the viewer’s eye.


This image is similar to the top. I just wanted to show the relationship to background (soft, atmospheric) to the darker hard foreground.


This is a good example of balance. The waterfall is balanced out with the tree on the left. The waterfall and tree are about center page but the waterfall goes down while the tree extends up on the canvas. There is a path that separates the two and gives the painting a break-up of color and value.