August Dispatch Art - Mail Frog
Hello out there, little mushlings!
I wanted to do a post where I talk some about the art for this month’s newsletter - and I guess a kind of meta-analysis of where I’m coming from with it and what I intend to do.
I hope you’re all out there having a great Summer so far! Here in WV it seems like it’s rained every other day. Honestly it’s rained more than it feels like it ever has in my life, but I like the rain. Unfortunately my tomatoes got some black spot fungi on them and I don’t know if they’ll produce more than a couple from all the leaves falling off. Apparently when it rains a lot the dirt splashes up and the fungi that live in the dirt start doing their thing on the leaves, except they’re still living and not just lying on the ground. A fickle beast, that fungi.
We planted tomatoes, purple hulled peas, cayenne peppers, poblano peppers, and a couple butternut squash plants. It’s the first time I’ve really had a garden just for myself and it’s been really nice to go up and see it every day or so.
Your eyes do not deceive you, that tomato weighs over 2 pounds! It was also extremely delicious (had to ripen in the window for a couple days after this)
Anyhow, I painted this image a month or so ago and with all the shows this month and different things happening I just never got the newsletter launched. I really wanted to get it done for August though, so I can get into a rhythm with it.
There are a few reasons I really have been wanting to do the newsletter/blog combo every month and I’m really excited about it! I think it’s going to be great. For one - it’s a prompt every month with a deadline, something that will force me to sit down and get something done for it, prep the email, write, etc. All of that is very easy to push off and kick the can and wait until later - but that just keeps moving further out and it doesn’t get done. The other reason is really just that, well, social media is just the pits lately. I mean more the pits than usual haha it’s harder than ever to just get people to actually see the work I’m doing and places I’ll be and everything and this is just a direct line to whoever wants it. Once a month I’ll let you know what I’m up to, and there’s nothing they can do to stop me! Another kind of meta-reason is that there just isn’t that many words on my website, and the data for the search engines kind of need words to associate you with stuff. Like me saying in this sentence that I paint fantastical little frogs delivering mail in gouache makes it more likely people looking for that kind of thing will stumble across me. A broad net, but everything helps!
Anyway, on to the art!
I took a couple of stabs at different creatures and eventually settled on a frog. I don’t know why, but all I want to draw are frogs this year. Just little guys. Obviously it’s been a little bit since I was originally going with ‘Spring News’. This follows how I make almost everything these days - the only thing missing is the original sketchbook doodle that I actually gave to someone when they bought a piece at my table. They just really liked it! I usually will work something out digitally and when I’m happy with the general elements I’ll start messing around with paints and crayons and pencils. Kind of like a sculpture needs an armature, if I have a solid drawing to work from I’m off to the races, usually. I’ve been really wanting to do more abstract backgrounds that I actually find interesting to look at this year - I’ve tried solid blocks of color and that’s just too boring, and when I try to put them in a whole scene I just get too lost in the details. Plus, as an illustration it just needs to get the point across and everything else is kind of a distraction. Frog delivering mail - in and out haha saves me a lot of frustration as well.
I think this is the general timbre of what I want blog posts to be for me, more or less. A long form way to just talk to people who want to listen, I guess. What’s going on with me, how I’m making stuff, where I’m at, etc. I’ve got another type of post I’m planning to do where I’m doing more of a tutorial type of thing, focusing on technique or thought process with my art practice.
I’m off to make sure this newsletter isn’t a complete disaster, then on to more painting! Bye y’all!