37 drawings/paintings??!! How do you decide what to do each time? I have tons of reference pictures but cannot decide which to do next.
Sonia
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Thank you so much! And thank you for the great advice!
Roxana, keep drawing & keep posting. Nice job.
Jim
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Hi Sonia -
There are two reasons I participate in the local county fair each August. The first is that I’m competitive and I like to challenge myself to not just complete the entries, but to do them better than the previous year.
The second more important reason I like the fair, is the structure it provides. There are seven main categories for Fine Arts. They are:
- Oil or Acrylic painting
- Watercolor
- Ink
- Pencil drawing
- Chalk drawing
- Colored pencil
- Crayon (I don’t like this one and may not participate)
Then in each of the above categories there are 5 possibilities for subject matter, as follows:
- Flowers
- Landscape
- People
- Animals
- Other
If you do the math, seven categories with 5 subjects each is 35 possible entries. Then add 2 more for Mixed Media, and Any Other. That gives a person 37 possible entries.
This is perfect because it forces me to learn how to do a variety of things. This is ambitious but keeps me drawing and painting.
To finally answer your question, I make a chart on 11 x 17 paper. I fill in the spaces (with pencil) as I have ideas and write DONE for things I’ve completed. The only things I work on are things that are not yet done on this chart. And that is how I decide what to do, partially swayed by what I’m in the mood for. For things that are not done, I may change my mind on the ‘reference photo’ to be used based on new classes at The Virtual Instructor, Gettin’ Sketchy episodes, or various challenges that I encounter.
Here is what my chart looks like right now.
By the way, I have another full-page chart for Photography (23 possible entries) and Scrapbooking (14 possible entries). I’ve already completed photography and scrapbooking for the next fair.
Terri Robichon
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@robichon Terri W2Rs
Oh Em Gee. Awesome system you got.
We don’t have a county fair with such extensive art competition. Last I searched it’s all for young kids. But still is a great idea to commit to work down a list to stay busy. Thank you for sharing!!
Sonia
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Hi Roxana
That’s a good start. Now stick with it and look back in 3 months. Comparison of your growth is so satisfying.
Terri Robichon
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I find that I get into themes. For a while it’s flowers, then animals, then fruit, landscapes, you name it!! Or pen, then graphite, then charcoal. Jona Dry talks in his videos about he solves a problem for one area when he works on a different area of his picture. I think I intuitively do this using different mediums and subjects, because my goal is to learn how to draw. So I listen to my intuition; it usually tells me what I need to challenge myself with.
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Sonia,
Just gotta say I love your dog portraits!
First, the portrait you submitted to be reviewed by Matt was very well done in my opinion. Matt’s critique was very good and as usual he pointed out things that I wouldn’t have thought of. Since I like to draw animals, I learned a lot. Seeing your updated painting with the food bowl added just thrilled me! It is so well done and I feel like I’m on the floor playing with the dog 
.
Your newest portrait is so cute! I think you did a great job considering the reference photo isn’t the clearest. I also like how you handled the complicated background. That’s always something I struggle with.
Please keep posting!
Bill Potts
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Hi. I just finished this pastel painting. It’s 8.5x11 on Art Spectrum paper. I used pan pastels and multiple brands of pastel pencils.
Bill Potts
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Wow Terri!
That’s very impressive for a county fair to have that many categories. You’re in Minnesota?? Are you in a county with a big city? I participated in the Indiana State Fair last year and plan to do so again this year. Categories are split into amateur/non-professional and professional. Then it’s basic watercolor, oils, mixed media, drawing. You can enter up to 3 pieces per group. I got by with 6 because 3 were color pencils and 3 were pastels. I entered into amateur and will again this year, although I could have competed in professional I’m sure. I like the way your county fair does it! No wonder you’re so busy!
Bill Potts
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Hi Bill You are very talented and this is a wonderful drawing.
Please send it to Matt for the members minute.
Terri Robichon
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Hi Bill.
Yes, I live in Minnesota. More specifically I’m in Kandiyohi County with Willmar as the county seat (Willmar population is close to 22,000). You do not have to live in the county to participate in this fair.
Art and culture are huge in this area and we have a Willmar Area Arts Council that helps coordinate many community exhibits and events. However , they are not involved with the fair.
The fair secretary has always been great and willing to listen to input and requests from the community. The current secretary has been in charge for about 3 years. She reached out to me a year ago. Said she knew a lot about cows, but not about artwork. She asked me to show her what our actual media looked like and we worked together on refining some of the fair booklet language. So now pencil drawings will include graphite and charcoal. And instead of “chalk” it will probably say pastels ( either chalk or oil pastels).
They are still struggling with photography. It use to be amateur or professional, but now they are goofing around with another category between the two for those who have received multiple ribbons as an amateur, forcing them to advance. I’m pretty sure that these changes will require more thought.
Thanks for your feedback and good luck on all your State fair entries.
Terri Robichon
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Oh what a beautiful landscape. In none other than my absolute favorite medium! I love the colors of the sunset, reflections on the water, snd bare branches. Thank you for sharing, you’ve inspired me to start working on a landscape now.
I hope you follow @robichon ’s suggestion and send to members minute.
Also thank you for your kind words.
Sonia
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Hello Terri, thank you for starting this very fun thread.
As you know, I’ve been working on a different form of art than visual arts for these months, so these are not exactly the most recent artworks. But these are the pieces I’ve selected to be presented at a summer group show over here, so I decided to share them with you here rather than setting up a new thread for myself.
Hope you like them!
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Terri,
That’s very interesting. I think a problem at our fair is that the same people have been involved for years and they may be resistant to change. I’ve been a floral designer my whole life and last year I was asked to be a judge of floral related entries. It was very difficult because the criteria for judging was so vague, as well as what was considered “floral”. Understandably, floral and crafts can overlap. There was an entry in wall hangings that was a Christmas Tree made out of rusty springs on barn wood. (You’ll have to use your imagination 
). Clever, but not “floral” in my opinion. After the fair I submitted a new set of criteria for judging. I was told by the person in charge that it was submitted to the fair committee but not approved. I’m not sure about that, but I am going to use this myself this year along with their rules so I can be more specific and precise in my judgements. I want to be fair and have good reason for my decisions.
I entered 6 drawings last year. If you enter pastels, there are no sub categories. One of my submissions was a baby monkey (Matt critiqued it last year). I won an honorable mention. What I noticed though, was that all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards went to landscapes. If the judge or judges were landscape painters, that kinda makes sense. I won a blue ribbon on a color pencil drawing of some tree tops that would fit in the landscape category (Matt also critiqued this). I feel that even some limited sub categories would help overall like landscape, animals, people, floral. I guess what I’m rambling about is that I hope that I can somehow help the fair make some changes for the better.
Bill
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Hi Bill -
I love this discussion. I haven’t bumped into anyone else here who has been involved in fairs. I do think it is possible to have an impact, but it does take some doing.
I think I have seen the Members Minutes that you mentioned, but now I’m going to have to go back and refresh my memory. It’s more fun to watch them when you have an idea who the artist is. That’s what I like about this forum. I’m actually making friends and having chats where we are getting to know each other better.
In case you’re interested, here are the episode numbers where Matt has critiqued my artwork (and I always consider it an honor when he selects one of my pieces): 478, 473, 458, 452, 439, 428, 418, 407, 396, 382, 373 with follow up changes shown in 374, and 354 was my first one.
Terri Robichon
PS - for others who are reading this, I believe the members minutes where Bill’s artwork were critiqued were episodes 427 for the baby monkey, 438 for the tree tops and 466 for the charcoal portrait. There may have been others. Bill will have to tell us that.
Hi Maki -
So nice to hear from you again. Good luck at the summer group show. I do remember the first drawing with all the delightful critters in the tree, but the others are new to me. Thanks so much for keeping an eye on all of us at the forum and for sharing these gems with us.
Terri Robichon
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Hi Bill,
Wow! This is gorgeous!
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I love it. Excellent on several levels. REALLY impressed!
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Hello Terri, thank you so much for your very kind words!
The critters piece was very popular at my show last autumn and there was one customer who wanted to purchase the original. But this piece was not for sale, so she bought something else instead. Looks like she was an “owl lady” (not a cat lady) as she bought this one:
Having kept working on my creative-writing project for these 6 months, it appears that I can complete the designing phase and can get back to some new visual arts creations next month 
Once I find some time for drawing, the first piece that I will start working on is the one using your wonderful photos.
I already have a marvelous composition idea for this drawing, so much so that I cannot wait the day I will face my sketchbook again. 
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