Amdall Gallery

I’ve done a few posts lately somewhat focused on near-term nostalgia, particularly in comparing how my drawings have changed over the last two years. Right about the time I started really getting into this website (September-ish 2017), I happened to hear about an interesting art show from a coworker. I had mentioned that I sketched something for the first time in like a decade, and he told me about the 5 X 5 X 5 Show at a gallery called River Oaks. My coworker was entering some hand-carved fishing lures, and he encouraged me to give it a shot.

I believe this was the second sketch I had done since returning to art, and so it definitely was not a masterpiece. I submitted a very rough looking black and white pencil sketch of my kids. To my great surprise, they actually accepted my submission for the show. The family and I went opening night, and it was a pretty fun event. In my opinion, my piece was clearly outclassed by the other artwork. I stuck to the maximum size of 5 inches by 5 inches, but some of these artists were able to capture absolutely amazing detail in even smaller spaces. I was very glad to have been able to participate in such a cool thing.

I missed the “tiny art show” last year (my name for it I guess, I don’t think anyone else calls it that), but fortunately I did catch the announcement this year. Actually, I shouldn’t take credit – River Oaks Center sent me something in the mail. Anyhow, I decided to enter and see if I could improve upon my attempt from two years ago.

I decided to follow the previous theme and do some tiny art portraits of the kids. Perhaps as a lesson learned from last time, I decided to do separate portraits and submit two works. In such a small work space, it’s pretty difficult to capture facial features accurately. Individual portraits seem to leave more room for those key details. Here are the two portraits I submitted:

So, I started with the portrait of my youngest, and I sort of messed up from the start with a decision. This is a scene from when we visited the Video Game Museum in Frisco, Texas (which is really cool by the way). If that doesn’t ring any bells, “It’s Dangerous to go Alone, Take This” is sort of a meme/callback to the original 1986 Legend of Zelda game. The black background fits with the aesthetics of the game…but I knew white letters on a black background would be very difficult for me. Knowing that this was for a show, rather than just practice, perhaps I should have gone with my strengths. But I didn’t, and that lettering really didn’t turn out well.

On the flip side, I do think the kiddo turned out pretty well. It looks like her and all, and I captured her expression. Unfortunately, it just seems the dark, poorly-lettered pamphlet distracts from her significantly. It’s a shame, but I didn’t want to redo it. Instead, I went forward with a second 5″ x 5″ portrait, this time of my oldest daughter. This one I think turned out a bit better. I didn’t make any bold moves or try to do anything I wasn’t comfortable with. It’s just a straight up, head-and-shoulders portrait – I can handle those.

Almost as soon as I finished the second portrait, I snapped a couple photos and submitted my application via Call for Entry. Although, as I said, I don’t like how the pamphlet turned out, I didn’t want to sit on these and second guess myself. I figure if they don’t like it, they just won’t accept it for the show. I know how my brain works, and if I had sat on this, I would have probably completely missed the show. So, I guess we’ll see!

I didn’t take very many progression shots this time, but I did take a few. Hopefully, these are synced up, because I placed them right next to each other:

I also still want to write more about art/drawing models, so that should be a post coming at some point. Also, I recently became an uncle for the first time, which I’m excited about. With his mother’s permission, I’d like to do a portrait of my cool little nephew. Infants are somewhat difficult, but it would be a fun challenge. So, all that is probably coming soon!