I figured I should post prices for different pieces, somewhere. I am setting up a PayPal account, which I will post here too. I also take money orders. You can email me about anything below at HarleyMakesArt@gmail.com. Don’t miss the coupon that’s on my Instagram!
First of all, I can get you a printed copy of any of my pieces. A 5×7″ will be $10 while an 8×10″ will be $20.Soon, I should have this all in an online shop.
I will likely add more and edit this later!
Hunger. $550. 24×18″ in oil on canvas.
Wondering. $350. 14×18″ in oil on canvas.
Objectified. $150. 8×10″ in colored pencil on paper. Comes with matting in a frame.
Modelesque. $100. 8×10″ in colored pencil on paper. Comes with matting in a frame.
Ganja Goddess. $225. 8×10″ in acrylic on canvas.
Relax. $300. 14×18″ in oil on canvas.
Wisdom Whispers. $200. 8×10″ in acrylic on canvas.
The Magic of Reflection. $50. 8×8″ in acrylic on wood.
Again, my email is HarleyMakesArt@gmail.com. Thanks so much for your support!
More than painting this week, I’ve been marketing and trying to force myself to make scary phone calls.
I’m still getting trapped in my head a lot. Once you become your own boss, you have to learn how to keep yourself on track without the threat of being fired. As a reminder to stay positive, though, I’m focused on art for more hours of the week than ever before. I have faith that I will meet my time goals, pretty soon.
So here’s some of what I’ve been up to.
The flowers are beginning to come to life.
I’ll start with the newest thing, actually, because I’m most excited about it. The flowers are starting to come along and the background just feels really happy to me. I’m going to work on my face a bit more too, some finishing details. This should only take a few more hours. Working bigger is worth the results and the patience!
I love that oil paint doesn’t dry fast, so you can mix all the colors on the palette and not worry about them drying before you get them on your brush.
Just started a new palette. These are the colors for some of the flowers, which is mainly what I worked on today. I’ll fill up the rest of this in a couple days.
I want to show you the process for a cartoon-y, illustration-y piece I’m working on too, so here:
Looks ghostly.
I started with a sketch that I then transferred onto a canvas I painted black. I then started by shading using white, so that I can pile other colors on top. It acts as a guide. The face turned out different. I actually like the face in the original sketch better, so I’m going to to save that sketch in case I want to turn it into digital art later on.
Then comes the messy stage. There’s always a stage where the piece looks sub par, but it’s a work in progress! This is where I mix the colors with enough water to make them transparent and start packing them on there.
Packing in more color…
Now the piece is coming along. I added lines with a sharpie, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I do think the piece looks better with lines, although I need to go back over some of them with paint to smooth them out. I’ll adjust the colors and the value of those colors… Basically, there’s still several things to do but this is where it starts to look good. This is also as far as I’ve gotten with it.
Now onto marketing stuff…
A couple days ago, I went to a bar called “The Avenue” where everyone I know seems to go. They have live music, art, and drinks so strong you’ll black out after just three of them… Anyway, they let me leave business cards there as well as free samples… I set up some of my art while I sat at a table to draw. I’ve read that doing this in cafes and such is a good strategy and I got their permission to do it. I hope to find other places to do this.
Finally, I got some professional business cards made, as well as coupons that I will hand out. I have both a family reunion and a class reunion tomorrow, so it should be a good opportunity for that. All I need to do is get over my shyness and talk to people.
I will be posting that coupon online as well!
So I guess that’s it. I plan to update more often, maybe with shorter updates. I need to build a larger audience, but I suppose that will come with time. Anyway, thanks for reading!
I like to switch it up. I love realistic work, which, I believe will aid me in drawing well from fantasy… That’s the thing right there, I also want to draw from my head. So, I do both. One day I’d like to be at the level where I could do CGI for movies and video games, if I wanted. I’m certainly not there yet and probably won’t be there for years. My cartoon-y stuff is improving, though, which makes me happy. Studying figure anatomy is helping.
My friend says the girl looks like me, probably because I’ve been painting self portraits. It’s likely an idealized version of myself, if anything… That flower was drawn from a fake flower. Real life.
I have plans for these sketches. The chick is gonna go on this wooden secret book thing I bought at Michael’s… I’m curious about working on wood, it’s certainly more pourous…
The stencil moved a little as I was transferring, but I should still be able to make it look just fine.
This is the way I transfer my sketches onto a canvas or other surface. It’s a tedious process, but precise. And cheaper than transfer paper… I trace my original sketch, then I go over those lines on the opposite side with a charcoal pencil. Then, I put the tracing paper over the new surface, tape it down, and go over the lines again with a different colored pen, to make it easier.
Sometimes, I like to paint freely. It lets me adopt new ideas and it gives my brain a breakfor a bit.
Artist tape is expensive. It’s probably something I’ll start ordering on Amazon.
I’ve been wanting to develop new styles and ideas for my backgrounds, I’m pretty happy with this, actually. I was messing around on these canvases previously. I just used some artist tape and then colored each of the sections. I like the results. I’ll probably paint some flowers on these or something since there seems to be a market for that kind of art, anyway. The flower sketch I showed you at the beginning will probably go on one of these.
When I was camping over the holiday, I took photos of flowers around the park as well as different textures and anything else I found interesting. I can use these as references later with no risk of being sued.I’m happy with the progress I’m making.
I’ll say it again, I love working big… It’s more expensive, but the results are worth it. Gonna keep working on this until I’m satisfied… I decided I’m gonna buy big canvases from now on, whenever I can. Obviously, they are expensive.
That big one would normally cost over $50 at Michael’s.
I got these canvases on sale, 50% off. If not for that, I wouldn’t have bought them. I’m always keeping my eye out for sales.
An experimental piece that I actually want to sell.
So this is a piece I just finished, it’s not my best work and yet I still really like it. Something about it… The drawings are mannequins that I drew years ago while taking classes. What makes me happy was how I shaded that first mannequin pretty realistically without any reference. That shows improvment… And I don’t know, I just feel there’s some symbolism here. I’ll probably sell it pretty cheap but I think I’m still gonna sell it.
I’m finishing up old pieces that are already less skilled than my current work, which makes me proud! I’m so glad to find myself constantly improving. The hard work is really paying off and no matter what might be happening in my life… I have this. Thanks for reading!
So I have a confession: I haven’t been painting very long. Most of my experience is in drawing with graphite and colored pencil. I’ve been painting for maybe a year and a half and I’ve taken a couple painting classes. What this means, ultimately, is that it still takes me a long time to finish a piece because I don’t always know what I’m doing.
And that’s ok. It all comes with time. I’m already good for my current level of experience, with time it will turn into great.
Anyway, let’s start with one of my first pieces. When I say “first”, I mean paintings I’ve started since I moved my studio about a year ago.
I’m calling this one “The Closet”. I’ll let you figure out the rest.
This is the 2nd painting I started since getting serious about painting. It still needs work, more detail on the moon… Honestly, I’m trying to adopt a “just get it done” mentality to combat my perfectionism. Perhaps it’s not my greatest painting, but it’s still good, and since I’ve been working on it so long, I just want to get it finished. As I said in my last post, oil paintings take a long time to dry. After this layer dries, I just need a few more details.
This is actually a friend of mine. We used to work together in a dispensary.
This painting? I keep wanting to call it finished… The only thing it still needs is perhaps some detail on the weed plants. The most challenging thing for me right now is smooth lines. It’s getting the right combination of pigment and linseed oil in order to form something solid. If anything, I might want to add a few details but it is pretty much done.
This is a lot more vibrant than most of my work, which shows how happy I was painting for an audience.
This is a painting I started at the Ganja Goddess Convention. It has a long way to go. The flowers are based from real life rather than a photo, but of course I just started them. I used acrylic paint for the first and second layer, now I’m using oil on top.
When you start learning the human figure, you draw people nude. I continued to draw women as I questioned my sexuality and strived to be thin.
This is the 1st painting I started since my new studio, so I’m definitely ready to call it done! I added more color to the hair because something felt lacking. I lightened up the background… I’m deciding whether I’m satisfied with it, I think I might be. As I said, I need to have the mentality of just getting it done… That one breast is larger than the other, I’ve noticed, but that’s realistic, honestly. Nobody’s body is perfectly symmetrical.
I keep changing the background, I’m actually starting to like it. The left boob has issues.
This one has a ways to go… It’s drawn and painted from real life. The reason it isn’t as realistic as, say, my Buddha painting, which I should probably also show you… Is that I started drawing it in one lighting, but then I’m using slightly different lighting to paint it, as well as a different mirror. Therefore, it’s not gonna be super realistic, a lot of it has to come from my head. That means it’s gonna be more cartoon-y. That’s ok though! Lesson learned, and I get practice with improvising.
Bigger means easier.
This is my newest painting. It is so much easier to get in detail and it pops out so much more when you work bigger, so I want to do that as much as I can now. Maybe it’s easier but it also allows for expansion. I’ve realized my favorite artists do such amazing work because they work big!
Anyway, I had to adjust the nose, I realized the proportions were a little off… I’m debating whether to keep those large circles under my eyes because it certainly says something about me… I know it looks good, but it’s gonna look even better once I get all the detail in there. It needs to dry though first before the next layer… I’m still not sure what to put in the background.
I’d like to start posting these blog posts earlier in the day for a wider audience, but, you know. I’m a night owl so for now this works… Anyway, thanks for reading… I’ll just show you the Buddha painting tomorrow… The next couple of days will be art days, too, so you’ll be seeing more soon!
Harley Makes Art 