Happy Summer! Have you noticed that your Prismacolors are extra "creamy" in this weather?
I just realized it's been almost a month since our chapter meeting. Hopefully that means you're a month farther along on your entries for our chapter show in September! Watch for the entry forms to be available in the next week or so. We'll need some volunteers to help with registration, hanging, takedown, etc. so if you can help in any way, let me know. Our chapter is only as strong as its volunteers! And, even if you've never entered a show before, I encourage you to enter ours: it's a great way to "get your feet wet", and you'll be helping raise local awareness about colored pencil as a legitimate art medium, one of the goals of the CPSA.
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The photo is me with the lovely starter set of Faber Castell Polychromos I recently won by getting the most right answers (19out of 20) in a "scavenger hunt" quiz on a Facebook group named "Colored Pencil Artists and Lovers." There is no affiliation whatsoever between it and the CPSA, but there are a lot of CPSA members on it and it's quite a nice resource for information about anything colored pencil related! Many folks post their new work as they finish, so it's like a non-stop revolving art show, too. So if you 're on Face Book, check it out.
You've already read the meeting minutes that Linda Loder sent out, but I want to reiterate what a great presentation Gil McMillon, owner of Accent Arts in Palo Alto gave us. If you weren't able to attend, you really missed out! Just when you think you've got a fair grasp of the materials available that work well for colored pencil, here's a man who's not only a walking encyclopedia of art materials, but is a working artist who has tried them all himself and has the lowdown straight from the manufacturers. I hope to have him back for a future presentation!
I'm going to be attending the national CPSA convention in Covington, KY July 31-August 4, so if you're not attending and there is anything specific you'd like me to report back about, please e-mail me and let me know. I will be representing our chapter so your concerns are our concerns!
Our next meeting will be Saturday, August 25 at 11:00 A.M. The best way to ensure you'll be able to attend is to host it! We don't have a location yet so if you'd like to host at your house/apartment or know of an economical (or better yet free) venue nearby, please contact me. We promise not to draw on your walls ... unless you want us to!
I want to give a shout-out this month to one of our hardest-working chapter members, Yevonne Reynolds. She's not only our webmaster, who undertook a complete overhaul of our website last year, she also is our graphic designer anytime we need a unique certificate, a chapter brochure, an entry form, a blog posting, you name it! Yevonne lives way up north in a rural area near Eureka so she's proof that you can be a very active member no matter how far from other members you live. Thank you for all you do, Yevonne!
Finally, on a technology-related note, I want you to promise you'll back up your computer files tonight. Yes, tonight. And then make sure your backup is good. Just do it. I am still recovering from a hard-drive crash on my main computer earlier this month. Of course all of my digitized artwork, art business files, e-mail, potential reference photos, etc. were on it! I had gotten out of the habit of regular backups over the past year, shame on me. Simply making backups doesn't solve everything, either — the last time I suffered a hard-drive crash, my backups were all bad because the drive was already going bad when they were created. It's costing me $2000 to try to have my files recovered this time. Don't let it happen to you! Once your original artwork is framed, sold and gone, it's not around to rescan.
Happy Drawing!
Denise
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