Chalk Under My Nails (or Is It Bringing Work Home If You're Covered in Dirt?)

Builder in Pastel 

A good Builder should understand structure. (I'm still very much a student for human portraits.) The further I get into this project the more I appreciate the masters who studied biology.

So if I'm staring at you from across the room... don't freak out. I may be studying your face, your nose, your ear, to understand how to construct something like you in my next art piece.

The Builder - One foot in front of the other. On line into the next. One more layer upon the base. Building is all about the steps that move you forward, and the determination to keep moving. 

You Can Never Have Enough Tools (or Does This Pearl Go With My Hard Hat?)

Builder in Pencil 

Finally things are starting to take shape. After the Student, the Mad Man, and the Designer now we can actually roll up our sleeves, grab a hardhat, and get down to the real nitty-gritty of being an artist -- the making.

Putting pen to paper, paint to canvas, clay to the wheel, this is how we all love to spend our time as an artist. How many people do you know who can actually say that they MAKE something everyday?

The work of the Builder can be precise and messy, intense or inspired, methodical or maddening. Every Builder approaches their art with their own unique skills and goals, but each one must back them up with a powerful sense of purpose.

The Builder - Measure twice, paint once. In other words, get the proportions right in your sketch or else you spend way to much time and paint fixing it later. 

Brick by Brick (or That's Not What It Looked Like in My Head.)

Builder in Ink 

Until you can see it, touch it, or experience it, the thing is merely an idea. A perfect idea. An idea that could change the world, save the universe, cure the common cold!

To be an artist means more than just believing you're an artist or saying you're an artist. You've got to get dirt under your fingernails. You've got to actually build something.

It may look like playtime to others, but we know there is serious work happening here. Choosing between ultramarine blue and royal blue could change the entire foundation of your painting.

Manifesting the vision in your head into a tangible reality - that's magic, and it takes a truly skilled builder.

The Builder - Making the thing can be the most difficult task.