Moving Day #2!

Hello there! 

The Red Stone Art Blog has moved to a new home over at www.RedStoneArtStudio.com! 

Eventually I will be moving all my posts on over to the new website, but as that's quite the endeavor, let's not hold our breath that I finish that job any time in the next year. ;) 

Artist Interview: Haley McAndrews, Red Stone Art Studio

It occurred to me that I have yet to write an introductory post, so I thought I'd celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Red Stone Art Studio blog with an Artist Interview - my own interview, in fact!
 

Well, isn’t this a familiar face around here?

My name is Haley McAndrews, my studio name is Red Stone Art Studio, and I currently live in Denison, IA. The most common word I use when describing my art is “varied” (the second most common word is probably “toaster”), but I think it all generally falls under the category of illustration. I haven’t focused on one signature “thing,” instead wanting to try ALL the things! I can at least narrow it down a bit: I am definitely NOT a musician, sculptor, potter, or glass artist.

 

"Aviators Never Go Out of Style" 8"x10" pencil drawing on paper, colored digitally

My favorite mediums to use are acrylic and watercolor paint, colored pencils, pens, markers, and random collaged bits (including but not limited to: various papers, book pages, leaves, sand, fabric, buttons, plastic gems, pencil shavings, etc.) I love mixing and layering different items to create a more interesting piece. For many years, I was mainly working digitally, and digital painting still holds a place among my favorites.
 

It may not be educational, but it's definitely entertaining.

My next project will be finishing up my Toaster Haiku book. It’s a silly poetry book for both children and adults, and I’m loosely aiming for a publishing date of early 2024. I’ve been hired to illustrate another children’s book (I’m not the author) and I’m REALLY excited about that! I’ve also got a few art fairs and events booked for this year, and I’ll be getting ready for those soon. I’m also still working on my blog (obviously) although I’m only posting every two weeks now that I’m working full-time now. I do have a fantasy novel that I add to every so often, but it’s nowhere near completion. I’m still drawing and painting too, and hope to join in Acrylic April (every day in April you paint in acrylics.)
 

An older photo, but I still heart vampires.

In addition to selling my art, writing, and illustrating, I do occasionally teach classes! Most recently, I taught a couple Kusudama (medicine ball) origami flower classes. I also developed a 4-week class on digital photo editing, where I teach participants how to use Adobe Photoshop/Photoshop Elements – but it’s been some years since I’ve done that one.

 

There's no mixing these two tools.

What’s my favorite art tool? The first thing that came to mind is my paint water jar – it’s a former pickled okra jar (I do love pickled okra!) that I’ve used for paint water for probably 20 years. I love the history I have with it, all the layers of paint, and will probably cry if it ever breaks. The coolest art tool I have is definitely my Gaomon digital tablet. I had to replace my old tablet in 2021 after using it for 17 years, and I couldn’t be happier with my new one! It has a large screen, which is amazing to use, plus it was extremely reasonably priced when compared to other brands.
 

"Dancing in the Storm" 10"x8" acrylic paint on canvas

A big issue for me as an artist is imposter syndrome. I look at other artists whose work I really admire, and then I look at my own work and struggle to feel adequate. Do my toasters belong in the same gallery as stirring political photography or gorgeous watercolor landscapes or even photorealistic pastel artwork? This blog is a prime example; even though I’ve been blogging about art for a year now, I’m hesitant to tell people (even art people, MY people!) about it. The imposter syndrome still hits me randomly – like when I was on the Moms Who Create podcast for the second time to promote and talk about my second children’s book. As I’m talking to Kelli (the really awesome host, who has actually become a friend) you can hear me catch myself, like “Oh yeah I guess I made a thing and….” The whole reason I was on the podcast was to talk about my work! To fight the anxiety, I remind myself that I am the expert on my own artwork. I know how I created it and why. The audience is just curious about what I have to say. It’s not like someone is going to jump in and interrupt me to tell me I’m wrong!
 

"Atypical Redshirt" 9"x12" Watercolor, acrylic paint, marker, and gel pens

My message to artists starting out? Your art is valid, you ARE a real artist, and both you and your art have a place in the world. There is an audience out there for your work. The internet, different art websites, and social media can help you find them – but don’t forget that Likes and Followers don’t necessarily equal success or sales.
 

"Poof" 9"x12" watercolors, colored pencils, and pens

And finally, I want to say thank you to everyone reading this. The Red Stone Art Studio blog is a combination of my many artistic loves: writing, art, and the stories and experiences of artists. Life for me looks a lot different than it did a year ago when I started blogging, and I wonder how it will look next year. Regardless, I will still be overly excited about ALL of the art things, and look forward to sharing them here with you. ❤

30 Drawings in 30 Days! Part 3

We are in the home stretch now, with only ten days left in my 30 Drawings in 30 Days challenge! Here is the link to the first post, with days 1-10 and a link to the second post with days 11-20!

21. Your dominant hand, drawn with your non-dominant hand (drawn in pencil) I've said before, I picked the prompts because I knew they would actually challenge me! If I wanted to make it easy on myself, I would have picked 30 prompts like "draw a comic of a woman doing xyz..." This particular prompt wasn't just a challenge, but a physical challenge as well! I have to admit though, I'm impressed with the result!

Not too shabby!

22. Draw a lamp (possibly your favorite?) (drawn with pencil) Like Steve Carell, I too love lamp! And while I didn't pick my favorite lamp to draw, this one is my second favorite! 

Nothing snarky to report, it's just a great lamp!

23. A tree or other outdoor plant (drawn with pencil, inked with pens) Last year I planted over a dozen lilies around the base of one of our trees, and they came up beautifully this year! So I picked one of them to draw, with two flowers on top. The drawing is in black and white, but the flowers themselves were pink, with dark maroon freckles.

#Lilies have been trending in my drawings lately.

24. A still life of fruit (drawn in pencil) I had to Google it to be sure, but an avocado isn't a vegetable - it is actually a fruit! I even used cross-hatching (the technique from an earlier day in the challenge) and am really pleased with the final drawing!

Avocados are surprisingly fun to draw!

25. A single shoe (drawn with pencil) I chose my daughter's dress-up princess shoe for a subject this time - while my shoes may have more character from use, hers are hands down a lot cuter! ;) 

You just can't go wrong with faux diamond studded shoes.

26. Draw the building you live in (drawn with pencil, inked with a brush pen) I love, love, love house portraits! Seriously, check out #houseportrait on Instagram sometime. It's wonderful. So here it is, chateau McAndrews! I opted for a brush pen and quick strokes for a more impressionistic drawing. I wasn't worried about getting the angles perfect; the feeling of "home" was more important.  

My homie.

27. A superhero of your own design (drawn with pencil) My first thought was to design a new Spider-Man, but I had a lot more fun with this one! Introducing Princess Politically Correct, with superpowers of empathy and understanding, multiculturally colored bandages for boo-boos, and reasonably sized heels! 

She's not here to save the day, she's here to make sure everyone is included!

28. A non-domesticated animal (drawn with pencil) We were so excited when the Henry Doorley Zoo in Omaha had two baby elephants born around the same time, so why not draw one of them for this challenge? Fun fact: elephants are the only animals with four knees.

That baby weighs more than my husband!

29. A self-portrait but dressed up (drawn with pencil) This prompt is the opposite of the prompt for Day 2 (a self-portrait in pajamas.) I was originally planning to draw DC in a long, sparkly evening gown, but instead I chose a work uniform for her - because I had recently been hired at a bank (after 5 years of being a stay-at-home-mom) and I was so excited I just had to draw it!

Anybody got any good accounting jokes? Leave them in the comments below!

30. Something anime style (drawn with pencil, inked with pen) We made it, number 30! I know this one isn't for everyone, but I started drawing anime-style characters back in high school and I will love anime until the day I die. Drawing this, I thought about my teenage self who wished for nothing more than to draw like this back then. Patience, my younger self, because practice makes perfect and you'll get there!

She's walking her dog!

We made it to the finish line! Again, here is a link to days 1-10, and here is the post with days 11-20.

I'm not sure I really learned anything (except that avocados are fruit) but the practice and the process was a lot of fun. The most unexpected result was that my Facebook page blew up! Well, blew up for little ol' me, at least. I ended up with over 25 more followers/likes. The most popular drawing, by a landslide, was my terrible portrait of Jessica Alba... it had over 1,500 clicks and 22,600+ organic views. 😂 Not my finished paintings or drawings I put hours of effort into, oh no, I go viral for a bad portrait!

Would I do this challenge again? Absolutely! Every single year? Maaaaaybe not. I think one challenge a year is enough for me, and in 2023 I'm thinking about jumping back on the Acrylic April bandwagon. The next 30 Drawings in 30 Days challenge will have to wait until 2024 or beyond. Who knows, maybe I'll do a 30 Portraits in 30 Days challenge and really blow up the internet.

30 Drawings in 30 Days! Part 2

Let's jump right back in with the second post about my 30 Drawings in 30 Days challenge! Here is a link to the first post, with days 1-10.

11. Draw something using crosshatching (drawn in pencil) This one was really interesting! I struggled a bit at first with my lines, then found a good rhythm. It doesn't help that I picked the shiny side of a pressed penny as my subject! In the end, I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and would love to use this technique in future drawings!

So shiny!

12. Draw a dragon (drawn with pencil, inked with pen, colored with multicolored colored pencil) Now this one was more my style! I had recently discovered a colored pencil with six different colors in one pencil in the depths of my supplies, and thought it would be the perfect way to give this fluffy dragon a magical sort of look!

I bet he smells like cookies.

13. Draw your non-dominant hand (drawn with pencil) Pretty sure it's a right of passage to have pages of hands drawn in your sketchbook. Maybe not. But hands are hard, which is why I always say "Practice, practice, practice!"

Welp, it's a hand.

14. A blind-contour drawing (drawn with a brush ink pen) Blind-contour drawing is when you don't pick up your pencil (or whatever you are using to draw with) until you are finished, and you also don't look at your paper, you only look at your subject. I did accidentally lift my pen in this drawing, you can see the broken line where it happened. I picked my daughter, Alex, as the subject for this one. She was watching TV on the couch a few feet away from me, and was a perfect still model! I love the way blind-contour drawings turn out, and should really do more of them.

You can kind of tell it's a person!

15. A motorized vehicle of some sort (drawn with pencil, inked with pens) I probably should have picked a car, as my car and truck drawing skills are MIA (missing in action - as you can see in the tiny sketch below) but instead I chose a Segway! 

I've never ridden one, have you?

16. A landscape of your choice (drawn with pencil, inked with pen, and colored with colored pencil) Of course a toaster was going to make an appearance at some point in this challenge! 

Be free, little toaster!

17. A drawing with pointillism for coloring/shading (sketched with pencil, drawn with markers) Another toaster?! This wasn't my favorite one so far, but it was interesting. I'd do more pointillism (using "dots" to create an image) in the future, I think.

Even the lines are dots!

18. A scene with single-point perspective (drawn with pencil, inked with pen) I had started off with this being a cityscape because I loooove cityscapes but after one side of flat, bland buildings I wanted this drawing to get wEiRd!

After 20 years, finally some proper surrealism!

19. A non-motorized mode of transportation (drawn with pencil) The whole point of this challenge was to try techniques/subjects I don't usually use in my art. We have proof that realism isn't my specialty (sorry again, Jessica!) but I do keep trying! For this one though, I wanted something a little more my style. And in the end, I really like how it turned out! 

I've never ridden one of these, either!

20. A non-scary monster (drawn with a soft brush pen) I had DC, a couple of toasters, a city... it only makes sense that I'd include one of my monsters as well! This time with classic reclining style!

Oh my.

Well folks, we are two-thirds of the way through the challenge! Again, here is a link to days 1-10, and here is a link to the last set, days 21-30.

30 Drawings in 30 Days! Part 1

There are hundreds if not thousands of daily drawing prompts you can find online, all laid out nicely for months of creative inspiration and practice. Many of them consist of a single daily word that leaves all sorts of room for interpretation, like “red” or “enlighten.” I thought it would be fun to build a list of my own, and share the results. My goal was to stretch my artistic muscles a bit, so some of the prompts I came up with are very different from what I normally draw! This will be a three-part post, with ten prompts and images included in each post, in the end totaling up to 30. I started this on July 1st, 2022 (but Haley, aren't there 31 days in July? YES! And on the 31st, I took a break!)

Let’s dive right in (pun intended) with 1. Mermaid/merman/aquatic person (drawn with pencil, inked with pens) This character is called Rema, and she's a water fairy from a fantasy story I've been rolling around in my head for a while. In this drawing, she's pregnant and about to birth her egg!

Bloop, bloop!

2. Self-portrait in pajamas (drawn with pencils and gel pens) I'll admit, the first thing I reach for in the morning is my robe! I've probably mentioned this before, but every time I draw a self-portrait, I represent myself as this demon-cat-princess named DemoniCat (DC for short.) It's also how I sign all my artwork (prints get signed with my full name.)

Anyone else rock the robe life?

3. A cat/dog/domesticated animal (drawn with pencil) This is our Jack Russell terrier, Lola. She didn't sit still long enough for me to finish, but it's a pretty good likeness!

She's a good pupper.

4. The view from your front door or window (drawn with pencil) Across from our house are some fields and a little wooded area where we regularly see wildlife - I don't usually draw landscapes, so this one was fun to do!

No wild toasters, though.

5. Draw what your feet are currently doing (drawn with pencil) It's funny, but I didn't really consider what I do with my feet when I'm sitting - turns out I tuck my legs up on the couch, feet together, and cross my legs or ankles when I sit in a chair! 

That one's lefty, this one is righty.

6. A portrait of a celebrity (drawn in pencil) Oh Jessica Alba, I am sorry! 😂 I know if I put in more time, I could continue to adjust her features and eventually get it right, I just didn't want to put in that much time. This is why I don't draw realistic portraits!

It's okay to laugh, that's what I'm doing!

7. A piece of furniture (drawn with pencil, colored with markers) This is a tiny wooden rocking chair for my girls that used to be mine when I was their age!

Heirloom status achieved!

8. A character from a book (drawn in pencil) I'm currently reading the Sword of Shannara trilogy, and this is how I picture the druid Allanon in my head.

What does a campfire really look like?

9. Something in the style of Dr. Seuss (drawn in pencil, inked with pen, colored with crayons) I thought using my kids' crayons would be an appropriate medium for this one. This is a self-portrait of me, just finishing up a painting in my studio, when a mouse skittered past my bare feet (we found out it was a mouse when we caught it two days later, at the time it sounded like the size of a small dog!)

Nailed it!

10. A single leaf (drawn with pencil) I'm not sure if one segment of a Christmas cactus qualifies as a 'leaf' but it's what I chose! If I was to choose again, I think I'd pick a dried leaf from a tree, I think those just have more character.

Pointy, yet soft!

There you have it, the first round of daily drawings! Here's a link to the second set of ten, and here's the post about the final ten.

The Storm Lake Lighthouses

 In early 2021, I came across a call to artists on Facebook that really caught my eye.

Guess how many times I use the word “lighthouse(s)” in this post!

I was immediately interested! The lighthouses are about 7’ tall, 3’ wide, and would be on public display throughout the city. There was a photo of a blank lighthouse standing between the two art teachers, Jess Huss and Libby Whyte, who created and spearheaded the project. It looked exactly like the image on the design application, just seven feet tall. I took a few days to consider some ideas, and then decided on an image of the Landlocked Lighthouse. I wanted it to look like it was a drawing, not a painting. I also thought this would be a relatively simple design to complete since the lighthouse was a flat, cutout board. So I submitted the below image, and it was chosen as one of the inaugural ten designs!

I called it Lighthouse², because it’s a lighthouse on a lighthouse!

I was ready to pick up the blank lighthouse (I would be painting it in my home studio), and arranged the pick-up to coincide with dropping our puppy off at a friend’s who lives near Storm Lake (she would be staying with them when we left the next day on vacation.) I had already measured, and it would fit no problem in the back of my van.

As they say, “the best paid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

I arrived at the building to pick up the lighthouse, and it’s round. Made by Icon Poly, it was a 3-dimensional, round, 7’ fiberglass lighthouse. Okay, well, that’s going to require some Tetris-like skills, as I have two car seats in the van, filled with children, and a dog kennel with a tiny puppy in it (who has of course gotten carsick and thrown up and pottied all over herself in her kennel.) Sorry, guys here to help me, this will take just a moment!

Thankfully all it took was to drop the third row and put the armrests down beside the car seats, and the top of the lighthouse fit like a glove right between my daughters. I wrapped it up in a blanket, and we were off to complete our endeavor without another hitch! When we got home, I emailed my contact about the lighthouse, just in case I had picked up the wrong lighthouse, because I was pretty positive the thing was supposed to be flat. Nope, I had the right one – the photo of the women with the flat image was just to show the size, and I misinterpreted it! My bad!

Photo by Icon Poly, the company that manufactured the lighthouses.

My home studio is not a large space. It was referred to as a “bedroom” when we bought our home, but in reality it’s a tiny room with two doors and one wall is 70% glass patio doors. You’d be hard-pressed to fit a twin size bed in there. It’s a perfect studio, though, with just enough room for some shelves and a table and one easel… No room for a 7’ sculpture though, even if we could have fit it through our doors!

Garage to the rescue! I used a big piece of cardboard as a base, and used it to drag the lighthouse out for painting, and then back into its corner for storage. When we got back from vacation, I gave it a new coat of white primer, and sketched out my drawing with a pencil. I had to modify the design, since it was initially meant for a flat surface, and now had to be put on a round, 3-dimensional surface with windows and a door that stuck out! I decided to modify it so that as you looked at it, the drawing was straight. Then if you take a few steps around, the drawing would line up again. Take a few more steps, and it lines up again, etc. It actually worked out really well! I used acrylic paint, with my two absolute favorite brushes: a #10 round, and a 1" flat, both synthetic. I’ll admit, I listened to the Weeknd’s greatest hits (so far) on repeat the whole time I was painting. I don’t remember how many hours I worked on it, but I do recall singing and dancing as I painted; it was a one-person party!

After the artists returned their finished lighthouses, the sculptures were given a clear coat and mounted on bases. There was a delay in this process, as the company adding the coating was struggling with staffing (as many businesses still are), but eventually the lighthouses were strategically placed with the designs relating to their locations. Mine lives downtown at the Storm Lake City Hall.

Image courtesy of the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune.

There was a ribbon cutting ceremony held on August 11, 2021 at City Hall, with lighthouse cookies (Jon is still perturbed that I didn’t bring him one home) and a long red ribbon – and since my lighthouse was there, I was chosen to wield the giant scissors and actually cut the ribbon!!! Each artist that was there got a chance to talk about their design - and the other designs are incredible! It was fascinating to hear everyone speak about their pieces as they are so wildly different despite celebrating the same city. Here's a link to the article by the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune about the project and the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Image courtesy of the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune.

Image courtesy of the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune.

If you haven’t yet, you really should take a tour of all the lighthouse sculptures. They are removed during the winter but will be replaced in the spring again. It was such a great project and I’m so honored to have been a part of it. I know at one point it was mentioned that this was just a first round, and that more lighthouses could be added in the future. Having a piece of public art on display like this in such a prominent location is truly an honor.

Image courtesy of the Storm Lake Pilot-Tribune.

(The word “lighthouse” was used 24 times in this blog post.)