Welcome to my new site!

	Esther Jobrack via web	34 months ago
	Here is a copy of my April 25 Newsletter, for those who didn't get a chance to subscribe to the Email List. Esther Jobrack Fine Art Newsletter Updates - Projects - Newly Completed Works - Thoughts - Goings On April 25, 2009 Thank you for joining my Newsletter Mail List! And welcome to the first edition. I am very excited to be making my art available for public sale on line. Mid April I joined Fine Arts Online and developed this website. It marks the beginning of my campaign to have my art business up and running by the time I retire. I will be displaying my works at festivals, competing in shows, and asking galleries to place my work. Most important to me though, will be my personal contacts with YOU. I look forward to hearing the pros and cons about works as I release them. I want to know what speaks to you or turns you off. And as a Newsletter member you will be the first to hear when I make a new piece, and also when it becomes available in more affordable reproductions. I hope you will find my stories, my process, and technical notes interesting. Thank you again, Esther ____________________________________________________________________________________ Technical Notes - Graphite Today's topic is graphite. One of my favorite mediums and one all of us are familiar with, generally in pencils, mechanical pencils, and sometimes in stick form. I use graphite on high quality archival drawing paper; most often 70 pound paper. I usually start with a sketch from a still life, or I might photograph a still life I set up, and then area by area lay out the main plan. I build up the depth and dimension layer by layer, using progressively darker and softer pencils. This is a photo of "Vest and Rope". The color might show on your monitor in tans, but its true color, is in neutral gray to black tones. I was honored to win first and second place ribbons for it the two times I put it in competition. Vest and Rope "Vest and Rope" took over 80 hours to complete. I used approximately 7 different hardnesses of graphite pencil in its execution. The softest was 8B, and the hardest 4H. One thing to look for in quality graphite work, is that the darks are not ground into the paper. I feel it is important to allow the paper to breathe through the graphite. What I mean is, for dark areas, I use a soft pencil that releases the graphite easily with little pressure. The tooth, or natural roughness of the paper causes the friction that pulls the graphite off the pencil. It should leave the tiniest of white specks of paper showing through. The pencil should never be used hard enough to make grooves or divits in the paper. This allows that sparkle through and keeps the dark areas from looking dead, and it prevents the viewer from being distracted by grooves. It also keeps the graphite from getting that shiny look that makes it hard to view the piece. ____________________________________________________________________________________ EstherJobrack Fine Art Esther Jobrack Blog Subscribe to the Newsletter If you have questions about my process, or a technique, drop me a line. I love to share my experience of the process with people who want to know about it. Please forward my Newsletter to your friends, or ask them to take a look at my site. Take care, be safe and talk to you soon. "Art is a Snapshot of the Essence" - Esther Jobrack