
After creating many, many designs I selected the composition of dancing Sandhill Cranes on the lower right. It has good motion, dynamics, overlapping images, and shows a more common relationship where some cranes dance and others watch. I reduced this sketch 50%, darkened the room and projected the image onto a 48″ x 60″ stretched canvas using my ancient opaque projector. Right in the middle of sketching the beamed image the projector light bulbs burned out and I was shocked not only to find replacement bulbs on my shelf, but dated 1989! The first bulbs lasted 20 years, amazing, a testimony to how little I use this system for sketching my work onto the canvas. Many times I just free from draw the subjects, but this time I wanted more control on such a big surface.
Gail Niebrugge, Alaska wildlife art


Great post. Can I ask you a question? I want to start a blog as well that is why I was searching on the internet for blogs to use as examples, do you find you have to be perfect in your grammar to have people like what you write? I have been told I write like I speak, so I was wondering if that was a bad thing.
Thank you. The advice you have been given to be yourself is good advice. Best wishes, Gail