One of the regulars on this blog asked me to talk about Quickdraws. She’s a sculptor, and says she’s avoided doing these in the past but has been talked into taking the leap; she’s worried because normally she’s a self-professed “slow” sculptor, and that she might get stage fright.
I do one Quickdraw a year (the Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival) though I suppose the demos I do in my workshops sorta count … however, in my workshops I’m talking and waving my brushes around a lot and making relatively little progress in the meantime. My main observations are:
- Choose a fairly simple subject, one you know well and feel very comfortable depicting. This is probably not the time to paint an entire pack of wolves taking down a bison while the rest of the herd mills about.
- Have a plan: know your composition and painting size, have your frame ready (for flatwork artists). I’ve noticed that sculptors tend to at least have their armature ’sketched’ into place before packing on the clay (probably a good idea).
- If you’ve not done a Quickdraw before, practice - see what feels comfortable to accomplish in the hour slot.
- Have everything set up and ready - including colors mixed - before the start of the hour.
- Realize that adrenaline will take over at the actual event. For me, this means I actually whack the paint around more with bigger brushes - I tend to forget I have anything smaller than a #10 or #12 flat with me. Adrenaline makes me looser.
- Size matters: I see the highest prices at the JH Quickdraw each year on the biggest pieces. People are impressed by size.
- If you’re able to chat with spectators, great. If not, don’t worry about it. I tend to tell spectators before I start that I get very focused and sometimes don’t hear their comments or questions, and so my apologies in advance.
- If you can work near a buddy, so much the better. I have a couple artists I like to be near, and we trade insults, jabs, and repartee the whole time - entertaining the crowd is always A Good Thing.
- If you can, have a support crew to help entertain the crowd and to help you get your one-hour masterpiece framed up. I have a number of Jackson friends who show up to cheer me on and tell others about my work.
- Have some business literature nearby - business cards, flyers, whatever - unless this is under your gallery’s aegis. Since I’m painting about 50 feet from Legacy’s doorstep, I just refer people to Legacy Gallery to see more of my work, and I tell them I’ll be there after the auction to chat.
- Take advantage of any opportunity to say a couple words about yourself and your painting during the auction, if you’re permitted.
There you have it - Quickdraws in a nutshell!
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