For the Birds! - Mosaic Medley Art Challenge

I did the following two paintings for my new art challenge. They are both of the same scene, the first one is taking it literally, and the second is having some fun with it.

For the Birds #1

Oil

For the Birds #2

Oil

Another Sketch of Miss Morgan

This is not a sketch from real life, but rather from a photo which I'm thinking of painting. My plan is to wrap up the great dane portraits today and get started on hers, we'll see how that goes...

GSU Sketch

I was waiting outside of this building (Georgia State University - Alpharetta) yesterday and decided to sketch it. It funny, when I was in school and forced to sketch, it was a bit of a chore. Now that I'm older, and it's not an assignment, I really enjoy it. It also doesn't hurt to have a sketchbook I like.

I love my new sketchbook! My previous sketchbook was just perfect and I've been spending ages looking for another to take it's place. The problem is that I don't want a "pretty" hard covered sketchbook and that's just about all I can find. Don't get me wrong, it's a plus if it looks nice but first and foremost it needs to be flexible. I'm not a big fan of the hard covered ones for whatever reason. The look great but tactily (sp?) they don't inspire me in the least to pick them up and make use of them. My last one had a plain old paper cover, which I oddly loved, and the interior pages were thick, textured drawing paper. The one I found has a nicer, yet still flexible, cover and the pages are very smooth, more like a moleskin's pages. I picked it up at Dick Blick a couple of weeks ago and it's love!

Harvard's Lowell Hall

Harvard's Lowell Hall

Oil

7x5

I painted this for the art challenge at The Virtual Paintout. I love the premise of this challenge which is to paint from Google Map's street view. I found the blog over the holidays and this was the perfect one to start out with as I used to live in Boston and I absolutely love it there! After "walking around" for quite while I finally decided upon this building on Oxford Street which turns out to be Lowell Hall at Harvard University.

Morgan Under Cover

Morgan was a bit chilly so I threw a coat over her. which made her incredibly happy. She ended up with her head tucked completely under it with just a bit of her nose and her two front paws sticking out. Making her look a bit like a hermit crab. She's quite a character! :)

Kiti, Abacus, and Sumi - Final

Kiti

12x12

oil

Abacus

12x12

oil

Sumi

12x12

oil

Finally, the finished cat siblings. These were fun! I especially like the way the painting of Kiti turned out, the colors at her feet, the look in her eye. Painting black cats was a challenge as it was tough to make out details in the photos.

Monarch Butterfly

Monarch Butterfly

Colored Pencil

5x7

This was done for the Paint and Draw Together art challenge. I haven't worked with colored pencils in a while and it was fun to do so again. Also, working in colored pencils is something I could do while relaxing on the couch without making a mess heh heh.

Riley Staring Off into the Wild Blue Yonder - Final

About a year and a half ago I did a sketch of my Riley (here) and turned started working on a painted version (here). I finally pulled it back out last week and finished it up. Here's the final scan:

Riley, Summoning the World

10x8

Oil on Canvas Panel

Art Challenge Blog

I've decided to start an art challenge blog. And the first theme is...you guessed it SNOW!!! Here's a link to the blog, check it out!  http://mosaicmedley.blogspot.com/

Sketches

While sitting in front of the wood stove over the holidays I was able to pull out my sketch book and draw my surroundings a bit. Two of my subjects were a German Shepherd named Jasmine and a Great Dane named Jake. 

Oddly, the normally high strung shepherd was the better model, she laid still for periods of time so I was able to draw her. 

Jake on the other hand, while normally the still one, was constantly on the move so I wasn't able to do a very good job with him.

And then there was the wood stove.

Sumi - Work in Progress 3

Of all of the paintings I've photographed the WIPs for this I'm having the absolute worst time with this one and the one of Abby, in all of the stages. I take several shots and they all come out a bit blurry with intense hot spots and reflections. Hopefully the final scan will be better. In the mean time, here's another shiny shot of Sumi.

Jigsaw - Work in Progress 2-4

Above are are some more stages of the painting of Jigsaw. OK...so I did this backwards. I know you're supposed to paint the background first but sometimes I just can't help myself and I jump right into the foreground subject matter before I realize what I've done. Sometimes you just don't have any control over these things ;).

Duke - Work in Progress 2

I currently have 6 paintings in the works and that's working out quite nicely. It's allowing me to paint a stage of each while allowing some drying time for the rest.

Abby - Work in Progress 3

This photo is kinda fuzzy but here's the third WIP posting for Abby.

Kiti - Work in Progress 2

The second stage of Kiti.

Sumi - Work in Progress 2

I'm back home from the holidays and back to painting! Here's the next stage of Sumi. I've also been day dreaming about the upcoming spring and doing some plein air painting. I've never really done it before unless you count the couple of times in high school and college classes but I've been feeling a pull to try it lately. So, my new obsession is checking out pochade boxes. I currently have a French Easel which I love for around the house but is quite heavy and cumbersome to take out and about. I may try it a bit with my current easel just to see if I like it first though...in the mean time I'm sure I'll be hanging out quite a bit on http://www.guerrillapainter.com! :)