Great Gift for the Holidays!

OK, I can hear you saying it "COME ON...Summer isn't even over and you're talking about the holiday season already!? You're crazy!" Here's the thing, while I may be a little crazy here and there, I'm actually not on this one.

I looked at the calendar and just about died! How do I figure? 2 weeks for holiday shipping + 4-6 weeks for drying time (most portraits are painted in oils and they take a long time to dry) + time to work on the painting (they each require several steps with drying time in between) and WOW! Here we are!

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Collaborative Sketchbook Project

It can be tough living away from family especially during the holidays! We've been lucky in that we have been able to see most of our immediate family each year but the goodbyes can be rough! I try to keep in contact with my nieces and nephews throughout the year and this year I thought of a great way to do that even though there are many miles between us!

My youngest niece is just one in the family who loves art as much as I do. One evening, just after they had left, I was sketching away with my new sketch pens from Santa and a light bulb went off! I should start a shared sketch book with my niece! I'll sketch some then mail it to her, then she'll sketch some and mail it back and so on. It has yet to be determined what the "rules" are as I'm leaving that up to her. Do we add onto each other's sketches? Or is there a "hands off" rule? Once she has created her bit my sister will be posing that question to her. I'm quite interested to hear what she says. As artists it's hard to let others jump in and poke about at something you've created, however we could learn so much if we could relinquish that control for just a bit and see what happens.

We Heart Art!
Inside cover of the sketchbook.

I decided to personalize the book and add some hot pink construction paper for a bit of fun. In hind site I wish I'd hand drawn our initials as my craftsmanship is very poor there with the cut and paste method. Oh well, this is about letting go and having fun right? We'll see if I can leave that alone when I get the book back…

Darlene Sketch #1

And here's my first sketch contribution. I thought I'd do something which would appeal to my niece, a cartoon horse with long eyelashes. Again, we'll see if I can avoid going back to touch this up. I was riding in the car when I did this one so my hands weren't as steady as I'd have liked.

Happy Birthday Jeanmarie!!!!

Strike a Pose
11x14
Graphite

My niece turns 10 today! Jeanmarie is a fun girl who's into many things including Art, Reading, Lacrosse, Soccer, and most of all Horses! I have watched her go through my web site and pick out pieces which she likes, mostly I have seen her point to the horses. So, a few weeks ago when we were talking about what to get for this special little girl on her birthday, the idea of my doing a horse portrait for her popped up.

I had a lot of fun working on this, not the least of which was based on whom I was creating it for. It's a lot of fun to give presents from the heart and I poured my heart into this. I find that working on graphite renderings puts me into a very peaceful place, I haven't done one in a while so I was reminded of this while I worked "ohmmmm...."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEANMARIE! I hope you enjoy your present as much as I enjoyed making it for you!

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The View from my Seat

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!

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! :)

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.

Rose Sketch

Pencil sketch of a rose I did for the Paint and Draw Together blog. I didn't have the time or materials with me to do anything fancier but I had a little bit of time this morning and thought I'd go ahead and do something.

Sketches

Here are some sketches I did last night while watching Runaway Jury on tv. I saw the movie before so it didn't take all of my attention and I was able to scribble a bit.

This is Riley, he's a greyhound/pointer mix, or that's the guess anyway. He came from a puppy rescue in Colorado. He is a very slender and sleek guy. Here he's in one of his favorite places, laying on the ottoman looking out the window at the birds, squirrels, neighbors, and anything else which may float by. He kept changing position (darn him) hence all of the starts and stops.

Here he's moved to the chair to settle in for a good nap. Yes, the dogs are part of the family and do get to sit where the humans do. Thank God it's microfiber, that stuff is wonderful!

Here's a sketch of Morgan and Riley, they were sleeping in separate locations, they just happened to fit like puzzle pieces into each other on the page. Morgan is another rescue dog, she came from a humane society in GA, her mom was found wandering the streets pregnant, was brought into the the humane society and gave birth to the most adorable litter! The guess is that she's a boxer/lab mix.

I couldn't possibly have gotten sick of the dogs...they must have left the room at this point. They were getting a bit self conscious having me stare at them so much. I know dogs don't get self conscious but by the looks they give one would swear that they do.

The final sketch, this is of Morgan who has claimed the ottoman, one of her favorite evening places, though she's not quite as slim and flexible as Riley and sometimes it takes her a couple of turns and landing attempts before she gets herself positioned so she feels like she won't fall off.

Pencil Portrait - Finished

Pencil Portrait

8x10

Pencil Portrait - Work In Progress 3

Pencil Portrait - Work In Progress 2

Pencil Portrait - Work In Progress 1

Here's the initial sketch for a pencil portrait I've been working on. I'll be posting the rest of the stages over the next few days.

Tomatoes - Work in Progress Part 1

I was flipping through my sketchbook this past weekend and a piece of paper fell out with this sketch I'd done drawn on the back. I drew this a couple of years ago when I was inspired by the tomatoes growing in my vegetable garden. I thought it looked fun so I've decided to a pastel painting of this. Here's my initial sketch, I generally start off everything using a yellow ochre colored pencil so it's a little hard to see.

Boston's South End - Work in Progress

This is a sketch for a pen and ink/watercolor painting I'm working on. I was hoping to have it completed by now but best laid plans and all...I've decided to post a step by step of my progress instead.