What I've been up to these days...

365 Photo Project

I posted a while back about getting a new camera for taking shots for photo reference, of family events, for fun, etc. I've been working at taking better photos with my camera because I want to, it's fun, and it gives me another skill and we can all use those, especially in these hard economic times right? In order to help me focus on that I decided to commit to doing a project 365 for photography. I started back in November and have been pretty good (until the last couple weeks anyway). I've added some of the photos to my etsy shop and a couple of them have even been put into treasury lists, yay!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Ominous Crow
I have learned a lot about crows over the past year or so. The more I learn, the more I respect them. Great and intelligent animals!

I have grown to LOVE squirrels. Due in no small part to this little guy who visits me frequently. (S)he hangs out on the tree outside my office window.

Isn't he the cutest!?

I both want to hug this guy and run away at the same time. He looks HUNGRY!!!
Taken at Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain GA. I love this place!

Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain GA

The Fungi Convention at Wills Park

This guy flew straight at me the moment I got my camera ready!

The next four images are some of my attempts at HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. I've been seeing HDR images around and have fallen in love with them. Being a graphic designer/illustrator, as well as a fine artist, HDR seems to be a natural direction for me. I love the illustrative quality of HDR photos with their saturated color and wide range of value. I'm having fun learning about it am trying to get better at it. I've has some horrible results but am pretty happy with how the ones below turned out.

Mushrooms

Horse Stables at Wills Park Equestrian Center

Creek at Wills Park

My Riley. It's quite challenging, I've found, to do living beings in HDR. To get the full value range, you take 3 shots (some people take more) then merge the photos together. If the subject moves the HDR comes out blurry. This is the reason for the not-so-ideal expression I captured here, it was the only pose he was still in for all three shots.

Sophie

The portrait of Sophie has gone home! The painting finally dried enough to scan and package up to send off.

Clubs/Networking

A few years back I was looking for an artist group where people would get together to paint and socialize. It happened that one was starting up at about the same time I was looking so I checked it out. It turned out that the group was more about how artists could sell their work, or at least that was my interpretation at the time. While that is a fantastic thing to get together and help each other with, I just wasn't "there" at that point. My goals have changed a lot over the years so I recently decided to give the group another try and I now think it's going to be a perfect fit. Also, they were talking about adding some group events such as plein air painting around town, etc. which sounds incredibly exciting to me! I plan on joining and I look forward to being a part of this group's future.




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Sophie!

Sophie sounds like quite a character and I was so happy to get to paint her! She seems to go just about everywhere with her people from the beach, to camping trips, to taking rides on a motorcycle! Such a little cutie who's obviously very loved!

Here are the photos of the finished portrait:

Sophie - Detail

Sophie
Oil
16x16

Below are the work in progress photos:

Underpainting

This is the wild and crazy color phase!

In this round I added more detail, lightened up the background, put some of Sophie's natural coloring in, and added more definition to her body.

Here I simplified and lightened the background up a bit, both of which makes  Sophie stand out more. I also added the final touches here and there, refining it until I was happy with it. For this phase, I leave the painting sitting where I will pass by it frequently. Each time I pass, I have an initial reaction and I may or may not see something which jumps out at me which I want to tweak. Once I get to the point where I walk by and nothing jumps out, I photograph it and sent off for approval!

Once Sophie dries, I will paint the sides, apply a certificate and hanging wire to the the back, scan it in, wrap her up and ship her to her new home!


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