Sketching??

On with the Hunt. These are #3, my favorite beverage container, coozy(last night) and #4 bell and backlight challenge. Both with the ZIG, blue, generic sketchbook. About 10 minutes each. I should warm up a little before I start and think ahead, which is what I am trying to make myself do. But, instead I just plow in and then it is all off line, etc. Maybe after a jillion sketches I will do better. These are not great. Ugh. But ..... I am sketching. Yeah.







I am working on the acrylic painting of the adobe houses to take to Magdalena. I hope to get a new pastel done as well. Sometime in between, I need to get ready for Christmas. Argh.

We will be on the road for 6 or 7 days next week so that puts a crimp in things. It is my mother-in-law's 90th birthday on December 19. What do we get for a present?? Just think of the changes she has seen. She is still on her own. Amazing person. She worked and raised nine children. She was a seamstress, carpenter, painter, teacher's aid, volunteer, and so much more. She always does everything in her home. Just a couple of years ago she painted her house inside, including refinishing the cabinets. She makes a rosary a day and figures she has made 6,000 plus. Sends them all over the world. She painted some acrylic paintings and then gave me the supplies she had. When I went through them I found a group of trees she had done and framed it and sent it to her for her birthday. She said she thought it was not quite my style, then realized it was hers. She liked that. I will try to get a snapshot of it and post here. It was probably painted about 15 years ago.

Have a good day and accomplish what you have planned! I will try to do the same.

Art Day Out

This was a great art day overall, but no paintings or sketches to show for it. I went to Regina's to check out her new studio. It is not quite done, but wow! We should all be so fortunate. Just beautiful. Light, storage, light, space, view, and did I mention light. Oh and a porch. We were going to paint, but decided on the Thursday Art Crawl in downtown Austin. The theme this month was RED. We went to the Wally Workman Gallery. The art there is always good. Two favorites are Will Klemm and Terri Jonas. Across the street is a new one, Russell Connection. Roy Donley, local artist, paints in the style of the masters. Very nice, good light in his work. They had other local artists and some sketches of Renoir, Picasso and others. Interesting. Who knew?

We then had to eat, of course, and go to the Austin Pastel Society Christmas party. Very nice. We had show and tell and gift exchange. I got a set of watercolor pencils. I can sure use them in my new sketching frenzy. (Yes, frenzy. For me, more than once a month is a frenzy.) The Young Alpaca painting, above, was my item for show and tell. You can read about him or buy him on my web page.

Little Red Wagon for Gene

Charlotte, from the Family Crisis Center, called and had something for me to pick up for Gene. A surprise! Gene had mentioned or complained to her at the Festival of Trees that he had never had a red wagon and intended to bid on the one at the Festival. Some how he and I both missed the wagon. I went by today to pick up the surprise. Well, it is a little Radio Flyer. Too nice! Take a look. Thanks, Charlotte.

The wagon:


The card:

Marbles and Window Sketches

This is Scavenger Hunt #20 on wetcanvas.com .. how the time flies! These sketches are for the Hunt.

For those of you that don't follow my blog, I don't erase and I use a pen or other not erasable media so that I can train my eyes to see and my hand to draw quickly. Sketching is not my favorite exercise, but it is really good for me to do.

This first sketch is of some marbles in an old glass jar. #1 - a jar with something besides food in it. It is also a challenge to draw it above eye level so it is on my computer shelf. I just kept adding things while we watched TV, so the flow isn't great. :) The photo isn't good either, inside without a flash.




#2 - window and view through it. This is the view from Jennie's window. We spent Monday with her as she had her wisdom teeth removed. Ouch!

I sketched with my Zig pen in the generic sketchbook. After I finished the dogs went to check the view so added them in at Jennie's suggestion. Of course, you can see the door through their bodies. They are real and not ghost dogs.

Final Portrait of Julie

Ta Da...

Finished Julie's portrait. I could just keep on messing with it, but that won't teach me anymore. Every time I quit, I would find one more line to change. In a detail painting, one line too thick or thin or wrong color can change a whole painting. Look at the last post. The chin looks so wide without the shadowing. I did not change any of the basic shape, just added the shadows and highlights. I also worked on the mouth a little more and the eyes.

On to the adobe house and next project....... Hope to get into the Scavenger Hunts again, they are on number 20 today. Whew.

Later.....

Portrait - Jaw, Adobe House - painting progress

I wasn't going to post this until I finished, but decided that it may be interesting to see if I can correct the jaw with just the shadows. I already smudged it a little, from the end last night, so you don't get the first bad photo. :) I'm going to work on it now.



The house is coming along nicely. Harder to give the impression of adobe in acrylic as opposed to oil. I used the knife, but acrylic doesn't hold the shape as easily and I had to build layers. It isn't finished yet, but is getting there. Always a different challenge with each medium.

Quote on Art

Here is the quote from the Hobby Lobby ad/weekly coupon this morning

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Scott Adams

Boy, does this ring true, with the portrait, especially. :)