José Carrilho, new blog and links

I was doing a little surfing on wetcanvas.com, no particular forum, and ran into an artist I haven't seen for a while. José Carrilho I know from the Soft Pastel forum there. He has a sense of humor and makes constructive comments on our artwork. I smiled when I saw the name of his blog, "The Art Abuser". José is in Portugal. His web page is Hushcolours. (His site is made on sitekreator.com for those of you looking for an easy and inexpensive way to set up a web page) He has made great advancements in his art since I "met" him a couple of years ago. He is generous with his art and comments. :)

He is looking for good articles for study and research. José you might check out

Jerry Lebo, Sixty Minute Artist Very well written and thoughtful help for the artist posts. http://sixtyminuteartist.blogspot.com/

The American Artist Magazine, They have many forums with great articles, I like the pastel forum of course. http://www.myamericanartist.com/

Katherine Tyrrell, my personal ever-growing encyclopedia for sketching, pastels, colored pencil and research. Well, maybe she is everyone's encyclopedia. :) You probably already know about Katherine from wetcanvas. com http://makingamark.blogspot.com/

There are more links below and I will continue to mention some that I read but don't have links to on my blog.

Hi, José!

Sketching on the Computer

I don't know if this is sketching or playing, but here are a couple of samples of computer graphics using the square, circle and odd shapes with the fill tools with different patterns. It is fun to do and doesn't require drawing skills, just imagination. You can see a few more "paintings" done with Dabbler and graphics here on my website.

An Austin skyline.

A desert scene.

Open your word processing program and play with the graphics. :)

Christmas Card Comment

This is another little computer sketch from a few years ago. I think I used it on tags for packages. This was done in the little graphic/paint program in Appleworks with the mouse. Maybe I will start sketching that way again. It is good for trying out color, composition, and testing ideas. And, it is fun.

I have a little correction to the Christmas card post. I made it sound like Gene started his telephone calling in 1999 also. He has been calling friends for many years before that. We just stopped sending cards about then.

Also the last few years of cards, I sent them later and later and they were arriving sometime after Valentine's and maybe by Easter. They were more just "a stay in touch" card. :)

Scavenger Hunt #66 sketches

Hope you are all making headway on your holiday plans. Above is another little piece of computer art I used on a note at some time, probably ten years or so ago when our street was Pine Wood . Always fun to sketch, even on the computer.

I did a trio of sketches for the Scavenger Hunt 66. I can't seem to give up on them. I have taken part in most and somehow I can't just stop. I know that is the best thing to stop an addiction is to just quit, but..... I worked on these in my NY sketchbook on Sunday. Must have been watching golf ... or a Lifetime movie. Something constructive.

Number 1, my hand. Just a few minutes with the Micron 005 pen.




#2, something purple. A Christmas present from Regina. The bag is purple and the paper is red. Very cool looking. I forgot to go back and color it. Oh well. The sketch took just a few minutes. I had to look inside the bag Regina said there was a Christmas ornament with my name on it. :) I happened to see a new sketchbook. Tell you about that when it is officially opened.



#3, my favorite magazine. Well, this is probably my second favorite, with the Pastel Journal first. But, I drew the Pastel Journal last Hunt. This has been my favorite until the Pastel Journal came out. Joanna gave me a subscription to The Artist's Magazine for Christmas many years ago and I have anxiously awaited each issue. Both magazines are owned by the same company now and they are changing. I have not enjoyed either magazine as much the last couple of years. They are turning into promotion of selected artists instead of helping all artists. At least in my way of looking at them. How do I get so sidetracked?

I haven't worked on my art the last week or so. I have painters block I suppose. I was working on a new large painting for the Austin Pastel juried show with a deadline of January 11 for the entries. Not doing great in that direction. We have not started our decorating for Christmas, Gene's brother arrives on Wednesday, Jennie and the Granddogs arrive on Friday. So no time for painting until after that. Maybe in the meantime some grand new idea will come into my "zone".

Christmas Card by Phone

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and the best holidays.

We don't send Christmas cards. We haven't for a few years. Back in the OLD days when our kids were little we would have cards made with a photo of them and send them out with a letter, not a mimeographed letter, a handwritten letter. The first year we were in Bolivia, 1974, I drew cards with pen and ink. I think I drew about 50 with a church and a llama on each one. Some were pretty good. :) The next year I found a printer that made a metal plate of my drawing and printed them with raised ink. (I don't know what that process is called) After the printing I had a wooden block with the metal cut out of my card on it. We did that for a few years. I continued the pen and ink for several years in the states, too. From Lubbock, Texas, in 1980, it was a prairie dog. Lubbock is famous for the prairie dogs.

When we moved here to Bastrop I did a water color of our house and had 8 1/2 x 11 inch color photo copies made. At that time they were $1 a piece. Pretty pricey. Probably sent over 100. It was a nice way to send out our new address and letter. I printed the letters on the computer on the copies. I did customize and write every letter I sent.

The next year, I drew the poinsettias above on the computer. I had a program called Color It and drew with the mouse. Not many realized I had drawn it as I printed them with the customized letter on nice parchment. One of Gene's sisters asked me where I got the stationary to print my letters. :(

I suppose it was in 1999 then, that we stopped sending cards. Gene started sitting down with our address book and calling everyone he could reach on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That has turned into a great custom and that is our cards at this time in our life. So, if you want a call from Gene and talk to me, we need your telephone number. :)

P.S. To send your phone number, my e-mail link is in my complete profile. Scroll down or send to: jo at jocastilloart.com

Fine Art Mint Brownies and a Portrait by Susan

Oh my! If you like chocolate and mint together look what Kasie, Fine Art Friends artist, has come up with. A pretty simple recipe here and sounds so yummy! I will have to adapt it to gluten free and then post that. Ummm.

P.S. (added 5 or 10 minutes later) I should have waited to post this. I went to read my blogs and found this portrait by Susan. Wow! I saw this in real life at the APS Christmas party. It is just full of life.

Susan is a fantastic artist. She whips out portraits with such ease. Or at least it seems so to us that don't do portraits. I'm sure it is the result of many years and much practice. Susan teaches painting in San Antonio and will have a new studio at La Villita where you can learn and see the artist in action. She is planning to open sometime in January, I think. So great for her. I wish it wasn't a whole day trip from here. I do plan to take a workshop with her soon.