Becoming a Renaissance Woman

2010-04-10T19:21:00.000-04:00

Here is a sketch of a young girl from one of the drawing challenges at Drawspace.

To blog or not to blog........

2010-03-30T16:17:00.000-04:00

Hard Day at the Office

Pointillism

paper is Bristol Smooth 148lb from Bienfang

Staedtler pigment liner 0.3.
It is about 4x6.

I have been ignoring my blog and thinking about dropping it all together. I had found that it was just being about my art. Not that that is bad, just that it wasn't my intention to only talk about art. I started talking about family and other things at the beginning, but gradually dropped it. Then I started another blog called thinking, learning, doing. This blog was a chance to talk about things I and my family were interested in. It also fell by the wayside. As it narrowed in topic and content. I have, today, blended that blog into this blog.

So I have been trying to decide why I am writing a blog. I think I want it to be a type of journal, a catalog of my interests. It's public, so I think that is the reason I went to showing just my art. Now I am thinking if the blog is going to keep my interest it will have to follow my interests. Things like art, cooking, kids, dogs, Jim and his trains and the world around me. Will this be of any interest to others? Maybe sometimes and maybe not. But it, I think, will keep my interest. My blog will be for me and anybody who is interested is welcome to read along. I hope that it will show me in the light that I have always tried to portray, that of some one who is always open to learning new things. To that end I am going to keep Becoming a Renaissance Woman as the title.

Teddy bear......

2009-10-01T20:06:00.000-04:00

This adorable guy came up on the weekly challenge at Drawspace. Siks did a great job photographing him, beautiful shadows and highlights.

I have been doing sketches in charcoal lately. It is a great medium to work with. It lays out really fast and mistakes can be corrected on the fly. I finally stopped trying to work small and have taken out a big 11x14 inch sketch book to draw in.

I tried to give the bear some texture by dotting on some charcoal and then using my figure to tap in more texture.

Now I have to figure out how to preserve my pictures so they don't just disappear. I suppose a spray finish.

Jeanette's Apple Challenge......

2009-09-24T13:40:00.001-04:00

This apple was inspired last night by Jeanette's apple challenge on Drawspace and her blog.

Jeanette was looking for inspiration and found it on her counter in the form of an apple. She decided to put out an apple challenge to us to join her in finding the beauty of apples. The lovely highlights, colours and shapes of our fall harvest.

Llama.....

2009-08-31T18:12:00.004-04:00

I haven't done a pencil drawing in ages! This one is 4x6, graphite on stonehenge.

I know this llama is female, she is probably pregnant and I am not sure on her name. Llamas have one year gestation periods! The matriarch of the group is pregnant and has passed 13 months already. When my cousin talked to the vet, she found out that the older llamas can take as long as 18months to have their babies!

Llamas and such.....

2009-08-30T19:50:00.004-04:00

This past week we were in northern Michigan, spending time with family. We camped in the rain and had dinner and fires under a wild range of tarps and canopies. Luckily before we were ready to leave the weather cleared up. We went to my cousin, Jenny Rose's farm to help with chores and of course to see all the wonderful animals. She has llamas, alpacas, turkeys, a wild variety of hens, a peacock and an aging horse. I snapped as many pictures as I could and have now set up a drawing challenge over at Drawspace.

This guy I added after someone mentioned that all the pictures looked difficult. I used one of Brenda Hoddinott's lessons, Emma Emu, to see how easy it is to see shapes and start filling in detail. I started with a large circle and a triangle just like in the lesson and was surprised to see how easily the drawing started to come together.

Strawberry light.......

2009-08-13T11:15:00.006-04:00

I am doing a OSWOA trade at Lets' Make Art this month. I did this strawberry for it from a picture I took, the background was horrible, but the play of light was really great. The strawberry is sitting on my grill cover and the light is coming from the glass block windows behind it. It is done on a 4x6 drafting film with Prisma colour pencils.
My new goal with my art, besides trying out new medias, is to make more of an atmosphere or story with my work. Not just copying what I see. Let me know what you think.

1,000,000 Giraffes.......

2009-08-07T15:49:00.005-04:00

This young man or woman, I don't think it says, is collecting one million giraffes. Here it is in his own words.

My friend, Jørgen, doesn't believe I can collect one million giraffes by 2011. I'm gonna prove him wrong, but I need your help. You can create your giraffe(s) in any way you like, but not on a computer and no store bought objects. You must create your giraffe(s) yourself! Click here to read why. So far I've got 39.499 giraffes, so I need 960.501 more! And I have 511 days left to get them.
Let's show Jørgen how amazing the internet is.

Siksnosparnyte brought the project to our attention over on Drawspace. She asked us to join in and help him out. Here is a link to the very cool drawing that Siksnos sent in.

While I was at our Friday morning breakfast I had everybody including the waitress draw a giraffe on the menu. Then when I got home I had my teen age sons and their freinds add their own giraffes. We managed to send 21 giraffes to the project.

Check out his statistics page, it's pretty amazing. Anyone want to help this person get a million giraffes? Just go to his page and click on the green bar that says "Please send in your own giraffe!"

Validation......

2009-08-06T13:02:00.000-04:00

You are beautiful!

I found this on Kim Komando's Video of the Day.

New tricks.....

2009-08-04T17:03:00.004-04:00

There are several people working on stippling or pointillism projects around the web and I have wanted to give it a try. Jeanette and Jennifer are working on rock drawings for Jeanette's rock challenge. There is also M.Ramos over at DS that does amazing pictures.

I found a pack of Staedtler pigment liner pens for reasonable. They say they are pigmented ink, archival, acid-free and come in 0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7. I also finally found a sheet of stonehenge paper.

I did this duck with the 0.1 pen on stonehenge, 3.5x2.5, ATC size. I am pretty happy with how he turned out. My Study of a Mallard Duck came in handy for having a good feel for how he looks.

Let me know what you think. Also am I using the right supplies and using the right terms to describe what I am doing.

William's deck of Cards......

2009-07-28T22:24:00.004-04:00

William, my 12 year old son wanted to share the deck of cards that he has been working on. They are all from his imagination, except Stewie from Family Guy. He wants to know if you get whats funny about Stewie being there. He came up with all the designs on his own. William is my guy who is always drawing, not to bad, eh?

Birds, Birds, Birds......

2009-07-28T21:44:00.003-04:00

More birds......

2009-07-28T20:25:00.004-04:00

This guy just looked crazy, like he was doing some kind of Voodoo on the bird ahead of him. I couldn't get the other bird in, who looked like he was hunching his shoulders in and running, so I represented him with a feather. He was on the beach in Sanibel.

This poor bird didn't make it despite all the care he was given by the local children. They found him on the ground and he was a sorry sight in deed. I think this is my niece holding him. I decided to keep this one at home. All the bird photographs for this trade are from my own family photos. I am finding it harder this time to send out the finished cards. I keep thinking, I want to keep that one, and that one, and.........you get the point. I also kept two of the wood ones as they were a bit simple when separated out. (the neck and the front chest)

I do have the sketches that I started with so I suppose that if I get too sentimental I can redo them. This is the other page of sketches.

Farm Birds.......

2009-07-28T19:59:00.005-04:00

The gossip pack here was a challenge for me as there were so many and they are such a light colour. I ran into some problems like being a bit too heavy with my pencil on out lining. The birds are a very soft gray and slightly darker on the bottom with white flecks. I think they are called guineas, but I wouldn't quote me on that.

This guy here I have to show the photograph for you to believe. He is so fluffy, with an almost jewel like colour on his/her face. He is being held by my sister in law, she was in love with the fluff ball.

These two are a beautiful rust colour. My colours are a bit nicer than this photo shows, but I am thinking I could still have used more layers. The farm birds are from pictures taken at my cousins farm in Michigan.

Swan time......

2009-07-27T23:02:00.005-04:00

The photographs of these swans are from my husband. They were around on one of the school field trips that the kids went on. The trip was for one of those old fashioned villages. Nothing to do with swans but who could resist taking a picture when they sit there so beautifully.

I had to show the photograph for this curious guy, because I know my drawing looks funny. I was trying to recreate the dappled shade that the swan was standing in. Not an easy task as I found out. Both drawings are CP on drafting film.

Birds around my house......

2009-07-27T12:05:00.006-04:00

This little guy was Gracie's toy bird, one of her first toys. This thing lasted for ages, which is always a big surprise for dog toys. The challenge on this one was to keep the toy looking yellow and still having shape and form.

Here is a Cardinal, the picture was taken out our back door. There were a couple of challenges here. One was getting the feeling of a lot of branches, without losing the bird as focus. Another was showing snow on the branches, while at the same time having snow in the background.

This tree is about a foot outside my front window. It is an over grown ornamental White Pine (if I remember correctly). The birds just love it for nesting in and the cats next door just love that they do! I am not sure if this was the mother or an older baby. The challenge here was the grayish-brown colour of the bird and the bit of sunlight shining through the tree lighting up the front of the bird.

I let you guys decide on how well I handled the different challenges that I faced doing these cards. All are Prisma CP on drafting film.

An updated picture of the pet chicken. I put in more colour and did a bit of burnishing with a colourless blender.

Pet chicken......

2009-07-20T15:06:00.002-04:00

I wanted to try something different with this one. I wanted to be minimalist, having a sweeping s curve fading off to the sides. Well I didn't do so great but every body has to start somewhere. I knew I wanted the hen to be the main focus, as this is a bird trade, and I didn't want to go into the detail of his face. I also so admire a piece of art work with empty space, yet I always seem to fill in the whole page. So......here is my start to white space. This was done on drafting film with CP.

This is one of my cousins kids. He raised his own set of chickens, I can't remember what kind, but they are small and fluffy and they have tiny eggs. It was a riot seeing him playing with his toys and holding one of the hens at the same time.

Here is the page of rough sketches I told you about. So far I have done the three on the diagonal, top right to bottom left.

Fishing birds.....

2009-07-20T00:44:00.004-04:00

This bird was waiting off shore for some fish to swim by. The pictures I used are from our trip to Sanibel Island. I used drafting film for these two. I rough sketched the birds on printer paper, then put the drafting paper over top. This allowed me to put the colour in without having to transfer the drawing. A big time saver, as I am down to my last week. I have 9 left to finish now.

This guy already caught his fish and had him up on shore. A good thing as he dropped it a couple of times. The background is the beach with small shells everywhere. I wanted to catch that look with out tons of detail. My bird looks a bit cartoonish to me.
I have 18 sketches done of birds that I have taken pictures of over the years. That will be enough for me to pick and choose and maybe have an extra or two. I'll take a picture of the sketches next time.

Study of a Mallard Duck........

2009-07-14T12:14:00.011-04:00

We have a new exchange going on over at Drawspace. This one is Birds, Birds, Birds. This time there are 18 people in the group! I have a love-hate thing going for these big groups. I only do a card a day and it takes me forever to figure out what I want to do.

This was going to be 18 cards, done as a study of the pair of Mallard ducks, but I started looking at the female, she is going to take a lot of work. She might look all brown, but close up she is very detailed!

I do believe I am taking the thinking cap back out and doing something else for the rest of the cards.

I did these cards on plywood again, it is neat seeing how it affects the drawing. I had a hard time with the green on his head, it is very dark yet glows in the light. I did an underpainting in red to help push the darks.

I think I had some success with my Mallard Study and I got to try out some new things. I tried making gray for the birds side feathers using colours other than gray. I pushed myself for detail with the duck butt and did a fair job of it despite my whining (not quite as happy with the chest and back, despite same said whining!) Oh well it is all learning and I am off to do 11 more cards!

The photographs that I used for my study were all taken by my 10 year old son Douglas. The birds were living on my brothers pool cover.

Sunrise.........

2009-06-20T16:35:00.005-04:00

Jim has this real thin birch plywood, you remember, the stuff that he cut the cats out of. I wondered how it would take coloured pencils. This sunrise is the result. I used a picture from our trip to Sanibel Island, Florida, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.

The plywood took the colour very well. It is kind of cool to see the wood grain through the colours. If you look closely you can see some of the more prominent grain coming off the sun on the right side. I'll have to try something else that leaves more of the wood bare or that uses it as the median colour.

This was done in ATC size. Funny what your brain sees and makes important. Planning wouldn't hurt, but I just wanted to jump in.

Colour Mixing Wheel.....

2009-04-27T14:20:00.003-04:00

This after noon I found a colour mixing wheel in my bookmarks. I have ignored it until today. When I found it again I thought to myself this is exactly what I need to work on. In my thought, colour mixing is an art form all its own and if you can't do it you will be limited in what you can paint.

I started a thread over at Lori Andrews-Come paint with me. Asking that beginners jump in and try their own colour wheel and that the more experienced artist give some constructive critiques.

I had a hard time making my purple and my yellows seem similar. I found out that you use a lot of yellow, a bit of red and a touch of blue when you are mixing colours.

Bubble , bubble......

2009-04-25T21:16:00.004-04:00

Kim started a new project at Drawspace, Let's use our coloured pencils. She put up this great picture of a bubble for us to try out, as well as showing the steps and colours that she used to draw it.
Well I meant to do it in CP but I have water colour on the brain right now and well, out came the paints. I tried hard to keep the layers from mounting up, but wasn't so successful. Oh well its more practice and maybe not so bad.

Maple syrup......

2009-04-24T17:58:00.004-04:00

I ran a weekly challenge at Drawspace this week. I based it on my trip to Northern Michigan, where I visited my Cousin. They were in the process of collecting sap to make syrup. My Cousin's Father in Law worked the evaporator, kept the fire going and watching the temperature on the syrup. He was able to explain to my younger boys and myself the whole process. The boys helped out with all the different jobs. Then we were able to bring home a jug of syrup.

Maple leaf......

2009-04-23T18:30:00.003-04:00

I was reading through a water colour thread on Drawspace, where I found an image posted by Adolpho. He suggested laying down a wash of yellow on the leaf and build from there. I found I got lost on the leafs vines, probably because even though I started slow, I sped up after awhile.

Sarah on the same thread suggested that only two or three layers of colour should go down, so I think that will explain some of the muddiness. Sarah also suggested cutting yourself some post card size papers and keep practicing, which sounded like a great idea.

I am using 140lb strathmore CP water colour paper, I wet it down and then taped it. It still buckled, I am thinking this is because I didn't soak it, just ran it through the tap water. I'll try soaking it next time. Oh, might also be because I taped it too close to the edge, or the paint tape I have isn't strong enough.

April 2009 VSD......

2009-04-22T15:52:00.002-04:00

I haven't done a virtual sketch date in a while. There is a whole new way of signing up, so if I can figure that out, I'll be doing good. Here is my sketch I am working from. The original photograph is from Jeanette. I am showing the sketch first because it goes down hill from here.

Here is my horribly overworked flower done in water colour. I figured I was done but got to thinking what would it look like with a background.

For all that I just swabbed in the background with no finesse, it does show that the background was needed to finish the picture. Good thing to know for next time.

Lilac Breasted Roller, Botswana, Africa.....

2009-04-22T12:01:00.001-04:00

Drawspace has a new water colour challenge this week. Marisa put up some beautiful pictures with lots of colour in them. Like this Lilac Breasted Roller from Botswana Africa.
I did this water colour painting in my moleskin sketch book. I really am enjoying using water colours. It is fun to see how quickly a picture can take shape. Although I do find that I need to get some patience for giving the paint time to dry and thinking out layers of colours.

Ballet Dancer Standing....

2009-04-21T22:21:00.003-04:00

This is my copy of Ballet Dancer Standing by Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas. They say it is good to try to copy the Masters and I guess I would have to agree. Especially when you are trying to teach yourself.

I can see that my head is at the wrong angle and my torso is too long, which is why my dancer looks like she is standing up with her head turned. Rather than slightly bent over with her head turned and down. So many other things as well, but I guess that is what practicing and sketching is about.

Don't you love the suggestion of a male dancer behind her?

Water colour.....

2009-04-06T14:47:00.002-04:00

While I love water colour as a medium, I had no particular desire to try to learn it anytime soon. But... I am a firm believer in 'when opportunity knocks, answer the door'. Well opportunity knocked with a new website, Lori Andrews, Come Paint with Me!
Lori is offering free online water colour demonstrations, as well as downloadable, paid for lessons. There is an upcoming class near the end of April and Lori has let us know what we will need for materials.

While I am waiting on the class and the new materials, I decided to use what I have. I received an easel a while back and it came with some water colour paint tubes and I had some Dollar store paint brushes. (which I really like, although maybe just because I have never used a real brush).

Overall I am pretty happy with the picture of Bob. While by no means perfect, it does have some of the aspects that I like about water colour. I can see that learning to blend colours is going to be an art form all of its own.

Robofest....

2009-04-05T22:27:00.003-04:00

My son William was in a robotics competition last night, Robofest. His team won and made it to the world finals, which luckily for him is right next door in Michigan.
It made for a great place to do some sketching. While William never seemed to be in a good place to sketch, the one little boy on the team sat still for a while. My husband Jim, a coach, stood watching the kids so I was able to get him in in bits on the right.

The same little boy and one of the Moms from another team. The team was huddled around the playing field and I thought I would be able to sketch them but they moved around too much. I should have brought another sketch book or some blank paper. I didn't want to fill up my sketch journal but could have easily sketched for quite a bit longer and at different times during the day.

Boot camp......

2009-04-01T15:59:00.004-04:00

Let's Make Art has started a Boot Camp.

Ten to twenty minutes of exercise a day - five days a week. That's what it takes to keep in shape!

Well I have the ten to twenty down, now to just get that 5 days a week in. The first week I did two days, the second I did one day, the third I did 4 days, and this week I have 2 so far.

Just before I got the invite to join Boot Camp, I found a great sale on some moleskin sketch books. That gave me the perfect opportunity to get started right away. It also allowed me to try out a journal of sorts. I love what Dee Farnsworth does with the weather report. There are some others that I love too, I'll find some to show next time I show my sketches.

Cats in the Mail.....

2009-03-21T20:41:00.003-04:00

Here are the wonderful cats that showed up in my mail box. From top to bottom and left to right.
Garth -Exotic, Ken -Future King, Mindy -Curiosity, Donna -Where's my dinner, Jeanne -Cat#4, Gretchen -Play time, Cathy -Garfield, Sue -Grooming, Roxy -Jazz Cat, Kay -Cat on fence, Gilbert -Cat and ball, Len -Creeping kitty, Kim -Lazy afternoon, Claudio -The Cheshire cat, Marilyn -It's not what I wanted, Carol -Tuxedo cat, Sveta -The Artist/Sleeping cats.

Cats, Crazy Cats.....

2009-03-09T00:07:00.004-04:00

Well, finally all eighteen cats are done! We have wood cats, playing card cats, moon lit cats and cat eyes.

I did a lot of sketching trying to get the look of cats with just simple lines. Jim noticed the sketches and mentioned that they would be perfect for something he was thinking about trying out. He had found this piece of really thin birch plywood and wanted to try it out. We decide my cats needed to be highlighted some how, so we came up with the cats on the fence in the moonlight. These are the beautiful result of a lot of painstaking cutting (by Jim). I do love it when he puts his mind to something artistic!

I then realized that these same drawings would be a good way to try out some water colours. I broke out a set of my kids water colours and gave it a try. It was really cool to see how when you wet the paper in just the area that you want to paint, the paint stays in that wet spot. For example I wet down just the moon area, fence, cat and sky were left dry. Then just dabbed in the yellow. Now if only I can figure out how to bring the sky up to the moon without bleeding in.
Oh well lots to learn and it was fun enough to go back for more.

As you can tell, just hand drawn eyes from my mind. I wanted to play around some more and see what I could do. I sort of used the brush like my colour pencils for the fur. The black on the top eye was done with black and the one on the bottom was done with several colours to make black, like I would with CP. I like the made up black better.

I ended up ditching the ace of clubs and I did fix the ears on the jack with white out. I know I am a terrible cheat. Doing these outline and silhouette drawings I have come to realize that I do a lot of fixing and shaping as I fill in with pencil or CP.

Sculptural Book Making....

2009-02-24T16:03:00.004-05:00

One of the newer members at Drawspace is an art teacher. Garth offered to do some art classes for us, which I jumped at! In this first class (first of many I hope) he showed us how to bind a book. I used black paper, cardboard and red cord.
Garth used Power point and video to teach the course, trying to find out what works best with Drawspace. Both were very well done, the video had the added bonus of Celtic music in the background.

Cat cards.....

2009-02-15T11:39:00.004-05:00

Well I am finally back. I have joined a trade at Drawspace to try to get back in the groove. I put my things away at Christmas and they just never came back out. The ATC trade is for 18 cards on Cats, Crazy Cats.
ATCs originally were playing cards that artists painted white and then put their own art on. So I thought I would try to incorporate that idea. It was harder than I thought, trying to get a drawing down to the minimal amount of lines and then inside of a shape. I think I could spend the whole month just trying to get these to look the way I want them, but I still have 13 more to do. The three or four redraws that I have done will have to do.

You might be wondering why Bob is on the back of Cat cards. We have always said that Bob is the biggest cat we have ever met. He is also my Avatar most places right now so he is recognizable as mine. Kind of like a signature.

Joker

Ace of Clubs
This one will have to get redone or stay home.

King of Spades

Queen of Hearts

Jack of Diamonds
Hm-m I wonder if white out will fix the lines across the ears?

Christmas puppies.....

2008-12-22T16:13:00.004-05:00

This is Magic. We have just adopted her, she is a retired breeder from Quiche Kennels. She is eight years old and doing very well adapting to our home. As you can see, she even puts up with Christmas hats.

Here is Gracie, she is not so happy with the hat. This took a lot of coaxing and numerous pictures!

Prehistoric trading cards....

2008-12-10T09:28:00.004-05:00

Well their not great... I should have said no to this trade, but I was on such a good run. I had several sketches done and ready to do, but every time I took them out I just stared at them. I think I had ATC burn out. Jim suggested I should do cave painting, they'll be easy, ha! I talked him into doing them with me since I had no ambition to do this. We found out that those simple looking stick figures actually have beautiful sweeping lines and graceful curves. Not easy to do on a 2.5x3.5 card. I can't imagine how they did it on rock walls!
I am responsible for the funny looking rock walls that are in the background. I did them with oil pastels, something new to try and a quick way to put down a lot of colour. Jim did the three hunting scenes and I did the two on black.
Jim did the cards with dinosaur bones, one in oil pastel and one with a white conte pencil. while he did that I tried a cave painting of my own design on sand paper. I used a picture of a deer from our backyard, maybe not true cave painting style as you can see the face, but it was fun to play.

Well I think Gracie is done.....

2008-11-25T11:27:00.004-05:00

Well I think she is done. Not an exact copy, but I feel I have kept Gracie's look. I'll give it a couple of days before I spray it.

This is the photo I worked off of.

Now I have to start again! After $60 and 2 1/2 hours she no longer looks like the same dog. I'm thinking of calling my drawing "time for a grooming" or "woolly bully". LOL

November virtual sketch date....

2008-11-22T10:01:00.007-05:00

My sketch this month is just that, a sketch. I saw this guy lurking on the right hand side and sketched him out with a bit of embellishment.
You can see the photo on the VSD site. Jeanette of Illustrated Life supplied the photo. The list of participants will be on the VSD site on Sunday.

Quick sketches have been the rule this week. This guy was done for the weekly challenge over at Drawspace, the host was Elena.

Jeanette also started a sketching from life thread at DS.

Sketching is likely THE most valuable exercise you can do to improve your drawing skills. Also drawing from life is another. If you sketch daily, you'll soon see your ability to render form and light grow by leaps and bounds.

Now I have to find time to get back to drawing Gracie and getting my newest set of trading cards started.

Gracie has ears.....

2008-11-17T11:04:00.003-05:00

Added fur to the lighter side. Here are some of the colours, white, cream, cloud blue, true blue, apple green, blush pink, parma violet, light umber, black cherry and indigo blue.

Worked on the ears and the darker side. Here are the colours, white, cloud blue, parma violet, true blue, light umber, violet, black cherry and indigo blue.

This photo gives a better idea on what the colours actually look like.
The sheet I am working on is about 8.5x13, I am hoping to frame it in an 8X10 frame. As you see I didn't plan that as well as I could have. Ha, I just remembered that I was actually thinking 5x7, so there should have been plenty of room to crop and frame. I basically drew in the nose and started working around it, so my minor planing went out the door. I have to learn not to do that.

A little fur.....

2008-11-15T11:25:00.002-05:00

An update on Gracie.

Gracie is taking shape....

2008-11-14T14:39:00.006-05:00

Here I have sketched in some more fur and worked on the nose. I am doing the fur at this point with cloud blue. Her nose has dark brown, peach, true blue, peacock green, violet, black cherry, indigo blue and white.

You can start to see some volume with the mouth filled in. I used a different picture for the mouth. I wanted a bit more tongue and less teeth to show. Her tongue has cloud blue, blush pink, pink, lilac, violet and white. Her teeth are white, cream, peach and light umber. Her gums and lip were done with indigo blue, black cherry, violet, true blue and white. The colours in the fur are bits and pieces of the colours named so far.

Getting started on the full Gracie....

2008-11-12T10:05:00.004-05:00

I decided that I liked the Gracie nose on black paper enough to go ahead and do the full picture. This is the outline so far.

Here is the picture I will be working from. This was taken on a walk in the woods. I couldn't believe that she sat still long enough for me to get several pictures.

This is the Gracie nose with some white highlights added and trimmed into an ATC size. I also took the picture with better lighting, it shows more of the colours that I used.

A black nose....

2008-11-06T21:47:00.002-05:00

I couldn't resist trying Gracie on black paper. Just a 3x3" of her nose. It was suggested that I might want to try her on gray paper. I'll have to see what I have in my scrapbook supplies and give it a try. I have been saying for ages that I wanted to try a mid-tone paper. If I like it I can go and buy some for a full picture.

Gracie's nose.....

2008-11-06T15:02:00.002-05:00

I tried harder at the negative drawing with this one. This is something I will have to learn to do if I am going to draw Gracie. I will also have to learn more patience, I started getting to rough with the pencils near the end and started to lose my way. Well that is what practice is for, right?

Dog eyes and a nose.....

2008-11-04T19:41:00.007-05:00

I am in a CP animal drawing class at Drawspace. Our first thing to do is try out some eyes, nose and fur. The picture on the top right is after I add more reddish browns, the dog was more red than I realized.

I didn't do as well on the dog's nose, not enough patience. Something you need loads of with CP.

I took my camera on our walk today, hoping to get some decent pictures of Gracie. The sun was really bright and washed her out a bit, she looks really grey here. Today was a real treat, it was warm enough to wear shorts.

Twelve little jellyfish all floating in the sea....

2008-10-30T12:14:00.004-04:00

Finally they are ready for the mail box!
I rephotographed all the jellyfish and the pears with some black paper behind them. Also I moved to a slightly darker space to do it in, less glare. This seems to have worked better so I re-posted all the pictures.

A quick drawing for a Let's Make Art challenge. I tried charcoal, then pencil, then just a line drawing that you can see here. It wasn't working for me, so I thought I would try the eye in coloured pencil. It is just on printer paper and doesn't look much like the cat, but I thought the page looked neat with the combo of line drawing and CP bit.

Hm-m-m-m.......

2008-10-29T15:21:00.004-04:00

Maybe this is where those baby jellies came from? These guys were photographed by § Mary §.

Here is another one by Jeff Kubina.

Now to have Jim spray all my ATCs, then I will cut them into individual cards. I am going to try to photograph them on black paper all together and see if they look better that way. I know that looking at them here they look better.

October VSD participants....

2008-10-28T11:08:00.006-04:00

I gave my pears from the VSD a couple more minutes of touch up. I can see myself doing more pears in the future, what a lovely shape to work with. I forgot to mention that the great photograph that we worked with is from Belinda Lindhart.
Here is the list of this months participants. There are some wonderful drawings and paintings of pairs to see.

Leslie's Blog, An Artist's Journey, S'Mockery Sm'Art Fridays, Illustrated Life, Drawing Breath, Regina Carlton Burchett, Tints and Hues, Jeanne Grant, Fuzzy Dragons, Cathy's Watercolours, Back To The Drawing Board, Socially Sketching with Susan, Bartoe Art, Black on Grey on White, Wax Bloom, My Creative Spot Blog, Flat Sound of Wooden Clogs, Koukla Carolyn, Adventures of Borromini, Annie's Basement, Time For Inspiration, Kbladosdesign, The Happiness Experiment, Sethurner, Painting in Virginia, Fur In The Paint, Kitchen Table Sketches, A Splash of Colour, Premieres Peintures, Stop and Draw the Roses, My Fiddlestix, Laine Lea Paintings, The Wonderful World of Jelly Beans, Quotidian Curiosities, The Colourguru, Belinda Lindhart- Art Journal, Painting Puppies and Quilt Knit.

Here is one more jellyfish ATC for my Under the Sea Trade. I am getting sick of jellyfish and I still have two more to do. On the up side, I most say that they are amazing creatures. This one was photographed by Ed Bierman in Monterey.

Baby jellies....

2008-10-28T10:32:00.004-04:00

These are some new born Jellyfish, photographed by Oskay at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Oskay has a write up about them with his picture.

This one was photographed by Jeff Kubina. He has some amazing photos, well worth a look.
This one makes nine done, three more to go.

October Virtual Sketch Date......

2008-10-24T16:31:00.004-04:00

This is my last minute try at this months picture for the VSD. I did it ATC size with Prisma colour pencils on black paper. This took about a half hour, a couple of stolen minutes before my son had to go to work and I have to pack for scout camp. I am one of the cooks this week.
No matter how many times I tried I couldn't seem to get my hand to draw the pears small enough, so I finally put one in front of the other. My plate sucks, but I think my pairs are believable for the short amount of time I spent on them.
I can't wait to see all the other entries for this month.

Framed picture....

2008-10-21T15:20:00.006-04:00

Do you remember this one, morning fruit? It was from a photo that I took at my sons cub camp.

Well today it got framed to go to a charity art auction. They are raising funds for medicine, for an African charity. Last year I did a picture of Adeline the lady running the auction. She had the most amazing smile.

Here is today's jellyfish it was photographed by Suneko.

Blue jellies and a pumpkin....

2008-10-20T11:38:00.003-04:00

This blue jellyfish was done from a photograph by TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋) in Mactan Cebu, Philippines .

This quick sketch was done for the Drawspace challenge this week. Our host is Ernest Friedman-hill.

Aunt Tizzy's lingerie????

2008-10-16T21:57:00.003-04:00

No picture of my jellyfish wearing Aunt Tizzy's lingerie, because I forgot to check the copyright code until after I drew it. So this ATC will stay here in my collection. Lesson learned!
I thought since I don't have a new jellyfish to show today, that I would show this video on jellyfish. The one that I drew looked like the pink moon jellyfish at the end. The video is about 1 and a 1/4 minutes long, enjoy.

Aunt Tizzy's Jello Dish????

2008-10-15T14:52:00.004-04:00

This one was photographed by Mikefats .
Does it look like a jello mold dish brought to baby showers and wedding showers by your favorite crazy Aunt?
Well this is number five of twelve done. My camera is making the black paper grey a bit, I'll have to see what I can do, as it changes the drawing a bit.

I am not a jellyfish, I am a fungus???

2008-10-14T11:32:00.004-04:00

This funny jellyfish was photographed by 顔なし at the Osaka Aquarium.

Lemon yellow and polka dots....

2008-10-12T13:41:00.004-04:00

Another jellyfish for the Under the Sea trade at Drawspace. This one was photographed by Deep onion maybe taken in Mar Jonio, Italy.

Under the Sea Trading Cards.....

2008-10-11T15:46:00.008-04:00

For my trading cards (2.5x3.5") I decided to do Jellyfish on black paper. Starting with white as my base I find I can get my colours to glow like the real jelly fish. These are two of the twelve I need to do for the Drawspace trade.
For this project I am using photos from Flickr these people (the ones I am using) allow derivative work to be done, with credit being given to them for the original photo.
My orange jellyfish was photographed by Strollers in the aquarium in Osaka.

The green jellyfish were photographed by Eschipul in the Houston Aquarium.

I have a cool thing to share. My son was bugging me for an answer to something while I was trying to figure out the opposite colour to orange. I told him if he could give me the answer, he is in high school art, that he can do whatever he was bugging me about. Of course by the time I got this all said I had the answer. But kids being kids he had a better one. Stare at the colour orange and then stare at a white paper and you will have the exact opposite colour. Hm-m so I stared at my coloured pencil, and got nothing. Then I scribbled in a square of orange, stared at it then at the white paper. How cool, a blue square showed up, lighter than the blue I had already picked out.

The downward spiral of a little flower....

2008-10-09T11:54:00.003-04:00

Everyday for the last week or so I have been doing a little more to my drawing. I was happy with my flower and I was okay with my vase. I liked the colour I was getting on my background. Then things started to fall apart, so I fixed this, then I fixed that. And each day it continued, maybe this will make it better, or this. Some days as you can tell I didn't have the heart to photograph the poor, poor flower.
Then I thought to myself, maybe I should have some of those thumbnail sketches that I hear everyone talk about. Of course it was to late to help this poor flower.
Now on the upside, my flower makes a really cool negative picture!

All kidding aside, I would have done better with some planning on paper. It would have shown me that I wanted a different placement on my page. I might have remembered that I like a picture that is not filled in to every corner, I like white space.
Well I am off to draw some Under the Sea trading cards for Drawspace.

Update on virtual sketch...

2008-09-30T15:29:00.005-04:00

I am back to doing my drawing. These are a couple of WIP pictures as well as a picture of how I am using my easel. Jim gave me a smooth board to put under my paper, although it might be a bit to heavy.
I have mixed feelings about my vase. I had a vision in my head and this wasn't it. I did want it lighter than the source picture. I'll have to see how I feel as I put in the background.
Thank you for all the encouraging comments on the last post. It was so wonderful checking out the Virtual Sketch Date drawings, I believe that 39 people joined in. If you haven't seen them yet, here is a list.

Sherrie Roberts, Kay Susan, Cathy (shicat), Leslie Hawes
top5cats, Maryann Cleary, Nic Bridges, Jennifer Rose, Laura
Rose Welty, Barbara Weeks, Dianne Mize, Kari Gibson, Andy
Jeanette Jobson, Regina, Melissa Muirhead, Sharon, Jo Castillo
Jeanne Grant, Rhonda Bartoe Tucker, Deborah, Ann, Marion Brown
Vivienne, Sheona Hamilton Grant, Joanie Springer, Gail, Kellie Hill
Jan Pope, Cathy Gatland, Stacy Rowan, Susan, Paulette
Diane, Laine Lea, Kathleen, Valerie Jones

If you are interested in joining next month, check out the VSD site.

September Virtual Sketch....

2008-09-26T13:17:00.004-04:00

This is a work in progress for my virtual sketch date. It won't be finished on time, but this gives an idea what it will look like. This months reference comes from Sharon of Flat Sound of Wooden Clogs. The participants will be posted on Sunday on the sketch date blog.
I received an easel at Christmas time, the kind with paints and it folds up and you can carry it around. Well since I have never painted, I kind of ignored it. This week I decided to give it a try, thinking I wouldn't like it. Silly me! I love it! I had to improvise a little, I took the wooden pallet and locked it in like a canvas. Then put my paper on top of that. Now my drawing is ready to go all the time. I can work on it for two minutes or two hours then just walk away without worrying about putting it away.

The cards have arrived...

2008-09-18T16:55:00.003-04:00

All the cards have come in the mail. Don't they make a beautiful set?

"Oops" by Bigs
Ostrich by Kaly
Ape by Jangra
Elephant at Sunset by Tam1426
Africa Quilt by Kim1963
Leopard by Oliverandjazz
Zebra by khinchowin888
Grant Gazelle by Amesie
Hippopotamus Swimming by Tommy r

Safari Card Trade....

2008-09-16T10:35:00.005-04:00

Zebra

This set of ATC's are for the Safari Card Trade over at Drawspace. This time around there were ten of us trading. My cards went to several places in the United States, Alberta, Portugal and a couple places in Australia.

Ostrich

The trading group was very sad to learn that Sodapop, one of our trading partners, passed away during the month. Her mother was kind enough to let us know the sad news. Sodapop was very happy to be in the trade, she had several cards done before everyone had even signed up.

Gorilla Front Arm

With this set of cards I wanted to practice doing the skins of the different animals. To display them I thought it would look cool on the map of Africa.

Lion's Mane

Elephant Toes

Leopard

Elephant

Hippo

Giraffe

Flamingo

Here are some work in progress pictures. As you can see, I do a preliminary sketch. Then since I am using drafting film, I just put the sketch underneath and work from there.

All the cards are done with Prisma Colour Pencils. I will usually use an underpainting of either contrasting colours or greys, before I add my final colours.

ATC's are the size of a playing card, about 2.5"x3.5" in size. They are an excellent way to see another artist's work.

Jim sprays my cards with a fixative when I am done. We have learned not to cut them out before hand, as they will float to the ground when he sprays. You can see around the edges that I try my colours out to see what combinations I need to get the colour I want.

My cards went into the mail yesterday, so they should start arriving in about 8 - 10 days. I have already received all but one of my cards. Yes I am the procrastinator in the group. When I get the last one I will post them.

Sad puppy....

2008-08-28T17:18:00.003-04:00

This guy showed up on the weekly drawing challenge at Drawspace. The host this week is NancyB.

Virtual sketch date....

2008-07-26T12:41:00.004-04:00

I decided at the last minute to jump in on the virtual sketch. I haven't felt like doing much lately (art wise), so when I got to thinking about the virtual sketch this morning, I jumped at doing a quick sketch. I had fun just getting the colours down and not worrying about any thing specific. It is sketchy, but I think I did okay getting across my impression of the photo.

You can go to the Virtual Sketch Date site to see this months photo. It was provided by Leslie Hawes. Thank you Jeanette for hosting!

Here is a list of this months participants:
Rose , Dougie, Melissa , Sherrie, Maggie, Michael
Leslie, Laura, Miki, Mary Ann, Kylie, Stacy,
Jennifer, Jeanne, Kay Susan, Jeanette, Kellie
Sharon, Paulette, Sydney

Come join us in August around the middle of the month.

Colour Challenge.....

2008-07-15T11:02:00.002-04:00

Irmina (santaika )on Drawspace has been teaching us about colour. She put up some great pictures of her kids and their dogs to work with. I'm not so sure that I picked up the full meaning of her lesson, but I did have fun doing this guy with blue prisma colour pencils.

Lonely boat.....

2008-07-11T21:29:00.001-04:00

Charcoal is a lot of fun for sketching. It goes down so easily, you can change direction without a second thought and you get wonderful dark blacks. I am having a good time seeing what it can do. I have some charcoal pencils to try out next time.

This quick sketch was for the July challenge at Let's Make Art.

Baby.....

2008-07-10T21:10:00.005-04:00

I gave Barbara's grandbaby a try. The baby was one of the pictures she put up for this week's challenge at Drawspace. This was actually my second try. I don't think either one did the cutie justice, but it was fun trying.

The one to the left, I started with the dark background and filled in as I went. The one at the top I started with the eyes and filled in from there.

Cat ear.....

2008-06-29T12:42:00.005-04:00

Jeanette of Illustrated Life offered to help out anyone that had questions on drawing animals, over at Drawspace. I decided this was a good time to tackle a cat's ear. I find them fairly difficult to do. Between the wispy hairs and the depth to the back of the ear, they can be difficult to do.
The first image is the photo I am working from and the second one is my drawing, CP on drafting film. I did it ATC size. I have currently posted it on the forum and I will wait to see what I need to work on. Obviously my shape needs work.
My questions would be are the wispy hairs and depth of the ear believable?

June Virtual Sketch Date....

2008-06-23T07:34:00.004-04:00

When we got the virtual sketch date picture I had charcoal in hand, so I went straight to sketching. I never did get back to it and yesterday when I should have posted, I had a trojan horse and a wonderful impromptu party.

This morning I woke up early and decide to give the flower one more quick try before I posted. This is ATC sized, colour pencil on drafting film.
You can check out the rest of the virtual sketch date participants on the new blog that Rose set up. The reference photo was provided by Jennifer.

Kordistan Man....

2008-06-16T12:20:00.005-04:00

One of the members at Drawspace, barmakalikhani takes the most amazing photographs and has been very generous in sharing them with us to draw. I am still working with charcoal. I must admit I am amazed at what you can do with them. Thick lines, thin lines, dark, light and it picks up easily so you can use your kneaded eraser.

This picture is also from one of Barmakalikhani's photos. I was just trying to do an impression of the tones in the river scene. I was fascinated by the stripes of light and dark in the composition of the photograph.

More Charcoal.....

2008-06-13T15:32:00.002-04:00

I tried my charcoal out on one of this weeks challenge at Drawspace. Elena has been a great host, getting many new comers to join in on the fun.

Charcoal.....

2008-06-11T17:01:00.005-04:00

I was sitting at my desk watching Lethal Weapon with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, when I found some charcoal that I had bought my husband ages ago. So I decided to give charcoal a try. Of coarse, the only paper nearby was from my sons project and the thing to draw was the two of them from the DVD cover. It doesn't look a lot like them, but it was fun to see what charcoal could do.

Water colour pencil....

2008-06-06T15:07:00.006-04:00

Martina at Let's Make Art challenged us to get a hold of a water colour pencil and give the tutorial by Bob Davies a try. Well I tried, it didn't go well, that's it at the bottom of the page. Then I went on to play. I tried the cat from this weeks challenge on Ds. I added some Prisma CP to the cat, to see what that would look like.

Do your trials end up looking like this, a mish mash of this and that. Or do you always end up with the perfect little trial drawing, all tidy and pleasant?

Hey I missed my Blog Birthday....

2008-06-04T17:48:00.002-04:00

I have been blogging for one year, as of two days ago! Here is my original post.

Well first it means that you have to learn how to spell renaissance. Which I have now done enough times to remember...after looking it up three times to triple check how to spell it!
Next it means picking out the meaning for Renaissance Woman that you like and can agree too. For example ... a young woman who is dominated by her father until she is passed into marriage, at which point she is to be loyal to her husband and produce boys... until death do us part! Well, that is not exactly the picture I had in mind. Although my father did keep a tight reign on me, as the only girl in a household of boys. And... I am loyal to my husband and...I did produce 4 boys. I guess it's just not said in a way that I can appreciate...domination and all that...ugh!
What I did have in mind was...A woman who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences. Now that's more like it!
Next is the fun part gather all that knowledge and use it!
This is where the blog comes in. I am absolutely certain that a renaissance woman, from whatever century, would have her journey written out. Of course in this century that means a blog!

Happy Birthday Dear Blog!

The Colours Outside My Window....

2008-05-31T22:30:00.012-04:00

These pictures are for the newest exchange at Drawspace. This set of ATCs are for the theme April showers bring May flowers. I had been taking these photos of the woods outback and I was amazed at the variety of colours that show up. I got to thinking that this was a neat idea for our trade, so I went through our photos and found some for the appropriate time frame.

One of the difficulties was trying to filter out all the excess branches and trees, while still coming up with something believable. At the same time I tried to give my insights for the woods as well. Like in April 11th I tried to show how the woods turn almost red with the new growth of branches. I don't think that I did them (the colours, the woods) justice, but I can see myself tackling this again. Maybe with different mediums or supports. The last one is from my impression of looking up at the trees in the backyard after they filled in, my May flowers.

March 28th

April 1st

April 11th

April 19th

April 25th

May 15th

Photography....

2008-05-20T12:00:00.004-04:00

Over at Let's Make Art I have been leading a photography class. At first I wasn't sure I was the right person to take on the group. I have no specific knowledge of photography, I just love a good picture.

Then I realized that I do have knowledge to share for the amateur and that there are plenty of people out there giving information that is more specific to photography, lens and lighting and f-stops, oh-my. What I can give is how to get a good picture that you want to draw and display. I can teach how I pick my photos, how I set them up and what I look for in a good photo. I can teach, that with a point and shoot on automatic, you can get great photos.

With my lessons, where I am also learning, I give them challenges to complete. This photo above I got when the challenge was to go out at different times of day and take pictures with the light at different angles. This one was set up in the early morning.

Tripod....

2008-05-18T09:14:00.011-04:00

The star of our virtual sketch is Jeanette's cat Tripod. I have seen Tripod sketched many a time by Jeanette so it was fun to give him a try myself.
My contour sketch was done completely by eye and my final drawing was done by getting a couple of key spots first.

Here are all the drawings, you have to go check them out. It is great fun to see all the different styles.

Jeanne Grant
Rose Welty , and Teresa of NC
Jennifer
Gayle
Jeanette
Katherine
Stacy
Belinda

Sketching....

2008-05-13T18:13:00.005-04:00

Just a fast sketch for the challenge over at DS. I am the host this week and this is my Husbands hand. I think I picked some good pictures for everyone to work on. Lot's of light and shadows.

I got my self in on a virtual sketch with Jeanette, Rose, Jeanne, Stacy, Belinda, Jennifer, Katherine, Gayle and Teresa. Jeanette has sent us all a photo to sketch or draw. I got started today, with a contour drawing. Not sure what I will do but for now I have a feel for my subject. The drawings will be posted on May 18th.

Sad Puppy....

2008-05-07T02:24:00.004-04:00

This weeks challenge at DS included this sad little girl. She belongs to Jeanne Grant, this weeks host. I haven't done her justice, but after 4 tries I am calling her done. Good or bad, I do like the look of a continuous line drawing.

Spring Swimmers....

2008-05-05T16:19:00.004-04:00

My 9yr old son and his friends agreed to stay still for a couple minutes at a time while they were swimming this weekend. They even did a couple of poses for me. The water was 60F so they weren't doing much swimming just egging each other on to jump in the pool.
I darkened the lines with a black pencil so you could see them.

Yahoo Pipes....

2008-05-01T20:45:00.003-04:00

If you look to the right of this post you will see something new. This is my pipe feed of Artist's blogs that I read. If you scroll over the picture you will see some text and the title. When you click on the title it will bring you to the Artist's blog.

I would like feedback from anyone that is on it, anyone that would like to be on it, anyone that would like to be off it and anyone that would like to add it to their blog.

This is a way of supporting the blogs that I read. If you would like this pipe badge to put on your blog, got to Artist Blogs That I Read, wait for it to load, then click on get badge, then click on where you want to put it. If you look at the list of sources on the left, you can see who's blogs I am feeding from.

Let me know what you think.

First Challenge at the New Let's Make Art.....

2008-05-01T02:15:00.005-04:00

Joanie is running the challenge for the first part of May. With her pictures she also included a portrait by Rembrandt of his father. She challenged us to try to copy it. I decide to go for that one with a quick sketch.

Morning Fruit....

2008-04-26T16:46:00.005-04:00

It's all done. There are things I like about it and things I don't like about it. I got the vibrant colours I wanted. My stump turned out pretty good. Now of course it is always easier to see what you don't like in your own work. First I don't like the grain of the paper. I used Mi-Tients, I wished I had tried the smooth side. I think I might have used the same # of layers without getting a gummy look on the smooth side. I don't like the rays of sunlight, it seems juvenile, in the drawing. In my photograph I liked them. I wish now that I had done something more subtle to convey the light. Possibly going with colours to convey the trees and light rather than structured lines. Overall it's not too bad, but if I was going to hang something on the wall it would be my photograph. If you want to see the rest of the WIP photos they're in a post on the new LMA.

Let's Make Art has a new site!
Let’s Make Art is a home for self taught artists where they can safely display their work in all media, share tips and ideas, learn from each other or just be friends. It is a social network as much as an art place. Membership is totally free.

You get your own page to customize, your photos can be put in albums and you can have a slide show. It reminds me a whole lot of Sue's Sunday Salon with lots of interaction between members.

Some More Pictures....

2008-04-23T15:39:00.004-04:00

I think I have all my white down now. I feel that I don't have enough black showing, but I have read that green and yellow need white behind them or they don't look right. I guess I will find out when I start adding colour to it.

New Project.....

2008-04-21T06:09:00.007-04:00

I finally got my self started on a new project. This is my plate of oranges and grapes. It will be a coloured picture. Right now I am putting down the tones in white. When I have all the values down I will start adding colour. I am still real new to using black, so I am going to take lots of pictures. This way if it doesn't work out I can see at what point I went wrong.
I also put this picture up for the challenge at Drawspace. If you want to see some different interpretations of it, go check it out.

Shave for a cure.....

2008-04-11T17:23:00.004-04:00

My blogging friend Wendy Prior has shaved her head to raise funds for the cure of leukemia and blood diseases. Wendy has raised over a hundred dollars. She has also told us of another way that we can help out. Watch this 45 second video from Fidelity Life and they will add $1 for every view, up to a total of $10,000. Shave for a Cure. Take a minute and go check it out. Then check out Wendy's amazing CP work on drafting film.

This is another picture from my camp weekend. I liked how the posts lined up with the tree and the tree was on the edge of nothingness. The lake is just barely visible because of the mist in the air.

Life....

2008-04-09T13:52:00.005-04:00

Here is another picture from my nature walk at camp. I thought I would use it to introduce another TED video. A feast for the eyes and ears, even if you have different ideas on the start of our planet.

In this stunning slideshow, nature photographer Frans Lanting presents The LIFE Project, a collection that tells the story of our planet, from its eruptive beginnings to its present diversity. Hoping for a glimpse of the world the way it was in the age of photosynthesizing stromatolites, "back before the sky turned blue," Lanting journeyed to a remote lagoon in Australia, the only place in the world where stromatolites still exist. The story moves forward from there, via a lyrical collection of photographs set to a soundtrack from Philip Glass.

Camp Cook.....

2008-04-08T23:19:00.006-04:00

My two younger sons William and Douglas went to camp this weekend. I went too, just not as Mom. I went as the camp cook. Luckily I am not the only volunteer, there were several of us to do the work. I have seniority, since I have been going to camp for about 8 yrs, ever since Alex started cubs. When I started I offered to help out in the kitchen.....when I got there I found out I was it! I had to cook for about 15 kids and 5 adults. Now we cook for about 20 kids and about 10 adults.

I brought my camera to camp with the intention of getting some art worthy pictures. Someone mentioned that my plate of fruit looked good, so I started with it the first morning. It was a great time to take pictures, the sun was just coming up and there was frost touching everything. I had a great time walking around the hills, and mud, taking pictures. I even remembered to take pictures of children. I had three nieces, a nephew and a Brother in Law at the camp also, so, actually there are quite a few pictures of children.

You Have to Check Out TED....

2008-04-04T12:29:00.006-04:00

Morning
300 pixels/inch

I was checking out Sue's blog, the Ancient Artist. On it she was discussing a video that she had seen. This video is on TED and is one of several hundred on this site.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. Almost 200 talks from our archive are now available, with more added each week. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted.

Today, TED is therefore best thought of as a global community. It's a community welcoming people from every discipline and culture who have just two things in common: they seek a deeper understanding of the world, and they hope to turn that understanding into a better future for us all.

I watched the video that Sue was discussing and then another and then another! I am hooked, these are some of the most intelligent talks ever put in one place. You may not always agree with what is being said, but you will come away thinking.

Here is one to get you started. (this one is environmental, there are many other topics) I was impressed with her passion on her topic.

The Colours Out My Window....

2008-04-01T14:38:00.003-04:00

This was the view out my window on March 28th. It is unusual for us to have a snow storm this late in the season. The colours are what caught my attention, the sky, the snow in the sun and the snow in the shade. it made for a delightful day to look out the window.

This morning I woke up to this glorious shade of blue. The snow of three days ago is long gone. I was really glad that I grabbed my camera as this lasted only moments.

Everyday Objects....

2008-03-31T12:40:00.003-04:00

Everyday Objects
5 ATCs 2.5x3.5"
graphite on white paper

Here are bits and pieces from around my house. These are my ATCs for the Everyday Objects Trade at DS. I'll be sending them out tonight.

Almost There.....

2008-03-27T10:34:00.005-04:00

Almost There
8x11-72pixels/inch

Yes I have been playing in the finger paints again....well the virtual ones.

I should be showing you my ATC cards that have to go out in the mail by Monday. My problem is I don't like them. I need to learn how to develop a drawing from life. Not just a sketch, a full drawing. The ATCs for this trade are from life drawings of everyday things. I like working from a photo. I have no problem supplying that photo from my own camera. In which case the work is mine. (as per the debate going on). Yet the camera obviously sees different than me, since I am having such a hard time with this. Which I guess just means I need much more practice drawing from life....so back to the drawing board!

Finger painting....

2008-03-20T15:11:00.004-04:00

Spring Pond
11x8-72 pixels/inch

Just doing some finger painting via PhotoFiltre. You can put colour down on the page then use the little hand with the finger sticking out to spread it around. Almost as fun as the real thing. The clean up was definitely better!

Self portrait.....

2008-03-16T13:52:00.004-04:00

Jeanette, over at Illustrated Life, set up a portrait challenge with a twist , over at Drawspace. This is my line drawing for it. I know I'm scarier looking than you all thought I would be.LOL The twist was that it should not be the average view of yourself. I think I fulfilled that! I did cheat a bit, I posterized the picture I was working from. My inspiration level has been low so I wanted to just jump in and get going. This was still about an hours worth of work.

Challenge host????

2008-02-20T13:12:00.004-05:00

Well maybe not. This is a quick sketch of her baby picture. She posted the picture as part of her challenge at Drawspace.

Yellow Hornbill....

2008-02-18T17:50:00.008-05:00

Here is a new sprite that I worked on this week. This guy was part of the weekly challenge at Drawspace. Marisa dragged a camera and zoom lens around Africa to get us this great picture. I am sure it was for us!

I remembered to save this picture as I was working on it. Here is the series.

I work in MS Paint, 100 x100 pixels (about an inch square). I zoom to about 600% and look at the thumbnail at the same time, as it gets very pixelated near the end. This is done with one layer.
One of the members at DS was showing us how to do sprites, I guess they get used in games like Mario Brothers. I found I enjoyed doing them, that they were more fun than playing games on the computer. Whenever I find myself getting into mindlessly playing games, I try to switch over to doing one of these. That way I am still learning about colour, shape and tones.

Interviewed....

2008-02-17T17:35:00.006-05:00

I have been talking with Sue Smith of the Ancient Artist:Developing an Art Career Over 50. Today she has posted my interview in her Sunday Salon Series.
In Sue's own words this is what she is setting out to do:

Artists have always come together into groups where they share common passions, philosophies, argue over content and inspire each other into greater accomplishments. Some of the great groups that come to mind were the Impressionists, the Ashcan Painters, the Abstract Expressionists, the Modernists in Taos...the list is endless. I believe that an artist cannot create in isolation, nor can he or she take the necessary risks without the motivations, challenges and inspirations found within these groups. My goal is to create a similar environment here, a virtual salon where each month (or week) I "sit down" and talk to an artist about whatever we want to talk about. My sincere hope is that others will join the conversation through comments left on posts and through future interviews. Using this format instead of a discussion board, my hope is for a more in depth, focused discussion that informs, challenges, and encourages everyone.

Now I had to ask Sue where I fit into this, she has interviewed some amazing artists, ones who are very accomplished. Sue assured me that there are people out there who will want to hear how I have been learning to draw in the last year and a bit.

The Sunday Salons are a great way to get to know some new and wonderful artists. While you are there, Sue is an accomplished artist, well worth checking out her websites. I know you will find favorites as I have. You will also find an abundance of information on developing an art career.

Adding Colour....

2008-02-12T14:42:00.001-05:00

Waiting on the Wind
2.5"x3.5"
prisma colour on black paper

Okay I am a lot happier. While not perfect by any means, it is much better than the tea cup. Patience is key, when I slowed down and used a lighter hand I was able to get many layers in. Now I have to slow down even further and do a good line drawing and transfer it to the good paper, that way I will end up with less obvious mistakes on the finished product:)

Underpainting on Black....

2008-02-11T23:43:00.005-05:00

I went back with a simpler object to try a white underpainting on black paper. This time I used the same paper, more patience and a smaller area (2.5x3.5"). I'll try adding colour to it tomorrow. This underpainting is better than the one I had done for the teacup, so we will see if that makes a difference in the end. I think I still have a bit too heavy a hand.
The photo I used for this drawing is from Noblejose from The Morgue Files.

Do You See...

2008-02-11T15:52:00.003-05:00

It is interesting to see the images that come from giving the camera to the kids. They have a different perspective on life, if only because they are a foot or two short than you are. Well that may be an exaggeration, now a days they are catching up fast if not already towering over me! Regardless, they travel different paths, different things look interesting to them and they always come up with a couple of interesting pictures.

Did they take the picture of the broken tree because it was dangling way up there (threatening their very lives)? Or did they take it because they saw the long neck dinosaur checking them out?

What did they see (while standing on the thinnest piece of ice) looking down the creek? Did they see the rather pompous looking rabbit or did they see how far they could look down the creek?