Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Watercolor Horse - Day 2

I'm loving these watercolors. It goes so much faster than colored pencil work

I really have no clue what I'm doing and may be breaking all kinds of watercolor "rules" but I'm liking how this is coming out so I'll keep doing what I'm doing.
Still working with only five colors also.
I refined the eye more and started adding in some of the bone structure and contours.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Watercolor Horse

So here is the start of the horse I'm attempting in Watercolors.

Started with a Background wash of a blue color.




After the background dried, I started working on some of the ears, muzzle and eye.



Exploring Watercolors - first watercolor Waterfall

Started exploring my watercolors again.  The first time I was introduced to watercolors was in the same art class in 2005.  I only have five colors right now so a pretty limited palette to try this with .
Red, blue, yellow, green and brown.  No way to make colors lighter with a tint of white so had to use more water.  that in itself seems to create a whole nother set of problems.
Haven't messed with them since the class was over and it's taken me awhile to even find the five paints I still have.
Anyways, without further chatter, here is an attempt at Bow River waterfall in Alberta, Canada.  It was the subject of my last essentials of waterfalls webinar class. I messed up the perspective and I'm not happy with this painting but it sure was fun to get the paints out again!
I've decided I really can't paint landscapes very well, without a LOT more practice.  Look for this painting to be tried again at a later date.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Another Waterfall

Well, this waterfall is better than the last one, I hope but I can see that I definitely need to improve more.  A LOT MORE LOL.

Friday, February 24, 2012

What's That? - WIP Day Six

Just trying to ground the kitties paws to the ground with a little shadow.  Not sure I accomplished that yet but it's a start.

color used: cool gray 50%

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

What's That? - WIP Day Five

I spent a few hours refining the third kitty.  Hopefully, I made it better and not worse!!
I still have to ground the kitties to the ground but other than that, I'm pretty much done with this one.  I don't think I will draw figures this small again LOL!  Time to bring out the big boards when I have this many subjects.
I measured all these kitties and each one was between two and three inches by 4 to 4.5 inches. Itsy Bitsy LOL!
The swallow tails wing tip to wing tip is 2.5 inches and tail to feeler is 1.75 inches.
Oh, some exciting news too.  I'm going to be sharing a website with fellow artists and craftsmen.  So far there are three of us but more are possible in the near future.  So far, I'm the only one who does pet portraits.  More on that when it's ready!
Here's today's progress:
Hope you enjoy it!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

What's That? - WIP Day Four

Today's progress!  Now I have to decide if I'm putting in a background and if so, WHAT?
Colors used for the third kitten:
white, cool grey (10%, 50%, 90%), sky blue light, cloud blue, powder blue, blue slate, indigo blue, blush pink, greyed lavender, sepia, light peach, rosy beige, french grey (10%, 30%, 50%) , warm grey (10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%) and cream. 

Waterfall

This is my first ever waterfall, rocks, or trees.  I'm so far out of my comfort zone but I swore I would share my progress in my journey of art.  Well, I'm taking a free webinar class on painting waterfalls.  Since I don't have oils, or pastels right now, I did this in colored pencils.
I sure need a lot more practice LOL!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

What's That? - WIP Day Three

Number two kitten stopped being shy and showed her herself today! LOL
I now have about eight hours invested in this drawing!  I'm loving my Prismacolor colored pencils but I'm still just learning them as well.
Oh I decided to list the colors I use as well.  That way I have a permanent record of what colors I used to achieve what I did.
So after this picture, there will be a list of colors.

cream, french grey 10% & 30%, cool grey 10%, 50% & 90%, warm grey 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, black, white, sky blue light, cloud blue, non-photo blue, blush pink, rosy beige, beige, golden rod, sepia, indigo blue, dark umber and light peach.  LOL, do you think I used enough colors?

Friday, February 10, 2012

What's That? - WIP Day Two

Well, it was a little easier to work on this kitten than it was to work on the Mesmer-Eyes-er but I don't think I'm going to be working on images this small again!!  I may go blind before I get these three silverhaired tabby kittens done LOL!
Here is Day Two's progress :)

Monday, February 6, 2012

What's That? - WIP

I have another one in the works that I've titled, "What's That?"
This one is back to Prismacolor Colored pencils
I'm not sure you can see it but there are three kittens below this butterfly all looking up at it. Hence the title, "What's that?"

Owl Eyes - Adjustment

So, I adjusted the beak highlight just a tad and I also found an owl drawing (my first bird) that I did back in 2005 and thought I'd post it here.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Owl Eyes -- Done?

I've signed my Owl Eyes drawing but I'm not really sure it's done LOL
This is the first bird I've drawn since getting serious about my art (last bird was in 2005) and it was definitely a learning challenge with all those feathers but I don't think it will be my last bird :)
Anyways, here it is, I hope you like it :-)

Friday, February 3, 2012

Owl Eyes - WIP

Now to completely switch color schemes.  I'm back to working with Graphite.
This Work In Progress picture is drawn from an image in Morguefile.com
First time drawing a bird.






Playing with Marbles

This was the second time with my colored pencils and also first time with glass. My first Colored pencil drawing was a couple of Red Pears.
This piece is loosely based off of marble drawings by Arlene Steinberg and Alyona Nickelsen.

Earlier completed works

I call this one Mesmer_Eyes-er because that's what everyone tells me it does to them.
This was my first time doing fur with colored pencils and only my second serious colored pencil drawing.  I'll post my first one in another post.
I am using Prismacolor Preimer Colored Pencils.





This is some more examples of work that I have completed in graphite when I started drawing again.

This was a cute commission I did called "Pals"


This was a memorial for a very special horse named BB.




This one is of a very special Mammoth Donkey named Betty



This was done Christmas 2011
Titled:
Daddy's Girl



Mother's Love



This was my first composite drawing.
Combining three images and created Nose Kisses



A very special horse named Reba



A cute puppy named Tyson

Getting Started

Since being downsized from my profession (Software Engineering ), I've been trying to keep my sanity and started drawing again as something to do.  I first found out about art in 2005 when taking an elective Art class while in college.  I found out I really liked doing art and wasn't too bad at it either.  Of course, then life got in the way and I didn't pick up a pencil or brush again until Oct. 2010 when I started drawing again.  I wasn't really serious about it but it was fun to draw again.
After being downsized, I started drawing to fill the time and keep my sanity.  I also tried Colored Pencils and have completed two drawings with those and completed a few Graphite drawings as well.

Well, people have been telling me for quite awhile that I need to start a web site to show my work.  So, I'm finally going to do something about it.
By doing this here, I will be showing my clients, family and friends my work in progress images of what I'm currently working on.
Please have patience with me as I figure this out and get it up and running.