A Busy Couple of Weeks...

Two weeks ago, I was contacted by Melissa Rovner, whose two children had written a book about the oil spill. She wanted to publish the book, so she asked some of the artists who had contributed to Ripplesketches if they could contribute pictures for the book. I said okay. It's to raise money, so really, it's just a donation; I don't get paid. But, I was so excited to be invited that I couldn't say no! I decided to do three versions, and let her pick which she liked best. You can see a write up in the Walton Sun.

This is Jerry Waese, a participant in Julia Kay's Portrait Party. I tried using just two colors, indigo and burnt sienna. I had never done this type of exercise before, so poor Jerry was my guinea pig. I got the reference photo from here.


This was a piece of watercolor paper with preexisting splashes of paint on it. In the midst of the swirls, I could barely make out a bird. So I found a photo which seemed like it would fit and this is the result. BettyfromTexas tells me it is an African Grey.


And this is my semi-new workspace! Before, my desk was L-shaped and I had two areas that I could pull up a chair. The problem with this arrangement was that I'm a little lazy and disorganized by nature, so the end opposite of my computer became a place to stack my junk! What to do? Grab a round saw and cut off the last two feet (didn't take the desk outside...it was too heavy!), swing it around to the front, and attach. Wha-lah!! U-shaped workspace! Okay, now, don't laugh...but, this is CLEAN! And because everything is within reach, I am managing to keep it relatively so! I love my new space!

Update: I should have mentioned that I did not post any of the pictures that I've done for the book. I'm not sure what the rules about such a thing are, and I decided to wait and see which one she decided to use.

Coffee on the patio.

I have to laugh at this one, even though I like the way it turned out. You see, because I was deep in conversation which required analyzing on my part, I wasn't concentrating when I did this sketch. I never went into "the zone" and I felt separate from the sketch. Does that make sense? Anyway, a lot of mistakes that I didn't even notice until I started applying the watercolor. Like on the second chair (the one behind), I forgot to draw the seat! And, I had already gone too far with the concrete, so I drew it in too far to the left. (Although, had I been thinking, I don't think that light color gray would have affected the chair if I had painted right over the top of it.) I also forgot to put the shadows on the concrete from the chairs and trees, and I forgot to draw what was seen through the glass table top. I know, I know. I shouldn't actually be telling you where to find the mistakes! I did my best to make up for them. What do I like about this? The composition. And the pot to the pencil cactus; it turned out well. I liked the shadows I had started across the chairs. They would make more sense if there were shadows continued on the concrete.

Thank you all for the comments on the last post. I've had a lot of good suggestions and even one email with words of encouragement. Sorry for not commenting very much lately, things came up and I haven't been around. I do hope to get to you soon!