A Little Practice before Sketchcrawl 24!

I am so excited about Saturday! This is my first Sketchcrawl to attend and I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas! In preparation, I went and purchased new brushes and a watercolor sketchbook today. (Let's hear it for 40% off coupons from Hobby Lobby!) I've also been reading a few books about process and doing some practicing. Lots of it actually. I want to be loose and comfortable. This sketch is very small, only 3X5, from a photo I took at one of our pit stops in Georgia. Okay, I have to go...more practice to do!

PS It's amazing what actually reading a book on watercolor and doing some of the exercises will do for you (as opposed to checking it out from the library, looking through the pictures, then setting it down on a table where it stays until it's due!) Important things can be learned...like how to lay a wash!

A Reflection/Confession of My Own

This isn't me, but it's the expression I often have on my face after I've painted one of my sketches. From a photo on morgefile.com, posted by anamaizing, here.

I checked out a book from the library by Charles Reid, Pulling Your Paintings Together. The whole first section was on contour drawing, which I love to do. It has inspired me and I'm on a sketching binge. That's a good thing, but I got it to learn how to paint. I just, haven't gotten to that part yet because I'm having so much fun sketching! So, after about ten or so faces, I decided to paint one. I went a little crazy with the colors, but I liked it! Yes, I said that. I like it.

I've been doing some thinking. It's been pointed out to me that I am incredibly hard on myself. (I can see your eyes rolling! I know, I know, it's about time I got the message!) But, I've been trying to figure out why and I think I have it down to this: I like to sketch and sometimes I think I get a little too attached to my sketches. I'm just learning to paint and hardly know anything at all about color. This makes for a bad combination, because if I like my sketch too much, I'm disappointed if the painted version isn't something I'd hang on my wall. This definitely has to stop, because 1) I'm sure you're tired of my moaning, 2) Fear of messing up my sketch makes it harder to do, and 3) Fear of messing up my sketch means not practicing very often and therefore, not improving!

Besides, I really want to know how to paint!

EDM #56 Self-portrait

My forty-second birthday is in ten days. I thought it would be nice to get a self-portrait in before everything starts heading south. (I heard that starts the day after your forty-second b-day!) This one is from a photo since every time I do one in a mirror I have that growl look. The eyes look a bit off, I think I've made my pupils too big.

And this is the one that I royally screwed up a while back. I went back and added payne's gray to the background to tone down the color a bit, and then painted my husband. I did a lot of guessing on the shadows and it probably isn't consistent. I like it okay...At least I feel like I can bring this one out of the closet now.

Wow...productive month for me. This post will tie me with my biggest month, and it is only the twelfth. (And I haven't typed the word "twelfth" in so long that it looks strange to me. hmm.)