Breaking through the dry spell...

Remember this bust? I got her in January 2010 and I'm just now getting around to sketching her. I've not been sketching much at all lately--there is always something else that needs my attention, like cleaning or cooking dinner. I know it is nothing but procrastination, but unfortunately, it wins sometimes. No, I'm not proud of that fact, but there it is. Anyway, today was beautiful, in the eighties, sunny. I don't enjoy Texas summers much, so I figured I needed to spend as much time outside as possible before it gets here. I mean, eighties!!... in February!? Since the backyard is in that ugly stage it gets after dealing with a week of hard freezes, I picked the Diana bust off my desk to draw and carried all my supplies outside. This is modified contour in my Lamy Safari fountain pen with watercolor added. Limited palette of cadmium orange and pthalo blue. The colors on the scan aren't quite right, the background being more of a greenish blue.
One thing happened on this sketch that you wouldn't think would make me happy...but did. It has been a long time since I've really gotten into a sketch so much that the outside world fades away. If you look closely at her chin, you'll see a little 'blip' in the ink line. My husband had come through the back door, crossed about twenty feet of the back deck (wood, never quiet!), paused a sec, and then spoke. The noises had barely registered in my brain, so it startled me! Seems strange, perhaps, to be happy about something like that!?


I did this one yesterday and it is fairly obvious that I hadn't been sketching much. I did it for Julia Kay's portrait party. This is "Stacey" of staceysketches on flickr. Again, the scanner didn't quite get the colors right...the background is more of an orange color than pink. I wasn't happy with the results, but considering how rusty I was when I did it, I'll be thankful for what I managed!

This evening we went to Baytown and met up with my first cousin, once removed, who I hadn't seen 1986. I took my sketchbook, intending to draw in the restaurant (there were five of us, total, so the focus wouldn't just be on me). The thing is, I was too embarrassed to do it. It is easier for me to sit alone and sketch in public. If I'm with family, it somehow feels like I'm showing off. Do you sometimes get that? I read so many blogs where the artists do this all the time. Am I just being insecure?

First post in 2011

2011 started off very good for me art-wise. I was drawing, I was painting--I just wasn't posting. The words make me procrastinate. They are this huge mountain, a huge, insurmountable mountain. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to post without words now and then. In reality I like it when others use fewer words because it is easier to get through the hundred or so blogs that I check up on daily. Maybe I exaggerate, but only by a little.

This gal here I thought was from imagination. But, over on Yevgenia Watts blog, Watercolor Hands, I see a woman very similar(on the sidebar, three pictures down below her facebook icon) and I think I may have remembered it when I drew this. It isn't painted the same of course, but I can't help but see the influence. It is small: 1.5"x 2", watercolor and ballpoint pen.


These two are my paternal grandparents. I never met them because they both died when my father was a boy. I think about them sometimes, wondering what they were like. These were both painted on scraps and glued into my sketchbook. The one of my grandmother has the most resemblance. My grandfather didn't turn out very well at all, as far as likeness is concerned. He was very handsome. I suppose that teddy bear belonged to my father. They loved photography and we have a lot of pictures of them, just not any with both of them. Someone has to take the photo, right? I think I may revisit this and try to set them both up in the same picture. She died when my father was four, and on her picture, my grandfather wrote, "My Darling". I love that he did that.


This was done from a morguefile.com photo posted by earl53, ref#179348. I loved the sketch, but felt like I ruined the painting first thing by using a purple for the shading on the lighthouse. It was very sloppy, with me getting out of lines here and there. (obviously not concentrating!) So, I went over it with a micron pen. It's growing on me now. Definitely glad I didn't pitch it in the trash like I was tempted. In fact, I almost didn't even continue the painting after the purple, and only did because I viewed it as practice. My thought at the time was, well, it is already ruined so it can't hurt any.

Every thing else I've done this month has been of the doodle-type. A lot is happening around here, some things I cannot tell you just yet, but I'm excited about it. Dang, I'm terrible at keeping secrets and this one will drive me nuts! I best go now, before I slip!

Farewell to 2010!

2.5"x 5.75" pencil and watercolor. You may not believe it, but this makes me very happy! I have nothing to say that would pick this apart. I find this strange since I didn't spend a lot of time trying to get the sketch right. I was watching videos while painting it over the course of about three days, finishing it just this morning. Why did it take so long? Well, I definitely could have finished it in one sitting, but after I started and liked the direction it was heading, and because I didn't want to mess up, I would stop until I had a better idea of where to go next. Normally I'm much more impatient! I used a photo on morguefile by Scott Liddell as reference.







Last week I reorganized my studio. I have a new bookcase which has doors on it so I can hide the clutter. My desk now has space available! I don't have to balance everything on top of something, waiting for the first bump to make it all crash down! All of my scraps of watercolor paper were put into a tin. For some reason, I find it so much easier to work on scraps. When they turn out okay, I glue them into my sketchbook.

This woman on top was a copy of a painting by Don Andrews, which came on an insert in one of my Cheap Joe's orders. I liked the painting and put it on my bulletin board. The dove is from imagination. Both are pencil and watercolor. Sorry for the bad scan. I put my hand on it half way through and didn't realize I messed it up until putting it up here.


Not much to say here, except that he was from imagination. Obviously the chords on his neck wouldn't be so thin! (That is something I just noticed!)

So, how did you do on your resolutions in 2010? Me? Not so good! Not only did I not double the number posts of 2009, I didn't even equal them! I did sell something though. Though, it was for Ripple and the money went to a charity instead of me. I was close to being published, but unfortunately, that didn't work out. I'm really not good with resolutions. Something in me wants to rebel and do the opposite. Or is it that I make resolutions I'm not so sure I really want to make?




This is another sketchbook page that I've glued in some drawings done on scraps. The bird is from imagination, again. The woman was sketched while watching a video. The face behind her was a bronze statue. She was blond, the walls were white. Obviously I just made everything the way I felt like making it! (Gray box is just me blocking out some of the words!)

Well, I wish everyone a happy, healthful, and creative 2011!