Self Portrait

Hey, you know what happens when a 41 year-old woman spends her Friday night watching Looney Toons Golden Collection (disc 3 is my favorite) and playing with art supplies? This:

Well I guess he doesn't look THAT much like me. I can just relate to the strained eyes. Probably from all that reading. Acrylic and mixed media.

The Evolution of an Elephant

This is (I think) the finished version of my elephant painting. Truth be told I may tweak it several times in the next few months as nerves about showing it in public begin to sit in. 

Thought I would show the painting in stages just to demonstrate how terrifying the beginning and clumsy stages can be. 

Ewww! At this point I tell myself I should not be allowed to spend money on art supplies or even hold a brush.

Oh, his little eye is looking at me and he begs me not to give up. I think he may be a baby elephant but I'm not sure.

He is progressing along. This photo was taken at night and looks more blue than gray. That bring up the issue of light and demonstrates the difficulty of sometimes painting in natural light and sometimes at night in poor light. 

And viola! Done! Well I skipped a few days in between because I got tired of uploading pictures, so... We're done. I think. Now I need to learn how to photograph artwork. Anyone out there have any ideas on how to that? Please keep in mind that though I love the IDEA of being a photographer I don't actually  TAKE pictures or own anything other than a point and shoot camera that may or may not have batteries at any given time.

You think YOU'VE got eye-strain...

 I know he's bizarre, but I love these bug-eyed goldfish. Expect to see more. This is how I feel after staring at the computer all day then trying to draw at night.  I actually want to paint these little guys but I'm not sure they're most people's cup of tea. Orange ballpoint, black ink and colored pencil in my nearly completed (!!!) moleskine sketchbook.

I AM working on a painting that is based on this watercolor sketch though...

I find myself falling madly in love with elephants. Hope it lasts until the painting is finished. Watercolor in watercolor sketchbook

Canvas Anxiety

I'm trying to get some plans together, trying to gather the courage to put some paint on some canvases and submit them to a local organization that is holding a charity art show and sale in a few months. That decision made, now what to paint? 

I bought some supplies last night, feeling very brave and buoyant.  But when I woke this morning and saw the canvases leaning against the sofa I panicked a little bit. I just want to work in a smaller scale, but I know I will be pleased if I can just get over it and work on a bigger scale. I mean how many people want to stand around with a magnifying glass flipping through my sketchbook?

So, today has been about sketching and thinking, painting in miniature to prepare for the big deal. Still not sure what subject matter to focus on but I think the Aspen leaves may find a place in there.  I just love the orange against the black. LOVE. This piece is acrylic on 8x10 canvas board.  And it gives me peace.

This is a sight that does not really give me peace. Those are stacks of blank canvases and watercolor paper that I mean to fill and I hope to do so with some measure of beauty and whimsy. It makes me anxious. And that is not what art is all about for me. Art is about calm, not stress. I keep telling myself that a deadline is just what I need to get some work done. ! I put the exclamation point in my brain, just for the heck of it. But I have made a start, maybe its just the planning process, but seems somewhat more possible now than it did this morning. 

This is how my brain functions, when it DOES function. Despite appearances, this actually does organize me. The task: get the art out of those many sketchbooks and turn the reference photos into completely original works of art.

And now the reason I made a label called bad ideas. 

For the past few weeks, as I sketched and painted turtles, I thought of the turtle as a patient creature and a slow mover. This is good. This is where I need to be. I need to cultivate patience and I need to be careful about quick decisions and slingshot reactions. I kept thinking the same words over and over so I decided it would be a good idea to just write them right on the painting. With water-soluable (read smear-able) ink. After I doctored it up as much as I could with white paint this is what we have left. Not such a good idea after all. Well that is how we learn I guess.

The trouble with ballpoint pens

Well as it says above, the trouble with ballpoint pens is ink blots or boogers. It never fails, I'm going along fine hatching and cross-hatching and boom! a big glob of ink. Price you pay... I need to learn to draw with a more sophisticated pen I guess.

I'm not really obsessed with tools, I really did find this in the couch cushions when I sat down. I was going to draw Carsen's beat up Converse but they seemed like such a monumental task to start so late at night, so...

I prepared a small canvas for a painting tonight. Was going to get started but the paint took longer to dry than I anticipated, so it will have to wait. Aspen leaves. LOVE, love, love them.

So, that's my only offering this week. Tomorrow's Thursday and then it's all downhill from there! 

Life in the Piney Woods

Not much drawing over the last few days. I spent most of the weekend weeding flower beds and planting more azaleas. This time of year they are gorgeous around here and it makes me want to plant more and more. Couldn't weed this bed because the bees are crazy in love with the blooms.

Spent some time watching them. I'm going to make bees and a few more lovely insects a major part of a future project. Fingers crossed... 

This is Sweet Gussie Boy Whiteside, who decided this weekend would be the perfect time to get over his fear of darkness and everything else by running off into the woods in the dark. Carsen and I fumbled after him, in the dark, alternately promising treats and threatening bodily harm until he finally waddled home. 

That's when we decided we should probably dig one of these out of the junk drawer and put it in a handy spot.

And maybe even purchase some fresh batteries. These aren't good for anything other than sketching.

That's about all the drawing I've done lately. Hoping to do some more serious drawings. Well...not serious in subject matter, but maybe on real paper, not just in sketchbooks and with something other than a stolen ballpoint pen. That's the question I get asked most often. Why do all your drawings have a line going down the middle. Because they're in a sketchbook. Hence the sub-title "and online sketchbook". Maybe I'll type up a FAQ list. 

Hope the rest of your week is awesome. Get out there and smell the roses, but watch out for the bees.