Color Conscious

I'm baaaaack.....

2011-04-03T22:20:00.003-04:00

Well...it's been quite some time since my last post. Almost a year to be honest.

The simple explanation is that I lost all my pictures when my hard drive crashed, which included pictures I tagged as references. So with that...all my inspiration went *poof!* All gone. Several months I went without them...until my dad was able to recover everything a couple of months ago. But I didn't jump right back into it. I was still lacking motivation. I think I still sort of am.

But a co-worker of mine wanted me to do a portrait of his daughter to match the one I did of his son a couple of years ago. You can see that here. So...after I put it off a for several weeks...I finally had to give myself a deadline. And as that deadline neared, I had to tell him when I would have it done by, so that I could keep myself focused and make sure I didn't slack off again.

So tomorrow I will deliver the finished product. And then I have to force myself to start on something new so that I can get back into the groove. No promises, though. I don't want to put my foot in my mouth!

Portraiture Challenge for April

2010-04-11T18:01:00.003-04:00

So I was lurking on the Portraiture Forum on Wetcanvas, and I could not resist this reference picture that happened to be the one of the portrait challenges for April. So I spent a little time this weekend working on this one. It could definitely use more work, but I really should get back to my Baby J drawings.

Baby J #2 Finished

2010-04-04T20:03:00.003-04:00

I've completed the second in the series of 3. I hope to get the next one finished by next weekend because my friend and her baby will be moving back here, and I'd like to get it to her then. So I will hopefully get the next picture sketched out sometime this week and begin laying in color at night after work so that I can give it to her Saturday or Sunday. After a couple of days of not looking at this one, I might go in and make a few tweeks before I put it in the frame. But we'll see.

Baby J WIP...2nd in the Series

2010-04-03T21:34:00.003-04:00

I've started on the second drawing of Baby J. Hopefully I can finish this one tomorrow, but we'll see how it goes. She's 5x7, prismacolor pencils on Uart 800 sanded paper.

Baby J WIP Complete....for now....

2010-03-15T22:31:00.004-04:00

For now, I am calling her done. I really want to put a background color in, but I don't know what color...and so my instinct is telling me to leave it as is for now. If I decide to do a background, I can always do one later. But for now, we'll leave it, until I get the other 2 in the series done, and see how it all looks in a frame together.

Baby J WIP #2

2010-03-13T20:01:00.003-05:00

I worked a little bit more on Baby J today. There was something off about it, but I couldn't see just what it was, so I pulled it into photoshop and layed it over the original reference picture. The red lines are how off I was from the reference. Tomorrow I will fix it, and possibly finish it.

Baby J Portrait

2010-03-10T10:48:00.003-05:00

So I've started my next portrait. This is #1 in a series of three. I had wanted to draw my best friend's baby for Christmas, but I did not have the time. Now that the holidays and the wedding are all behind me, I will get it done and give it to her late. I bought a long frame that has a mat cut with three 5x7 openings. I plan to draw 3 different reference pictures of this baby and put them in the frame for her.

After that, I have yet another picture of this baby that I want to draw larger than 5x7.

This is 5x7, Prismacolor colored pencils on Uart 800 sanded pastel paper. I should be able to work on it some more and possibly finish this weekend. Will post an update as soon as I have one. :)

2010-03-05T22:07:00.003-05:00

I completed Claire's portrait a few days ago. Or at least, think I did. I'm still waiting for her to reply to my email to let me know if she likes it. At this point, it is possible to make changes. I have not blended with the stencil brush, and it is fairly easy to lift color with sticky tack.

While I wait for Claire to respond, I have been going through my reference photos for my next project. But there are too many pictures that I want to draw...and I can't decide where to start.

So that is where I am now. The wedding and honeymoon are over, and I promise to more actively post to this blog. So I am hoping to have something to post tomorrow. Until then... :)

Portrait Swap - Fresh Start

2010-01-11T10:48:00.003-05:00

I restarted my portrait of Claire, so here is an update. My picture was taken at a bad angle, I should have put it on the easle and took a straighter shot. But it's not the final, so I guess it's not that big a deal.

I find that I am actually afraid to touch it with the stencil brush, because my last attempt at her portrait was not fixable because of the blending. If I don't blend this one, then I can't possibly ruin it. I do see some changes that I want to make to it. And considering I can easily lift color with sticky tack, that shouldn't be a huge problem.

Trying to decide if I want to do the paisley design on her shirt, or just make it solid blue. Also not sure if I want to go lighter on the background or not.

So far, I'm pretty happy with how this one is coming along. I do wish I had more daylight hours to work with. I am going to try to bring it to work with me tomorrow to work on it during lunch. I will try to get a better picture of it for the next update.

Portrait Swap Disaster!

2010-01-02T19:18:00.003-05:00

When I started this blog, I said you'd see my failures as well as my successes...so, as promised, here is a portrait that I messed up on.

The photograph actually looks better than the real thing. Here's my excuse for messing it up. If you take a look at my website, you will see that I am used to brightly lit subjects. Shadows are not something I have that much experience with. Shadows are hard to get sometimes, without making the colors look muddy. So what I've succeeded in here, is making my subject look like a battered woman. I'm sorry, Claire!

I had to put Claire on the back burner for a few weeks while I took care of some wedding planning, and holiday stuff. But now I'm back to complete her portrait. I tried to lift the color off of this portrait, and it doesn't seem to want to come up. That's because I blended it pretty good with a stencil brush. I could probably get it all off, if I wanted to make Claire wait a year or two! lol.

Claire went ahead and sent me some new photos of herself, without shadows, incase I wanted to try a new picture when I start over. I'm taking her up on that, ONLY BECAUSE, I'm still so busy with wedding planning, and I don't want to make her wait much longer while I fiddle with a new skill. I'll work on the shadow challenge another time. Maybe re-read Ann Kullberg's Colored Pencil Portraits again before I make a go of it. For now, I will stick with a reference that she sent without shadows, so that I can get it done in a timely manner and ship it to her asap.

In the next couple of days, I will post my start on the second attempt at Claire's portrait. And eventually, probably after my wedding, I will revisit the original reference with shadow and see if I can do better.

In fact, improving my art, and blogging more often are goals for 2010. So off I go, and I wish you all a very happy, creative and productive 2010!

Merry Belated Christmas!

2009-12-26T21:13:00.009-05:00

I'm sorry that I have been MIA for so long. I will admit, time has gotten away from me. I screwed up on my drawing for the portrait swap...and then just have not had to the time to fix or restart it. Before I knew it, it was Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas....I feel like all three holidays came in about as many days too. I don't know where all the time went.

I will post my messed up drawing in another post. I will also be fixing or restarting the portrait in the next day or two. I'll post that as well. But for now, I wanted to show you all what I have been busy with. Here are my invitations, made completely from scratch. The design came from this blog. Sensitive information blurred or blacked out for privacy purposes.

I have also been working on a couple of other DIY projects. I am making my own Ringbearer Pillow, Flowergirl Basket, Guest Book, and Garters. Normally, I wouldn't do all of that. But there is a reason. I really wanted to get married in my grandmother's wedding dress. It was a beautiful wedding gown.

Unfortunately, it wasn't properly preserved, so when my grandmother brought it back from New York for me, it was literally shredded and yellowed. All I had was the bodice, and a relatively small piece of the skirt. (I really should have taken a picture of that before I started working with it). But I thought if I can't wear the dress, maybe I can use it for something else...and incorporate it into my wedding somehow. And that thought evolved into the Ringbearer pillow, Flowergirl basket, Guestbook, and Garters! My mom whitened the dress, but for some reason, a piece of cording or elastic that ran all through the lace did not whiten. The lace whitened beautifully, but the the cord or elastic design stayed yellow. So it dawned on me to dye it purple...to match my wedding color. So I did just that. All of the lace parts of the dress dyed beautifully. The rest of it, I ironed slighlty...I still wanted a it to be a little bit wrinkly because I liked the way it looked. And so far, I have completed the Ringbearer Pillow.

The white fabric, the lace (which I dyed purple) and the purple button in the middle (also dyed) are all parts of my grandmother's wedding dress. I showed it to her a couple of days ago and she was thrilled that I was able to do something with her dress, and that I could get as much out of it as I did. She really didn't think it would be good for anything. But I successfully recycled it, and made it into something my family can continue to cherish for years to come.

So now on my "to-do" list, I still have to complete all the other things listed. But there's time for that...so I will be going back to my portrait for the portrait swap and will post that very soon. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Oh, by the way, I did rush to get my Christmas Card drawn just in time to mail them out a few days before Christmas!

Portrait Swap & Art Contest

2009-11-04T11:49:00.006-05:00

The Portaiture Forum on Wetcanvas is having their 6th Annual Portrait Swap. I have always missed the deadline for signing up because I spend most of my time in the Colored Pencil Forum, and only check in on the Portraiture Forum once in a while. So last year, after missing the deadline yet again, I put a reminder in Google Calendar to email me weekly during the month of October, to remind me to check the forum for the Portrait Swap thread. I FINALLY got to sign up! Yesterday I found out that my parter is Claire Beadon Carnell. While you're checking out her website, check out her blog as well. I am so excited because Claire is a very talented artist, and I know that she will do an awesome job on my portrait.

I can't wait to exchange photos and get started! I had my co-worker take some photos of me yesterday so that I could choose one for the swap. I hope to get some time to look at them tonight and choose one to send to her before I go to the gym.

I've only participated in one portrait swap before. The Colored Pencil Forum had a "Guess Who?" Portrait Exchange in December of 2005. That one was done a little bit differently. We were not paired up together painting our partner's portrait. Instead it was kept secret who got who, and in the end when they were all posted up in the thread by a non-participating artist, we all had to guess who the artist was, and who the subject was. That was a lot of fun, and I was thrilled to find out that the artist who drew my portrait was Nicole Caulfield. Back in February this year, I went to a workshop taught by Nicole. She is one of my favorite colored pencil artists. Here is the portrait that Nicole drew of me.

And here is the portrait that I drew of another artist in the exchange. His name was Ed Gilmore, but I never saw him in the forum again after the exchange. I think I've improved a bit since 2005! lol

After the portrait swap is done, the artists mail their portraits to their respective partners. It's so much fun, and a great way to get to know fellow artists that you follow on the forum. Not to mention, not only do you get a piece of original artwork, but you also spread your artwork out to other states or sometimes even other countries that it may not necessarily go to otherwise.

So look forward to seeing my finished portrait in the coming weeks. I have to check on the dates again to find out what the deadline is.

In other news, I had intended to enter Zebrog into the Artist's Magazine All-Media Art Competition, but the deadline was November 2nd and I missed it. But I just got an email this morning that the deadline was extended to December 1st! So I might just have a chance to enter afterall! I just have to get my butt in gear and finish that drawing!

Halloween!

2009-11-02T11:13:00.004-05:00

I love Halloween! When they announced a costume contest at work this year, I jumped right on it. I've had it in my head for the past several months that I wanted to be a dead bride for Halloween this year. Seems only appropriate since I'm getting married in less than 4 months. lol. Wow...how time flies! I looked online for months to find a dress and even looked into the possibility of making my own dress. But I couldn't find anything I liked. I was about ready to just order an adult Corpse Bride costume from Halloween Express online, but I was really feeling like that would not be an appropriate costume for work. When they announced the contest at work, I clocked out for lunch and grabbed a co-worker and dragged her to thrift stores in the area looking for a dress that would work. The third store we stopped at was Goodwill, and there was this beautiful wedding dress on a manniquin right in the front of the store...it was exactly what I was looking for. I tried it on and it fit like a glove. It was $49.99, but how could I turn it down?? When we got to the register, my co-worker asked for a discount, and they gave me the dress for $34!! It was like it was meant to be! So I spent the rest of the week planning the details....I bought fake french manicured nails on sale for $3 at CVS, and I used nail clippers to make them jagged and cracked. I used an old dirty gold and cubic zirconia ring that I had for my engagement ring. I bought a small bouquet of carnations and just let them die, then I wrapped them in pearls for my dead bouquet. A few toy roaches and rats....a little fake blood...and my costume won me first place in the contest!

I don't think I can top that next year. But we'll see. lol.

Now that Halloween is over...it's time to concentrate on Christmas. I will be designing and drawing my annual Christmas card very soon. I will post when that is finished. I also have a few more 5x7 portraits that I want to draw and I do have my paper now...so I'll try to work that in as well. I hope you all had a very Happy Halloween!

Tweeking Complete

2009-10-11T15:56:00.003-04:00

I know I haven't been good about keeping up with the blog, but I've just got so much going on lately, I haven't found time to draw anything. I finally got around to tweeking the portrait of my brother. The problem was that I had drawn his eyes tilted, but the rest of his face straight. So I corrected the bottom portion of his face, and he is complete.

I do plan to do some more work on the zebrog soon. There is a contest I want to enter that into and the deadline is November 2. I will probably try to finish it over the weekend that my fiance goes out of town.

I also have a few more pictures selected to do portraits from, just waiting on an order of paper from Dick Blick to arrive and I'll get started on those.

Portrait of My Brother

2009-09-11T22:37:00.002-04:00

Ok, this one needs a little tweeking, but I just wanted to hurry up and post something to show that I am still working! This is another 5x7 portrait, this time on Uart 600. There is something off, that I can't quite put my finger on. I want to say it's the eyes, but when I measured everything using the line technique from Ann Kullberg's book "Colored Pencil Secrets for Success", the eyes lined up correctly with the reference photo. As did everything else. But something IS off. I have a feeling it might have to do with the tilt of the head. In the reference photo, his head is tilted, which is what makes his eyes appear lopsided...but in my drawing, I don't think I quite have the tilt. Over the weekend, when I'm not so tired and have more motivation, I plan to put it into Photoshop and overlay it on top of the reference photo and decrease the opacity to see if I can see where I'm off.

On another subject, my friend that I threw the baby shower for had her baby on September 4th at 6:02pm. She is a beautiful and healthy baby girl. I will definitely be drawing her in the near future. Oh, I just realized darnit, I was holding her at 6:02pm, and I didn't even say Happy Birthday. :( Oh well, she was sleeping anyway. I have to order more Uart paper so that I can start my drawings of her.

I am finding that I prefer the Uart paper. I like the texture...it takes alot of pencil. But, I am still learning. Colors don't exactly turn out like you expect them to on this paper, they turn out a little bit darker. But you can easily correct things by either going over them with another pencil, or by lifting the pigment with sticky tack. The only thing I don't like is the color. I'm finding that I don't like the look of portraits on the tan color of the paper, so I need to add a background color to make the portrait stand out. Eh...maybe I will go back to the Fabriano Tiziano occasionally, just for the colors.

I do want to try a portrait on Ampersand Pastelbord. I know that Nicole Caulfield doesn't like portraits on the pastelbord...but others seem to do fine with it. Might as well give it a try. I do like the pastelbord so far, as I'm working on the Zebrog. Speaking of which, my model for that drawing needs to go out to potty. I will continue to try not to let so much time go by between posts! Goodnight :)

Back in the Groove Soon, I Promise!

2009-08-18T14:09:00.006-04:00

I know I haven't posted for almost a whole month, but things got really busy for me for a while. I got overwhelmed and very stressed over the baby shower, which turned out to be a success, despite the flaws. lol. I was rushing around til the very last minute, I had a "to-do" list I was following, and then guests started showing up early, the guest of honor showed up 45 minutes early, and I stopped looking at my list, got thrown off and forgot to do a lot of things. Sugar cookies didn't get made, the paper I had printed for people to sign didn't get put out, windows didn't get cleaned, the towels didn't come out of the dryer and get hung in the bathroom, and nobody thought to tell me that they had nothing to dry their hands on. I almost forgot about the favor bags, and 2 people had already left before I realized it. But luckily there was someone there that was able to take them to the guests that had left.

In the midst of shower planning, things got a little bit chaotic when I tried to get my wedding save the dates made at the same time. The house looked like a tornado had gone through it, which didn't make it any easier to have it clean before the shower. The Save the Dates were a lot of work to put together. They will be in the mail hopefully before the end of this week.

During the party, I have to admit, I have never felt so relieved. It was like a huge weight was suddenly lifted off my shoulders, and I am so glad to have it all behind me. Now I can just focus on my wedding plans, and relax for a little bit.

As promised, I was working on a lot of creative things for the baby shower, and now that it's over, I can post pictures. So here they are (in no particular order):

The concert marquee banner

Raffle Prize: Dinner and a Double Feature (basket with pasta, sauce, parmesan cheese, a dvd, microwave popcorn, 2 taper candles and candle holders.

The practice cake I made 3 weeks before the party, just to see if I liked the recipe, and if I could work with fondant, which is something I had never done before.

The favor bags. I made the Hello Kitty sticker for the bag. The CD is a sampler disc of Rockabye Baby! Lullaby renditions of rock songs, which was used for one of the games as well. The baby foot cookie cutter was because instead of finger sandwiches, we had baby foot sandwiches (I had cut the bread up with the cookie cutter). The Hello Kitty print out is a t-shirt transfer. The other Hello Kitty in the back there is a "Boo-Boo Hello Kitty", my take off of the "Boo-Boo Bunny". And a little rockstar rubber duckie. Also, attached to the bag is a Hello Kitty Fender guitar pick, attached with a mini clothespin, which ties in because we played a game called Don't Drop the Baby, where the guests each had to hold the "baby" which was a Hello Kitty stuffed animal, hold a cell phone to their ear, and hang as many clothes on a clothesline as they could in 30 seconds.

The diaper cake I made for the Mommy to Be, served as a centerpeice for the refreshments table

The cake

The raffle tickets that you got if you brought a pack of diapers with you. They were also available to buy if you wanted, $1 per ticket, or 10 tickets for $5.

The box for the cake, so the Mommy to Be could take the rest of the cake home with her

Cake pops. These were included in the favor bags as well. Found how to make these on Bakerella. These take a little practice to get just right.

The invitation

And I think that's about it. Well I made the clothes for the Hello Kitty stuffed animal we used in Don't Drop the Baby. But I forgot to take a picture of the Hello Kitty stuffed Animal.

Now that the shower is over, I can get back to my drawing. I think I'm going to take the rest of this week off to relax, and then over the weekend, I will pick my colored pencils back up and get to work!

Another Update on Zebrog

2009-07-24T09:58:00.006-04:00

I added in some grass and a little more shading on her body. It's slow going, that's for sure. Pastelbord can take so many layers, and it eats your pencils up so much. But I'm really enjoying working on this one, and I am very happy with how it's turning out. I said that in the last post, didn't I?

I've also been do so much other creative stuff. I wish I could share it all here, but I can't do that until after my friend's baby shower. BUT, I can show you the chocolate I made at the Norman Love class that I took Wednesday night.

Isn't it pretty??? All nice and shiney. And it tastes soooo good. They are filled with Grand Marnier Ganache. They gave us the recipe for the ganache, and a website where we can buy chocolate making supplies. We also got a certificate for completing the class.

The class was a lot of fun. I was glad that my mom found out they were having the classes, because considering my fiance proposed with Norman Love chocolates, I was very interested in taking the class. The chocolates are so delicious. It's technically easy...you paint the mold, fill the mold, you dump it, let the shells set, fill it with your filling, let it set, then ladle chocolate over the whole mold and scrape off the excess, so you have a bottom. Pretty easy. But, MESSY. The instructor did everything so fast and perfect, and clean. lol. But we all got chocolate all over our hands, our molds were dripping with chocolate. Our chocolates were not nearly as perfect as the instructors'. It definately takes practice. We learned that if there is any imperfection in a piece of chocolate, that chocolate cannot be sold, it becomes a sample. I'd venture to guess that A LOT of "samples" were made that night. lol. But we got to take home everything we made, which was really cool. Because if you think about the price of Norman Love chocolate, I'd guess that we probably got to take home about $40 to $50 worth of chocolate. Not including the few pieces we got to sample there. So the class was worth it, in my opinion. He has several different classes you can take, so we want to take another one. But because the class is so expensive, it won't be anytime soon. You can check out his class schedule on his website. They're local classes, I'm not sure if he holds classes in other areas or not. But I suppose you could always call and find out!

Update on Zebrog and Blog Award

2009-07-17T20:46:00.007-04:00

Well I got a little of the background started. I'm planning on it being an out of focus green foliage background. This one is really fun to work on, and I'm really happy with how it's turning out. Pastelbord takes a lot of layers, so it's going to need much more work. It's eating my pencils up like crazy.

In the end, I plan to varnish it like Nicole Caulfield does with her pastelbord work, and frame it without glass. This is only the second time I have worked on Pastelbord....the first time was a 5x7, so I wouldn't say I have too much experience with this. Plus, I didn't try varnishing that one, so that will be a first. I hope it works out. But she explained how she does it in the workshop that I took back in February, so I shouldn't have a problem. I hope.

Also, I got another blog award from Lori Talbert at Twin Cedars Drawing Board blog.

Thank you, Lori! I'm supposed to name 7 things about myself that I've never told before. That might be hard to do, so I'm going to take some time to think about that. I will post a blog award thread, where I will fulfill my duty to claim this award, and pass it on to 7 other bloggers.

I'll see you, in the future!! - Doc Brown, Back to the Future
(sorry, my fiance likes to imitate this line, it's stuck in my head because of him. lol.

New Project - Kahlua, the Zebrog!

2009-07-14T10:33:00.006-04:00

I've been wanting to do this one for a while, but simply have not had the guts to try it. Zebra's are hard to do, all those stripes get so confusing, I end up erasing so much that I get frustrated and give up. I have attempted to draw zebra's several times, but they never made it past the initial sketch because it just didn't turn out the way I wanted. I have completed one zebra (just the head) and wasn't really that happy with how it turned out. I think I could have done better. So this drawing has just been on my "to draw" list (yes, I do actually have a list, lol) for a while now.

But I just recently saw a piece that Brandy Perez posted on her blog, that has inspired me to finally go for it. I really admire her detail and strive to acheive that kind of detail in my own work. For now, I can only hope that mine will turn out as good as hers. Her little Zemoo is adorable...hopefully my dog will be too.

So here is the first post, I'm sorry the picture is a little dark, I took it at 11pm with my ottlite over to the side. I will try to take the next update in full natural light.

This is 16x20 on sand colored Ampersand Pastelbord. I think it was a little easier doing the stripes on Kahlua, because knowing she didn't have the same shape as a zebra, I wasn't trying to follow them exact. Just as long as it looked zebra-ish. lol. Also, this time I thought to color in the stripes as I drew them, so it was a little less confusing on what was black and what was white. This one is proving to be fun instead of frustrating, so I may end up doing more zebra OR zebrogs if I'm happy with the way this one turns out. My fiance said that I should have drawn her attacking something, so maybe that will be next. I have plenty of pictures of Kahlua attacking random toys and tearing them to shreds, so that could be an idea for a future zebrog. lol.

Jelly Beans!

2009-07-08T22:25:00.003-04:00

The other day, while getting some things for my friends baby shower at Michael's, I picked myself up a 12 pencil set of Derwent Coloursofts. Today I decided to test them out on my lunch break. I used an image from this month's colored pencil challenge on Wetcanvas, started it on lunch and then finished it at home. I did use 2 Prismacolors in there, because I couldn't get the right shade of puple or pink for those two jelly beans.

I really like the way the coloursofts go down on my sketch book paper. The Prismacolors and the Polychromos don't go on quite as smooth on the paper in the sketchbook. But the Coloursofts just glide right on. I think I need to get myself a larger set.

The jelly beans were a really good subject to try. The shineyness of the beans, and all the different colors in the shadows were a really good challenge. I'm very happy with how it came out.

Artsy Patriotic Food

2009-07-04T23:00:00.003-04:00

Today I went to a birthday party for my friend's 2 year old daughter. The party was to roll over into a 4th of July party. I asked my friend what dish I should bring, and she asked me to bring pinwheels. I had made the pinwheels a few years ago for a get together, and everybody loved them. So when asked to bring them this time, I thought I'd bring them with a twist.

I had to make my own tortillas to get the red and blue, which made it a little more time consuming, but it was worth it.

When I went shopping for the things I needed to make the pinwheels, I saw watermelon and had to get one. I carve pumpkins every Halloween, and the website that I get my patterns from, (Zombie Pumpkins) also has summertime patterns for watermelons. So I thought I'd carve a patriotic watermelon for my friends party too.

Happy 4th of July, everyone :)

Completed Portrait

2009-07-02T14:56:00.003-04:00

I apologize for the picture quality. I completed this portrait on Monday night at my grandmother's house, so that my aunt could take it home with her on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home, and had to take this picture using my mom's camera, in dim lighting. But I suppose it's ok, because I got good pictures of the progress, so you were able to see most of the detail. The cloud in the middle is not nearly as bright as it is in the photo. My aunt was happy with it, and promised to send me a picture of it when she gets it hung on the wall. I look forward to that.

I would like to start my next drawing today, but I'm feeling a little wiped out. I went to cycling class at 8am this morning, and then came home and spent the next 2 1/2 hours mowing the grass, which had gotten a little out of hand since my fiance has been sick for almost 2 weeks. That was a lot of sun, (which I try to avoid) and so I feel really drained. I've been drinking non-stop to rehydrate my body. And I plan to go to the 7pm cycling class too. We only went to the a.m. class to support it so it doesn't come off the schedule. We already told the instructor that we would be back at 7, so now I'll feel guilty if I don't go. I hate disappointing people (even if it's not necessarily that big of a deal).

So watch for the updates on the next project. Should be posting soon. :)

Critiquing Myself

2009-06-27T16:22:00.008-04:00

The other day, I received my copy of Ann Kullberg's new book, "Colored Pencil Secrets for Success: How to Critique and Improve Your Paintings".

The reason that I bought this book, is because her book, "Colored Pencil Portraits" is one that really helped me to improve on my portraits. I still pull it out quite often to reference it while I'm working on a portrait. I would say that I have definitely gotten my money's worth out of that book. More than that, though, I got this book because I am always showing my work to my mom, and asking her to critique it for me. Someone else can always see something that you don't see. But, with this book, I hope to be able to learn to critique my own drawings, so that I don't always have to rely on my mom.

So, as a start....using a tip from the book, I have checked my cousin Greg's features and found where I am off.

If you look at all of the lines, you'll see that the red lines line up pretty well. The features seem to be placed correctly across his face. I think I may have his face a bit wide, so I might shave off some of his face on the left side of the drawing.

But take a look at the yellow lines. (You can see better if you click on the picture to view it larger). If you follow the lines across from the drawing to the reference photo (and I actually did this backwards, I should have had the photo on the left and the drawing on the right) you'll see that I have my cousin's eyes up to high. And his nose and his mouth are also placed slightly higher than in the photo.

So now I know what I need to do to correct the likeness of this cousin. I hope to have some time to work on it tomorrow, but we have to help my fiance's family move tomorrow, so I may not. I did, however, take a couple of days off next week, where I will try to catch some things up around the house, and this drawing should get some attention in that time. I'd like to finish it because my aunt is coming into town, and it would be nice for her to see it, and maybe take it home with her if her transportation allows.

On another note....my wedding shoes came in! I ordered them from Famous Footwear (to assure that I would get a nice clean brand spanking new pair that had never been tried on before). Aren't they pretty???

Now back to our regularly scheduled program!

2009-06-04T20:36:00.004-04:00

I'm sorry that I took so long to update. I've been crazy busy. But I did a tiny bit of work on the portrait during the week. (Ok, all I did was add clouds, lol). Here is the update:

Now all that is left to do is their likenesses. Aunt Paula, if you're out there....feel free to let me know what you notice that's off, and I can fix it. It's a lot more helpful when other people tell you what they see wrong, than for me to see it myself when the drawing is staring me in the face all the time. I will try to work on this more. I miss my colored pencils. I just wish I had more time!

Anyway, when I took the reference pictures down from the clips, I noticed this:

Do you see it? That distinct line, darker blue on the right, lighter blue on the left? Well, that used to be an even shade of blue. I had the reference picture for my oldest cousin clipped there, and the easel happens to sit close to a window. This is a lightfast issue. Some of the colored pencils are not lightfast, and they fade when exposed to light. You do not want to hang colored pencil artwork in direct light. (Or any artwork, for that matter....)

But I just wanted to show you this as a good example. The portrait faded in just a little over a month. Now, had I not had that picture clipped to the board over the drawing, so that the whole picture faded, the fading would not have been noticeable, but I think it is still something to try and avoid. Luckily, I did plan to add clouds, so it wasn't that big a deal. This time. I will definitely be more careful in the future!

Things are moving along....

2009-05-24T23:17:00.004-04:00

Ok....I'm sorry....I still haven't touched my portrait, or worked on any other colored pencil pieces. The most creative thing that I have done, is for my friends baby shower. Here is what I spent the last couple of weeks working on. They will be her invitations.

They'll go together....the ticket and the backstage pass. (The backstage pass is front and back). I'm planning on laminating the backstage pass and adding a lanyard. She is all about music...and she's having a girl and wanted a rockstar themed babyshower....or a Hello Kitty themed baby shower. So I combined the two! Her nickname is Korn Chick, because her favorite band is Korn. So I've dubbed her baby girl, Korn Chicklet. It would have been Korn Chip if she had a boy. lol. A lot of photoshop work went into that "concert ticket". But the backstage pass was pretty easy.

Yesterday I did a trial run of some of the goodies I plan to make for her shower. She got to see them today, and she loved them. But I can't show you those yet, gotta keep some secrets for the guests that might happen upon this blog. lol.

On the other side of things....we are moving along with wedding planning. I booked my venue...so the date is officially set. February 13th. Yay! Also...today we went to the bridal shop to try on bridesmaid dresses....and 3 of my girls have ordered theirs. The 4th girl is in Colorado and needs to get her measurements done and send them to me so we can order her dress. But that's all in the works.

Everything is going great! Here are the dresses we ordered today, picture taken from Alfred Angelo. The color is "eggplant". I also got a swatch so I can match other things to the dresses. Like the ribbons for the ring bearer pillow.

My dress should be in in about 2 more weeks. I can't wait! But I may end up needing to have it taken in, even though it fit me perfectly at the time I bought it. I've lost 3 pounds since I started cycling, and I want to lose 5-8 more. But we'll see.

This is all so exciting!!! Thank you to all my bridesmaids. I hope you all had fun today, and you will all look gorgeous in this dress!

Creative Juices Are Flowing.....

2009-05-16T22:47:00.005-04:00

Unfortunately I haven't found much time to work on my portrait as of late.... I'm sorry! I joined a gym and have been going to cycling classes 4 times a week. And the rest of my time is being taken up by wedding planning and baby shower planning.

I went out today to pick up a few things...and ended up spending WAY too much money. But I got MOST of what I need for the creative projects I'm doing for my friend Jeanette's baby shower in August. I won't mention anything now, because I don't want to spill the beans before the party...but she is going to LOVE the party that I'm planning. I've been working on designing her invitations, (which is just digital work in photoshop)...and I'll be making some decorations here pretty soon and just keeping them in a box so that I don't overwhelm myself trying to get everything done at once.

Next weekend, on Sunday, my bridesmaids, my mom and I will be gathering at the bridal store to try on bridesmaid dresses. So on Saturday, I am hoping to find some time to make up some of the treats that I plan to serve at Jeanette's baby shower, and have a little bit of a taste test at the bridal shop. So she will get to see that. But that's all I'm letting her see. lol. If I can pull it off...I know that she will absolutely LOVE them. lol.

So in August...I will post some pictures of all of my creative work...and links to wherever I got the ideas if they came from the internet.

For now....LAST weekend, I did find a bit of time on Saturday to create this flowerpot out of Fimo clay.

It was a &%*$# to make! But I wasn't giving up. And then yesterday, I planted some Golden Shower Tree seeds in it. For those who don't know what Golden Shower Tree is...I didn't name it, so don't ask me. lol. But click this link for Google Images to see what it looks like. Mine of course, won't look anything like that for several years...but hey...part of the fun, (I just learned last week) is starting the seeds. A co-worker got me started on this new kick of wanting to grow everything and anything. lol. We both planted some Tree Wisteria seeds, and they germinated in exactly one week. It was very exciting to watch! I actually can't wait to go back to work on Monday to see how big they got over the weekend. lol.

But anyway, that's all the creativity I've got to show you for this post. But I will try to get back to my portrait soon. I promise!

We'll Be Back After These Messages....

2009-05-08T22:08:00.005-04:00

I just wanted to check in real quick. It has been over a week since my last entry and I don't like to let the blog go for too long. Unfortunately, I have not done any work in that time, so I have nothing new to show.

But I do have an update. Sadly....I did not get into the CPSA Exhibition. Poor Mr. Squirrel. I guess it just wasn't his time to shine. But we'll try again in the future.

But, I got an email that the Artist's Magazine 26th Annual Art Competition deadline was extended until today. So this morning, I entered these three in the portrait category.

I wasn't going to enter that competition. I figured the Artist's Magazine encompasses ALL mediums, not just colored pencil. So I felt my chances of winning in that competition was less than my chances of going up against just colored pencil works. But...as Lori from the Twin Cedars Drawing Board blog said in yesterday's blog post..."nothing ventured, nothing gained"....so I decided to enter at the last minute.

The above portraits are of my niece, Abby...my nephew, Eathan...and my co-worker's son, Roman. Wish me luck!

Eyes Are More Than Just Windows to the Soul....

2009-04-30T21:14:00.003-04:00

...they are also a pain in the BUTT! lol. So I spent the little bit of time I worked on art last night and tonight just trying to adjust the eyes on my cousin, Greg. His head is tilted, which causes his eyes to be at a diagonal slant, which is a bit tricky to get sometimes. This is where I'm at now...and I can see it still needs adjustment.

I still need to lower the eye on our right, just a bit more. The eye on our left also needs adjustment...I see I've got it too open. After adjusting the eyes, I'll move on to tweeking everything else. And now that I've got it up on the computer, I can see his face looks a bit fatter than it should be. I'll need to slim him down some too. (You can always see things on the computer monitor, that you don't notice when the drawing is right in front of you. It's a strange phenomenon. lol.)

When I took the workshop with Nicole Caulfield in February, she told us that she believes that if you can get the eyebrows right, then you will have the likeness down. I don't remember the exact story of why she believes this, but basically it was because when shown pictures of just the eyebrows of well known celebrities, you could tell who the celebrity was by just the eyebrows, but when shown a picture of the same celebrities without the eyebrows, you couldn't tell. I haven't tested that theory out to myself...it sounds almost unbelievable. But, if that theory holds true, then that could that be why this particular portrait is giving me problems. His eyebrows are covered by his hair. That also would mean that I'll have problems with the cousin in the middle...because you can't see her eyebrows, they're blonde! lol. Just a thought.

So this is where I'm at right now. I think this weekend I might take some time to work on another 5x7 portrait for my portfolio. Just to work on something different. I can usually finish one of those in 3 -4 hours, so if I can find that much time to sit down, I will.

After I finish this portrait of my cousins, the next thing on my plate will be a portrait of my friend Hope and her wife. I was supposed to have it done by their wedding, back in August....but I was not happy with it. So I will be starting over. And we'll compare the two at the end. Oh what fun!! lol.

WIP - almost done!

2009-04-25T19:19:00.003-04:00

And we're moving along! I decided to go with blue for the cousins shirt that's on the left. It was black in the reference photo, but black would be too flat, so I decided to go with blue. That is just indigo blue and copenhagen blue...with a layer of orange under the indigo to make it darker. His eyes are bothering me. I think I need to lower the eye on our right...slightly. I'll take another look at it tomorrow...with fresh eyes myself. Maybe hold it up to a mirror.

I don't like how the sky is coming along...I think I need another value in there for more of a subtle gradation. But we're getting there.

WIP ...still going....

2009-04-23T21:25:00.003-04:00

Just an update....not too much to say about it. You can see I blocked in their clothing...I made an adjustment to my oldest cousins's face on the right. Other than that, not too much to show. After I took the picture, I added stripes to his shirt, but after that it was too dark to take another picture, so you'll see that in the next update.

WIP continues.....

2009-04-22T19:02:00.003-04:00

Their faces still need to be tweeked for likeness, but I was getting tired of working on that part, and felt like working on something else. So tonight, I worked on a layer of my oldest cousin's shirt.

My aunt does not have a preference for the background color. I think I will just do a sky blue background...maybe some clouds, I don't know. I'll see where the piece takes me in the next couple of days.

WIP - Three Subject Portrait Continued...

2009-04-18T20:29:00.003-04:00

Please excuse the glare from my flash, it was starting to get dark when I finally stopped drawing today. Oh, and the picture is a bit distorted, because it was leaning on my easel when I snapped the picture.

I decided I would pretty much block them all in, and then I can go back in and do tweeking for likeness later. I'm also trying to decide what color I'd like to do in the background. Aunt Paula, if you want a specific color...let me know.

I'll be working on it some more tomorrow...I'll probably have the house to myself for a while since my fiance is planning on going into work. I'm the most productive when I have the house to myself, whether it's cleaning, yard work, drawing or whatever...I get more done when I'm by myself, than when he's home. lol.

WIP -Triple Subject Portrait of my Cousins

2009-04-16T21:16:00.002-04:00

And now the fun begins!

This is the second attempt at this drawing. The first attempt was started before I began this blog, and it was done on a navy blue sheet of Fabriano Tiziano. I just didn't like the result I was getting, so I scrapped it. This paper is Uart 400 sanded pastel paper. I transferred my line drawing from the original drawing so that I wouldn't have to redraw the whole thing. But somewhere along the line, something got screwed up, because I can see that I need to move all of his facial features up a little bit. Shouldn't be too hard to do. I learned in the workshop with Nicole Caulfield, that even though I can't erase on the Uart, I can lift the color out with sticky tak. Yeah, the stuff you hang posters with! lol. So I'll lift off most of the color, and then whatever is left should be easy enough to cover with more color. I should have checked my line drawing before starting to add color. Oh well...you live you learn!

Oh, and please excuse the missing eyes. I was waiting on my Aunt to respond with his eye color. But now that I have to move all of his facial features, I'll wait until then to add in his eyes.

More to come soon :)

Portrait of my best friend

2009-04-12T20:08:00.002-04:00

Over the course of the last 3 days or so, I worked on this portrait of my best friend, Jeanette. She didn't know...so when she sees it posted on Facebook and/or Myspace...I can't wait to see what she says. I'm trying to build up a bunch of these little 5x7 portraits for my portfolio...but I think she might want it, so I may have to give it to her. lol. I wonder if she'd accept a print...?

It probably took me a total of 3 or 4 hours to work on it total. I didn't sit down and bang it out in one shot like I did my self portrait. This one was done on the Uart 400...which is the same paper I used for the portrait of my uncle. I'm not sure yet which I prefer, the 400 grit or the 500 grit. I guess more experimenting is in the future. I ordered a big sheet of the 400 to work on the portrait of my cousins for my aunt in North Carolina. I will be starting that any day now. The paper just came in Friday, I cut it to the right size yesterday. I'll transfer my drawing to it tomorrow, and I'll do that one as a work in progress, like I did the squirrel. That one will take me some time, as it will be 16x20 with 3 subjects.

This picture of Jeanette was taken in July of 2008. She no longer has her hair dyed that color...but that was probably my favorite out of all of her "dye jobs". I chose this picture mostly because it was a good closeup, I just had to crop out the other person in the picture...and because I wanted to see how I would fare with makeup. I think I did a pretty good job. She was wearing sparkly blue eye shadow, and pinkish colored lip gloss. Her lips are very shiney in the picture. I think her eyeshadow is darker than I have it. But I kinda like it the way I have it. Now that I look at it, her eyebrow may need to be adjusted. I'll look at it again in a few days for a fresh view and then is there is something not quite right, it should jump out at me.

Next post should be the portrait of my cousins. :)

Portrait of my Fiance

2009-04-07T19:32:00.004-04:00

Here is a portrait I have worked on for the past 2 nights. It's of my fiance, to match my Self Portrait in Sunglasses. The reference pictures were both taken on the same day when we were at the beach hanging out with his dad, who was down from Ohio at the time. This portrait will go in my 5x7 portfolio. It was done on Uart 500 with Prismacolor colored pencils.

Presenting: "Hanging Out"!

2009-03-31T12:11:00.005-04:00

Today is the entry deadline, so just to leave myself time for complications, I went ahead and entered it last night. He's officially done for now. I would have liked more time to make adjustments and there is one area I'd like to change...but I can't do anything to it now until I hear back from the CPSA. I won't hear anything until the beginning of May. If I do not get into the exhibition...then you'll see this little guy getting a makeover.

I received a postcard from my local Alliance of the Arts reminding me that their Annual 2D/3D All Florida Juried Exhibition is coming up. The entry deadline for that is April 20th. I was hoping their's would be a little later, so that if I didn't get into the CPSA Exhibition, I could enter this same piece into the local Alliance Exhibition. Unfortunately, that won't happen. I do have one piece to enter, but may try to work on a second entry if I can complete something between now and then. I got into the local show last year with an untitled piece.

There is also a juried exhibition coming up for the Boca Raton Museum of Art. That deadline is April 22nd...so I'll enter the untitled piece that I entered into last years local exhibition. So that makes 3 exhibitions I will be entering into. Wish me luck that I get into at least one of them!

In between that, I also need to finish Biondina, and start the portrait of my cousins for my aunt in North Carolina. Artwork may move more slowly for a while as I made the mistake of telling one of my friends that I wanted to tone my upper arms for my wedding dress. She now has me going to her house 3 nights a week to workout on P90X, and expects me to work out at home on my own too! Aside from that, I also picked up a new hobby. I am going to try to turn my black thumb green, and see how long I can keep up gardening. I started a gardening blog to keep me motivated on that too. That idea seems to be working well for my artwork, so I'm sure it will work for the gardening too. That blog can be found here. I can't wait to get home and see how my plants are doing now that we've had a full day of sunshine after a day of rain and a day of gloom!

Can you tell which one is the real thing??

2009-03-27T22:11:00.004-04:00

I ordered prints of two of my portraits from the Frame & Art Gallery in Ft. Myers, and got a call today that they were ready to be picked up. So after battling traffic on I-75, and having to get off at an exit with a Publix so I could go inside and let my car cool off while I bought a gallon of water to pour into it, I managed to make it to the gallery 15 minutes before they closed.

This is the first time I've ever had professional prints made of my work. The reason I did it this time, was because I am so attached to these two portraits, that I didn't want to part with the originals! I feel that these two are my best work so far, and really wanted to keep them all for myself. But a piece of me really wanted to give them to my brother. They're his kids....they're better than anything else I have given him, and he has everything I ever gave him hanging up in his house. So I thought, well...I'll get the next best thing. I'll have Giclee (pronounced zee-clay) prints made for myself, and give him the originals. It took me several months to talk myself into this decision. lol. So since I'd like to go up and visit him soon, I wanted to have them ready, so I went on a mission to find a place to print in my area. I was almost going to go with this place in Naples, until I read some fine print on their website that said that they held all rights to the image. What? It's MY drawing...my artwork...you don't hold any rights to it. So I continued my search until I found the Frame & Art Gallery owned by Michael Damico. Here is a link to Michael's blog. He is a great artist. And who better to trust your artwork with, than another artist?

Thanks to Michael and Nick from the Frame & Art Gallery, I have beautiful prints of my drawings. I will definitely go there again. The prints are gorgeous...and Michael and Nick were really nice. I spoke to Michael on the phone a couple of times before going in there, and he was always pleasant and helpful.

Can you tell which ones are the prints and which ones are the originals??

Almost!

2009-03-25T22:08:00.003-04:00

So I ended up taking the whole day off today. I went to my dentist appointment this morning, and then came home to catch up on everything. I did 3 loads of laundry....wait, I just remembered there's a load in the washer that needs to go in the dryer, so that's 4 loads. I ran a load of dishes through the dishwasher. I cleaned half the kitchen. (The island is still a mess, but I ran out of time, lol). I cleaned out my garden in the backyard, and started an herb greenhouse kit and a windowsill flower garden. And I worked on the squirrel.

I'm on a new kick all of a sudden. I want to start growing plants. I've always had a black thumb. But I have been keeping a Lucky Bamboo alive for a year and a half, even saved it from dying when one of the stalks turned yellow. (I was so proud of myself! lol) I also have a Seagrape seedling that another co-worker gave me 5 months ago that I have managed to keep alive. I've watched 5 new leaves grow since she gave it to me. So now all of a sudden, I want more! lol. So she is bringing me a Confederate Rose tomorrow which she has rooted from her own plant. Another co-worker is bringing me a Banana Tree "pup"...from his tree. That's what he called it, I don't know if that's the correct name for it. And I am going to try to revive the dying plants in my backyard. They all died back because of the long winter we've had, but I'm pretty sure they'll all come right back. They did last year anyway. The problem is, they were never maintained to begin with, so they're not growing well. But I hope to research them and fix them. I've started a gardening blog, www.gardeningamateur.blogspot.com...I figure it will keep me motivated, the same as this blog keeps me motivated to work on my artwork. Besides, the more pretty flowers I have, the more art references I have! :)

We're getting there!

2009-03-22T21:04:00.003-04:00

So here is where I'm at now. I don't like all the white space on the bottom, but my fiance thinks it makes it look more 3D. So, what I'm going to do is finish the whole thing, and then if I still don't like it, I'll erase and add some leaves here and/or there.

I must admit, I'm getting awfully tired of the color scheme. lol. I am dying to work on another portrait, but since the deadline for this guy is less than 10 days away, I can't stop to work on anything else. I am contemplating taking a day off work this week to work on him. I have a dentist appt. on Wednesday, so I'm thinking...maybe I might want to just stay home that day. Go to my appointment at 9am, and come home and spend the day working on this. But I probably won't. I'm one of those...hmmmm....I wouldn't say workaholic, but I'm one of those people who doesn't take time off work unless they need it. But once in a great while, I'll take a day, just one day, to relax by myself....and it is usually only when I have to take time off for something else, like a dr or dentist appt. lol. So we'll see. I always make the decision at the last minute, too.

I'm thinking now that maybe watercolor pencils would have been better for the leaves and sky. I bet that would have made this go so much quicker. Dangit, why didn't I think of that sooner?!

Well I do have another picture of this little squirrel that I can experiment with watercolor pencils on. I do have another exhibition that I want to enter coming up with a May deadline. Maybe I'll try that one out. We'll see.

On the wedding side of things....I bought my dress yesterday! Me and my mom went to Alfred Angelo yesterday. I had already had my dress in mind cause I found it online several weeks ago. So we tried on that one, plus 4 others. I had selected about 8, but we didn't try them all on because I was loving all of them. But I had some in satin and some in lace, and the saleslady told me if I tried on the first one again, it will be a decision maker. So I tried it on again, and I was still in love with it. It was still my first choice, so I decided to go with it. It was absolutely perfect. It made me feel good, gave me the figure I wanted, it was comfortable, I walked in it, sat it in, it didn't bunch or move at all...she didn't even have to pin it or anything. It just was a perfect fit. The only thing it will need is a bustle and a hem. (That's if I don't lose any weight, of course. But if I do, it'll only be about 5 pounds. I don't really want to lose, though, I want to tone). I didn't want to take the dress off! We actually left the store without the dress, planning to buy it online because I had found it on Ebay. But we got out to the car, and were standing in the parking lot talking about it, and figured out that I would only be saving $60 by getting the dress on Ebay...plus it would be a lot riskier. And I had a $75 off coupon that expired right after my appt. So we walked right back into the store, and bought the dress...and the veil and tiara and bra and slip. lol. So that part of my wedding planning is done. I'd love to show you which dress I bought, but since my fiance can't see it, and he WANTS to, I'm not risking putting it up on the blog. lol.

While we were at the bridal shop, we also picked out a possible bridesmaid dress, and a definate flower girl dress. I can't wait to get my flower girls in there to try it on! The dress is beautiful, and it goes really well with the appliques on my dress. PLUS, the saleslady is going to see if she can order the applique on my dress for me, so that I can sew it onto my ringbearer pillow...to tie it in with the design on my dress. So that's cool, cause then my ringbearer will be tied in with the rest of us.

So that's all for now. I will continue to work on Mr. Squirrel and post more later in the week. See you soon!

More on the Squirrel

2009-03-15T16:43:00.009-04:00

Well I thought I would get more of this done during the week, but I didn't. My fiance and I went out to dinner Monday night to scout a restaurant that I stumbled across as a possible location for our wedding. It was pretty nice, so we're going to keep that in mind, but we're still going to keep looking.

On Thursday, me and my best friend went to see the New Kids on the Block. LOL. I have to tell you, we really didn't think we would enjoy it. We haven't listened to them in 17 or 18 years. (Wow that makes me feel old!) The music is the complete opposite of what we listen to now. I tried to listen to their music at work the day of the show, and I really couldn't get into it. And I couldn't remember any of the words. But when I was 10-11yrs old, I was a superfan! I had everything; pillows, the sheet set, the bath towel set, the beach towel, a hat, t-shirts, I even had a Joe doll! lol. (I still have him, he's in the attic with Ken and Barbie. I also still have the pillow and the hat, but I have no idea what happened to the other stuff).

Anyway, we figured even though we didn't think we'd like it, we had to go because we never got to when we were kids. It was like we had to fulfill this childhood dream. lol. We didn't care about it so much that we arrived to the show an hour and a half late, I bought the cheapest tickets so we were in the very last row of the upper level. We even expected that we would only watch a few songs and then duck out before the end. But when we got in there...our whole attitude changed. We realized, once a fan, always a fan. lol. We felt like we were 12 again. They put on a great show, that had us totally enjoying ourselves. Laughing at ourselves. And while there, even the words came flooding back to me. It must have been the atmosphere, the spirit of the place. There were a lot more people there than I expected there to be. The show reignited my love for NKOTB, and my crush on Donnie Wahlberg. (I always did have a thing for the "bad boys"). I bought a t-shirt that says "Property of Donnie Wahlberg, NKOTB". I took tons of pictures. And we decided that next time they come, we're there, on time, and we're not getting the cheap tickets.

Here's a video clip of the show, followed by a couple of pictures. I have clips of complete songs, but the site has a video size limit of 100mb...and all the full songs were 400mb. Sorry about the bad sound quality, but this was taken on my digital camera...which I doubt was made for such loud sound. lol.

And for the record....NKOTB was the ONLY boy band I have ever been into! lol. And I liked that Donnie wore a Pantera shirt and a Misfits shirt. Oh wait, I have one more picture to add:

I totally agree with this sheet. lol. You can click on the pictures to see them full size. Just use your browsers back button to get back to the blog.

Friday night I had to take my doggie to the vet. She had potty problems due to a bacteria in her intestines. She got a shot, and 3 medications to take...and she seems to be doing better now. I spent all day yesterday filling out job applications. I'm trying to get a second job to help pay for my wedding. So I only worked on the squirrel Tuesday, Wednesday and today. Those leaves are slow going. But we're getting there. More to come soon. Hopefully this week will be less busy than the last. Talk to you soon!

Squirrel and Biondina Updates

2009-03-09T19:33:00.007-04:00

Well I didn't finish Biondina over the weekend. I had a busier weekend than I had planned. My fiance and I went to lunch on Saturday, and from there, we figured we'd drive around and scout good wedding ceremony locations. It was a total bust, and I ended up depressed that we live in such a crappy area. Beautiful Florida...it's all an illusion! Not one pretty garden or pretty landscaped area at a park in my city or the neighboring city. The Rose Garden is nothing but sticks and thorny twigs, the Fragrence Garden is brownish green, with no fragrant flowers, and over near the wedding gazebo, they have 3 large thick beams of wood sticking up out of the ground with hoses hanging on it. Like i want that in my wedding pictures! And they obviously aren't using them, because otherwise the area would be greener, not brown-green. Logic would tell you that since we just came out of a long winter, it's too early for things to be pretty. BUT, when I was driving down 41 on my way home from the non-existant Fragrence Garden, I noticed beautiful lush green grass, beautiful flowering trees with bright flowers on them, all in the MEDIAN. How sad is it that we take better care of our medians than we do our parks and gardens?? I'm half tempted to have my ceremony in the median of US 41.

Anyway, so then on Sunday, I went to watch my aunt and cousin get baptized, and then went straight from the church to a wedding expo with my mom. So I didn't get much work done on either of my drawings. But I did manage some, so here are the updates.

Biondina is coming along nicely. Lots more work to do, though. I lost some of the likeness in her face along the line, so I need to go back in and fix that. And right now I've got her eyes blue, but don't worry they won't stay that way. (In case I never mentioned it, you can always click on the pictures in my posts to view them larger.)

And then there's the squirrel. I worked on it a bit on Saturday morning, before we got moving for the day, and a little after work today. You can see I'm beginning to get a bit of depth in there with the leaves. The bright area in the middle there is finished. So that's pretty much what the whole thing will look like when it's complete.Now that it stays light out later in the evening, I will have a bit of daylight left when I come home from work. I will be able to work on this a bit during the week, instead of always waiting for the weekends. So more to come later this week, stay tuned! :)

Squirrel Update, and New Work in Progress

2009-03-05T22:37:00.004-05:00

I worked a bit more on the squirrel last weekend, but since the engagement, I can't seem to keep focused on anything but wedding plans. lol. It's not even for another year, no date set yet, but it's all I can think about anymore. lol. So I kept forgetting to post this poor little guy. But he's here now. He's coming along....very very slowly. It's tedious work, but so far I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. I think I may take out some of the sky....make it so that less sky shows through the leaves. He has to be finished by the end of the month. I hope I can make the deadline!

I had some time tonight while my fiance went to play cards with his friends, so I thought I'd start a new project. (I don't like to work on things without daylight, so it's only a start). This is for the Monthly Portrait Challenge on Wetcanvas. It's an Old Master Study...."Biondina" by Lord Frederick Leighton. A photo of the original painting can be seen here. My study is on 9x12 Burgandy Colourfix paper, which I will cut down to 8x10 to fit in my portfolio book once it's complete. I will try to finish it this weekend. So stay tuned.... :)

Self Portrait with Sunglasses

2009-02-28T17:11:00.003-05:00

Well I haven't done any work on the squirrel. I have been in the mood to do a portrait, so I thought I'd go ahead and work on my portrait for the Wetcanvas Self Portrait Project. This took me about 3 hours in front of the TV watching Lifetime Movie Network this afternoon. It's Prismacolor colored pencils on Uart 500.

It was a lot of fun to work on the glasses. That was my reason for choosing this picture for my self portrait, I thought the sunglasses would be a good challenge. They really weren't as hard as I thought they would be. But there are a lot of different colors in there than I thought there would be, so I did have a lot of fun with them.

Now that I've put it up on the computer, I can see some areas where I could do some tweeking. But I'll save that for another time. Now that I've gotten the portrait out of my system, it's time to get back to the squirrel! I'll jump on that tomorrow and maybe post it tomorrow night.

Nicole Caulfield Workshop

2009-02-23T15:55:00.010-05:00

I am back from my first workshop. Nicole Caulfield is an awesome artist. I've followed her work since I joined Wetcanvas in December 2004. Since then she's been one of my favorite colored pencil artists.

I went to the workshop with my fiance's sister. We both enjoyed it and plan to look into other workshops that come near our area.

Nicole is really nice (as I already expected from having communicated with her through Wetcanvas and Scribbletalk), and I found her mannerisms in person reminded me a lot of my friend Hope.

I will admit, that I found that everytime Nicole would walk around to look at our work, when she stopped in front of or behind me, I stopped. lol. I was too intimidated to keep working while she was watching me! lol. I did try to force myself to keep going when I noticed myself doing that, though. And usually when I did stop, it opened up an opportunity to get help or advice on what I was having trouble with. So the intimidation did work to my advantage a little bit. lol.

I really liked watching Nicole work, in person. I've always thought that Wetcanvas and Scribbletalk were great resources for artists, and that you really learn a lot from being able to see photos of the work in progress, along with a written description of their technique and what materials they used and stuff. But it just doesn't compare to being able to watch an artist work in person. I liked to watch the other artists work as well. I was seated next to Nilda Rodriguez and I was in awe of how beautiful her work was. I kept stopping to watch her work on hers! lol.

I really didn't think that I would learn much that I didn't already know, because I've been reading Nicole's blog and posts on Wetcanvas and Scribbletalk for 4 or 5 years now...but I actually did.

Here are some pictures from the workshop. You can click on a pictures to enlarge them.

Day #1: Eggs Prismacolor pencils on Uart400 paper

Mine is the first one in the second row. My fiance's sister's is right above mine. Nicole's is the last one in the second row.

Day #2: Portrait with Polychromos on Fischer400 paper

Mine is the fourth one in on the bottom row, and my fiance's sister's is to the right of mine, and Nicole's is the second one in on the bottom row.

Day #3 Red Patent Leather Shoes with a watercolor underpainting, on pastelbord

Mine is the second one in on the bottom, and my fiance's sister's is to the right of mine. Nicole's is the top right hand corner. The watercolor underpainting was done on just the front shoe, and the back shoe was done without. We didn't have time to finish them, though because the last day of the workshop was only a half day. I do want to finish mine, though. Actually, I may start it over because I'm not happy with the way it turned out. lol.

I do look forward to trying some of her techniques on my own work. I can't wait to finish my squirrel so that I can start something new. lol. But I need to go back to that. I didn't get to work on it at all the last 2 weekends. So I better get moving. Next post will be an update on that one. Talk to you all real soon :)

I'm Engaged!!!

2009-02-13T20:26:00.007-05:00

My boyfriend of almost 5 years came home tonight and told me I had to go on my blog, and read a comment that someone had left on there. So I went on, and he told me to scroll down the blog award post, and read what some guy wrote. So I did....

no, I'm not going to make you go off to read that.....I'll paste it here:

that guy said...: Jenna...

You are an amazing artist, in every sense of the word. When we met, I thought = damn. this girl is amazing. In so many ways you have shown me that you are everything and more that anyone could hope for. Not to get theological, but an answer to a prayer would not be embellishing.

Two years ago I proclaimed that I would marry you... It's taken some time, but my feelings have only grown stronger. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. So, without further adieu... WILL YOU>>>

OPEN THIS BOX OF CHOCOLATES???

I turned to look at him and he was holding a box of Norman Love chocolates. So he got down on his knee and presented it to me, and watched me open it.

So then I started crying and got all mushy and stuff. So my boyfriend proposed to me on Friday the 13th.....and I think, it couldn't have been more romantic! :)

Work in Progress III

2009-02-07T18:29:00.003-05:00

Well the portrait of my uncle is coming along. I had to fill in background color to be able to see how I was doing on the shape of his head. I'm not going to leave it like this...I do want to finish the background...but for now, I need to put this one down for a while so that I can look at it with fresh eyes. to see if I'm missing anything. In the meantime, I will get back to work on the squirrel, because the CPSA entry deadline will be here before I know it.

After that, I have a 3 figure portrait of my cousins to work on for my aunt. (The only family member I can think of that doesn't own a drawing of mine yet!) I also signed up for a self portrait project on Wetcanvas, so you can be looking for that soon as well. Oh, and in 2 weeks, I'll be at a Nicole Caulfield workshop for 3 days, so I'll probably post whatever I work on there when I come back. So you have a lot to look forward to in the next month or two. So, I'll be back next with an update on the squirrel.....see you soon :)

I Got a Blog Award!

2009-02-07T17:22:00.004-05:00

I'd like to thank Lori Talbert of the Twin Cedars Drawing Board blog for awarding me with this Art Blog Award. Now I am supposed to name 7 things that I love, and then pass the award on to 7 other artists. So....let's see.....

1. I love my family. My family will always come first no matter what.
2. I love my boyfriend. He has put up with a lot, and I really don't think I deserve him.
3. I love my friends. They are few, but they are the best I could have.
4. I love my dog. I don't care what anybody says, she is smart!
5. I love to draw with my colored pencils. The better I get at it, the more I love it.
6. I love to please people. Even if it's something simple, like if they ask me if I have gum, and I do. But if I don't have any gum, then I actually feel a little disappointed because I let them down. Silly?
7. I love my job. Wouldn't trade it for another for double the money. I work with some fun people, I have no stress, my boss is cool....who could ask for a better job?

So that's 7 things you know about me. Next, I have to pass on the award to 7 other artists. I could name several that I'd love to give it to, but some of them don't have blogs, and the one's that do have probably already received this award. I know one that I can give it to...but tomorrow I will take a look through all the blogs and see if I can find 6 more that don't already have it.

So for now, I present this award to Robin Zebley. Robin works in colored pencil as well, and does mostly dog portraits. Robin's blog is the first one that I started following. But I've been following her work on Wetcanvas for a few years now.

Thanks again for the award, Lori. :)

Portrait Work In Progress II

2009-02-04T22:10:00.003-05:00

I spent about an hour making adjustments tonight. I moved his right (viewer's left) eye down and slightly to the right. And I did a lot of shading. I'm still not liking the right side, that eye bothers me...but I think it's the shading. I will fix it eventually, just have to keep playing with it. I still have to fix the shape of his head...but I think I will have to put in a background to cover up the parts of the head that I can't erase. Unfortunately, this paper does not seem to be eraser friendly. But it has enough tooth that I can easily layer over my mistakes with more colored pencil...so if I add in a background, I can layer over the weird head shape.

Other than that, just a few minor adjustments, and he's done. So look for maybe one or two more updates on this portrait, and then I must get back to my CPSA entry.

By the way....have you subscribed yet? If you subscribe, you will get a convenient little email everytime I post, and you can even read the post right in the email, or you can click on the title and go straight to that post in the blog. Talk to you later! :)

Portrait Work In Progress

2009-02-01T19:33:00.004-05:00

So like I said last weekend, I wanted to give you something new to look at. A break from the squirrel. (And I guess I wanted a break from working on it too. lol). So today, for the last mmmm...about 4 hours, I've been working on this portrait study of my uncle.

There is definitely something off here, but I can't quite put my finger on it...and after working and reworking for the last hour or so, and severely screwing up that eye on the viewers right, I'm tired of looking at it and decided to put it down for the night. I've posted it to WetCanvas and Scribbletalk so that my artist friends can tell me if they see what is wrong, and right after posting it, I saw a few things right off the bat. It is a very strange thing, that you could stare at a drawing and the reference photo side by side for hours and not see where you went wrong, but the second you post them on the computer, and see them on the monitor, tons of things jump right out at you.

This is done on UART 400 Grit, a sample piece which I requested from the company. This is my first time working on the UART, which is much like fine sandpaper. In fact, it basically is, it's sanded pastel paper. But I've used Prismacolor Colored Pencils, on this piece. There is a lot of tooth left over for reworking. But I am worried about how I'm going to fix his head shape, because I've found that I can't erase too well on this paper. So I will give that some thought...and post an update in a few days. :)

Referral Program

2009-01-30T21:06:00.003-05:00

I haven't had any time this week to work on my squirrel, or something new. But I hope to get something done over the weekend to post either on Sunday night or Monday. I'm posting tonight just to run a thought by you.

I'm thinking about starting a "Referral Program" to promote myself. I got the idea from Alyson Stanfield on ArtBizCoach.com, and I think it sounds like a great idea. I would let my close friends and family know that if they refer a client to me for a portrait commission, they would earn a certain percentage of what I make as a commission for each referral. They would be motivated to let people know about me and give people my website address. Especially in this economy, where so many people are looking to make an extra buck.

In fact...the sales woman that I bought my car from 8 years ago had the same strategy going. She told me that if I referred a customer to her, and they bought a new car from her, she would send me a check for $50. Trust me, I tried, but I couldn't find anybody who was in the market for a car at the time.

Of course there would have to be some type of "rules" set in place. For instance, you only get paid for your referral when the client completes the transaction. I think this would be a good promotional tool. What are your thoughts?

Work In Progress Update - Squirrel

2009-01-26T20:35:00.003-05:00

As promised, I worked a bit more on my squirrel today. I have to be honest, I followed my reference for the squirrel, but when I look at the reference picture for the leaves, they all just kind of blend together and I don't know what I'm looking at anymore. So...I've just been kind of doing whatever I want. Putting leaves in wherever I feel like sticking one...in whatever color green I feel like using...so I'm just kind of winging it here. I can only hope that when it's done, it makes sense. lol.

I had wanted to work on something else today as well, to break up the squirrel posts, and give you something else to look at...but today was a really lazy day. I only worked on this on and off for about 3 hours...and that's it. I pretty much spent my day on the couch watching tv, and I dozed off a couple of times. But hopefully sometime this week, I can work on something different for my next post. See you then! :)

Hanging Out?

2009-01-24T16:00:00.006-05:00

What do you think of "Hanging Out" as a title? I think that may be what I call it. He's kind of just hanging out on a branch of the tree. This was a very cute squirrel who seemed to be posing just for me. I got 2 shots of him...I'll draw the other one another time.

I worked on him a little bit today, so there isn't too much of a change from the last update, but I wanted to get a post in while I have time. My boyfriend's dad is visiting, so this weekend is going to be busy, but since they went fishing today and I stayed home, I had some time to work on this little guy.

The leaves are proving to be very tedious. I'm really forcing myself to move forward with this and not get lazy and close crop the squirrel just to avoid doing all the leaves! On the other picture I want to draw of him, I will do a closer crop without so many leaves. That's right, I'm taking the easy way out! lol.

I see a little bit of depth starting to emerge. I really hope I'm happy with this one when it's finished. I'd hate to throw it in the scrap pile. I may have some time on Monday to work on him, since I took the day off of work, so I may have another update Monday night.

If you haven't subscribed to the blog yet, now is a good time, what are you waiting for? ;)

Squirrel Update

2009-01-19T18:14:00.004-05:00

I worked a little bit more on the squirrel this weekend. I was hoping to have more done when I posted, but I didn't get a chance to work on it at all today. I started to put in some leaves, and then realized how annoying that was...so then I just started to block in large areas of color. The green areas will be mostly leaves with very little sky showing through. then the white areas will be mostly sky with a few leaves drawn in here or there.

As you can see, I'm all over the place. I get bored working on one area at a time, so I move all over the place putting color wherever I feel like it. There are a couple of artists that I envy, that work one area at a time...and I do plan to try that eventually. I just don't think I'll have the patience to work that way. But I will try it and give it a chance, because you never know until you try.

I'm also having a little trouble with the tree trunk. It's not turning out "bark-like". lol. But it is still in the early stages, so I just need to be patient and keep going. It's kind of in what we like to call the "ugly stage". Most artwork goes through the "ugly stage". Although, there are some artists that I know of, who never see that stage...and I only hope to achieve that one day.

Virtual Sketch Date - January 2009

2009-01-18T14:29:00.005-05:00

Today I worked on the reference picture for the Virtual Sketch Date. This is my first time participating in the VSD. The VSD is a blog set up by Rose Welty, Jeanette Jobson and Stacy Rowan. Once a month, they post a picture on the VSD blog, and you have one week to sketch, draw, or paint it in whatever medium you choose. Then you post it on your blog, and email the link to them so they can post it with links to all the other blogs of artists who have drawn from the same reference picture.

I found the reference picture to be appealing (lol, pun not intended), and not a usual subject for me. It was definately good practice. But I freaked a little when I came to the white skin pieces stuck to the orange....and I kinda just fudged it. lol. I had no idea what I was doing. Does it show?

I'm not that happy with how my sketch turned out. I only spent about one hour on it...so if I have some time, I may go back and redo it. It's Prismacolor Colored Pencils in my Strathmore 400 Series sketchbook. I don't really like the way my pencils blend (or don't blend) on this paper.

Tomorrow I will be back with an update on the squirrel, which is my entry for the CPSA 17th Annual Exhibition. See you then!

The First Piece of 2009!

2009-01-13T19:47:00.007-05:00

Moving on to New Year Resolution # 2....completing a piece for the CPSA 17th Annual International Exhibition.

A few months ago, I joined the Colored Pencil Society of America. The deadline for their 17th Annual Exhibition is coming up March 31st. I had something in mind to work on for my entry, but I cropped my reference picture for something else, and accidentally saved over the original. Unfortunately, this happened sometime soon after I took the picture, and my back up cd's only have the cropped version of the picture...and the computer that I had back then is long gone....sooooo....I had to choose something else. After spending an entire weekend looking at the pictures on my computer over and over again, I finally decided on one. Sooo....here is what is currently on my easle. It is 16x20", Prismacolor colored pencils on burgandy Fabriano Tiziano pastel paper.

I'm being extremely brave showing this at such an early stage. I'm usually not very confident in the beginning...and like to wait til my work is much further along before I show it to anybody. Hopefully this blog will help me with that. So...fingers crossed that this doesn't turn out to be the first blooper of 2009!

Goal # 1 - Mission Accomplished!

2009-01-12T10:49:00.003-05:00

Well here I am! New Year Resolution #1....create a blog and keep up with it. So that's it. Blog created. Check.

When thinking of my New Year Resolutions this year, I decided that I need to focus more on my artwork. Not just creating it, but doing something with it, for a change. So since I've noticed within the past few months that a lot of the artists that I admire have blogs (some of which can be seen in my sidebar), I decided to follow suit. This blog will hopefully help to keep me motivated to accomplish all my artistic goals (or as many as I realistically can).

In this blog, I plan to keep you updated on my artistic journey. I will keep you informed of anything art-related in my life. You'll see all my work in progress, including the bloopers. (Well, not if I'm creating the piece as a gift for someone...obviously, that will need to be kept secret until after the recipient is presented with the gift). So that's it. If you are interested in keeping up with me, you can subscribe to this blog in the sidebar, so that you receive email updates everytime I post, or you can click on "follow this blog" in the sidebar to follow along in Google Reader.

Since this is my first post, if you would like to see some of my work, you can visit my website at http://www.jennawhite.com/. So thanks for stopping by, and I hope you come around again :)