Jesus Washes Peter's Feet

My final project for Drawing I from the Prayer Tower in Pittsburg, Texas.

Gingerbread Ornament

Still playing with paper and glue:)

Let the Season Begin!

Paper collage!

Playing with Paper

Next to colored pencils, I love pretty paper. I collected so much of it that I had to start creating collages! I followed a wonderful collage artist named Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson, and through her collage DVD and book, I got the courage to start. It's been a few months since I worked in collage but this week I got the bug and spent a few hours a day working on a piece that will be a gift for someone who has been very generous with me.

I love pandas, too. The first collage I did was a panda, and now this one. I hope the photo is good enough for you to see a little bit about him. I made the mistake of varnishing before I scanned him, and he's a bit shiny to come out very good. I'll remember that next time:)

Patient Kitty

This little kitty drawing is waiting patiently to be finished! I finally have had time to add some more layers to the background and correct some on the "kissing ear".

So Busy I Forgot!

I thought I posted this update a few days ago but now I see I didn't! So, here it is for today. I'm not sure if I'll keep after this or not, I really am looking for something new to work on. I just never know when to stop:) I looks a little dull-I'm thinking it's wax bloom but I don't have any fixative.

Fall Update

Not much time for drawing with all this nice weather! I have to enjoy it while it's here! I have collected some more beautiful leaves but have no time to start them. This one is progressing slowly. Since the leaf itself has long dried up, I've having to guess at the shadow areas. If I'm going wrong, please let me know:)

Celebrating Fall

The thing I like most about fall weather is the cool air and the leaves! I'm not sure how many pretty leaves there will be this fall because the heat of the summer dried everything out and many leaves have already fallen. I did find a few in the backyard that were very pretty; so I chose this one for a little drawing project. Just beginning on the background and continuing to add color in the leaf itself. Maybe this will spur me to post more regularly!!!!

Smokey and the Fish

I'm going to call this finished for now. A lot of things going on, including the first day of class at NTCC! I am taking a Drawing class taught by Linda Hardy! A whole semester of drawing fun!

It's been a while...

I took a couple of months off--from everything; I haven't been entering shows, or drawing, or painting, maybe a little art journaling. But now, I think I'm ready to start up again! This past weekend, I went to a one day session on drawing pets with Robin Enneking. I started this drawing of one of our cats, Smokey. I worked a bit more on it Sunday and Monday and here's where I'm at right now. I'm enjoying it and look forward to starting one of the other cats in the family!

A Few More Strokes

A little bit closer to being done...

Moving Along

I've spent some time on the music man, trying to get him finished. Even just a little here and there makes a difference. I'm beginning to wonder about the background--or the lack of one. Will he stand out enough on his own? Hummm, not a very clear picture...

By Whatever Name

For the last couple of days I've been playing around with Ester Roi's technique of heat applied to colored pencil. Since I can't afford an Icarus board right now, I have a makeshift one. I am experimenting with colored pencil right now but intend to try some mixed media next. I was pleasantly surprised that the heat really does soften the pigment and blends well. In this first effort, however, I was fighting the paper as what I used had a definite texture to it and it was difficult to fill in all the hills and valleys. So, I'm going to move on to the next subject and let this one be. Any guesses as to what this is?

An Orange Study

Taking some time to play with an orange on mi tientes paper. I have never really liked this paper but started using it when I took the Linda Hardy workshop. I have since found that it takes more pencil than I originally thought, a LOT more layers than I thought! So, I'll be trying it some more. The orange looks a bit more like a peeled pumpkin, don't you think?????

Moving Along

I got really motivated last night and near finished my waterflower. I'm beginning to like the colors a lot, not as dark as I originally planned as it is a night flower. I do see a couple of things after seeing it on the screen so in a few days and a few tweaks, I will declare it finished!

I'd like to hear what you think, and feel free to make suggestions!

How it's going!

You must think I am terribly slow--well, I am! Plus, I have so many other things going on at this time of year. Tonight we will go to my nephew's graduation, and then maybe a family get together for Memorial Day. Next week, I have to get ready to travel to Austin to my granddaughter's graduation! My first grandchild is graduating, I can't believe it! So, I am only doing art things here and there, a minutes at a time. I will be missing a Linda Hardy colored pencil workshop as it fell on the same day as my Sierra's graduation date. That's ok, I will have another opportunity for the workshop and a granddaughter only graduates from high school once!

Musicman is Stalled!!

I flipped back over to the cps in hopes that I could get some momentum on this piece and it just isn't happening:( So, it's probably going to take MONTHS to finish but I will get there eventually. I think there are just too many things distracting me right now.

Today's Work on the Waterflower

Here I am today--but where do I need to go with it?? The big question! Once I decide on the top portion I can begin with the paper!

Night Waterflower

And while I was tweaking the magnolias, I started to paint another flower. This one is a waterflower and I hope to make it look like night and have some water reflections! The background is not painted yet. I'm trying to take my time painting this one so that the individual petals look separated. I'm actually beginning to enjoy the painting process.

Tweaks

Here it is after a few tweaks and ready to varnish!

Magnolias Finished

The flowers didn't take very long at all! Here is my finished piece--well, might need a few tweaks! I'd love to hear any comments or suggestions!

Magnolia Update

I haven't been spending a lot of time in the art room lately as it's been so nice to be outside. However, I got the bug yesterday and completed the background on the magnolia underpainting. I still need to search for some different textured papers and learn a bit about variety, but here's how it looks so far. Maybe I'll work on the flowers today.

I can see some areas I want to change; the blue under the top flower and the color I used for the limbs on the bottom flower. Magnolia limbs are more of a grey than a brown, I think.

New Collage

Here is the underpainting for my next collage!

Too Little Done

Painfully little progress on this, it's why I NEVER start anything over. I seem to loose interest in doing things the second time around. But I WILL get it done! And there are so many over things that have my attention at this time of year, I am absolutely loving being outside. That will change soon enough when the temperature and humidity increase to the unbearable range:)

Music Man Continues

I have already worked a little more on this but it's so cloudy today that I can't get a new photo.

Sunflower Tweaked

Just a few tweaks as suggested. Continuing work on Music Man. Maybe I can update tomorrow.

Back to Music Man

Elizabeth St. Hillaire Nelson, my favorite collage artist gave me some valuable feedback on my sunflower collage today! I am very grateful for her help and I'm looking forward to attending one of her workshops soon.

Looking around for something I could finish up, I decided Music Man needed a new start. So, here is my new beginning. This time I'm using a lighter color paper, stonehenge. The image will be approximately 16x20.

Sunflower Finished!

I do see a few areas I need to cover but finished for the most part!

Sunflower Update

Just a little update on the sunflower collage. I seem to be "stuck" at the moment so I'm stopping here til tomorrow. Also spent some time working on the workshop pears!

Art Workshop

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend my first Linda Lucas Hardy workshop! I have known Linda for a long time but have never managed to be at the right place at the right time. It was absolutely wonderful and so is Linda! I had an opportunity to meet lots of artists in my area and had a great time. I'm still working on the project as we didn't get them completed.

Here are a couple of photos from the workshop:)

Catching Up

I just have not felt very creative lately, moving from one project to another, but completing absolutely nothing! Which is very bad because spring shows are coming up very soon! PLEASE let the sun come out because I know that will help!

Did a little work on the Music Man but seems like all I did was make a mess of it. I'll just have to keep plugging because for right now, I'm NOT starting over! This is most of the image, it is larger than my scanner bed.

Another Mixed Media

I jumped into something else again--meaning to experiment on an old piece I started in the summer. I had painted the bird of paradise in acrylic on this piece of canva paper and tossed it in the bin. I loved the bright colors but I didn't do the background first so I didn't know what to do with it.

On the second go around, I painted a background by first putting some webbing on the paper and wetting it; then I painted with Jenkins green. I let it dry overnight and then removed the webbing. That took away all that white that was keeping me from being able to start. Then, using painted rice papers, I collaged on the lower part of the flower. Tomorrow, I'll figure out what comes next!

New Collage Underpainting or...

Started this new collage underpainting today but got side tracked along the way. My background looks a little yucky so I decided to try using something besides paint (I am NOT a painter). This is the first time I have tried colored pencil on this wood surface. I liked how the pencil went on but not necessarily what I was looking for. Then I remember that I had a box of inktense pencils that I've never used. Wow, I had a great time "painting" this with the inktense. I may keep playing with it a little BUT them would I want to collage. Stay tuned to find out!!!!

Graphite Drawing Workshop

The first week of January I took a graphite drawing workshop. The workshop was a good distance from home and I didn't get to attend the last two days. But I learned a lot of what I had been doing wrong in my drawing and some new things that will help me do better. So, after finishing up the flower collages and wanting a few days break from having sticky fingers, I started on this drawing of my nephew Collin. What you see is only half of the drawing due to the fact that it's 8x24 and won't fit on the scanner bed.

The paper is Stonehenge. I use this paper for colored pencil all the time so I was disappointed that I've already managed to "damage" the surface of the paper in a couple of places. I'm also using Derwent drawing pencils for the first time, and who would have thought that a different brand of pencil could be so different! But I will continue working, hoping for improvement.

Flower Project Finished!

OK, so I finally finished all four of the collage flowers and now I'll have to figure out how to put them all together in a frame. I'll need some sort of moulding to go down through the center to camoflauge the fact that these little pieces were not exact, just little scraps that I used to experiment! I will frame them all together as one if I can; if not, I will make some individual frames. Do you think they will look better together or separate?

The Third of Four--Orange

One thing about these small pieces, they go fairly fast. And it's becoming easier to figure out what goes down first, etc. For instance, in the orange flower, because it was a top quadrant, I wanted to have some leaves showing. But I forgot about them until I was nearly finished and now I can't add them in. So, in the last flower, which I hope to start tomorrow, I need to do the leaves first!

Blue Flower Finished

Here is the blue flower (the 2nd of my planned four) tweaked a little. I think it's finished; so I have started on flower number 3, which is orange!

Flower No. 2

Here is the second of my four flowers; I love the blue color! And they look pretty good together. It's a good think they go together pretty fast because I usually don't like doing the same thing more than once! At least changing the color of the flower helps with that:)

Now, it's time to figure out how to put them together so that they look good as a composition. If I flip the next two so that the flowers all come from the center, two of them will be upside down, unless...

6x6 Finished

Working on this little piece was a lot of fun! And I think it was much easier working on the wood. I have three more pieces of the 6x6 so I intend to do three more flowers and frame them all together.

The Beauty of Flowers in Collage

I don't know if the rooster is finished yet but he's being put aside for the moment. I got up early this morning and went straight to my work room and I only just now looked up--I worked right through breakfast and lunch--what a great diet!!!

Yesterday I was able to get a piece of 1/4" birch; I have a piece cut 6x6 for my trial piece. I coated it in gesso, both sides, and then used Jenkins Green for the background. I got a couple of runs which I like, and in the end actually look like stems! I put on my flower sketch and had a great time using some of the rice paper I painted with acrylics. Here is my little collage to date--I'm not sure if it's finished. I like the background as it is mostly. I'm not sure if I need to add more yellow pieces for the center of the flower. I'm going to look at it a while and think about it!

Cockadoodle Two

Well, I got sidetracked by all the housework I need to do--it's January, the month to organize! I've rearranged and reordered my art room so, hopefully, I have a little more workspace. If only I could figure out how to store my large sheets of paper so they don't get buckled or dented!

So, I have worked on the roo a little more, though I have to say it's mighty "busy" Very bright, maybe too many colors for such a little subject! But it's been very interesting and fun! Need to figure out how to keep my fingers out of the medium!

I was at HD and got a nice piece of 1/4 birch and I'm ready to see how I like painting and collaging on that for a substrate! I have little 4x4 tile pieces to practice on and I'm waiting for the gesso to dry on the first one. Now, to find the subject...

Cockadoodledoo

OK, put your shades on because this might hurt your eyes! I'm not happy with those bright colors but will tone them down with paper. This has started out really ugly, hence my reason for not posting sooner! If I had started over as I thought I would, I would have used greens instead of that blue. Your input is welcome!