Valentine RAK for Seniors 1 & 2

I posted a challenge of sorts in the general stamping talk forum over at SCS.

The challenge was to make Valentine's and donate them to seniors' homes. Lots of seniors have no family and are forgotten by society and don't get cards or gifts unless the staff gets them for them. My grandmother is in a home right now and my grandfather spent the last years of his life in a home.

I challenged everyone to make 1000 cards between all of us.

Here are my first two designs. They represent a total of 20 cards for a grand total of 20 cards for the challenge so far.

Card Recipes:

Card #1

Rocco (Stampendous)

Valentine Cube (Sunshine Designs)

Be My Valentine sentiment (unknown)

Valentine Row (Michaels $1.50 stamp)

Swiss Dot CB folder

Dollar Store Ribbon

Watercolour pencils

Funflock

Card #2

Rocco (Stampendous)

Valentine Cube (Sunshine Designs)

Happy Valentines Day (Hero Arts)
Heart Stamp (CTMH)

Watercolour pencils

Stickles

Funflock

If you want to join the challenge leave a comment here and let me know how many cards you have made and a link to your card.

Not Sure If I Like This Or Not

I did this from a very grainy photo of wild turkeys and when I took the photo of the painting I had to crop it closer than I wanted too. Funny thing about this is that when I look at it from across the room I really like it ut when I get close I hate it. The turkey on the left has turned thoroughly to mud.... But I like the snow and the weeds they are standing in. I'm considering doing this over a little larger maybe.... Need to work on the turkeys and see what happens. I may start with the turkeys first this time and then do the background.

After The Storm

After The Storm (3.5 x 9.5 pastel)

It has been realy blah around here. Cloudy, cold and snowing constanly for the last 5-6 days now. I'm not complaining about the snow. I like it. Alot. But it's put a run on the bird seed in the back yard. The traffic has been busy at the feeders. And not only the birds are hurting.

I looked out this morning and, along with all the usual customers - blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, juncos and sparrows - that clean up after our friendly neighbourhood squirrel, I saw an odd shaped grey-brownish blob sitting in the snow. I did a double take and realised that it was a rabbit. We have one that winters in our yard. The snow must be pretty deep for him to be back at the bird feeder. Guess I'll have to go get some pellets and hay for him.

This little painting was done as en plein air as I get at minus 20 celcius - I was standing at the back window. It's a little corny with the bunny there but I wanted him in because he was what prompted me to do the paining in the first place.

First Attempts at En Plein Air

Almost everything you learn is to paint from life if you can. My favourite subjects of animals I often paint from photos because they move too quickly and don't have the patience to sit for a portrait. But landscapes don't run around. The light will move and if you paint from life it will force you to work quickly and more spontaneously or you lose that light.

These two paintings were done on separate days. The bottom one was done first and the second I just finished.

I really like the clothes line. I think I got the light pretty right and I am actually happy with the greens which started as blue and red and purple and yellow underpainitng.

The bottom painting is a section of a tree in the back yard at dusk and I was just playing around with the pastels and trying to get the lights and darks in the proper places with no thought that it would look like the actual tree. What's interesting is how my niece and nephew, Jessie and Robbie, viewed it when I asked them what it was. Jessie immediately said that it looked like a stormy sky and then said it looked like a tree on a stormy evening. Which was what it actually was. Robbie said a tree at night. So that was pretty cool!

The clothes line is a little washed out in the photo, looks better and more the the real thing if I tip my monitor back a bit.

Morning Clothesline (pastel en plein air, 6x8)

Abstract Pine At Dusk (pastel en plein air, 7x9)

J 37 - Cow Face Pose #1

This is the completed painting of J37. I am really happy with it. I think it conveys the sense of light I was looking for as well as depth. The background trees are just barely suggested and I purposely left her body very rough in order to keep the focus on her face. The two photos below her are of two other stages in the painting that I took photos of.

Part of me wanted to keep fiddling with her but I told myself to put down the pastels and stop. she was finished and anymore mucking around would either have the potential of making a mud pie out of her face or of distracting from her face.

So here she is:
(J 37 - Cow Face Pose #1, 8x10, soft pastel)

(Stage 3)

( Stage 2)

Quick Birthday Gift

(Strawberry Bowl, 8x10. pastel)

This was a quick one, from concept to initial sketch to complete and framed it was about 2 hours. It is my sister-in-law's birthday this weekend and I wanted to get a gift for her. She has always given me thoughtful things on my birthdays and I wanted to do something special for her this year. It is still strawberry season here and every summer she does strawberries - jam, fresh, with ice cream, shortcake, sugarred... I had taken some photos of some strawberries I had myself and immediately thought of those reference shots as a subject for her gift. This is the finished product. I double matted it in a linen cream-coloured mat and then framed it in a sort of rustic dark brown wood frame with hinges in each corner - she has a 100 year old home with some of the original cabinets and so this should work in the house really well. I sure hope she likes it.

On The Lake

On The Lake (pastel, 12x12)

This was my response to Karin Jurick's latest challenge over at DSFDF. I think I may have missed the deadline. But that's OK. It didn't photograph that well. Much better IRL. I was trying hard to concentrate on the colours and on seeing what was there and not what I thought was there. I think I did OK. The girl in the boat isn't the best but people aren't my strength and she looks better IRL as well.

Chicken and Rooster 1

Chicken and Rooster 1 (11x14 Soft Pastel)

(Chicken and Rooster 1 detail)

I have been thinking about drawing chickens for a little while and today I thought I'd give it a try. I may give it another try and see what I can do. I'm pretty happy with this. It isn't the best and There are a couple of things I would change but not bad for a first try. I may actually crop it down and frame it as a gift for a friend's wedding.

A Poem

Cheeks was the theme over at IMT today, well yesterday I guess. A poem sort of popped into my head. Here it is:



Cheeks

Soft, round cheeks
Precious baby fat
Mama’s gentle touch
Learning to make sound

Freckled, fun cheeks
Six year old surprise
Daddy’s whisker rubs
Playing in the sun

Make-up, pimples, cheeks
Sweet sixteen desires
Monumental blush
Persuading dimples

Smooth, refined cheeks
Mother, wife, daughter
Pastry flour smudged
Navigating mines, falling way behind and trying to be kind

Wrinkled, worn cheeks
Velvet textured smile
The purple hat club
Weathering the storm


Hope you like it. The topic just made me think about how our cheeks change as we grow older. From something smooth and soft like a baby's cheeks to our Dad's that used o give us whisker rubs, to the first bit of a woman trying to get out of a pimply face as a teenager to the grown woman that is trying to be everything for everyone to the older gal with the velvety feeling cheeks that has been through it all. The thing to me about this was the physical feeling of the cheeks at different ages and trying to combine it with the emotional feelings you' might have at those different ages. Not sure how I did. Some of it's good but some of it needs a bit of work. First one I've written since high school not counting song lyrics which are a different sort of bird altogether.

Lupins

Lupins (soft pastel, 12x19)

Dana Marie at Inspiration All Around Us provided us with a secret garden challenge. She gave us a lovely picture of some lupins. This is my interpretation of that theme. Very sketchy but I think I like that about it. I could have worked up the leaves a bit more but I chose to leave it all loose. The flowers themselves are just 4 layers of white, pink, purple and blue and I left it at that. Thanks Dana Marie for another terrific challenge.

Chalk Sketching

These are two chalk sketches I did tonight. The top one is a rough sketch inpsired by Dana Marie's photo of lupins from Inspiration All Around Us and the second is for the Virtual Paintout which is in Florence for June. I'm not sure how either one of these may turn out. The bottom one may be too small and the top one may be too large and I'm worried about being able to get the lighting right on the lupins but... Guess I'll give them a whirl.

Just realised I have to go buy more paper tomorrow morning - almost out of black - just one sheet left.

Summer's Gifts

Summer's Gifts (12x18, chalk pastel)

For the challenge this week at DSFDF, Karin Jurick offered us a photo of some summer vegetables. It was a terrific challenge and I loved painting them. The lighting was spectacular and that is what made it such fun to paint.

The challenge I gave myself was to try and portray the different textures - the onion, tomato and then corn in husks. I think I managed to meet my own challenge. The thing I'm trying to learn is to draw what I see and not what I think should be there. No assumptions - just look at the light and shadow and colours and draw what I see with no preconceived notions.

Wish I hadn't taken so long to do this drawing but I did it.

Inspiration All Around Us - week 29

Blue Sky With Clouds (pastel, 12x19)

This is my response to Dana Maries newest challenge over at Inspiration All Around Us. She provided a wonderful picture of an amazing blue sky with clouds with a landscape below the sky.

Landscapes are something that I struggle with. I like how the sky and clouds turned out as well as the tree with moss on the left hand side.

I guess I'm happy with this... It's not too bad.

Thanks, Dana Marie, for another terrific challenge. Can't wait for the next one!

Felt Like A Hallelujah Moment

A Cowboy's Still Life (pastel painting, 10x12)

This is my response to the Virtual Sketch Date challenge for May. The photo was of two girls at a hoedown and one of them was wearing a cowboy hat. I don't draw people very well and the idea is to be inspired and use the photo as a jumping off point.

My own cowboy hat ( a Shady Brady - very high tone in cowboy terms) looked quite alot like the hat the older girl was wearing. So I set myself up a still life with my boyfriend's old dirty work gloves on a chair in the living room. It was about 6PM and the light was coming through only a corner of the kitchen window and I slid the chair around until the light hit the objects in this incredible way. I took a reference photo of my own (to preserve the light effect) and then I sketched the still life.

Today I did my painting with Nupastel. And I remembered my first art love from high school - we had to reproduce a master's painting in a different medium. Someone had given me Conte Crayons and I used them to reproduce a Rembrandt and then used them to draw everything I could find until there was nothing left but stubs I couldn't hold and then I could never find pastels I liked as much. Now I have choice and I chose Nupastels - lovely smudgy but firm pastels - to try them out.

And I am extremely happy with the results. I like that there are three distinct textures in this piece (the wood, the hat and the gloves) and I thinkg I pulled them all off. I also think I pulled the lighting effect of the chair fading off into the shadow pretty darned well too. I don't mean to sound like I am bragging.... I've just been so.... disappointed in the work I've been doing lately and jealous of how wonderful everyone else's art looks. So I and just feeling genuinely overjoyed to have maed a piece of art that I am happy with to the bottom of my soul.

I think the trick here is that I just let myself go. Rather that working so hard and trying so hard I just let it come out of my hands and onto the paper. I was in some sort of zone that in colour is hard for me to get to... I could see the block of colour and then just blocked them in and fine tuned it to blend them. I wish it always fet this easy.

My new box of pastels rock. Whoo hoo!

Rue Lepic

(Rue Lepic, 10x20, Inktense)

This is my contribution to the virtual paintout the Bill Guffey hosts. This month he took us to Paris and I found this lovely little street.

The perspective on this drawing is all out of wack but that is intentional and it is supposed to look a bit sketchy and even a little odd. I think the right hand side looks a bit off and I think I must have had my camera at a bit of an angle but it's late so...

This painting was fun to do and now that it is done I quite like it and may do more based on several other sketches I did while "touring" Paris.

Not Sure If It's Done Or Not

(Spring Fields in PA, 9x12, watercolour pencil)

This was done for the challenge over at DSFDF. Karin posted a grayscale photo and we were to put it in colour however we wanted to. The idea was to pay attention to the tones.

I've gone over and looked and there are some amazing paintings. I am having all kinds of trouble tonight trying to size this so that she will accept it though. I'm also not sure if i'm through with it yet or not.

I thinkg I got my tones right. I like the barns and silos and house. Not sure I like the field and I think I should have skipped the grasses in the foreground. They seemed like a good idea at the time but now I'm not so sure. I may play with this a bit more but for now this is it.

I altered a few things though.

I chanegd the house to something more like stone and I made the barns red. I also altered the roof of each silo because that's how they are around here. I like the candy stripe effect of them around here so I put them in that way. I'm also happy with the sky and they far distance. The only thing I really dislike is the grass and unfortunately I can't get rid of it.

Oh well!

The Other Side

Self Portrait - The Other Side (mechanical pencil, 9x11)

Over at Inspire Me Thursday this week the word was warrior. What popped immediately into my head was to do a self portrait. It looks a little flat in the photo here. In real life there is more depth to it. And I am resisting the urge to rework the cheeks again - I think they should be a little rounder perhaps. I haven't done a self-portrait in 20 years - not since Mr Robertson back at Thom Collegiate made us get out the mirrors and pencils in grade 12 art class. It's a little intimidating to do but I did it and now I'm just going to leave it alone and stop mucking with it.

Here is the reason I chose to do a self portrait for this inspiration word...

I have been through stuff. Not happy stuff, catastrophic to me at the time it happened. In the big picture nobody died. Cheating ex (that's why he's ex), anxiety attacks, depression... all that sort of thing. Sometimes it felt like I was at war and had to fight just to keep going. Sometimes quietly with determination, sometimes with the support of friends, sometimes loudly and alone with lots of tears of shear frustration at what was happening in my life. There were a couple of times that I felt like just giving up. There are times when I am at war with myself even still and I can be my own worst enemy. But I keep plugging away and somehow I manage to get through. It isn't always pretty but I manage.

So I decided to do a self portrait. It was done from a photo on a day when I was happy and having fun because who takes a picture of themself when they have been bawling or want to just curl up under a rug and go to sleep??? So I look happy in this and I think that represents where I have gotten to right now. I have struggled and perservered and come out the other side the victorious warrior, so to speak. At least for now...

There is a song written by Kevin Welch (Wynonna Judd recorded it as well) called The Other Side and it is all about making it through the tough stuff and knowing that you are strong enough to do it. That song got me through things that at the time seemed impossible. So this portrait is of me on the other side of the blackness I went through and optimistic about the future.

I know I am through this part but I also know that there will be more to come. When learning to become a better self there is always stuff that you will have to work through and perservere through. So althought this is me on the other side, so to speak, I also know that I will have to continue to be a warrior to keep growing as a person and becoming who it is I want to be.

And now I am going to hip PUBLISH POST before I chicken out. Here goes...

Promise of Something More

Wild Apple Blossoms I (6x6, Inktense Pencils)

I love apple blossoms. They are delicate and beautiful and they mean that spring is here and summer is on it's way. The crabapple trees loaded with fuschia blossoms all around just make me happy.

This picture was done from a photo I took yesterday of some wild apple blossoms growing near the garbage dump. They aren't that exotic fuschia colour of the mikmaks and the like, they are soft and delicate and when I saw them I had to stop.

The suprise was the scent. "Tame" crabapples don't have that scent. The smell of these wild apples was lovely. It was sweet but subtle, just the hint of scent that would get stonger as a breeze blew by and then would waft away again. I would be left wondering where it came from and where it had gone and when would it come back. It left me waiting for and wanting the promise of something more.

The drawing is in inktense pencils again and is on stonhenge paper.

Brown Horse

Portrait of a Brown Horse (Inktense pencil, 10x10)

The inspiration for this portrait came from Inspiration All Around Us - a photo taken by Dana Marie called "Modesty" that she posted on her blog. It was a realtively quick one to do. Drawing horses is easy for me - I've been doing it for 30 years now... I really liked the pose of this horse. I cropped the original image in my quick sketch and then after I transferred it to Stonehenge paper I got going with my inktense pencils and water. I piddled around for awhile with light washes and underpainted with reds, yellows and purple and then I added the top layers. The underpainting actually changes the way the top colour comes out. The body of the horse is a bit rough in this photo and I've reworked it a bit now, not sure which way I like it better... If I decide I like the new version better I'll change the picture.

I'm happy with how this turned out though. I think I kept it loose and not too controlled. My horse is a little heavier than the one in the photo but I guess that's OK. Thanks to Dana Marie for providing such great reference photos, this is my first attempt at interpretting one of her shots and I hope to do it again.

Stop Lights

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I posted anything here.

That was supposed to be because I was going on vacation and was busy at work before I left but as it turns out I never went anywhere - my basement flooded and the trip got cancelled. But that gave me some time in the last 3 days to work on this picture that I desperately wanted to do.

Karin Jurick, at Different Strokes From Different folks posted an image of New York City the challenge for the last 3 weeks. The work done with this image and that is posted on Karin's blog (see link at side) is terrific.

Karin had made a comment that some people say that they are nervous working outside of their comfort zone and that who wants to always do what they are familiar with. I agree with her. How do you learn unless you try new and unfamiliar things??? I wish I could step outside of my comfort zone more easily in my real life - the way I am willing to do it with my art. All I can say is that I am still a work in progress. I don't think I'll ever be finished.

Anyways... This wasn't something that was out of my comfort zone per se. It was really more like something I had never thought of doing. I try to approach my art with a no fear policy and just go for it.

So I just went for it and this is my interpretation of her image. I did it with Derwent Inktense pencils on Stonehenge paper and used water over top of the pencils which makes the colours incredibl vibrant and alive.

Stop Lights (Inketense pencils on paper, 14x16)

I am happy with how this turned out. It is the second time I've used the Inktense pencils and the only time I have ever done an in-colour picture of a cityscape. I like that it challenged me to get outside of something that I would normally do and I really enjoyed the puzzle of all the buildings.

I had a couple of goals. The first was to make sure the taxis and vehicles were grounded in the picture and that they didn't look like they were just floating on top of the ashphalt. The second was to use the intensity of the colour and the detail of the drawing to help with perspective. The third was to try and paint the buildings loosely so that the cars stayed the focus of the work. And the fourth was to make the stop lights and the tail lights look like they were glowing.

I think that I managed to do that.

The lines of the building edges aren't perfectly straight and I guess the light post on the right is leaning at a bit of an angle but I don't mind. For me this is supposed to be representational and not photorealistic - I want it to look like a painting or drawing and not like I just took a photo.

Next I want to work on my Virtual Paintout paintings of Paris and I'm thinking the old Inktense pencils may be coming out again for those drawings as well.