Twenty Minute Challenge...

This is a sketch I copied from "Now We Are Six" by A.A. Milne. I'm trying to practice drawing people. This is a beginning!

My first painting for Inspiration Avenue challenge...

The challenge this week at Inspiration Avenue is to paint something inspired by the painting "Primavera". Something from your soul. Something about spring. This little painting represents the promise of spring.



Loving these challenges!

Next step...

Still working on it!

My 20 Minute Challenge...

For the Twenty Minute Challenge blog you are supposed to get your materials together and then start timing yourself. At 20 minutes you take a picture of what you've finished thus far. This is as far as I got in 20 minutes. I didn't like my very harsh pencil lines, so...I went over them lightly with an eraser so I can still see them, but they won't be so obvious after I add watercolors. Then I will do some pen outlines over them.
This is my "model" photo. I'm still thinking about adding some of the little dried up sunflowers to the left and I'll leave out some of the junk in the background and put up a rustic wood fence instead. :)
Have a happy Sunday! We're having a lovely snowstorm!

Shalom!

Close-up for Sketchbook Challenge

"Close-up" is the February theme for Sketchbook Challenge and I thought this would be a good subject to paint. I haven't done a horse for quite some time and this was copied from a quirky, off-center photo I had seen in someone's Facebook photo album.Off to add it to my Flikr photostream. :)

Rookie Painter Challenge #34...Completed!

Well, considering that this is my first attempt at a "serious" watercolor painting, I'm pretty satisfied with it. Who knows, maybe someday I'll watch a tutorial or two and pick up some hints, but meanwhile I really enjoyed just figuring things out for myself. That's what hobbies are all about, right?As I was filling out my email to submit this painting I looked to see what weight of watercolor paper I had used. That's when I discovered that I hadn't used watercolor paper at all; just my cheap sketchbook paper! Oh well, live and learn! :) This is my favorite view; just reclining on my map desk!
Feelin' like a proud mama! I'm off to read some blogs.

Shalom!

The challenge continues...

I never realized how much thought could go into painting! Trying to recreate the color of brass is amazingly difficult! Then there's the added challenge of representing all of those reflections on the brass teapot. Painting the woodgrain was also quite a thought provoking experience. I'm not finished, by a long shot. I'll have to keep going back and working out lots of details. Whew! It gives one a headache, but it is an intriguing process.

The palette gets messier...

By the way, this is the photo I'm painting from. Try it!

All in all, I'm loving this experience!
Go with God!

Diving into the challenge...

This is actually step 2 of diving into the Rookie Painter Challenge #34. I drew the pencil sketch yesterday and worked up my courage to begin the painting tonight. This is the first time I've tried a "serious" painting. There's a pretty good chance I'll make a complete mess of it, but it's an exciting step into the unknown! Since I've had no painting instruction, I can't hope to compete with some of the professional artists who are doing this challenge, but since competition isn't the idea, I am unafraid, mwa-ha-ha!!

I make my maiden painting voyage. My main challenge here is mixing a color that is somewhat close to the periwinkle blue in the model photo. Hmmm... Close enough!
Do you like my little painting setup? Everything I need. Very...compact!

I've done the grey background, the tablecloth and the apple. I think I'll stop there for tonight. I'm determined to take my time and enjoy each step instead of rushing to get finished. I've enjoyed it thus far, but I do have to get back to reading "Shirley" by Charlotte Bronte. It's just getting to all the romantic stuff toward the end, hee, hee!

One of my favorite old china plates is standing in as my paint palette. It works! I feel so "artisty" mixing paints! :D

I love this little tin for my brushes! And there's my Pom Pom folder where I treasure all of her little art pieces. I was just looking through it yesterday and it warms the cockles of my heart!


Well, time for a little English literature break. Hubby is watching a basketball game at the high school, so I'll take advantage of the solitude. Au revoir and shalom, of course!

Just came across this in my sketchbook...

Do you remember sending me this little picture as something to copy from, Pom Pom? It was fun! Thanks!
Draw on, world!

Bookcover art folder thingy...

I bought an ancient copy of A Child's Garden of Verses at the library book sale. I loved the old cover, but the pages were coming out and it was in pretty bad shape, so I decided to save the cover and make something out of it. Here are the steps I followed to make an art folder out of it. If there are any suggestions for other uses I'd be interested. Since I'm trying to begin keeping all of my work in my sketchbook I'm not sure what I'll put in this thing, but at least the cover is sort of preserved. :D

This picture is sort of out of order, but I first removed all of the pages. I will keep them and hopefully use some of the poems and other paintings in other projects. Then I reinforced the spine by gluing some lightweight denim on it.
Trimmed the denim.
Then I glued flannel to the inside of the cover. If I had it to do again, I would have used something more colorful. I love this denim colored flannel, but it might have worked better in a quilt square.

Trim the flannel.
Applied Mod Podge to entire cover and let dry overnight.
Finished cover.

Insert your beautiful artwork. (Not so beautiful in this instance, hee, hee!)
Finished folder.

This was my first try doing something like this. It was fun!

The Pie and the Patty Pan and a Little Winnie the Pooh...

Pom Pom's sketch of Mrs. Tiggywinkle gave me a hankering to do a little copying from one of my favorite Beatrix Potter books.
My little sketch of Ribby is not quite satisfactory, I think I could have done better on her eyes, but it was just a quick sketch.
I also copied Piglet, Pooh and Eeyore from another little book. I think I enjoy these quick little drawings even more than the larger, more complex, projects!


I also found some great little line drawings from "Now We Are Six" by A.A. Milne. I hope to copy some of these to help me with drawing children. Why are people so hard to draw?


My little table is sort of cluttered right now. I like it that way! :)



Now I'm off to do some drawing before work. I'm on the evening shift today.
Shalom!

Rookie Painter Challenge

I love these challenge blogs! The latest one I came across is called Rookie Painter, but you can also use pen and ink and just about any medium. The only limit is that your picture can't be produced digitally. You have to use your real hands and real art supplies. What a concept!

Every three weeks a new set of photos is put up on the site and you create a painting, email it in and it will be posted on the site. Sounds like fun to me!

Here is an example of the latest challenge. First, the photo to use as a model:
I love how different these paintings are. I think it's fun just to scroll down the page and see how many different perspectives people have about the same subject. All levels of expertise are welcome!


And this is my very poor offering... I did this at the last minute and didn't give myself enough time to even enjoy doing it! It was sort of like diving in at the deep end. Now I feel committed to do this! :D


Happy creating!