Something New

  

Before Christmas, I started to experiment with Golden Fluid Acrylics. I even bought some Glass Bead Gel.

I want to produce a painting for my kitchen. Something with reflective quality. I am trying the Glass Bead Gel in several different

paintings to produce a luminescent effect. The acrylic painting of the tree is one of my explorations.

Another way to pass my time is to sketch whenever I can. Things get so busy, it's sometimes challenging to find time to paint, but I do enjoy sketching out ideas and inspirations. The first one I have included here is a picture of my daughter and her love. They took a picture at a recent Patriot's football game. I think the resemblance for Anthony is pretty accurate, but my daughter Juli's is not quite right. I'll have to work on this some more.

My second piece was inspired while I was reading The Bells a novel by Richard Harvell.  I found the descriptions in this work vivid and spent a lot of time visualizing the action while I read.  In this scene, Moses has met Amelia out in the city, but he does not want her to see him. He brought a piece of red silk to cover her eyes. Amelia insisted on exploring his face with her hands.

The third sketch is one I did earlier this fall. I wanted to capture my grandson looking at the stars at night. There's a rocket in the picture because I thought he might imagine himself riding up to explore the stars.

Good News and Adjustments

I am so thrilled to announce that I won Jill Badonsky's new Muse book at her Awemanac web page. I am so thrilled! This page is full of fun and inspiration. Us artsy types need fuel for our creative juices to flow. Jill provides inspiration in many fun ways. I can't wait to see her book and begin drinking in the magic!
Another happy gift came before I went away. Sue Rundle-Hughes awarded my blog the Lovely Blog Award. That was such a sweet surprise. I'll have to figure out when I can pay it forward. Thank you Sue.
Sue is a wonderful artist. If you have time, check out her web blog.

Sometimes it's challenging to share my creativity. I have been away for a couple of weeks in Florida. Just before I left, my computer failed. My daughter very kindly brought it to Best Buy for service because it's under warranty. They shipped it to their service agent and it's still not fixed. Until I get it back I can't scan the sketches I've done and I haven't had a chance to paint.

Healing Energy A Revision

Finally, I have made some satisfactory changes to my healing angel. Now her face is more a 3/4 view.
Since I'm heading to Florida for two weeks, I won't be able to do any work on her until mid November. This might be a good way to see the work with fresh eyes.
My husband and I are going to visit some friends this week and then meet family on Friday. On Saturday we'll all embark on a 7 day Disney cruise to St. Maarten & St. Thomas. If this cruise is anything like the last one 2 years ago, if will be wonderful.
It will be nice to be in the warm sunshine for a while. I really miss the beautiful summer we had this year. It is tough to have shorter days of sunlight during the winter. So
Sometimes I feel like I should carry a lantern to brighten the darkness. Maybe this will be another painting...

Spooky

And now the revised version.

My illustration of a Wicked little Witch is nearly finished.

The trunk contents need to be stronger or darker.

This is done in clolored pencil instead of acrylic paint. I wanted to control the details

of my lady's face, fingers and toes :) , so she's not as bright and bold.

I'll be back when I have made things brighter.

I had planned this painting just as Leah at Creative Every Day had announced her theme for the month of October.
It's exciting to see how a painting progresses. I like to view it with "different eyes" so I wait a few hours or even overnight.  Viewing it on my blog helps too.
Sometimes I can't tell if I'm missing something as I work on a piece. I wonder if that improves with experience. Hmmm....
There's more to do here, so I'll work some more and then post again, soon.

Another idea that I have been working on lately, is a children's story.

A friend of mine who works at the elementary school wrote a note about a conversation she had with a little girl in kindergarten.

Something made me think that I could make a story out of it, so I created a character.

I'm not sure yet if this is the right character for the story beause it really depends on the direction the story takes.

Around her are some questions I'm asking my self (or her) about her story.

When this begins to grow, I'll post about it. If I say too much now, I think it will spoil the process.

I may need to name her and draw more settings for her to spur my imagination.

My lovely daughter gave me the name for my last children's story, Marmalade's Marvelous Methods.

I have found that giving my main character an identity and then asking her or him interview questions helps to move things along.

Now if the blog fairy would come with some "Powder of Inspiration," I'd be thrilled!

Whimsy

On a whim, I decided to sketch a peacock.

Instead of making it blue or white, I decided to use autumn colors.

One of these wouldn't exist, I think. But,

who knows?

Stranger creatures have been found!

I think the tail needs to be larger.

Back to drawing.

My Artwork

There's a new slideshow added to my blog. I decided to feature some of my recent work on the sidebar. Eventually, I'd like to revise my blog a little and add some additional pages. For now, the slideshow will be updated as I add more of my work. I'm actually considering offering some prints of this work through email contact.

I would love to hear from you if you are interested.

My latest painting is completed! I'm so pleased with the work I have done here.

This painting of Abundancia along with several other paintings of fairies and angels will go to the printer to produce notecards for sale.

I plan to leave this series blank inside so that I'll have a broader selection of choices for any purpose.

It's exciting to finish a piece and be ready to display it.

Below are some other illustrations I'm planning to have printed.

This whole process is very satisfying for me as an artist.

An Update

There are some changes here. Now the color in the background is brighter and the features and details are cleaner. Next I want to rework the frog in the flower pot. He needs to be more distinct and refined (if there's such a thing as a refined frog.) The features on my girls' faces need more definition. It's getting there, sl-ooo-w-ly!

My progress is slow, I know. Some days it's been difficult to find time to paint. Other times, I'm just distracted.

Progress...

I'm still working on this painting. I hope to complete it soon. As you can see, I have revised the background - twice!!! Some details are still a little rough and more shading is needed in the figures.
I'm going to go back to work on it for a few more minutes until the little guy's bus comes.

Best Friends

This has been a busy few weeks. I keep thinking that things will quiet down soon and I'll be able to concentrate on my painting. Right now, I have to fit it in when I have a few minutes to work.

Here is a painting that needs to be finished. I just love these two sweet girls playing in dress-up clothes. They remind me of my daughter and her oldest best friend. They would play together for hours, pretending, exploring and giggling. It was so much fun to see them together using their wonderful imaginations.

Now that it's up, I have a better feeling of the overall composition. It needs more work, but seeing it helps me use different eyes to assess the piece.

Give me an honest opinion about it. Thank you.

My Newest Work

It has been quite a while since I have posted to this blog. I have been working, painting, and creating since my last post. My work is slow but not tedious. I love it. I started painting in acrylics in January. It's more fun than I ever imagined. There are so many new possiblities to explore and I'm still just beginning to discover them. The images that I have added today will become notecards and prints.

The image at the top is "Summer Song." Because of it's size, the colors are not clear in this scan. It is the first piece that I produced in acrylics. I was a little nervous at first, but the piece took shape quickly. The whole process was amazing.

Next, I sketched and painted the image on the right, "Springtime Gift." I really had trouble with skin tones, but my art instructor helped me adjust the colors I was using. The beauty of the acrylic paints is that I could repaint the face, arms and legs of this fairy and add shading to her.

The image on the left is titled "Flower Fairy." The original painting had a flat background, with encouragement and guidance from my instructor, Virginia Freyermuth, I added texture with brushstrokes of color to the piece.

This is all quite an energizing experience. By expanding into acrylics from watercolor I feel as though a new doorway has opened up in my work. I do think that all three of these pieces need more work, but I'm proud to display them for my friends.

Re-assesing Things

I have taken a little time off from my blog. I'm not ready to return yet because there is a lot of stuff going on. My computer was failing - freezing mostly. It became rather upsetting. I now have a brand new one with lots of capacity. I very excited about this. I' trying to decide which graphic/art software to purchase: Photshop or Corel. Is one better than another? I'm going to try the Corel demo to see how it works.
Wish me luck. Any advice?