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?

AEDM Check In, November 20

Earlier this week I went to the bus stop to wait for my grandson's afternoon bus to arrive. In our part of the world, most of the trees have lost all of their leaves. Up the street from the bus stop, a neighbor has the most colorful trees out in front. When I went home, I sketched the trees so that I could paint it later.
This week has been a little busy, so I knew I would not get to the painting right away. I have just purchased some new "Inkintense Watercolor Pencils" from Michael's. So I decided to give them a try on this piece.

Last night was the Marketplace where I was participating. I brought my Angel cards for sale along with some paintings and prints. There really weren't a lot of customers. But I did get a lot of positive feedback from the other vendors and the owner/director of the Yoga Studio.
Now that the sale is over, I can go back to my art for a bit.

Thanksgiving will be here and all of the "busy-ness" that goes along with family gatherings.
I do plan to find some small stores who might be interested in selling my cards on consignment.

AEDM Check-in, November 15

Celebration!

I thought it would be fun and relaxing to do a quick little painting today. I'm going to a "girls only" birthday party for my hubby's Aunt Carol. She's just a couple of years older than he is and they went to high school together. I always thought that was remarkable.
I decided to do a watercolor sketch. I painted a cupcake tree, coffee pot and balloons. It all came out rather spontaneously. Even though we don't have an outdoor party planned, it will be fun to see all of the cousins (female of course) and Aunties in this huge Irish family.

AEDM Check-in, November 14

Well, I guess everyone has to have those days.
How about a week?
After a week of work on my latest painting, it's so sad to say that I will not use it.
At first I tried to make a textured background using watercolor. The colors were disappointing and grey looking. I added some salt to create texture but it did not have the effect I wanted.


Next, I decided to paint the illustration without the background and while the painting is progressing, it does not have the fun movement of the other works I had posted earlier in the month.
The illustration looks better online than the actual image. It just looks static

I know that if I were working digitally, I could correct a lot of it painlessly. But with this computer, I don't think that is a possibility.

I'm just going to put both aside for now and revisit them later. I might find another way to use the background and the figures.

Art Every Day Month Day 8

Here is an image of my almost completed picture. There are some finishing touches that I want to add, but most of the work on the figures is completed.
I found a really nice quote from Mother Theresa that I might use inside:
...It is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand
I think it's just perfect for this illustration.
Maybe tomorrow I'll head over to the print shop in Kingston to see what they can do with the whole card idea.
I might make some copies of my newest paintings to sell at the Marketplace at Feathers Wellness Studio.
It's so exciting to finally have something finished enough so that the project can be completed. I can't wait to figure out what's coming next in this series.

Art Every Day Month Day 7

It's been a couple of busy days since I last wrote about my work. Believe me, both days were filled with important stuff. I did get a chance to work on my art cards, although the latest one still isn't finished. I thought I would share a work-in-progress as I plug along.
In keeping with my holiday theme, I wanted these angels to have colorful outfits. Several issues came up as I was working.

~A friend asked: what will I write inside? I had not thought
about the inside yet. I want it to be spiritual and uplifting.

~The details are coming along slowly because I'm using
10X14 inch paper. Faces and fingers are tiny.

~I have to talk to a printing company about reproducing these
as cards(not really a big problem).

~How will I package them for sale?

~ Other computer/internet-related questions.

The process is fun - watching these angel spirits evolve.

Soon, I'll post a finished product! Woo - Hoo!!!

Art Every Day Month Day 4

It's so refreshing to start the day ahead of myself. Does that even make sense? Once again, my time is limited. I was visiting my grandson's classroom to volunteer on Thursday mornings. Now his teacher needs me on Wednesday, instead. I told her I could be flexible because I do have that freedom. Other volunteers are busy moms (been there) who are able to give an hour or two before heading off to work or some other commitment. I decided to do a new sketch for my dancing angels. This one came to me a few days ago. I worked on the idea for a couple of days refining the original and I can't wait to paint it.
I'm trying to use a variety of figures in the work. I'm sure I won't have time until tomorrow, but at least the sketch is done.

Art Every Day Month Day 3

Ocean Angel
I just finished a new painting of a dancing angel. I do have several other sketches started as well. When I spoke to my daughter about this project, she suggested that I try to make the angels ethnically diverse to represent every race. Now, that's a challenge.
I'm still researching this idea, but I did work on this angel. I love her motion. There are some things I struggle with, especially shading.

Art Every Day Month

Leah Piken Kolidas has begun her AEDM challenge for 2009 today. I decided to join the challenge this year and do something creative every day and post it on my blog. I hope this is the big nudge I'll need to post more often. I seem to put that off a bit.
Here are my first creative efforts for the month. I'm going to sell some of my work at a marketplace at Feather's Wellness Studio in Weymouth later in November. Of course, I want to have some new pieces to offer. After a lot of planning and thinking, I have decided to create some new designs to offer as prints and cards.These sketches (very faint, I know) were part of my planning. I want figures moving or dancing. (a lot of joy). Next, I made some of them into angels.The results were pretty good. So, I decided to add color to a couple of them.
I like to work in watercolor and colored pencil. The results are promising; although, I would love more detail. This is going to be a work in progress, so I'll let you know every day.