Sketchbook Wednesday

graphite on bristol

     My sketchbook posts are mostly just for practice and my own enjoyment. The photo references I use sometimes come from magazines and books for no other reason than I was drawn to that particular image. This sketch comes from the cover of a horse magazine I got when I was about twelve. Yes I have kept it for seventeen years.  At least the cover, I ripped it off and stuck it in a folder to use as a reference one day. And today is that day.

     The appeal for me here is the horse's face. It's beautiful and I like beautiful things. :) I love the delicate curves in her jaw and her big dark eyes. And maybe part of the appeal comes from the fact that horses were a huge part of my life when I was twelve and I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic about this photo, and the memories it triggers for me of all the hours I spent pouring over every single bit of horse related knowledge I could find.

     *sigh* Life was a lot more simple back then.

     But now I'm curious about the rest of you. What was your childhood passion? And do you use that in any of your art today?

     Books and horses. Those were mine. Put them together and I was in heaven. For real. :)

     See you guys later. I hope you're all having a fantastic day and staying out of your kids Halloween candy stash. I am proud to say that this year I have. But only because I bought my own stash the day before Halloween. Mwahaha!!

WIP Wednesday

work in progress

15 x 21 watercolor

      Here's my latest work in progress, it doesn't look like much right now, but I'm hoping it will turn out just right. This is a very early stage (obviously) with only 4 layers of color and minimal shadow modeling. His right side looks a little wonky because it's so brightly lit by the sun, once I put in the background it will read as more of a figure, hopefully :) I'm loving the pinks, reds, and yellows in the skin tones, it's been fun to paint so far.

      And now to our Wednesday question, this time I have a blogging question for you. When you leave a comment on a blog, do you like the blog host to answer you? Do you expect it? And do you go back and check if they do, or subscribe to follow up comments? Also, do you prefer to hear back from them via email or just within the comment section?

       I have been wondering about this for a while. I love to hear back from the blog host, and a lot of the time I will go back to see if the person responded to me (especially if I know they usually do). Sometimes people send me an email reply to my comment which is nice, and fun to read. But not everyone has their email enabled, so when someone comments on my post I can't always send a personal note back to everyone, so I usually just reply in the comment section. Anyway, forgive my rambling, I've just been thinking about this and was wondering what all you awesome people thought about it :) My main goal is to let people know that I appreciate the time they took to leave me a comment, I want to make sure that it's the best way possible for you guys. Because I love your comments, they totally make my day :)

Opportunity

"Opportunity"

10 x 14 watercolor

Finished! And I kind of like it. I think white subjects can be difficult to paint, but I really enjoyed this one. I've been a slow painter lately, kind of having to force myself to get started. I hate that, but I've come to realize that that's how creativity works with me. It ebbs and flows, when it flows I try to ride it out for as much as I can, and when it's not I just keep painting anyway, but not with that verve that I had before. It will pass, I just need to find something that sparks with me again. I'm working on it :)

Wednesday question time! I'm trying to rack my brain for a nice easy one. Hmmmm. . . here we go. If you're an artist, of any type, what is your favorite subject? In painting, drawing, photography and writing. I think I've covered all my bases there. Mine, obviously, is people, but in particular babies. I love to paint babies, there's just something about them that makes me want to try and capture that feeling of having your little one be brand new, again and again.

And, I forgot to mention the poll I posted a few weeks ago! Thanks everyone who voted, you flattered me with your answers. I've just about got the contest figured out (it's going to be so cool!) and will have it up in the next little while, so make sure to check it out! Have a great day everyone!

Progress, and you get to ask me this time

"My boy, in summer"

10 x 14 watercolor

     I finished the portrait of my boy, and when I looked at the two photographs (the one I posted last time and the new one) I couldn't see much of a difference in them. But in real life I could :) So here is just a close up view that I kind of liked. I didn't end up adding that much to it, I decided it was better left fresh. I just glazed some rose on the cheeks and some yellow under the chin.

     I am making some progress with my horse painting too. I think I can finish this one up tonight and then it's on to a new project that I'm pretty excited to start :) I have the drawing all finished, I just need to get the paper stretched before I can start. I love starting new projects :)

     This week's Wendesday question is going to be a little different. I thought it would be fun to turn it around and let you ask me a question this time. It can be about art or not, anything you want to know (of course I'm assuming that someone will have a question :P), and then on Friday I'll post the answer.

 

Have a great day everyone!

Another work in progress

      Another work in progress. I'm going to finish both of these I promise :) Last night I went and did a demo for a local art group, and it went really well. I was of course, so nervous, and positive I would make a huge mistake. But I didn't, it was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad I had the chance to do it. It was pretty cool to be around people who were interested in what I do, to me it's just so ordinary. It's just how I paint, I don't think it's anything that someone else couldn't do a whole lot better. I've just spent a lot of time learning from a bunch of paintings I really messed up on :)

      This is what I did for the demo, a portrait of my middle child. It's still pretty rough, but this is how far I got last night, in about two hours. I told the group I would post the finished work on my blog so they could have a chance to see it, so I thought I'd start with a post of where it is right now. I'm at the stage where I'm still really excited about painting it and I can't wait to jump back in.

      Now, my good friends, we are back to our Wednesday question! And just as a side note, my feelings won't be hurt if you choose not to answer, honest :) No pressure, this is just fun socializing between bloggers. Here it is :

"When faced with rejection of your work, how do you bounce back to believe in yourself and your abilities again?"

      I think about this a lot. Because it happens to me a lot. Just a couple weeks ago, I received three rejection notices for art competitions I had entered within three days. That's one 'we regret to inform you. . . ' a day! Ouch. I try not to take it personally, because I know that jurors are under a lot of pressure to pick a balanced show from a variety of artists. And there are usually so many more pieces than they can hang, and there's a time limit. The list goes on and on. But still, ouch. I guess something that helps me, is to just remember that I paint because I love to, and that it's ok that not everyone likes what I do. Also I try to get started right away painting something else, something that excites me, that helps me feel better. And cookie dough, lots of cookie dough. And then running, lots of running to burn off all that cookie dough :)

      Now it's your turn, what do you do?