BOOOO!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL MY VISITORS!

This is a real oldie...probably about 12 or 13 years old. I call it 'The Long Scream'. Charcoal, black & white soft pastel on Bienfang paper.

Berries & Birch 2~Update

Just a quick update on my progress. Not the best photo but the best I could do with the lighting conditions at the moment. I don't recall ever working on a painting that required so much 'coaxing' as this one. I tried to find shortcuts for the background effect I'm trying to achieve but could find none. I've worked the paint with Q-tips and a stiff bristled brush, pushing and blotting, pushing and blotting some more. The gessoed surface has definitely been beneficial for this project as I've had to scrub back areas. Uncoated w/c paper could never have withstood this and I'm not done yet. The branches look too neat, my marks/strokes should be much bolder. The background should be darker to make the birch bark look brighter....yada, yada. Also I still have to add in the berry clusters in the lower right and paint in more twiggy things.

Berries & Birch 2~WIP

Much more still to be done on this. I'm liking the graphic quality but am having some issues with the background right now. I'm working on gessoed paper and experimenting with wet charcoal and watersoluble graphite. It's certainly been a learning experience!

Boy, it seems like ages since I last posted on my blog. October has been an unusually busy month for me and there hasn't been much paintin' goin' on 'round here. I've been working on this one for the last 4-5 days and I'm still not sure if it's going to be a hit or a miss. I think it's going to be one of those 'I'll know if I like it when it's completed' paintings. I was inspired by one of the effects I created in Elements using the first version of Berries & Birch.



Note...I've found a new print shop closer to home which is a good thing with winter looming. My home printer just won't print decent notecards anymore so I'm having them printed for me. I'll be doing all the trimming and scoring myself. I'll also be offering the Catitude notecard series in sets which was a suggestion of the gallery and something I've always wanted to do but wasn't sure my printer could deliver the goods.



One more note...I contacted our local Humane Society and proposed a business deal. If they will stock and sell my notecards I will donate 20% of the profits to the shelter. They indicated they were interested so I'll be meeting with them soon to show them the cards and work out the details. I see it as a possible win/win situation and I feel good about doing something more locally for the animals.

Cats is Crazy

I haven't posted in awhile because I'm still working on the next version of Berries & Birch. The background effect I'm going for is tedious to paint and I'm lacking in patience so I do a little...stop...do a little more...stop and so on. I hope to have an update soon. Meanwhile I thought my visitors might get a chuckle out of these cat photos. A friend of mine from school sent them to me and I chose my favs to share.