Fabulous ~ rough sketches

When I first saw my photo reference online the word 'Fabulous' popped into my head so that will be my working title until further notice. I had snagged this image quite some time ago because I knew I wanted to do something with it but wasn't sure what. I finally had some ideas, maybe too many. That's why the variety of sketches. Anyhoo I did a Google image search, found the photographer/s and contacted them. These ladies generously granted me permission to use a few of their photos for inspiration. Don't you just love the attitude? This is SO in my wheelhouse. These are just rough sketches to help me toss around ideas. They all could work but what is my main intention. At this point I'm leaning toward the top comp. Sometimes less conveys more.

Drawing People Faces

I've got two more victims on the drawing board, both inspired by more photos courtesy of frankin (PMP).  I liked the idea that their hands made it in the photo but I was concerned I might have problems rendering them. It's been a long time since I drew a pair of hands. Boy, was I wrong. Much to my surprise the hands turned out to be fairly easy. The girl's hat however became a nightmare. I don't like ellipses. Or they don't like me. Whatever.....anyhoo it's taken me two days and I'm still not entirely happy with the hat but I'm going to make do.

Above: the man drawing 1. the original drawing   2. a continuous line drawing

the girl 1. & 2. two tries. I never did conquer the hat. I finally resorted to tracing the darn thing.

Drawing a Rainy Day Away

It's been raining here for the past two days. I'm not complaining(!) because we really do need this but the gloom does get to me. I went a surfin' on the web and was inspired to pick up a drawing utensil(in this case a Micron 05 pen)and draw the scene directly out my front windows. It's something I look at every time I sit down on my sofa and I could do an entire series on that one little view. It offers several species of trees, one that produces berries, and wild shrubs, weeds and grasses. The various shades of green are stunning at the moment. No wonder green is my favorite color.  

Back to the Drawing Board

Sorry for the lapse in updates. My flamingos fell by the wayside when my COPD flared again this Spring. Seems it's become an annual event. While recovering I needed to avoid the alcohol ink fumes so I completed a commission for a long time friend, a watercolor painting of a lady slipper I've been promising her for yeeears, and also a few pencil sketches for myself. I forget to simply draw something for my own pleasure. I enjoy it and don't know why I don't do it more often. I need to remedy that.

This gal is strickly from my imagination.

The receptionist at my doctor's office.
Lovely girl.
She has a perfectly oval face.

Lots of Puppies

Paul Kemp posted the cutest photo of a litter of puppies on PMP. So cute it knocked me out of my current funk and got me back on track. I took up an 8B pencil and did this line drawing the other day. You know the method...all one continuous line without raising your pencil. I made it....mostly. I did back track a little to add a missing paw, etc. The whole thing took me all of 10 minutes and I liked the result. Now what to do next. I think I'm going to try laying down some collage papers on Yupo, then do another continuous line drawing in ink over top. I may get some acrylic into the act, too. Lots of possibilities and at least I have a direction now. 

Kitty Kocktail ~ drawing

This project may be beyond my expertise as a painter but I want to give it a go anyway. I've never painted a clear glass anything before but there's always a first time.

I met this adorable little kitten this past September at the hair salon I frequent. One of the hairdressers had rescued him and brought him to work because he needed to be feed every 1-2 hours around the clock. He was so tiny he fit in the palm of my hand and he was such a sweet kitten. The stylist that was caring for him had taken a photo of him in a wine glass and she showed it to me on her cellphone. I never forgot it so when I arrived for another hair appointment last week I asked permission to use the image for a painting. Thankfully she still had the photo and gladly she agreed. I know I've drawn this too small already and need to enlarge it. I'm not known for my steady hand so we'll see how well I do. I may have to paint this more than once to get it right.

Miss Willmott ~ sketch completed

A little confusion in the center but you get the general idea

Part deux

I completed the second half of my sketch and put the two together in a panorama using Irfanview. I used scanned images and, without the aid of Photoshop, I did the best I could to merge the two drawings. Not an exact match but I did my best. I have a palette in mind but I want to do a few color studies before committing to a larger painting.

Raven ~ drawing

I was looking through some old picture folders a few days ago and stumbled onto a photo of Raven I had completely forgotten I'd taken. I still don't remember taking that particular shot but it's clear enough to use for a portrait. Even though she's been gone since 2007 I haven't painted her portrait because I didn't think I had any decent photos of her. Not that I didn't try but black cats are difficult to photograph. I've always felt bad that I've never honored her memory in this way. She was the most beautiful black cat I've ever seen. Fur like silk and her eyes were the most incredible shade of green/gold with a bit of turquoise around the irises. Her ears were big and round. When she ran she would fold them back against her head and she looked like she was flying. For that reason my youngest son named her Raven. I hope I'm able to capture her beauty and spirit in a portrait.

Merganser ~ drawing

I may have been silent for awhile but I have been working on a few projects. One project is an experiment and is still in the works. I'll be posting about that in the near future. I did get this drawing of a merganzer duck completed and it's ready for transfer to working paper. I will probably be using watercolor to complete this one.

I'll never forget the moment I saw my first merganser. It was a very large female with her brood of 10-12 duckings. She was resting on a large flat boulder near the shoreline of Lake Michigan, her babies scurrying all around her. Mergansers have a impressive auburn 'DA' on their heads and I thought she was the most amazing duck I had ever seen. I can only hope to do this duck justice with paint.

Note: My reference photo is courtesy of Sandy Witvoet, an avid birdwatcher and fellow gardener. Sandy has a Michigan birding site, complete with interactive forum. If you are interested in joining or would just love to see all the incredible photos on the site, please check out Michigan Birding Network .

JUGGS ~ a commission



Just before Christmas I received a call from the gallery. Apparently a fella saw my Red Hat lady paintings and wants a portrait painted in the same style. His wife has three close girlfriends and they have formed a group called 'Just Us Gorgeous Gals' aka JUGGS. I love it! They usually meet at Christmastime every year (from what I understand) and he provided a few photos I could use as reference. Not the best images but I think I can work with one of them. I've just finished the drawing and my Strathmore 500 plate illustration board arrived today. It's not something I usually keep on hand but it's great for portraits. The colors stay vibrant, similar to watercolor on Yupo only you have much more control of the paint. It's also great for fine detail work.

Board Meeting ~ WIP 1 (more chickens)

I've had this drawing completed for 4 days but have been waiting for my new brushes to arrive before starting to paint. I ordered 4 Silver Black Velvet brushes and I'm anxious to try them out. They are a Taklon synthetic/squirrel hair combination that I've been looking at for months. Jerry's Artarama is running a sale so I took the leap and ordered a med. Jumbo round, a #8 & #10 round and a 1/4" dagger striper. I do love my synthetic sables(great spring) but they have limitations and my one squirrel quill is wonderful but sometimes too soft for my needs. I'm hoping the Black Velvets will be the best of both worlds. I'll post my review after the painting is completed.

Red Hat Ladies 2 ~ WIP

I've just started a second 'Red Hat Ladies' after running into a slight problem. I had planned on doing two separate portraits as companion pieces for the original RHL (link) but discovered the leftover illustration board wasn't large enough for my purpose. I had forgotten I cut a strip from one side to use for painting trials so was left with an odd sized, square-ish piece to work with. Normally I would've gone back to the alcohol inks until I found a solution but that isn't an option at the moment. Finally a lightbulb went on in my head and I came up with this composition. This is just a photo of my drawing on tracing paper and, once again, I realize how much I would dearly love to have a lightbox, especially when working with human faces. Capturing the correct facial expressions of these lovely ladies is crucial to this piece and freehanding was challenging but I tried to keep it to a minimum. I'm really posting this so I can see it online to see if it 'works'. I invite my visitors to feel free to chime in with their opinions.

Ladies on a Park Bench #I

SOLD

I hope everyone of my visitors that celebrate Thanksgiving had a great holiday. Mine was kind of weird this year and Christmas looks like it's stacking up to be the same. I did finally get one version of my 'Ladies on a Park Bench' finished, though.

After tranferring my drawing onto 90# Fabriano CP w/c paper and saving the areas I wanted left white with Pebeo drawing gum (love that stuff) I applied a thin wash of walnut ink over all. I then added more ink at the ladies' feet, base of the bench and dog to ground the whole scene a bit. I used subsequent washes of ink on the bench and was very happy to see the darker tones and richness of color my homemade walnut ink produced. I had some real fun painting the hair, jewelry, etc. with my Jacquard Lumiere metallic acrylics. When all the painting was completed I went over all my lines with an 05 Micron pen. The ladies needed some blush on their cheeks and lips so I mixed up a concoction of red and orange soft pastel and applied that with a Q-tip. Voila!

Playing with Lines ~ Ladies on a Park Bench

The line portion of my Ladies on a Park Bench(my working title) is complete. I drew and re-drew these ladies so many times I hope I haven't lost that wonderful sense of spontaneity the original ball point pen sketches possessed. I went over the entire drawing with a 05 Micron pen and the finished drawing is approx. 14" x 9". There's a few glitches in some of the perspective( one of my weaker points)but overall I'm happy with the results. I now have my master drawing which I can enlarge, reduce, add background (or not) and tweak however I wish. I plan to try a few variations with different mediums, styles, etc. using my drawing to see what works and what doesn't.

Pat's Sunflower~ WIP (quick update)

I haven't made much progress on this to date. I spent the better part of an hour just sorting out the tangle of sepals by adding values. I don't dare go further before transferring this to my working paper or I'll lose my line drawing completely. I could easily simplify these complicated areas but the wonderful spiky looking sepals, all curled and twisted, are one of my favorite features on a sunflower.

I'm still not sure exactly how I want to tackle this project either. After my alterations in Elements parts of this flower now look very graphic while other areas retained their organic aesthetic. I'm trying to figure out how I can combine the two approaches and still make it work.

Pat's Sunflower~WIP

My line drawing w/beginnings of a value study

After I had my way with this flower in Elements 6.0

The original image..a real beauty :)

One of my Facebook friends, Pat was kind enough to share some photos of her sunflowers with me. I chose one of the images and put it into Elements, played with different crops, applied various filters and adjusted the colors. I finally came up with an image I like. I've just started working on the line drawing and value study. I'll be starting out with watercolor but I'm pretty sure this will wind up as a mixed media piece before it's over.

My Sunflowers~ WIP Update

I think this will be the final drawing. There is good movement throughout, interesting shapes in the corners and nothing pops out at me that seems 'off'. Next will be a value study.

After removing the extra bloom I noticed two leaves came together to form an almost symmetrical shape which at first I thought looked kinda cool. After looking at the drawing for awhile I realized my eye went immediately to that shape and stopped so that needed to be addressed.

The arrow is pointing to another bloom tucked behind the two in front. Too much going on in such a small area, IMO so it had to go.

I think I'm finally satisfied with my drawing. I did a fair amount of editing and made other changes. I've never done anything quite this complicated before and I'm beginning to doubt I'll be able to paint this in a loose style. I don't want to go too realistic either so I'll be walking a fine line once I start actually painting.