Sketch Book Challenge for January - 'Highly Prized'

 

This is my entry for January's Sketchbook Challenge - Highly Prized.  It is my goal this year to challenge myself with more difficult drawings like people and pets and more difficult poses.  No more easy way out straight on poses.  What better way to start then with the challenge of Highly Prized, of course I would pick my children first and then my cats.

Blind Contour Fridays

Funny how much better my scans look on my desk top.  You can really see my sons Blind Contour from last Friday through his today.  His is on the bottom and mine is on the top.  It is his laptop he uses for his school work and all his creations on his blog http://www.mixupfun.blogspot.com/ 

The First Dandelion of the Season

In 1996 my husband and I moved from Ontario to British Columbia because of Ontario's Looooonnnggg winters.  We do get a lot of rain here in the winters but at least we don't shovel it and when the sun comes out we rejoice at the greenness and freshness of everything.  We just finished a long stretch of rain (a lot even for us)  I said to my daughter in the fall, (after a heat wave) "I'm looking forward to the rainy days, making tea, lighting candles, reading and snuggling with a cat."  Monday I was done with that feeling!  I looked out the window at the dark day and realized it was 3:00 in the afternoon and we had the lights on. Enough, turn off the rain now.   Well today was one of those days to rejoice.   We woke up to sunshine and temperatures of 11〫C or  50〫F.   I went out to pull weeds that had taken over the front garden during the rain.  Something yellow in the lawn caught my eye.  Could it be?  It is!  A dandelion on January 26th!!!  (Yes, I know in a few more months, I will be saying 'enough of the dandelions'.

Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop - Week 4

This is my entry for Week 4 (the final week) of the Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop.  We were to add lettering or add to the journaling  we already had and then highlight areas and doodle to fill in.  Basically 'play', something I forget to do.  There are to more workshops coming up, one March 1st and the other May 1st and they are FREE!  Just look on the Strathmore website.  Thanks for watching the page progress throughout the workshop.

Blind Contour Fridays

This weeks entries for Blind Contour Friday's.  My son is a lot quicker than I am and did two before I finished my one.  I tried the one continuous line this week, which I think helped me line up the buttons.

Life Drawing Wednesday's

About 20 years ago a Life Drawing group was started in our area by some local artist.  I have been on the waiting list for just over 3 years and finally got the call, my name had come up.  The first group was this past Wednesday (and every Wednesday)  We started with some 1Minute poses.  In the past I have never been able to get much down in 1 minute but practicing blind contours and gesture poses at home has helped me, as most times I was able to get an out line of the model.  The last one was a 25 minute pose.  I enjoyed doing this one, I thought it was fun, but some of the other artist don't like props they just want to draw the form.

Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop Week 3

This is my week 3 of the Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop.  This week we were to add to the negative space.  This whole workshop has been about re-using.  Re-using copies of our own art work, re-using supplies each week and this week was particularly fun... re-using things we might throw away like bubble wrap and the mesh bag from produce, milk caps etc.

Blind Contour Friday

Finally, Blind Contour Friday with my son again!  My daughter had jaw surgery on the 16th of December and needed a lot of care, so I took time off homeschooling (It was the holidays as well) Today for math we played Shut-The-Box so when I asked him what we should draw for Blind Contour Friday he chose it.  Mine is on top and his is in the middle.  I liked how his handle and chain turned out.  When he was finished and looked at it he exclaimed, "Wow, I'm a great drawer."  Yippee! for him.

Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop Week 2

This is week 2 of the workshop.  http://www.strathmoreartiststudio.com/   We were to add shadow with charcoal pencil and color with oil pastels.  Then a wash of gesso.  I don't think I watered down my gesso enough.  I felt like I re-colored it and I lost some of the shadow effect because the charcoal just didn't want to go over the layer of gesso.  But I do like the effect in some areas, like the eyes in the upper left.

Strathmore Visual Journal Workshop

Brand New Year, Brand New Workshop.  This is for a workshop that started January 1 from Strathmore for their new 'Visual Journals'.  We will be adding to our pages next week.  There are 3 different workshops they are offering, this one, called  'Recycled Journal Pages'.  Then in March the workshop is called 'Start Where You Are' and the third workshop is in May titled 'Building Your Visual Journal from the Page Up'.  If you are interested you can check it out here http://www.strathmoreartiststudio.com/

Blind Contour Friday

Another Blind Contour Friday with my son.  This week, the desk lamp.  It is nice to do blind contour with another person and see their take on the same item.  His is on the top and mine is below.  Thanks for visiting.

Blind Contour Friday

This Friday's Blind Contour is 'Squidwards House' (from Spongebob Squarepants) chosen by my son. He enjoys it so much we do them together throughout the week not just Friday's for our homeschooling art class. Something really neat came out of them. When he is completed the Blind Contour drawing, he likes to close his eyes and draw the image from memory. I know that other people have done this before, but I was thrilled he thought of it on his own and then instructed me to do the same. His is on the bottom. I liked that my son noticed and put in the small dots around the eyes.
Thanks for visiting.

Blind Contour Friday

I was joined this week by my son (whom I home school and have made blind contour Friday part of our Art Class) and my daughter. My daughter chose the phone for us to draw. My daughters drawing is on the yellow paper. My sons drawing is below hers and mine is at the bottom. They are very fast at doing theirs. I take much longer.

Fun at the Library

My daughter and I had the opportunity to show our work at our local library. It was a lot of fun and very successful. My daughter was offered a job to give classes at a local school.
You can see her work here http://ladyoftime42.blogspot.com/
That is my good friend Deb who is a member of our Art Society and provided the photos. She is displaying the Art work of Irma Bijdemast, also an Art Society member.
Congratulations to Dorothy who won the "Free Draw" painting and thank you Dorothy for the kind beautiful gift from your homeland China in return.

Blind Contour Friday

This weeks entry for Blind Contour Friday.
A model I can get to do head stands and not have to rush with a drawing.

If you'd like to join in visit Peggy's blog
http://peggy.stermer-cox.com./

Blind Contour Friday

This is for Blind Contour Friday.
http://peggy.stermer-cox.com restarted it back in August.
This is a contour drawing of a "Dalek" It is from a British tv show called Doctor Who. I've included a photo if you have no idea what I am talking about.

Sketches and Paintings from UK Trip

Finally posting pictures I did on my trip to the UK. My daughter and I had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful. I painted the beach scene on site, sitting on one of the deck chairs.
Big Ben is in a hand made travel journal I did for the trip. (That's why all that stuff is poking out the top there) It was a very quick pen and ink because I did it while my Mother-in-law rested. She didn't rest as long as I thought she would so I painted it later. I'm glad I sketched it because for some reason my brain couldn't believe I was actually sitting on a bench in front of the aquarium staring at Big Ben.

Inspiration from Another Artist

Feeling in a bit of a rut I was looking online at some of my favorite blogs when I came across an inspiring idea at http://www.violette.ca./ Take a piece of your favorite paper or artwork fiddle with it a bit and put it on a glass candle holder. I am so happy with the way it came out. I thought maybe the candle wouldn't show through the paper and was very delighted when it came through where the light shines through the forest. Thank you Violette for the inspiration and pick up I needed.

Blind Contour Friday

I thought the result was quite funny, kind of looks like the discus thrower let himself go.

Blind Contour Friday

I am working through a book "The Natural Way to Draw" One of the assignments is to do Blind Contour Drawings, lots of them. I found a Blind Contour Friday group which helps to keep me going.
You can see it at http://peggy.stermer-cox.com./
Thank you Peggy! :D

Portrait Painting Class

I took a portrait painting class this week. It was very interesting. We started off drawing generic male and female heads in 5 poses in a manner very much like learning to print your abc's. Then we moved on to drawing from photograph's. Can you guess who this is? He is famous and the photo was of him in the '70's. Once we did the sketch we transferred it to canvas. My brain actually hurt trying to paint this. Like when you haven't worked out and you first go back (I think my brain was telling me something.) I persevered, I found capturing his eyes the hardest but was happy with the end result. (Considering I've never painted a portrait before.)

First Blind Contour Friday (again)

This is for the new start to Blind Contour Friday. To find out more check out
http://peggy.stermer-cox.com./
This is a blind contour drawing of my sons stuffed animal tiger Poppet.

Mikelson Art Festival Part 3

These are pieces I just completed for the festival.
This one is called "Waves" and the one below is called "Fruit of Plenty"

This one is called "Secret Waterfall".

Mikelson Art Festival Part 2

This is the map of where the festival is. (See post below, computer trouble before I could post this.)
The Festival is this weekend and well worth the trip here. It is set in a beautiful forest, with a variety of artist. I've been busy painting for the show and will be posting those shortly. I was excited to sell a painting within a half hour of opening.

Mikelson Art Festival

If you are planning a trip to or live in the Vancouver area of British Columbia you have to come to the Mind and Matter Art Gallery Mikelson Art Festival this weekend, July 17th and 18th. There are over 150 art vendors with pottery, jewelery, paintings and more. I was there last weekend and will be there again this weekend.

Card for my daughter

This is a card I made for my daughter. She helps me out so much I call her my own Personal Assistant. To thank her I bought her a gift and made her this card. It has a funny origin. I was making dinner and peeling carrots and when I took the stem off I noticed it was double stemmed. I instantly saw a cute little face. (I'm a stay at home, home schooling Mom, bare with me.)

Finally a post, has it really been since February?

Art Show this weekend

If you are in the South Surrey/White Rock area of British Columbia come and see out groups show!