I always knew but recently noticed how the color of the water changes so much in the water reflection of my fountain. I will photograph more pictures of the fountain at different times and post the comparisons. Here are the few I have; Pre evening below.
Daytime
Pre sunset.
Life can be busy sometimes if we let it …..
and a bit overwhelming. If you are an artist and I am assuming you are even if you don’t actually have the time to sit down and paint/draw, but have a great idea for a piece of art…… keep a drawing journal. Jot down small thumbnail pictures or quick sketches for later when you have a bit more time. Look around you there are beautiful pending pictures or ideas everywhere. Last night I had a few hours of silence in this house and it was a welcomed quite. I took the time to sit on my porch and just listen to the birds and watch the sun set. I like to spend the time listening for God to speak into my life [heart]. I worked on my fountain and tried to get it not too leak! I am adding a few pictures of the water, which looks amazing up close. It’d be a hard watercolor I think, not sure what medium I’d use? I will look again tonight to see how the sun comes in over the water. I just love these pictures. I also photographed a bowl of hard-boiled eggs; fabulous shadows and value study. I believe I will work on a drawing of the eggs, maybe wc. The water photos I will work on in the near future; I just want to catch the water when there is more colorfull light. God is so good.
One of the best decision I ever made was to make a space for myself to work on my artwork. I like to call it my studio, makes me feel inspired to create. If I added my sewing machine it would be an old lady’s craft room! Anyway, I cleaned my space tonight and of course I wish it was larger…..but I am grateful for what I have. My dollhouse is in the other corner to the left. I was thinking of trying to turn my dollhouse’s large table somehow thinking I would have more space…….but I love to look at Zanadu Mansion in all its unfinished splender. 
This is an updated picture of a graphite drawing in process by Joan. The kitty’s name is Ms. Belle a real loveable stinker I am told. In the composition notice how the detailed sofa wooden arm design balances out the pillow riffle. It is the similar shapes that compliment each other. The design on the sofa material works because of the repetitive shapes and constantly of design. In good composition there should be movement throughout the drawing. There should be shapes, lines and form leading your eye into the picture and out of the picture. Notice how the piping on the sofa takes your eye across the composition. As Joan works on this drawing she is learning to understand value scale and how it relates to the composition concerning depth in shadows. Once the drawing is completed as far as the finishing of the drawing itself, I will teach Joan how to take the realism to the next level. Please follow my blog for updates on the “How Too’s” in realism art.
I like to spell watercolour with a “U”, feels more artist like! Anyway, I worked for about an hour on this morning, adding and working up the realism. Now, I need to let it sit for a day or so and give my eyes a rest. Plus, I want to let the paint really dry and take hold and settle. Once that happens I will go back into it add ridiculous realism. Certainly, the painting can stay as is and be called finished, but I need to take it to the next level.
I thought about this many times why I need to take my artwork into realism and I came to the conclusion that I can not change what kind of artist God made me or gave me the eyes to see as an artist; I can only work hard with what I do know as an artist and honor God, enhance, plus develop what I know as an artist and take my artwork to the next level. I have been working hard in Life drawing and actually seeing results I enjoy, so that is a good thing. Two minute poses are hard for me because I want to draw not sketch gesture drawings. I don’t know if it is that I only had about thousand hours spent in life drawing classes or I am at a point I can skip that section of class? Good question. All I do know is that I Thank God for my life and what He is doing in it, especially as an artist. Without The Lord I would Not be standing, all my Blessing are because of Him whom died on that cross at Calvary for me.
One very important fact; Do Not ever think Your Art is not worth creating! Being an Artist is a gift from God. {period}. Do Not let the devil set your a** up! Take the time to look around sometime; at nature, the birds chirping, a child’s smile or your own life. What obstacles you have overcome in life and are still standing. Do not ever think “Where is God?”, He is and was right there with you the whole time. He is the Creator and what an Artist is He. So, if you are an artist and reading this right now realize that God gave you a part of Himself; the artist. What is important to you is important to God.
I really like the scarf and the way the folds are. I want to enhance the pattern yet and I will come back to it in a day or so. Right now I am going to try to downsize this easel my Dad made me when I was in college. The problem is it so big! My Dad always made things for giants! Once he made a picnic table that when you sat down at it the actual table top was at your chin! No lie! lol. Funny stuff. Wish I had a picture of that. So, I probably could make two easel just with the one. 
This is how far I was able to get on this watercolor of Audrey. I just started to paint in the foundation for the patterns. I am not following the actual photo pattern, using the photo as a guide. There are about four layers at least for the realism. At this point I am happy with the progress. I am changing the age and face lines some as well.
Came home a bit early from Life drawing to put another layer of color on. The scarf is coming along well. Once this dries well I will go back into it to finish.
In the next several pictures are the progression of the newest wc portrait I started yesterday of my friend Audrey. There are so many details in the scarf that I may change the design a little and add a blouse type shirt with the scarf. There are three layers of wc so far, just the foundation for realism to begin. I have about three-four hours in this so far. There will be about three solid layers and then many controlled detailing for realism. In the picture Audrey is in a serious pose, but I am going to try to put a slight smile to this. The background I may paint something a bit different then the picture. The glasses have the most interesting reflection, so I will get them in once I see how the eye area starts to work up for me.
Hi, I wanted to add this website link [ #1] called The Throne Miniature Rooms. If you can look these miniature rooms up and be amazed at the craftmanship and beauty these room boxes are. I will start to add website connections to other dollhouse sites as well.
I must send a sincere Thank you for a comment from a viewer [1865 civil war home] on my blog for the kind words about my dollhouse. Your comment Inspired me Not to break down my dollhouse. I haven’t had the time that I’d like to donate too working on my mansion. This past year I have been working hard to build my studio and putting time and effort into fueling my art passion. I can put two drawings on hold and begin to work on the construction. My problem is I like to decorate, add furniture before the rooms are completed. Once I have the back walls on [that open] and the finishing construction on the entrance palor I will be in good shape.
Recent page has been added to the Life drawing category of two beautiful portraits. I will add one picture featured below sketched in the un-reveling nude figure fashion since this is pictured on a post page. Drawn on Strathmore artist cream color paper with basic charcoal in a 15 minute pose by a professional model. Without a photograph to view the expression was captured beautifully. The hand needs some improvement as far as detail to shape and shadows, but overall the sketch came out well. I find myself wanting to add more realistic detail at the fifteen minute duration poses. At this point I can render a fairly nice sketch, after this point I would need to use charcoal pencils to get tighter detail for more control of the medium. I also would use a different hot pressed surface paper for a longer posed sketch, a smoother surface would give me and allow more control with realistic detail.
If you double-click on the picture you can see the surface of cold press paper and how the charcoal goes on that surface. The paper was bought on clearance and I usually do not use cold press for life drawing, if I were in a pinch and wanted to work this drawing longer into a realistic sketch {sometimes a model will pose several minutes longer or come back to a difficult pose later} spray workable fixatif would follow next and then charcoal pencils which would allow a slight more amount of detail without taking up what was already down. 
This following watercolor I painted a long time ago and had it in a large portfolio just tucked a way. I never really knew where to go with the bubbles and background or the Mom? Now, I think it is time to tackle the painting since I have been working hard on my artwork and definitely taking my work to the next level. I welcome constructive criticism, so please feel free to comment. I titled this, “Mommy, one more time!”. I have photos of bubbles I did once in college in a color film photo class, now I need to find them. I guess I can look on-line, but I prefer to work from my own work unless I have the artist’s permission first. If I can’t find my worksheets of bubbles I suppose I will be playing with soap bubbles and my digital camera!
I believe part of the problem is I need to take my time and actually look at each bubble and it’s reflective quality before I just paint any line. The background needs to go darker though, but I truly love the expressions on the girls faces. They are very anxious for the next set of bubbles. The Mom I need to find this pose in life drawing class and take it from there. I will keep posting updates as I paint on this. I started to add some sort of background and add updated bubbles. I have a long way to go! The background is so blue?…..I have no idea why I went this route. I will give it a go to add yellows and daytime light ad see how this effects the background. For the bubbles I just added white in a wash and it is a lot easier to have the background in first.
Roxanne 