Thank you.

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I just wanted to say a quick Thank you for all the kind words and feedback for my blog site. I am new to blogging and this site; I just wanted to show-case my artwork.  I did read every comment made and approved them, but I am not sure where to read them after they get approved or are posted? LOL! I am getting there.

 It has been a long journey getting to this point and at times I tell ya I wanted to give up!  It only has been the past year that I actually felt like putting forth effort, if that makes sense? Like I did write on my blog somewhere that between being Super Mom, the captain of this House and my health there wasn’t any time for me! And if there isn’t anytime for me I can’t give something or anything away if I don’t have it myself. We all want to be a better parent, a better spouse, and or sister etc.  I love Joyce Meyer and she says; ” You can’t give something away you don’t have”.  Example: you can’t give love if you don’t love yourself or you can’t  give respect to someone if you don’t respect yourself. The big one is: Hurting people hurt people!  IDK……my point is I am a happier person if I can create my art and feel good about myself creating.  I try to watch Joyce Meyer everyday and study The Word [Bible] with her and except the love God has for me through His Son Jesus. I have learned that { I } we do not have all the answers to life; Why did that happen? or why am I in this situation? etc. God lets things happen in our lives so we draw closer to Him and learn to Trust Him with absolute Faith. I wouldn’t be standing if not for my Lord and Savior Jesus.

I have no idea why I am writing this but in short story someone out there in cyber space must need to read this: 

I always wanted to be a Mom. God knows our hearts. I was Not able to have children because of Endometriosis and I lost count of how many surgeries later. I knew that I knew that the Lord God ways are not ours. I had to release my Faith in prayer and believe what God says about  circumstances.  Look up Matthew 7-24. The scriptures states anyone who stands on Christ will not fall.  My first child was born on 7-24 time. My second child was born on day 7-24 and my third child was born in room 724. Do Not ever say there is no God or Jesus.  If you are one of those people who say; “OH….not me” where is He in my life? Well, shut up, stop believing the devil, and invite Jesus into your heart and see not what you lose but how your life will change for the better.  As simple as; “Jesus, I invite you to come into my heart, I am a sinner, please forgive me and I make you my Lord and Savior”. Aman.  Watch your life change for the better.

Drawing animals in graphite

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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.

Watercolour portrait

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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.

Watercolor portrait

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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.

Watercolor portrait

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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.

Life drawing

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This was a 30 minutes sketch drawn on Strathmore artist paper which has a tooth; more likely to use with pastels. I enjoy working on this embossed cold press paper which has a surface or texture mimicking a golf ball divots.  Look closely at the dotty result from the paper’s texture. At first, when sketching it is tempting to toss the sketch into the garbage! It is not similar to drawing on newsprint, the texture doesn’t allow detail at first. Continue to work the sketch for the first 10 minutes or so. Here I used vine [soft] and compressed charcoal [hard] which allowed the shadows [in vine] to smear brilliantly. Still needs to be cleaned up and worked a bit more. The nose is a little too long, but I can’t change that now. This is still a good work sketch with a good likeness, so until he models for the class again this was a good practice.

I noticed how some of the other artist were drawing and most just sketch in a gestural approach. One person was drawing in the Geometric Simplification [in shapes or blocking], or simple contour drawing lines [ outside lines of forms]. 

I always start by drawing an eye and then the next eye. Get them in proper alignment and work from the center of the face outwards. If you draw the contour line [outside]  of the face first, then you make it very hard for yourself to “Fit” in the eyes, nose and mouth in proper relationship to each other or you will erase the contour line you put in already. Do not ever draw the chin for example smaller than it really is just to fit into the outside contour line you’ve drawn, erase the outside line. This model is very fit and in good shape, so the muscle lines are linear and defined in form which allows you to study the figure in proper proportions vs. an over weight model where you need to know the skeleton and look for core lines to start.  It is easier to sketch defined form for a 30 minute pose if the model is fit.  During a 30 minute pose the time will allow for a Tonal drawing meaning a value range study from lights to darks and allow for more detail or realism.

My dollhouse mansion.

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I added a few new pictures of the windows in the parlour and main entrance. Also on my blog under My Dollhouse Mansion in the menu section I added a page of updated pictures as well. Not sure if the outside should be stone or clapboard? There is a lot of work to complete before the window unit is glued in place; the curtains, the entire inside wall, the flooring on the walkway, the bannister and all the trim work. 

My Dollhouse named Zanadumansion.

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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.

#1: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/thorne

#2:http://www.minishop.com/museum/Mottpics.htm

Life drawing

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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. 

Bubbles

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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.