Hunter - Sept 3

Watercolor, colored pencil, and pen for the 30 paintings in 30 days.  The photo was from Paint my Photo and submitted for use by Sandy Scott.

Rooster - Sept 2

Watercolor, colored pencil,  & pen.  For the 30 paintings for 30 days and also the WDE on Wetcanvas for this week.  Photo provided by Justjean. 

Sept 1st, 2014

Watercolor, colored pencil, and pen.  Sorry the photo isn't better.  I took it with my camera.

30 Paintings in 30 Days

I have joined a new challenge   It is to do 30 paintings in 30 days for the month of Sept.  I hope I can keep up but not going to stress about it.  The ones I complete will be a bonus and keep me actively doing artwork.  

I have been looking and thinking about a challenge for a month.  I thought of doing a body part or multiple body parts.  I even considered a self portrait a day.  But I just wasn't up to those.  I have already done those before.   They suggest picking a theme but I may leave that open and just do whatever comes up for mine each day.

I have a 7 x 7 inch Stillman & Birn  Beta Series watercolor sketchbook and I am going to use that for this challenge.  It has 25 pages so with just five of them will have something on both sides.  And it is just the right size.  Not too small and not too large.

If you want to join in, here is the link: http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/

Iris & Lily

These were done for the WDE for 8-22-14.  Eye/Ai was the host this week.  These are her beautiful daughters.  I have known Ai since before Iris was born and I think she is 6 or 7 years now.

I did these with colored pencils and a touch of pen on Strathmore Toned Tan paper in a 5.5 x .5 sketchbook.

Teddy

Just a little 4x6 inch piece of artwork in watercolor, colored pencils, and pens

Bonnie (of Bonnie & Clyde)

A Facebook friend has a raccoon named Baby that was born in her yard.  And now it has 2 cubs she named Bonnie and Clyde.  The mother even comes inside her house and sleeps on the bed with her and her dogs.  She comes in thru the doggie door.   She follows along behind the dogs when they are all in the yard walking.  She seems very tame.  

The friend takes lots of photos of the raccoons and I saw one that I fell in love with.  I asked for permission to use it for a painting.  This is the progress I have made.  I am now working on the dirt behind the coon.  It's dark brown with white bits on it.  Also starting to work on the animal. 

Wooden

I browsed the Weekend Drawing Event images for this week and I saved 5.   This is the one I ended up doing. I thought I had ruined it a couple times . Don't like the dark graphite I got on the side of the face but covered it in cp before I realized I didn't want it there. But I've messed with it too much. It started out fairly small but I cropped it to ATC size. Watercolor paper, watercolor, cp, and pen. About an hour or so but done in short pieces of time with stops in between when I thought it was a goner.

Doc & Bodie

These were both painted for the Weekend Drawing Event on Wetcanvas. Photos were provided by Li. The dog is her dog Doc. The building is from Bodie ghost town Both done in colored pencil, watercolor, and pen on watercolor paper.

Denny (Alan) and Me.

This was my cousin Denny (that's the name he went by then and now he uses his real first name of Alan.  I still can't call him that.  he will always be Denny to me.

My family and his family lived in apartments that were owned by his grandparents who were my Aunt Minnie and Uncle Cecil.  Minnie was my dad's older sister.  She lived just short of her 96th birthday.  I was always very close to them.

I was about 3 and Denny about 6 in this photo (Probably 1952).  We had baby brothers that were born only a few days apart.

The next photo is my dad and his youngest brother.   The date was probably around 1954/1955.  I had a second brother by then.  My uncle died young from complications from Diabetes.  My dad is still alive today at 87 yrs old.  And quite a few pounds heavier. 

Racket-Tailed Roller.

I just finished this for the Weekly Drawing Event on Wetcanvas. It is 9x12 watercolor paper with watercolors, colored pencils, and pen. Image provided by Lucylove. The bird is a Racket-Tailed Roller.

Grandpa and Jacob

Here is a painting I did of a friend's husband and grandson.  The boy just turned 16.  And my friend said her husband doesn't have that much hair now.  lol

On watercolor journaling paper in watercolors, colored pencils, and pen.  About 9x12 inches.

Nothing New

Nothing new going on here.  Not doing any art.  My mom who had surgery is doing better.  It's so hot in Bakersfield this week.  Triple digits all week.  Very uncomfortable.  Just glad there is not much humidity here.   

Catching Up

Well I see that I have been lax.  I even missed posting on my birthday.

On May 21, I turned 65.  I have been waiting for 4 years to turn 65 so that I could gt on Medicare.  I haven't had health insurance since my husband passed away.  As of May 1st, I now have Medicare.  As well as the title of official old lady.  And oh my/yikes I am only 5 years away from 70.  Not sure how I will handle that one.  So far age 35 bothered me the most.  

On my 35th birthday, I felt like I had lost at least half my energy.  And sadly it never came back.  Bill laughed and said it was only one day.  When he turned 35 nine months later, he felt the same.  I think his sister said she cried all day the day she turned 30.  I guess it hits everyone at different ages.

It's funny how most of our lives we are waiting for a certain time to reach us.  As a toddler, we couldn't wait to be a big kid and turn 5.  That seemed like a magical age.  Then we couldn't wait to be teens.  After that 18 and out of school so we could be our own boss.  Then at 21,  we could legally drink.  At about 25 or so , our car insurance stopped being so expensive.  After that I don't remember any time I wanted to be a different age until 65. 

I haven't really been doing any artwork.  I guess I am going thru yet another slump.  That too shall pass.  I just have to wait it out.  

Thru Facebook I reconnected with several ladies I went to school with in another town during part of 6th and all of 7th grade.  One doesn't have a computer but the others connected me to her thru phones.  I had lunch with two of them separately and then last Saturday the same two had lunch with me again.  It was nice to be together and have lunch and get to travel down memory lane.  I had a wonderful time and we plan to make it a monthly habit.  Facebook is wonderful for keeping people in touch and also for getting people reconnected. 

Well thanks to all my followers.  I hope I don't keep you waiting too much.  I will try to post more often and thanks for hanging in there.  At least I hope you are still there.

Duck Duck Finished

Duck, Duck

Here's a new piece I'm working on.  Scrapbooking paper again with colored pencil, graphite, and pen.  Photo courtesy of Photographer Anne Kelly from Facebook and used with permission.  She takes some wonderful photos, and I have used several for my artwork.  The paper is about 8x10 inches.

"Harey" the hare

I did this for the Weekend Drawing Event for Wetcanvas for May 9, 2014.  I picked a photo of a beautiful hare.  This is done on watercolor paper, with watercolor, colored pencil, and pen.  The paper is 9x12 inches.  The paper is in a journal sketchbook like the ones Cathy Johnson uses.

My mom had a cyst removed from her shoulder.  My nephew took her for the procedure and when he dropped her off at home, he needed a break.  I went over and sat with her for a couple hours and started this piece.  I finished it at home tonight.

A Precious Gift From God

I just watched a video that was posted on Facebook.  I cried all the way thru it and still crying.  It was just so touching.  What started it all was FB deleted a photo the mother posted of her newborn who was born without part of his brain/head,  When she reposted it, she was banned from FB. Not sure if the ban was permanent or short term but it shouldn't have been banned at all.

Here is the video.  http://smag31.com/facebook-bans-mother-posting-photos-new-born-son-born-severe-birth-defect/

A Bird With Personality

I believe the photo was provided by Helen Lewry. This is about 4x6 inches in watercolor, pen, and colored pencil.  The photo was offered for use in a Facebook page called Reference Photos for Artists.  I also posted my painting on that page.  

This was done in a watercolor journal sketchbook that I plan to do just random things that I like.  This is done on the bottom right of the page.  There is still quite a lot of the page that is blank, and I will be filling in more of the page with other artwork.  I'm sure a lot of the artwork will be animals.  I have found several more animals at the Reference site.  I can't wait to paint them.

I have been neglecting my art a bit.  I did finish my ATC trade project.  Now I can hopefully concentrate on some artwork that will make me happy.

Wetcanvas WDE April 25 - Partice Has a Little Lamb

I participated in the Wetcanvas Weekend Drawing Event for April 25, 2014.  Each week a host posts16 photos from which we can choose.  We are supposed to choose one and post whatever we have finished after a 2 hour period.

I picked the sheep.  There were 3 sheep in the photo but I decided to concentrate on the central one.  I liked the way the sheep was looking right at the camera like she was waiting for the photo op to end.

I am still working on the Designer Scrapbooking papers.  I chose this one so that the white would show a little and also it has circles which I hoped would add to the fleece look on the wool.  It probably took me an hour and a half to do and I used colored pencils, graphite, and pens including a white Signo uniball.  The paper is the size it came from the pad which was a 6x6 inch pad.