Barney Fife

Don Knotts as Barney Fife. I'm glad the sketchbook is getting done. Next up is Alfred Hitchcock.

Half Pint

Another face finished for the 2012 Sketchbook. Melissa Gilbert - Laura Ingalls - Half Pint from "Little House on the Prairie".

Coffee with Cream

My painting "Coffee with Cream" is now hanging with 12 others at Dagny's Coffee shop downtown in Bakersfield.

Sketchbook Project 2012

I finally started working on my project book for the Art House Co-op. It is due in January. I changed the paper to watercolor so don't have as many pages to fill, but at least I can use watercolor.

My theme is "I Remember You". I am doing celebrity portraits. So far I have Vickie Lawrence as Mama Harper from Mama's Family, Elvis which is not my best but I seem to have trouble with Elvis, and the latest Lucille Ball. I am working on Melissa Gilbert as Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie.

A list of other celebs will/may be Ron Perlman, Cat Stevens as he looks today, Andy Griffith as Matlock, Barney Fife, Shemar Moore, Michael Landon, and maybe even Michael Jackson.

Since I am actually sketching them from scratch using no grids or outline transfers, some look more like their celebs than others. I am not trying to get a carbon copy but just a general likeness. If I make a hit, that is good too. Drawing directly on the watercolor paper is a little harder than smooth paper but I wanted to do the sketches directly to the book.

On the cover I decided to do something different. There is an old song called "I Remember You". I have printed the lyrics out and will fix that to the front cover.

It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted to go with my theme. I'm sure I had an idea when I chose that theme but I am going in a totally different way from my first thought. Now that I have made my decision, it is going smoothly. I have several photos saved and am anxious to get on with the next one.

Adella

I went out with my plein air group today. It was my first time in a very long time. We went to a Nursery/Statuary/Landscaping place. I decided to paint one of the statues they have there.

In person it is a very clean, pretty white with wonderful gray shadowy areas, I couldn't get the grays just right so I used a blue and gray color. Some mixed, some not.

This statue had the name Adella. I don't know where that comes from but it does seem to fit. I keep wanting to add some pen and ink or graphite on top to give it more definition, but I don't want to ruin the softness of her. This is just about as loose as I paint. I do much better with detail.

Autumn Leaves

We had another person join the Fall Trade at Drawspace. I will stick her card in the mail tomorrow.

Drawspace October ATC Trade

The ATC trade for October at the Drawspace Forum has the theme of Fall. I finished my cards tonight.

Coffee Time

Odd title for one who doesn't drink coffee. I love the smell and hate the taste. I have tried for many years to get past the bitter taste. Sitting with a cup of coffee on a cold day sounds great...until I get that bitter taste in my mouth.

But this coffee will be on paper. Our local art group (Bakersfield Art Association) is having a show at a local coffee shop. Theme of course is coffee. Coffee cups, breakfast, people drinking coffee, pretty much anything if it has to do with coffee.

Well I wanted to put a piece in the show and finally came up with an idea that I like and would suit my style. I am working on it but can't share until the actual show
is over. It doesn't have to be there until October 31st, so I still have plenty of time. I don't have too much more to do to finish. It is 11x14 in watercolor.

In the meantime, I am donating a gift certificate for a pet portrait to a local dog show. It will be auctioned off as one of their prizes. So I don't know yet what I will be painting. A little exciting but a little scary. I will go to the show for a couple hours and take some of my artwork and some business cards. Maybe drum up some more business. And get to see some beautiful dogs and wish I could bring them all home.

Pet Portraits by Jeanne

I have a new website for doing pet portraits. You can visit it here. The first 10 people to visit the site and email me the name of my cockatiel will receive one of my bookmarks. Please include your postal mailing address in the email.

Please let me know that you saw my visited my site from here.

Tennis Player

I did a watercolor painting of a tennis player for a young couple who were getting married. I know you think that is a weird wedding present. But I gave the bride a choice of subject, colors, size, etc and she didn't come up with anything.

At her bridal shower, I found out they were going to New York to watch the tennis open competitions on their honeymoon. and they got shirts with one tennis player's name on the front. So not knowing if the two names were two different players or one since I know nothing about tennis players, I Googled.

Here is the painting I did for them.

Zeb

Here is Maizzie's man friend Zeb. Another ATC in mixed media of watercolor and colored pencil. Reference was a second figurine I got at Goodwill Store.

Maizzie

I just finished this little ATC of Maizzie. I bought 2 figurines at the Goodwill store, a male and a female. Maizzie is done from the female. This may be used for the still life trade but I'm not sure yet.

That Was Quick

Wetcanvas is back online. Yeah!!!!

Wetcanvas

It seems that Wetcanvas Forum is offline since last night. I can't log on and I know they were having some problems in several different areas.

The reference library was one. I'm not sure what that problem was. I am a guide on the New users area and I have not been able to post there for a couple months. And then there is the Project area. We have had problems posting new projects, can't upload our finished images, and for over a year now we can't post any information about our images. So hopefully they are fixing some of this.

I didn't see a bulletin stating they were going offline. I wish they would let us know by email or something. But hopefully it won't be forever.

Almost Bye-Bye September

I can't believe how fast this month is flying past. And like magic, Christmas is just over the horizon. It seems that only days ago it was January and I was teasing people that Christmas would be here before you know it. And here we are.

I have bought one Christmas present so far. No surprise who the recipient is. My Grandniece Kylie. So much fun to buy for a 2 year old. At this age they still like just about anything they get. the gift cards will start when she gets hooked on brand name items. I'll let her parents pay for those.

Kylie's dad was easy to buy for when he was small. He like me loved looking at office supply stuff. so I would just buy him a lot of stuff like that and wrap each separately. He didn't really care what was in the packages as long as there were a lot of them. I gave him a choice early on whether he wanted one big present or a lot of little ones. He chose the many little ones. Now he gets gift cards as I have no idea what he wants.

I did one ATC for the new Still life trade on Wetcanvas but can't show it yet. The trade is still signing up people and hasn't really started yet. I just happened to need a scavenger hunt item that fit in with the theme of the project. So no artwork to show today.

Here is a photo of my 3 dogs standing "guard" in the front yard. From left to right: Jo, Dizzy, and Penny.

Jazzy (Jazz)

My neighbor/friend's dog Jazzy passed away about a week ago. They don't know what was wrong; just found her dead in the yard. I will miss her very much. She would lie on the side of their storage building and watch my dogs play.

She was someone's throw-away puppy. She was about 6-8 weeks old and abandoned out in the foothills. Left to die or be eaten by coyotes. Some people are so cruel to leave an innocent little puppy all alone like that.

My dog groomer who is also a neighbor and her husband found the dog and brought her home. They gave her to the other couple. It was the weekend of their wedding anniversary and they had reservations at the coast they didn't want to lose. So Kathy asked if I would babysat.

I had Jazzy from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. She loved it here with my two dogs. One of mine wasn't so happy and spent the whole weekend running from a very playful puppy.

After that, if Jazzy happened to get out of her yard, here she came to my house. I can't even remember how many times I had to call Kathy to come get Jazzy. That happened for about a year.

Jazzy was a special dog. So sweet and Kathy said she never tore up her toys. They still have everyone she ever got. My dogs tear theirs up in about 10 minutes.

So I decided to do a portrait of Jazzy for Kathy and her husband. This is on an 8x10 inch piece of watercolor paper. The actual face is about 4x6 inches. Done in watercolor, a touch of colored pencil, and white Conte pencil.

Kathy is making a shadowbox frame with Jazzy's collar and some other mementos and will ad the painting to that.

Goodbye my sweet Jazzy. I will miss looking across the yard next door and seeing your sweet face looking back.

At the Fair

September ATC trade at Drawspace is "At the Fair". I decided to do my cards with quilt patterns. There are always lots of quilts on display at county fairs. These are done with mixed media of watercolor, colored pencil, marker, and/or pen and ink.

Scavenger Hunt #236 Framed

Here it is framed.

Scavenger Hunt #236

The Scavenger Hunt this time is a rerun of an earlier one. This is the 3rd time I have done this one. The 26 items are supposed to be put in one still life.

Here are photos of my work. First is the graphite sketch, then the inked sketch, the finish with color, and the setup.

It is 7 x 14 inches and done with watercolor and mixed media on watercolor paper. I planned it to fit in a frame and mat that I bought at the Goodwill Store.

And here is my list of the 26 items. From the Left:

Plate
fruit (apple tin napkin holder)
Wood (bird house and stick)
box
brass (pencil sharpener)
books
greenery
copper
vase (penguin Vase)
music instrument (angel holding instrument)
White pitcher
statue (chicken)
shell
rock (under shell)
silver (initial B with a pearl I got for Christmas -necklace)
yellow duck
cup holding duck
Purple bottle with cork
blue glass
gold poppy (fake)
green striped flower pot
stuffed animal bear
white bowl under flower pot
tin box
timer
shelf under all

More Animal ATC Trade

Yesterday was my grandniece Kylie's 2nd birthday. The time is passing so fast. Nice food and company.

Here is another of my ATCs for the Animal Trade on Wetcanvas. This squirrel was done in mixed media with mostly watercolor.