Year: 2016

February 16, 2016

Sunset After a Light Snow

This is in the mail on the way to New York City for the Twitter Art Exhibit to be held in March. Proceeds benefit Foster Pride’s HandMade program, which teaches girls in foster care how to crochet and then market their product line.

I based this painting from a snapshot I took after one of our recent minor snowstorms. The sunset was brilliant, with pinks and purples and the lake was mostly unfrozen. This piece is more whimsical than my normal work, and I had fun with it. I used graphite pencil, Neocolor I oil pastels and watercolor.

February 13, 2016

Pink Peony with Buds

A pink peony for Valentine’s Day, drawn from my photo archives. I have really been enjoying the artwork of Inky Leaves on Instagram and I’m getting inspired to start making some more botanical themed artwork myself in the near future. I never used to care for the white backgrounds in traditional botanical painting (thinking they were too boring), but this aesthetic has grown on me and I’m going to try to leave my backgrounds white for the next couple of paintings.

February 7, 2016

Snow!

It felt nice to finally have a snowy day. In a way I am relieved because I think I was uneasy about the abnormally warm weather. It is not that I don’t like the warmth, I just enjoy all the seasons in their own way and I didn’t like feeling like we skipped over one of them. Looking over my sketch afterwards, I realized that I should have drawn it in black ink on pure white paper because it would have captured the light and contrast in the atmosphere.

February 5, 2016

Variations of Katie

I’m taking part in the Sketchbook Skool Expressing “klass” and one of the assignments this past week was to draw a dog in 1-2 minutes. I did the top sketch (in about 5) using the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen. I’d like to do a proper detailed pen and ink drawing with watercolor wash of Katie in that pose. I did the bottom series of sketches over the course of a quiet Sunday morning while sitting across the living room from Katie lounging on the couch. I am so out of practice at this type of sketching and it was good to exercise myself.

February 1, 2016

Getting into the Valentine’s Spirit

I’ve always wanted to learn how to make an animated GIF in Photoshop. This morning I figured out how by following an online tutorial.

The images are various floral themed artworks I have made over the past few years that I cropped into a heart shape. I also didn’t know how to crop an image into a shape until today, so I’m feeling kind of pleased with myself right now.

January 15, 2016

Winter Atmosphere

This year, it does not feel like a normal winter. It is mid January and we are just starting to get some of the expected winter weather, but we haven’t yet had a proper blizzard. I miss it in a way. Even without the massive piles of snow on the ground, I still find winter beautiful. There is a crispness in the air and a whiteness of the light that I really enjoy. Here is a recent drawing from my sketchbook–thanks for taking a look.