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                                                             Borrowed Time                                                                 15.5."x12"                                                                    Pastel Yes, I do get itchy when I go for any length of time and don't do something with pastels.  Still my first love as far as mediums go.  But I thought this was something I wanted to do especially as a direct impact of our visit to the zoo.  As I mentioned we did a trip to t...

                                                                       Triangular                                                                          12"12"                                                                          Pastel Well today was just a fun day and trying my street performers out in pastel on black Artagain paper.  I was getting itchy as I haven't painted with chalk now in quite a while.  Actually the ins...

                                                                         Splash                                                                         11"x14"                                                                          Pastel English Spaniels are water dogs and Izzy is no exception.  This is another shot of Izzy by her Mum, Sandie Bell at PMP.  Sandie is a very talented photographer who shares her shots for artists to ...

                                                                          Izzy's                                                                         9"x12"                                                                      Pan Pastel I pulled several pictures of Izzy but absolutely fell in love with this one.  Actually there are a couple with this branch that is almost as big as she is.  Sandie says she carried it all over the beach th...

                                                                      Schnauzer                                                                         8"x10"                                                                         Pastel Well Colin had talked about his lesson doing a Schnauzer, that he has found some neat technique.  Since this is one breed I haven't drawn I originally set it up to do it straight and just a head shot.  But found a...

                                                                     Hunter's Moon                                                                          14"x11"                                                                           Pastel This week's project is a combination of photos from PMP, so thank you to Rvanunen and Freda Austin Nichols.  I think I am going to try to do a series with the big moon as I have a couple more ideas of ...

                                                                  Snowy Night                                                                    15.5"x12"                                                                       Pastel Many thanks to Paul Sherman, at PMP, for such a beautiful reference photo to utilize.  He is an excellent wildlife photographer.   I am pretty fascinated with all the big cats, but the snow leopards are one cat that is so secretive that they ...

                                                               Mother's Touch                                                                    11"x12"                                                                     Pastel This is another lesson from Colin where again I chose my own reference photo but tried to utilize his techniques.  This is a shot of one tired Mom, but baby is content to just be held in that huge, but tender hand, and hopefully Mom gets a few minutes of pea...

                                                   PADT Challenge - German Shepherd                                                                           8"x9"                                                                       Pastel/Paper Back in July of 2011 I tried my first challenge piece with the Paint and Draw Together group.  I was still working fill time and felt it might help me get a bit more productive.  Plus, I find with challenges that I end up doing subjects I wouldn't ...

                                                                    Into the Light                                                                          9"x8"                                                                         Pastel Well, this is based on the first advanced lesson from Colin Bradley.  As I have done previously, I am using a different pose than he did, but a similar concept.  then I still work through the instruction videos...

                                                                         Majestic                                                                           10"x8"                                                                           Pastel I think I mentioned that I was thinking about studying with an online English pastelist, Colin Bradley.  I have worked through several of his free lessons, this being one, and decided to bite ...

                                                              Cumbrian Hills                                                                    18"x12"                                                                     Pastel Back trying another landscape.  I saw Sandie Bell put this on PMP last week and knew that I just had to give it a try.  All those wonderful and colorful greens - colors I don't usually have much cause to use.  Plus the majesty of this place, this is part of h...

                                                                   Red Eyed Devil                                                                            8"x12"                                                                             Pastel Just finished this piece, its odd size is due to being a half sheet of Pastel Premier paper.  It is supposed to be similar to Wallis paper, made by same company and having similar specs.  I...

Still am working out the bugs and learning about what is free and what is not in Canva.com.  Do you suppose it would help if there were directions?  I am catching them on the fly but maybe I should look for a tutorial.  But slowly the light is turning on and I am learning how to edit and customize the templates.   I know they are still pretty simplistic, but, come on, it's a start.   This is a very simple landscape pastel study.  I took two different photos from PMP, one from Elizabeth Beveridge and Rodney Campbell, because I liked the wintery icy landscape, but didn't like the lighthouse that was there.  So I put in what is my idea of a lighthouse.  So not sure in the lighthouse world you can have this type of structure in this type of environment.  Since it was a dreary winter day I decided to pump it up a bit and so put in a different sky and then reflected some of the pink tones onto the ice.  This is pretty loose and not...

Well usually I write down when I see photos that I want to use in future paintings, didn't in this case and it took me as long to find the references as it did to paint the study.  Good news is that I did find some really good additional photos that I want to do.  And yes, I did make sure that I put them into my spreadsheet for easy finding. These subjects are from two wonderful photographers, at PMP, gemgirlwv and Laura Heineken.  I am not sure that it will stay a beach scene, but maybe.   This is on Artagain paper and is a combo of pan, regular and pencil pastels for the details and small places.  This is only 6"x8".   thanks much for stopping by to take a look

Todays picture is a continuation of one I posted a few days ago when I changed to the Artagain paper.  (I also have learned that the Artagain paper can hold a lot more layers than I ever imagined)  I have posted all three pictures here and what I wondered is how far is too far.  What do you think? For a while now I have felt that I have stopped too early and that I need to get more contrast between lights and darks into my pictures.  So I set  aside the second try for a day and then came back to it, primarily adding in more dark colors.  I still don't have the secret of the foliage, but it definitely gives a fuller feeling than the previous pictures did.  It also is a far far cry from the original one that really looks like a pale imitation, unless it was in the fog?? Thanks for stopping by and please leave your thoughts - should I go father?

Ok, decided to try this again on the Artagain paper.  It takes more layers than the card stock and it was a blueish gray that I started with.  I used both pan pastels to start and then layered in using regular pastels, really no pencils in this piece.  Since what I was going from previously was out-of-my-head, which is my usual state, it isn't exactly the same, but pretty similar.  I still got to figure out how to do the foliage but I like the waterfall effect in this one better. Thanks for stopping by.

Well unfortunately I think this is what people think they are going to get when they think pastel.  This painting is on a darker brown cardstock and pan pastels.  While they covered everything really shows up very light against that dark background.   The cardstock can't take that many layers so..... Anyway it is sort of a semi-abstract landscape and kind of out of my imagination.    Again I am not talking about this taking an inordinate amount of time. Since we have had big winds here I don't know how, but air flow I guess, has blessed me with everyone's leaves.  So out raking the yard and using my blower/vacuum to suck them up and put them in the garden for mulch and hoping that helps my poor grass breathe a little easier.  But for me I have to break it into several days work as the raking and sucking take their toll.  Yep, my old age is beginning to rear it's ugly head. Anyway thanks much for taking a look and hope you are having a great...

                                                                   Molten Gold                                                                       18"x12"                                                                       PASTEL As you know I am trying to learn how to paint landscapes.  I thought that Sandie Bell's photo was just awesome and then she came up with the title, Molten Gold, and I knew it was a winner.  A winner for her, not for me. ...

                                                                      Sigh!!                                                                       4"x5"                                                                      Pastel The title comes from the look I think he is giving us.  Yes, got to be purely male with that exasperated look - I think, since this is my story that I asked him to read the directions before assembly....   I think this is a Bernese ...