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Showing posts from July, 2012
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Well darn another weekend has just flown by and tomorrow will be back at work.   Going to be August, now how did that happen? Spent most of this weekend working on my yard cutting things back - today's adverture was a big pine tree that I have and keep the top in a ball shape.  Got way bigger than me as I didn't grab it in May when the candles came out so it got big and thick. But did try to finish up my little girl along with watching some of the Olympics.  Debated on whether or not to post her as I am not thrilled but it's been a while since I did a human so guess I got to get back into practice.  I did try using a chamois to blend the skin tones, but I don't think I am using the right pencil hardness and will need to keep exploring that, since she is young she should have very light soft skin with no angles over her baby fat.  Will try some small formats to see how the colored pencil goes over the fixative that I'll put on top of the graphite and then might t
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Well wanted a breather from dogs but ended up playing with another portrait, human variety this time.  Goal here is to do her in graphite and then spray with fixative and try layering colored pencils over her - have done that a long time ago and it gives a kind of pastelly-effect which I remembered I sort of liked.  So we'll see.  Got a long way to go here just doing it in graphite.  Playing with lots of texture on her hat and have most of her features roughed in for placement.  Now that I'm thinking about it, as much work as it is, I might do something in an ACEO format and trying the layering over effect - see already chickening out. Hope you all have a great painting week.
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Well here is Buddy as he is getting pretty finished.  I think I am going to continue to darken him in spots but will let Terri take a look as she has seen him live time and see if this time we got him.  Renate I see that the right eye still appears to be looking in at his nose so will have to address that.  will do some finishing work on him and hopefully post a finalized version tomorrow. Meanwhile I have some nice practice exercises that I want to work on and since we may get rain might get to sit on the porch a bit, it will give me a bit of a break and then I'll try to get another dog on paper, maybe try something in pastel this time. Hope everyone has a great painting week last week and enjoying the weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.
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Well here is Buddy a bit more advanced.  Feel good as Terri gave the approval that I am on the right tract with him, so am pleased.  Have posted his picture too so you can take a look and make some judgements.  Will continue to go from here and love the posting as I always see things I need to enhance and change up - such objectivity.
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Neither Terri nor I were really happy and certain the other Buddy image was correct; actually I knew I took a big chance on the other reference picture as it was just an odd angle for the photo, pretty close up - lesson learned in the future, don't risk it.  However, not a loss as I learned some things from that and am sure that's one of the reasons he's coming faster.  Think it was on Rita's site that one of her teachers said you should do a picture 20 times so you really learn it.  So Buddy and I have taken a bit of a breather from each other while I pondered what do to with him from a different reference piece and what do him in.  One thing I am trying to do better is the thinking, or I should say the pre-thinking part of the pictures.  This is a similar angle to the first image, but is turned just enough so that it shows more of the blockiness of the features, especially the nose/chin/jowl area.   When I get tomorrows post in I'll add in the reference picture
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Well this is another ACEO card in colored pencil, have to say it's not my best but I have learned some things to apply for the next time.  Got to work out my parrot techniques so I can be making a card to exchange with you  girlfriend, but using your parrot pic that you forwarded.  Got a long ways to go however and need to really work out the feather structure.  It's so HOT, we broke an all time record yesterday 106F - so not much in the way of porch time.  Got lots more hot days coming, then a bit of a cool off we'll only be 97 - but that sounds pretty good right now. Also have started another pose for Buddy that better exemplifies his look, so will be working on him during the coming week at those little odd moments. Hope you all have a geat painting week.