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This week in addition to trying to figure out how to make rocks under water here are my experimental ACEOs.  First is just a quick pencil sketch, middle is pen and ink, done with Staedtler Triplus fine markers, and third is a dragon fly done with pen and ink and color pencil on a colored paper.  Need to do some more work on next dragon fly to really try to capture the delicacy of the wings.  Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great week.

Today has been a working day in the studio.  Trying to figure out how to make rocks look submerged under water.  Watched some Youtube videos first, although, never could find one that went the complete process, at least in acrylic.  Then did a rough trial ACEO, wasn't terribly excited, so rather than throw it out, marked that far away shallow water is blue tone, mid water is green toned, and closer water is red or yellow toned because the earth colors rocks are showing through clearer.  So tried again, the first try on the left top ACEO and ended up overworking it terribly.  So tried another larger 4x6 piece and you see the under work, then on the top pic you see the finished piece with the leaves floating on top of the water and floating with the current.  Not sure I got the effect quite yet, but tomorrow is another day and will try try again.  As I look more I am thinking the shadow area looks ok, but the close area the rocks don't look that much different in color

Ok,  not sure if this is too crazy, but wanted to try color in pointillism.  This certainly isn't as refined as it could become with more practice and better dot placements, but I kind of like the effect.  The color ink pens I have, well to me the color seems to intense and bold, not subtle.  While there are other mediums I want to work in, will definitely continue to dabble here as it is unique and there are so many ways to differentiate the strokes and color patterns with inks. Might have to try more with markers and also some different color inks so I can mix my own colors, that might be more satisfying.  It is a drizzling rainy day here but we can use the rain, not real cold yet, but it is coming.  Was an inside working day, but slowly the house is getting squeaky clean.  No reason I can't get to work in the art room and try my hand at getting restarted on another one of my unfinished paintings.  Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave your reaction to the painti

Here is another pen ink study that I had mostly completed, but guess I got tired as I didn't get it all the way completed.  We are having absolutely spectacular weather so it is tough to get into the art room.  Good thing the pen and ink is portable and can easily happen on my lap.  Got another nice pencil drawing book at the library so hoping to get some good tips and ideas out of it as well and already have tried some exercises on my ACEOs, so will post them as a group later.  This pencil book focuses kind of on nature and landscapes which would be good and carry over into my pastel work too, I am sure.  Thanks for stopping by and hope you have or had a great weekend.

Ah, Fall is in the air and our trees are starting their color changes.  The Maples are a rainbow of oranges and reds and all colors in between.  So for the last two days thought I would try drawing from life.  I experimented with markers, first one is pretty flat with just a few shadows, then started again but added some ink and color pencil dabbles.  Did the ACEOs first and liked the second one so much I tried a larger format of 4x6 with a variety of leaves.  Again this is mostly a marker base with ink dots and some color pencils.  Can you tell which is the real leaves group and which is the drawing?  Pathetically easy I guess, but will keep practicing and maybe by the time all the leaves have fallen you won't be able to tell.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of the week.

  Well my hubby has been replaced with a new love, the Puffin above. I love to read Smithsonian magazines and I have lots of copies I have never gotten through, so am doing so now.  The little Puffins' reintroduction into Maine barrier islands caught my eye and they are soooo cute.  So here is the first of what I think may be a couple Puffin ACEOs.  Ok, so now I am getting fancy, trying to make an ACEO collage of what I've done so far.  The Puffin is a combination of marker and color pencil, and the bottom, pebbles, is mostly color pencil with marker as the dark in between the rocks.  Just love doing these as you can get such a lot of practice in such a short space of time.  Know many of you do lovely works and hoping that as the assortment grows we can do what these were originally designed for, and that is trade. Would be lovely to get these miniature works from so many of you who do such outstanding artwork.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Well if you have been reading my thoughts this week you know I am cleaning my studio and trying to find things I haven't finished (like I have to look hard) and slowly get them completed.  I am pretty capivated with pointalism and enjoy doing it, however it takes time and is a slower process.  This is a study I had started and just had a little left to complete, so did so and revisited trying to learn the tonality to get likeness.  Debating whether or not to add anything more to the clothing or just leave it as I really don't want to detract from the face.   Black and white is hard though, so I have another piece where I did colored ink to see if it was still so stark that I will post later this week which is a totally different effect, but not sure it is softer. 

I kind of feel like the recording artist who finally gets to do an album, all those good songs been in their head for so long.  I had a head full of stuff too and hard for me to focus on just one thing - hoping it will get better.  Top picture is Mountain Zen update, amazing thing about posting is I saw immediately that I had extended the mountain line too far and it made a hard straight line with the lowest group of berries.  While I want it point to the berries and move the eye into the right side of the picture it was way too hard so need to work on that a bit and hope that I can cover that boo boo.  But overall am liking the pop of the berries and softness of the clouds and fog. Kind of tedious as I am putting in the branches, then putting in the clouds and coming in after to erase out the branch and retouch so it appears on top of the clouds and not in them.  Hubby, biggest critic, likes it and isn't concerned that there will be minimal pastel on the top portion, just rea