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Whew, these monks are getting more complex and tedious.  Well, that's what you get for doing the easiest ones first.  Not sure that I am getting any neater as I go through these, need to probably slow down more and really try to make the lines consistently spaced or work on it at shorter stretches of time as I get tired and then sloppy.  Got myself some peepers, I am old ya know, and hope that will help on the eye strain and maybe improve my neatness too!!  Am going to persevere though and work my way through these as when completed I will have a great sampler of lines to choose from and hoping to have a sense of completion too.  Only 19 more to go .... Currently I am studying the book, Color Harmony by Margaret Kessler, she recommends switching from the triadic color wheel to the Munsell color wheel, why: - this wheel shows using just 6 colors, 3 warm and 3 cool of red, blue and yellow.  (More modern books vary the colors somewhat, will try both schemes and go with what I li

Well not much to show for this week as we got a taste of Spring and I took some time off to enjoy mild, non-snow or ice temperatures.  Got some porch sitting in and lots of good conversation as well as training to birds to remember it's our house and we get to sit, so come in and eat and get used to it.  Also found a lovely book on color that I think is going to bear some studying - Color Harmony by Margaret Kessler.  As I have looked through it there definitely are aha moments and she shows photos that she has painted and wow, they don't look the same as the real thing.  Quite liberating in my mind to just go with it and enhance.  It can still be realistic but have life and verve. Here is my 5th monk, have the 6th on the table but it is taking me some time as it is more complex.  Most of the remainder of the monks have the detail on the monk as well as intricate detail in the background, so the entire surface is covered with strokes.  Thought this one was fun because I lov

Well so happy just to be able to check in, as we just have ended our second ice storm event (covering 2 days) in two weeks, this time with snow, in the Deep South.  Come on folks, we border the Gulf of Mexico, so we are supposed to be warmer!!!  Anyway miraculously we didn't lose power, even with one inch of ice build up on power lines and trees, then topped that off with 2-3" of snow.  Sun came out and as of 2:30 this afternoon, most of the snow is melted on the streets and the storm is a distant memory.  People stayed home this event so no one thankfully was stranded on the roads like the thousands who abandoned their cars the last time. I have been working on a second reference picture of Cherub.  I had submitted and gotten a really tough but fair critique on Cherub 1 from some artists on WetCanvas.  All items mentioned were legitimate corrections.  So rather than do the same picture again (kind of gives me a mental block to redo a picture) I tired my other Cherub

Monk Ink of matboard Well still absorbing and recovering from the challenge I guess, but I wanted to do something fussy and decided to work on a project that for years I wanted to do but haven't taken the time or patience.  The book, The Technical Pen, has a lot of pictures and exercises to help you gain confidence and learn the basic pen/ink strokes.  There are 30 basic strokes that are part of this project (already seeing lots of other variations when in practice) and so Gary Simons, the author, recommends doing this monk and combining a couple of different strokes in each piece, for a total of 24 monks in all.  Well, when I finish this project I will surely know this monk.  While the outcome does vary by which stroke is used, each one is actually redrawn again emphasizing, adding or omitting some of the design.  I don't know if I will actually be able to complete without an error (I didn't succeed in these three of being perfect), but thanking Sakura for their white

Well I am trying to get back into painting again after a few days off from the challenge.  Funny, that I thought I needed the rest.  Been doing art thinking and some art studying but not actually painting. Here is another reference photo from my Washington trip of kids at the train exhibit.  Not real happy with this one (I purposely gave him bigger eyes as I wanted eyes in this portrait to reflect some of his personality), and will probably try him again.  But yes, you do see a horn on his hat (Paul says it was a buffalo hat), and it is really appropriate because this kid was wild beyond belief.  Cute, but had so much energy and was always constantly getting into something, had no fear of anyone, including his Mother.   I did this on gray paper with color pencil and think the next time I am going to try it on mat board and with pastel.  I got a great deal from Hobby Lobby, they take the innards from their custom mat framing and package the middles (where the hole is in the mat) a