NELVIA'SART.COM

  Here is the start of my new scratchboard picture from Steve Lyddon of PMP, of a draft horse.  My big challenge here is to take a very dark horse and make him stand out from the dark background.  This is a 5"x7" scratch and right now I am trying to color with pastels, but not happy with the look.  So might dust it off and try it with watercolor pencils.  Think I am a little frustrated so am going to stop on this for a while and work on a photo reference by my husband from the Birminham Alabama zoo of a couple of juvenile elephants - boys of course!!! Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great painting week.

Well got pictures turned in yesterday, nothing to do now but wait, should know something by Sunday or Monday if I got anything juried into a show. Got my carpets all cleaned and done now for another 6 months (comes around real fast) and confirmed yet again we must be little pigs as it amazes me how dirty it always is.  We don't wear shoes in the house either - so, go figure. Was going a little stir crazy as I haven't really been very productive this week.  But did take a few minutes to do this study of a photo that Steve Lyddon posted at PMP.  I am still working on tonal studies and did this pastel piece again in several hours, it is 6"x9" on black Artagain paper.  The black of the paper certainly speeds up the process but I still find it difficult to get whites as bright as I would like them to be but did like the way it sped up the water process.  Steve takes excellent photos, and many have a story, and he freely and generously puts them into the photo library a

Majestic Eagle Yipes!Stripes!! Ok, I can hear you all right now say tough it up Nelvia.  But I have spent a good deal of this week doing all kinds of new things getting these pictures ready to enter a show.  Always hard when I do something for the first time, and I always am slow at trying new things and really want to get it right so they don't disqualify me for some reason.  The studio that I do life drawing sessions has monthly shows.  I haven't felt up to the challenge of the other artists, but thanks to your support I am going to take a shot.  Joining up and will give at least six more trys at getting into a show.  But the paperwork, the rules, the framing (if I do this much I got to find a framer who knows what the heck they are doing), just getting the @#$@ glass clean on both sides, fixing the scratches on the frame, etc., etc. Think July is a good month to try, as they have the show in their regular gallery and also are partnering with a local art supply stor

Ok, here is the Car Grille scratchboard completed.  Again was a very unusual subject for me, but I was attracted to the sky reflections on the black paint and the way the lights played over the chrome areas.  I enjoyed the process.  Not knowing a car intimately I was able to focus more on just shapes and hope it came together.  I definitely am going to continue to pursue these scratchboards and am thinking about using multiple boards to complete a picture - have to think a bit more about that but kind of like that idea.  This will sit on the board now for a few days - I haven't sprayed/sealed any of my scratches yet, but have gotten some floater frames so think I'll put them up and hang them in a place I can continue to live with them for a while.  Hilda, these floater frames don't have glass.  Jury is out with scratch experts on whether to frame with or without glass.  I am going to see if I can get a scratch juried into a show in July - fingers crossed. Painting tips:

Just sitting here with Paul, recovering from 5 mile hike from top of mountain down a total of 453 foot drop to a beautiful mountain lake.  Tough part was the climb back up.  We are watching the US Open at Pinehurst and wanted to experiment on my tonal work.  This is a photo from Gary Jones at PMP named Iblis.  It is a beautiful black and white shot of this lion so had a gray tone reference to work from.  I had watched the great video, shown below, that Ruth Archer, also of PMP had found and will again, but wanted to put it into practice.  Using 7 tones, plus the color of the paper, I put together an 8 scale range of tones and not necessarily in lion typical colors.  Working from light to dark I used off white, light yellow, yellow golden oochre, light gray which is paper color, terra cotta, brown, indigo  Blue and black.  I looked at the reference picture and decided where each tone should be used and in some instances combined those tones to create another.  Probably have two hours in

Sorry, photo is a bit blurry, but here is the update on my car.  Am getting more reflections in and have a few more solid pieces in and then final shading.  

  Isn't it interesting how on a cloudy day a couple of hours working on a picture can set your mood.  I am beginning to like this better and feel more kindly toward it now that I am moving away from just messing with the grille.  I may have to update the name and call it as the photogapher, Paul Jones, did "Lights".  Originally seeing the image I first noticed the grill, but now working on the image I am enjoying tryuing to get the feel of the lights - got one more to go.  I have to tell you it is a rush to see the image coming out of this black board - always fun to see an image appear on paper too, but .... nothing quite like it - at least for me.  Maybe that is what is so addictive about scratchboard. Thanks for stopping by and hope you had a great weekend.