NELVIA'SART.COM

Samuari                    HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! - may 2019 bring us all a super artistic year Wow, just one more day to this year and then it is all over but the shouting.   I just can't believe this is true.  You think you make good use of your time and then ....  well, maybe I don't push as hard as I did, but I do try to enjoy every moment. This is another figure study using from daily sketch site.  For some reason I really haven't done many men.  This guy was so built and had this really square jaw.  I tried to convert a black model into having more of an Oriental look, but not really sure that I accomplished that.  I was having problems finding what Japanese skin color really looks like, and then it dawned on me that it really depends on what the light is.   I know there is a lot of yellow cast in their skin, but it just didn't look right. Anyway, I like the pose of this figure and set about to try to find something I could put along with the figure.  As

ALERT:  Please don't accept any email that comes from nelviamcgrath@att.net I just got off with AT&T and alerted them that this old email address has been highjacked and whoever is sending out emails to my contact list.  If it looks odd, and a couple of folks have said they do look odd - do not open it.   Here is today's practice piece.  I had found this site, daily sketch, http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en, and discovered while getting the address for someone that besides figures they have portraits, hands, feet, animals, structures and vegetation photos.  All of these are royalty free and an be done as timed poses if you wish.  I haven't even totally begun to explore it.   I felt like drawing practice today - yes, it is gray and raining, the start of another 7 days with no break down here.  I found this girl on the site I mentioned above and decided to add some color to the charcoal drawing.   Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

All That Jazz Well we are gearing up for another 5-6 days of gray wet weather, another 3-4" of rain, and since we are saturated am sure there will be flooding.  It has been absolutely crazy this year, all this rain every couple of days and the very cold temperatures.  Seems like we are just in a weather pattern rut and it does the same thing every week.  Hubby gave me the sad news that they are saying now through March, colder/wetter than normal.  Then I am sure come end of March we will go directly to 90+ probably with no rain.  Grrr, what happened to the nice weather? Anyway, this is another of my figure studies.  I changed it up giving the girl a dancing cane, tap shoes and took off some horrific looking wings.  I then decided I wanted to try something very different for a background, and hence the piano keys mixed with music.  Kind of like the graphic effect against the curves of the figure.   But not really certain it isn't a little too busy.  Anyway, downloaded a

Awakening Sunrise                                             MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!! Well since I am now in the piddling and playing stage on this piece I am thinking it is time to say it is finished.  I have adjusted the skin tones so many times and can still pick apart places, but it is time to say quit.  I am excited as I think this piece will be perfect for my bathroom. I guess it is a result of just  having had so many days of gray and rain that I really needed to do something that was colorful.  I have a friend I follow on Instagram that does photography and primarily she shoots the skies in her native Australia.  I really don't do landscapes, but thought I'd try a sky behind this figure.  Unfortunately I haven't learned how to paint skies yet - my clouds never seem to come out - so I took the idea of the sunrise color gradations and put it in a simple background for this piece.   This is a photo reference from a figure drawing site (this site allow

The Chicks Well finally today I just felt like painting something that was just plain fun.  I tend to multitask and watch a lot of YouTube videos when my hubby feels like watching tv and that usually means sports of some type.  Now, I got to admit I get pretty involved when it is a Duke mens basketball game, but other than that, unless it really counts for something it is just noise. So I watch videos with one ear bud in and always learn something or get inspired.  Inspiration is what what happened here.  The Art Sherpa painted a penguin family and I thought that looks like so much fun.  Haven't ever painted a penguin or thought about it much to be honest.   I found another reference which included two chicks (I think it must be someone else's because I think they only lay one egg) and since they usually are involved with a big group I took the background penguins and dulled them down by adding the blizzard.   I figure there are a lot of blizzards in the South Pole.    

I just want to say I appreciate all the comments, I have been trying to figure out why I have lost the ability to give reply comments.  I just have not found the solution at all - tried many different things and hope that I will accidentally hit on what caused me to stop being able to comment.   I think it is tied into disqus and I have asked them to take me off but still hadn't made any difference.  So bear with me please and I will either comment on your posts or send you a DM.   After a horrendous day yesterday, two very failed attempts - guess it was just an off day - I approached the studio hoping to do something that resembled a portrait drawing.   Do you ever have those kinds of days where you just can't seem to do anything right.  I end up asking myself if I have ever put pencil to paper before.  I found this photo reference and thought he was one of the prettiest and most unusual looking boys I had ever seen.  Saw that wonderful curly hair, the little bo

Well, what a week are having in that Southern state - Georgia:  first we are having Jan-Feb temperatures, have had since the end of October, this is Georgia, not Illinois or Wisconsin.  Not demeaning those states, but it is supposed to be cold there, they are North second, we have had sleet, ice, snow, almost 5" in rain and flooding in Georgia???  Oh yeah, it starts raining again tomorrow.  So, lots of gray, gray, gray in my life third, whilst minding our own business, asleep in our beds, just waiting and hoping Santa will come, we have at 4:14am am 4.4 earthquake complete with aftershocks - again I remind you this is Georgia, not California!!  My opinion it is all the rain, unsettles the bedrock Yes, this definitely is becoming a crazy world.  Finally, I got to slip into the art room, with a better attitude and do something.  Been so much going on that I haven't had the time or in some ways the inclination to do anything artful.  But got some spectacular test

Gangsta's Doll This started out as just going to be a couple of individual figure painting studies, but seemed to take on a life of its own. I found a site, sketchdaily, http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en, that has figure poses action/passive, or clothed/nude, you pretty much dial in what you want.  I want to get better at figures and really I haven't drawn a lot of men, so thought this would give me some needed practice.  Since I wanted to get better at fabrics I saw these two shots (see below) and thought I would give them a whirl.  As I got to looking at them the first thing I thought was 1920-1930s and gangsters.  The girl I thought could be turned into a perfect flapper with just a few touches.  Then because I thought they might work well together I needed some way to tie them together and so tried to bring in the feeling of a speakeasy. I started the concept on an 18'x22" canvas board just working with the background and acrylic, and really, just got

Mary and Jesus Well today is another graphic style card.  I loved all the pen/ink work here and also the pops of color.  I did change it up from the reference as it was pretty fluorescent, although these probably aren't traditional Christmas colors either.   Did this one on parchment paper so that I could use both markers and colored pencils.   Thanks much for stopping by.

Silent Night Ended us doing a different look and media yesterday due to time and place, yet another doctor's waiting room.  Hopefully the last for procedures for this year.   Anyway I always like the look of these graphic pieces, although I am not all that good with them.  It requires such precision, so I think that requires lots of practice. I did this on a watercolor card, they really need to learn how to fold correctly.  And boy, this paper really loves to suck up the inks.  There are a lot of layers on this to get it dark enough. If you have a chance, please either make/send a card to: A Recovering American Soldier c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital 8901 Wisconsin Ave Bethesda, MD 20889 I don't usually mention these types of things, but this really strikes a cord, these folks could really use the thoughts/prayers and something to make them smile, especially during this holiday season. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Christmas Lantern Well after days of inactivity I tried to venture outside with a quick walk.  Good news is I got it in, bad news is it was darn cold!!  But, supposedly we are going to get high 60s by the weekend, and I can feel like I live in the South, not the North. Sorry about the glare, but this is a combo of acrylic underpainting with oil over the top, so since I have Liquid on there along with the oil, it has a shine to it.  I know this isn't nostalgic but I like it and was intrigued by the ornaments that compose the background.  Also like trying to do the pinecones - just like pineapple those guys are tricky.  By the third one I was kind of getting the hang of it and it really wasn't that difficult.  I always have to remind myself that this is impressions and illusions. Thanks much for stopping by.

Santa Giving up here as I have tweaked this several times and this is just one of those that looks better in person.   I just can't get it color and light adjusted in the Mac.  By the way they really have enhanced the adjustments you can do in the photo program.  I am still sticking to my nostalgic theme for my cards.  This Santa was popular in the 30s and 40s.  I like how he has the holly in his hat brim.  I also really liked the crinkled, apple cheeks and twinkle in the eyes.  It was rather strange though in that the reference had five fingers with no thumb and a funky arm part showing, so I had to do a little tweaking before I posted this.   In comparison to last year's cards these are turning out to be more mini paintings, rather than a quick card.   But that works well using the miniature skills I have acquired this year working with the ATCs. Thanks much for stopping by.

Christmas Card 1 Well every year since I retired in July I think that I might begin my Christmas cards.  Of course I don't.   Only one year did I ever start Christmas shopping in July and was finished well before the season - no problem!!!   Was wonderful, why didn't I do it again?? Then about November through this time of year I think I won't make any cards this year.  I still have a few singles from previous years, or a few store-bought cards - why make them.   But then I see something that  makes me want to go ahead and make a few again this year.  So, here we are, the first one of the season. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Reflection 14"x18"                                              HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE Just got this finished, I think, and it is time to clean up the kitchen, again, and then start setting up my Christmas tree.  Big old turkey a little later this afternoon. This is a bit of a different style, a kind of mysterious portrait.  I wanted it to be kind of dreamy instead of the wallpaper the reference had, and I liked the title because it alludes to several different of types of reflections.  The skin tones in this piece also are very grayed out which I think helps create an interior scene feel.   This is an acrylic piece and I did have fun with the mirror and the mirror reflections.   While it isn't perfect I think it gives the impression of an ornate mirror and in real life you really see the gold sections metallic look reflect much better.  The necklace chain I did do with a metallic colored silver pencil and it does give it nice shine. Thanks much fo

Dancer Well my inspiration for this was Joan's sketching at the High School of Art and Design.  I decided it would be fun to work on some clothes figures and spent a lot of time looking for online sites that feature clothes models.  I do like to use Croquis Cafe for my gesture and timed drawing, but most of them are nudes. So anyway, I have these pieces of cardboard and decided that I wanted to try painting on that with the ridged background.  This time I used oil pastels - I still might overwork this somewhat with the oil pastels just to see what I get, especially on the skirt.   for the most part this is acrylic on the figure with a couple of places some fine-line markers or CP to get some of the details. I have to tell a story because I think it is so unbelievable.  Earlier right after we moved here I opened the front door at night and we had a bird fly into the house.  Finally got him out, but thought that was pretty peculiar.  Yes I did look up the old wives tale of wh

Study of Grace I didn't have a lot of time today so decided to see if I could capture Grace.  She is in a downward looking position and I think I missed the mark on getting her nose long enough and he mouth tilted just right.  But, I learned a lot by doing this quick sketch, and hope to put what I learned  into a painting of her. Again I tried the cardboard as we have been getting lots of packages lately, these were precut to 10"x10", so I didn't even have to cut anything.  Yes, I am lazy about some things.  So anyway thought it would be a good surface and I do really like how the backgrounds come out and how it contracts against the smooth of the face.  I tend to  usually blend my pastels so, it works.  I think when I start my class in the first of the year will probably utilize cardboard as supports. Thank much for taking a look.

Mary Crawley Ok, here is my second fan art piece for my ATC exchange this month.  I decided to try to capture Mary Crawley from Downton Abby.  I have to admit once we started watching that series we were hooked and were really sad when it ended.  Seems like we like a lot of the English shows and still follow several series today.  Anyway hoping that this does come close to catching her.  We have Downton Abby marathons occasionally too, just like Harry Potter.   And when I watch the earlier episodes I always forgot just how nasty she was.  I guess it ended up all right though as Edith ended up really more royal.   thanks for stopping by.

Harry Potter ATC Well I have to admit that I have been procrastinating on creating this month's ATCs because I really wasn't sure what the theme was.  It is FanArt, and I guess since this is just a card trade I won't get into too much trouble using some pictures of Harry Potter.   Yes I am/was a big Harry Potter fan, more so of the books than the movies.   We still get out the videos and do Harry Potter marathons.  Surprisingly enough I usually see something I didn't before. Again this is tiny size, 2.5"x3.5", or about a credit card shape.  What I hope this is showing is how he looked when he was in the first movie, to his more mature look in the last movie.  This was really fun to do and I am pretty happy as I think I got pretty good likeness.   I also really like how I blocked in the skin tones and you see the natural variations. Thanks much for stopping by.

Blue Butterfly One good thing about having multiple paintings/drawings in process is that when you get like I do, either fatigued after completing a bigger painting, idealess, can't concentrate or just listless, you can pull it out and finish it.  In this case most of the heavy lifting was completed and all I had to do was to add some final touches and hair on the right side of the painting.   Not really sure why I just didn't complete it when I started it months ago.   I think this was after the move, so I can't even blame that. I like the way color pencil looks over the graphite.  I know it blurs and the color gets grayed, but, well, that's is what happens anyway with graphite, you get tones of gray, right?  To me it kind of gets that soft pastel-like finish that just graphite by itself doesn't really have.  Also, I also used a big brush, my fingers and a chamois-like cloth to buff the surface.  Using those tools helps to spread both the CP and graphite a

Stardust Well, finally some art room time and boy, was I ever ready.  With all the commotion this week we were out a lot more than usual.  I actually missed my peace and solitude, so it was a relief yesterday to be able to concentrate on completing this painting.  I don't know about you, but when I paint I go somewhere else.  I always end up refreshed, even when I am fighting a painting, it is just magical.  I was able to finish another mixed media portrait in my woman's series, again a combination of acrylic and pastel.  Since I was using the blue tones I decided to put her in a starry sky.    I really love the galaxy look, and yes Sheila, this is a lot like my Selkie picture and I thought of you while I was doing it. Anyway I do fight with losing the likeness as I paint through the picture.  When I realized I was starting to lose the likeness I went to my trusty proportional dividers (thanks again to Stefan Baumann whose video on how to use and why, make me find them

Venetian Mask Had a lot of sit time yesterday and had received some new sketching toys from a friend at Zebra Pen, so took the opportunity to work on a sketch to see how they performed.  This Venetian Mask is a mixed media sketch, or I should say doodle (I will explain below) and is done with pointalism, color pencils, technical pens, fine tip markers, Pentel white gel pen and I hit it with a brush or 2 of gold paint. I watched an interesting video from Stefan Baumann where he talked about the psychology of sketching.  He prefers we call it doodling as it takes the pressure off to produce something good enough to use that pristine white paper that comes in sketchbooks.   Doodles can really help you learn to draw and improve your drawing skills.  Doodles also imply fun, no pressure or expectations, something that sketching inherently does imply.  He also suggests that you do about 100 doodles, (Joan, I think you are the only one in the group that is hitting this stride and then s

Ok, have to admit there has been a certain amount of procrastination involved in this, but I do like to take my time as well.  I knew I wanted to put my art up in this house but wanted to take my time selecting the right pictures and utilizing all the frames I have collected over the years.  I also wanted to put the right pictures in the right place and not create a ton of excess holes in the walls.  I also admit that I am not handy, I absolutely hate measuring, nailing, screwing/unscrewing, ladders, etc.  But the weather has shifted now, got no outdoor work as an excuse, so ..... I have been researching hanging systems, and while they are sleek, sophisticated and versatile, I got to admit that I am cheap, cheap, cheap.   I just can't do it, as we are the only ones who will really ever view it.   So, am going back to the old fashioned way for the individual pictures and have an idea - got the stuff, now the work to put it together to see if it works - for the areas I want to h

Dappled Light First of all thanks so much my friends for the kind thoughts, made my hubby smile, he has a couple of rough weeks ahead so your encouragement and thoughts are really appreciated by both of us. Dappled Light is my latest mixed media piece, primarily acrylic with some pastel accents over it.   I love the palette colors of ultramarine blue, teal and sap green.   I decided to put the background in hoping it looked a bit like the garden leaves.  I had originally planned to do flowers in her hair, but decided I didn't like it so quickly wiped it off.   Thanks to Alex Lee Johnson at PMP for another fabulous shot. I heard an interesting thought on portraits - that basically it is a problem somewhere between the eyes and the mouth.  That you really don't need to obsess on the nose and mouth but just "nail" one of the eyes.   Humans, when we look at each other, actually only see one eye, that is what we tend to focus on.  The other thing is when we lo

Secrets Well this turned out to be a very interesting experiment.  When I got interested in doing the mixed media portraits I found that in the journaling community many folks had been incorporating figure collages into their work.  One of the reasons why is they used this method is that didn't actually draw/paint portraits, but wanted figures or faces in their work.  Also by painting over the magazine image you get another image and I guess the rule is that if more than 40% of the picture or image was changed, then you are not plagiarizing their photo, work or ideas. For someone beginning to paint portraits it is a good way to learn about shading the face, painting over a photo.  Especially in black/white, you really see the light and darks on the facial planes.  So this started out as a black/white photo in an ad from one of my junk magazines, on a bit thicker paper. I put on the abstract background with acrylic using stencils (adding paint onto paper through the sten

Her Highness   I just absolutely loved the expression on this lady and knew I wanted to try to capture her elegance and serenity.  I knew that I didn't want an exact portrait and decided to try another mixed media piece.    I added blobs of paint and used my large scraper to make the areas of color.  Just put paint on a piece of watercolor paper.  Then I inscribed and mixed the colors together with the end of my brush and got all the wavy lines (in real life they actually stand up so there is a 3D effect to the background).  Where I thought I wanted the face I really scraped most of the paint off, and ended up with color blotches and tones, and if you look in the forehead you can sort of see the design that was left.  I thought it would add some variance to the skin tones. I also want to keep her very soft so I tried to stay in the pastel tones, even with the lips.   Once I got shadows and lights added in, and went over it with some skin tone and more blue colors I let

Bold Ok, for today's portrait I went out of the box and decided to try a different look and approach. This is on watercolor paper, I applied a layer of paper collate over it (you can see that some of it started lifting - so got to use more medium to glue it next time)  Anyway then I tried to leave part of that under collage showing, even in the face.  Went back in and applied several more light lawyers of transparent and opaque paint and then put in the hair using my dagger bus.   Gosh that brush makes hair so much easier While this might not the best example what are your thoughts to taking portraits this more dynamic direction? Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Freckles I am calling this one Freckles, although I am sure she wouldn't like the title.  I still working on values so tried this second lesson from Kara Bullocks, whose Lets Face It course I am going to take in 2019.  Been having lots of issues with the wifi here, so not sure how long it is going to last this time.  I think it is because they are cutting into the lines adding all these new houses the developments are throwing up.   Grrrrr!!   Anyway I started this one with a picture where I drew lines, angles and a square.   It really very quickly sold me where things were in relation to each other, helped to judge the side depths and the chin lines.   Think this is definitely going to be the way to go.  Only issues is the wifi going off and on and also my preview wants to freeze up, so got to try to figure out what is going on with that.   Think if it continues I might have to go to the Best Buy and see if I can get a geek to see what is going on.  I can't get wif

Well I measured, puttered and played and debated posting this.  But here you get the good, bad, ugly and happy accidents.   I am sure you all were wondering what the heck I was doing with the background, so thought at least I would show you that.  Even though this isn't my best ever effort I learned a great deal and this turned into a happy accident.   Thank you so much Helen, for reenforcing me to consider what I already own.  There is actually so much built into this computer that I have no idea about, well... will definitely gave to get that tutorial out and find out what else I have been missing. I now can say that I have learned more about measuring and can do so on the computer, generating lines, angles, squares, circles, etc.  all of which faces are comprised of.  Going to take a bit more learning and practice but will incorporate it into my future faces.   While I want to get "a likeness" I still want it to say something about the person. I am definit

Miss Lulu study WIP At the Start Reference Well this is always where I get hung up, so am asking for help here. But, first, I have to say that I am used to a world that over promises and under delivers.  I did sign up for my 2019 Lets Face It course and felt I got a really great deal for 50 weeks worth of studies.  But within 3 days after doing signing up, not only have I gotten a coupon for 30% off another course, I have also received two free lessons.  I think that is pretty incredible.    One of the lessons is on value, this is a lesson over 5 videos.   Kara talks about her process where she uses Stabillo black pencil and white gesso and creates a black and white study.  She works back and forth between the two modeling the face to build up layers of value.  At the end she uses black and titanium acrylic to final notes.   She also incorporates CP, pastel, collage, etc. into her work. Just an aside, the left of the paper is a collaged napkin

Masterson's Sta Wet Palette Well alas, I guess it is about time.   I have had my Masterson's Sta-Wet palette for over twenty years now and it is beginning to crack around the edges, meaning that it really isn't going to continue to seal when closed in the very near future.  I am looking at new palettes, and yes am seriously thinking of getting yet another Masterson's palette.  Why, you might ask? As you know I work a lot with acrylics, and now that I am going more into mixed media pieces, I will continue to use the acrylics as my foundation.  I found several years ago a tip from Jerry Yarnell, on PBS television on how to set this palette up specifically for acrylics, gives continuing moisture to the paint and EZ clean up. How: 1)  Change out the paper palette sheets with a piece of glass, I usually put a piece of white paper towel underneath the glass, so I continue to have a white surface (for a while) to compare colors to.  2)  Then I take a paper towe

The Sorceress I hadn't been tempted to do anything Halloweenish over the years until I saw The Art Sherpa do David Bowie as the character he portrayed in the movie Labyrinth.  It made me decide to attempt another portrait and do it in a non-realistic way, certainly these aren't normal skin tones.   Since it has been a while since I have done a portrait, I decided to do this as a warm up because I also have decided to do a portrait online course for 2019, called Lets Face It, by Kara Bullock.  I actually learned about it during the challenge when a couple of artists were discussing courses that they took.  I haven't taken courses or workshops, so I decided to treat myself and I found the cost was very reasonable.   What I find most intriguing about it is that this course is a 50 week course and is taught by 24 different artists in modules of several weeks working in all the different medias.  Since a lot of the instructors work with mixed media I felt that was a perfe

Cantilever Well the challenge is over now, but I can't get past all the abstract things floating in my mind.  Who knew I could abstracts, and some came out pretty well.  Yesterday I just finished a fill the crack/match the stain project on my porch floor and had paint left over, so of course rather than waste it I had to put it on a piece of paper.  Once that was down then I had to add a few more colors and before you know it.....   Tried a different thing with adding the brush work to the palette knife. The name of this piece, Cantilever, is probably more about the composition type than an actual cantilever, but I couldn't come up with another title at the moment.  So you go with what you got.  Yep this is my homemade mat, the paper I used was the middle I cut out, but again it comes in pretty handy to make it look a little more polished for the pic. Thanks for all the support of people just looking, but got to say that my buds are the best besties.  You guys rock w

Curiosity 4"x6" DAY 30 - celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.  This wasn't as bad as some of the challenges that really seemed to go on forever.  I think I could still go on, but then after having done so many challenges, I already utilize a lot of the benefits every day anyway.  But always the good news is that you see so much wonderful work and get connected with new friends.  Will take some more time now to go through the pictures and just enjoy the work and creativity. This is another miniature, 4"x6", and had a lot of fun with this little guy.  A friend, Julie Hollis, has done some butterflies landing on adult male lion noses, and they are an adorable story.   When I saw the pose of this little cub I thought the butterfly would be the perfect addition to tell the story.  I also wanted to try to tell the fur story another way without actually doing fur, so instead it is roughed color splotches.  I think it still reads as fur.  I used the saran wrap again

The Cyclist 4"x6" Well Val, you called it, for DAY 29, here is my first official miniature.  The Cyclist is 4"x6" and acrylic.  Again one of those things that started out one way and ended up another.   A miniature is something 4"x6" or smaller, max is 24 sq inches.  They had both 4x6 and 5x7 mini canvas at the dollar store so figured I would give them a try.  Some things I learned that is pretty necessary, is that these need to be sprayed with water on the back and let to dry - makes it taunt again.  And, also plan on adding additional gesso, at least 1-2 more layers if you like to work on smoother surfaces. Thanks much for stopping by and taking a look.

Dryad Day 28, since I am still working on a miniature I needed to repost something for today.  So I picked Dryad, done on March 1, 2016.  I did a combination of references for this piece and it was one of my first out-of-the-box pictures.  It combined my love of portraits with something that gave it a more abstract, contemporary feeling.  This is done in acrylic and is based on a photo by Alex Lee Johnson, a photographer at PMP.  I think the eyes say it all in t his piece and she represents the true soul and spirit of the trees. Thanks for taking a look.

Spark w/mat Spark Unmated Well for today's hot scheme I had this in the middle of paper with borders around it, thinking it might not buckle as much and that it would look like it was already matted having the clean edges.  However, it wasn't the best paper so it buckled anyway and then when it ran it ran down over the border, which was already dirty (where did that come from?).  So I might, clean it up by painting the border all white, or just cut another "mat" that fits on top of this, just to see what it looks like, but hadn't done that before I posted this.     Ok, I just shamed myself into cutting the top mat because I figured if I didn't now I never would.  And, this faux mat will probably end up being quite useful in the future. So I started out putting the square in the middle of a sheet of paper, put on a base coat and then just added color and design from there.  I added another piece of failed print as a collage piece and tried to see if

Red Egret DAY 26  Bad Feather Day - Having lived in Florida for so many years I thought I had seen a lot of water birds.  We used to have herons and egrets in our back yard.  But when Sandy Scott, a photographer from PMP, posed this red egret I had to give it a try.  When I do references of things I don't know a lot about it makes me want to research, and I found that the habitat for this bird is the Caribbean, so no wonder I hadn't seen one in the wild.   The next thing I wanted to try to bring some life and looseness to what would normally be a static picture.  So I took some liberty with the bird's coloring, wasn't so particular with the feathers and added some additional colors and slights foam in the water to make it appear it is a windy day.   Actually his unusual spiny feathers are probably mating plumage.   I also wanted to try working colored pencil with pan pastels - so primarily this is a pan pastel picture with some of the detail coming from color

1950s phone 1970s Disco Queen Day 25 For the Art Sherpa ATC club this month's theme was something retro from 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s.  Boy have people really been having fun with this one.  It always amazes me how much info you can get onto a 2.5"x3.5" card. Anyway mine were hard to choose from because some of the people really got started earlier (yes, I have been procrastinating) and took some of the great ones.  But am still seeing people post things that are just incredible and bring back lots of memories - from lava lamps to VW beetles and vans, you name it.  I ended up with the Disco Queen (all that hair and bell bottoms) in colored pencil  and ball and a 1950's style telephone done with markers.  Will have to get them in the mail tomorrow.   Thanks much for stopping by and taking a look.