Flamingo Sophisticate

'Flamingo Sophisticate'

Pencil on Sketch Paper

Have you ever seen a pink flamingo look this good?  Me neither!  Sketched this at work today.  We had a full crew and a relatively slow day.  (A slow day for us is somewhere around 250 calls in 8 hours.  A busy day would be over 400.)  Anyway, I picked this one so I wouldn't have to pay too much attention to detail but I really like this one.  Might have to frame him or her, not sure what sex this birdy is but it looks male to me.  lol  

This was the first sketch in my new sketchbook from Hobby Lobby.  I think it's their brand, Master's Touch 60 lb paper.  It's fairly smooth but it is a little thinner than the paper I typically sketch in.  I have one that I bought a few years ago that is very textured which was great for when I first started drawing but I find I don't care much for it now that I've been doing it a while.  I have a Canson Field sketchbook that I do most of my sketches in but it's kind of heavy to transfer back and forth to work all the time, which is why I bought this one.

I also got a Mead Academie (yes, that's the way they spelled it) Sketchbook; however, I don't know the paper weight, it's just called heavyweight but it's thicker than the Hob Lob paper.  I like it because even though it is in a spiral notebook, it also has the perforated tear off sheets.  I thought it would be good to do ink and watercolor or watercolor pencils without using the more expensive watercolor paper if I'm just practicing.  I'll let you know what I think after I actually use it.  Of course, they're all acid/lignin free.

Off to check out everyone's blogs.  Have a great day!

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IF - Breakfast

Colored Pencil and Marker

I sketched this at work today for the Illustration Friday's word prompt of 'Breakfast'.  I haven't had a chance to participate in IF for a few weeks and I thought this one would be a quick and easy one.  Lot's of running around to do today.  Had to go grocery shopping, which I really don't mind as I love to cook.  Now I'm just waiting for our checks to be done today so I can go cash it and run to Walmart to pick up a few items.

Hope you're all having a happy Monday.  

Update on Sunny:  I was able to examine her a little better today.  Unfortunately it appears as though the break is higher up on her leg than we originally suspected.  I don't have much hope of her having even a partial recovery and use of the leg and claw.  She doesn't appear to be in any pain and she's learned that she has to fly pretty much everywhere but she's getting around and doesn't seem to be letting her new disability slow her down much.  Still breaks my heart every time I see her little leg kind of dangling but I'm grateful that she's hanging in there and not giving up.  Thank you so much for all of your well wishes and kind thoughts.  They are very much appreciated during this rough spot.

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Sunday Sketches - Through the Trees

So I've finally made a landscaping picture that I absolutely love.  Not sure if you can see it so much in the scan (well, photo that I brought into photoshop and edited) but the background is supposed to be trees off in the distance.  Don't care so much about them as I do the tree in the forefront.

I am one of those that hates drawing trees.  I think my limbs always look bad and leaves, forget about it!  I would do many more buildings and landscape sketches if it weren't for having to draw the trees and bushes.  lol.  Somehow this one worked out very well and I am thrilled with it!  Please also keep in mind that I worked on this at work in between all of the phone calls today.  We were understaffed and somewhat busy, but I am grateful that there were no major catastrophes this weekend and I only received one call.  A new girl didn't know she was on the schedule yesterday and I had to call her in.  No biggie.  :)

Baby bird seems to be doing a little better today.  I had to splint her leg again, the first one fell off so I waited until my wonderful boyfriend was in bed so he didn't freak out ( I handle ers much better than he does, remind me to tell you about the day I cut off part of my fingertip with a rotary cutter.)  I think she may have been in shock yesterday as she was very listless.  Today she is back to her feisty self and biting us when we try to hold her.  Have no fear, it's not because she is in pain, she always bites us when we try to hold her, except for yesterday.  She still can't use her foot and she may never be able to but the fact that she's eating, preening, interacting with the other birds and moving around a little bit makes me think she's going to be ok in the long run.  She's a very strong and brave little bird.

Don't forget to visit all of the wonderful artists participating in Sunday Sketches hosted by the wonderful Sophia over at Blue Chair Diary.

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A Midsummer Night's Secret Dream Party

 

It's here, it's here!  A Midsummer Night's Secret Dream Party is finally here!  It's a magical night when the fairies come out to listen to your deepest creative secrets.  Hosted by A Stuffed Life with participation from some very talented people.  Please be sure to visit everyone by clicking the links in the sidebar of the Midsummer Night's blog which you can reach by clicking the link above.

I had planned on doing a witty, creative little story for my Secret Dream; however, we've had a really bad day with one of our feathered friends and I just don't have it in me.  Our beautiful little Sunny seems to have broken one of her legs.  She doesn't seem to be in any pain but she can not bear weight on it and the claw part of her foot is limp.  Unfortunately, we are not in a financial position to take her to a vet, especially on an emergency basis so we had to try to splint it ourselves, which has not been an easy process.  I'm hoping she will be ok in the long run so if there are any fairies listening, my current secret dream is for my poor little bird to be feeling well and back to her usual feisty self.

As for my projects for this blog party, I had planned on having three pieces.  A watercolor, an acrylic and an oil pastel.  The acrylic did not go well at all and by the end of it I was ready to throw it against the wall.  I love the vibrant colors in my oil pastel sunset but the photo just doesn't do it justice.  Wasn't in the mood to try to get better ones.  I do love my watercolor and I tried something new with them, I not only used the ones in the tubes instead of the cakes/pan (not sure what they're called), I also used a cotton canvas board instead of watercolor paper.  

Without further ado...

Watercolor on Cotton Canvas Board

Oil Pastels on Acrylic Paper

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A Birthday Gift

'Serenity'

Pencil on Sketch Paper

My boyfriend's mother's birthday is on Tuesday and he wanted to send something to her that I made.  I had just drawn this at work and I have to say, this is my favorite sketch so far.  The picture really doesn't do this one justice because of the extreme lights and darks.  This is the first sketch I have done with a water reflection and I think it turned out pretty good.  This was another practice sketch in the book I'm working out of so I didn't just dream it up or get it from a photo, but I'm still very proud of it.  As soon as my bf saw it he immediately declared this to be the gift for Mom.  I happen to agree so I framed it in a 4 x 6 black frame which really brings out the graphite even more.  Loving it!  Going to be hard to part with this one.   lol

I also wanted to tell you about my great finds at Hobby Lobby and Walmart.  At Hobby Lobby I found a 16 piece Oil Pastel Set on clearance for $3.59 which normally runs $9.99!  The end of the box was smooshed so I'm guessing that's why it was marked so low but all of the pastel crayons are intact.  Then, we went to Walmart and I happened to stumble upon a small but nice selection of fine art materials.  I got another set of oil pastels, this one had 25 colors for $4.99, they are slightly smaller than the Hob Lob ones but look to be of similar quality.  I got a pack of three 8x10 cotton canvas boards for $3.96, a pad of acrylic paper for $3.96 and a set of twelve 0.4 oz tubes of water colors for only $6.49.  It was like Christmas for me.  My boyfriend's birthday is Sunday and he received some b-day cash from his parents and let me buy some art materials.  Isn't he the sweetest?

Now, does anyone know what I'm supposed to do with oil pastels?  lol.  I've watched a ton of U-Tube videos and I think I just may like this medium.  Anything I can stick my fingers in to blend is a plus in my books!  

TGIF and hope you all have had a great week!

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Inspiration Avenue - Books

'Books'

Colored Pencil with Marker on Sketch Paper

I was really excited about this week's word prompt for Inspiration Avenue's Weekly Challenge.  As an avid reader I have lots books on my bookcase shelves, so much so that I've had to resort to stacking them two deep and on top of each other wherever possible.  I'm a huge fan of scary, gory, murder, mystery type novels and have the likes of Stephen King, Patricia Cromwell, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Michael Connelly and many more author's adorning my shelves.  In fact, I am reading a new Dean Koontz book titled, "Relentless" but have only just begun the first chapter.

I love working with colored pencils and marker.  If you've never tried this technique, I really urge you to give it a whirl.  You can use any brand of colored pencil, I happen to have a very nice set of Prisma Color  Premier colored pencils and Markers.  I use the colorless blender marker all over and use varying shades of gray for shadows.  I need a new 10% gray though, didn't get the cap on all the way and it dried out.  The colorless blender is awesome though.  It removes the waxiness of the pencil and makes it look more like a pigment ink or something.  Pretty cool effect with little effort.  I have some colored markers but have not tried those with the pencils yet.  The best part is, you can use ordinary sketch paper as long as you don't overdo the marker.  

That's my art lesson for the day.  lol  Hope you are having a good week.  Only one more day and I get a day off!  Not sure why I'm excited, I'm going to be on call for ers as my boss is going to a Toby Keith concert this weekend, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed I won't have to go in.

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Another ACEO Attempt

This little guy was my second attempt at making an ACEO.  I think he turned out pretty good.  It was very hard to get all that detail into such a small space!  I have learned that I should not start out with such intricate designs when trying something new.  Then again, I've always been that way.  The very first quilt I made was for my mom who has relocated to Arizona.  I wanted the quilt to reflect the region so I used Native American Indian signs for the quilting part with a Kokopelli as the center  of attention.  Not an easy task for a brand new quilter, but I love challenges.

Anyway, I got the design idea from one of my Goodwill artbook finds.  I used watercolor pencils and added watercolors where I thought it needed a little extra oomph.  Now, if I could just get up enough nerve to try my acrylics!

Still having back problems but I am moving a little better.  My right leg keeps going numb all the way to my toes so I think I'm going to have to go back to the doctor.  She told me to give it two weeks and we're at about 1.5 right now.  Somehow I don't see it getting miraculously better in the next few days.  :(  At least I'm back to drawing and painting!  :)

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What Was I Thinking?

This was the first sketch I did after being laid up for a few days due to my back.  (Drawn before my Sunday Sketches sketch.)  Maybe it was the pain that I was trying to work through, or the meds I was on or a combination of both but there are so many things wrong with this picture it's not even funny.  First and foremost one of the recurring issues I seem to be having is making my eyes too large.  I think it's because I feel like you should be able to see the iris, pupil and light reflections but this isn't necessarily true. 

Secondly, babies don't have thick, long eyelashes like this little one does.  The reference photo is a girl baby and this looks more boyish except for the lashes to me.  Finally, the head should have been longer.  Overall, it doesn't look bad as a sort of illustrated, generic baby similar to the Gerber baby. 

I'm learning new things with each sketch I produce.  I have also noticed I make faces slimmer than they really are.  Constructive criticism is always welcome.  Please don't feel that you have to say, "Great sketch" every time I post something.  I know I have produced some 'sketchy' pieces.  Oh boy, meds kicking in.  lol.

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Sunday Sketches - Another Portrait

Pencil on Sketch Paper

I've been trying to practice my portraits because I feel that this category is my strongest skill set.  I tried doing a small landscape sketch of rocks and some plants, horrible.  lol.  I will be trying some famous faces soon so that you'll be able to see the comparison and see how I'm doing.  It's easy to draw a portrait, but it's extremely hard to get it to look like the actual person you are drawing. 

My back is a little better.  I ended up going to the er and got some pain meds to take along with the motrin and muscle relaxers.  I only take the muscle relaxers at night though.  Makes me very sleepy.  :)  I'm off to work but will be back later this evening to check out all of the wonderful Sunday Sketches.  In the mean time hop on over to Sophia's blog to see more great sketches by some very talented artists.

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I'm Falling Apart

Like this glass vase, apparently my back is very fragile.  If you recall, I was going to work extra hours yesterday.  I never made it to work.  As I was getting out of the shower, I bent over to dry off my legs and my back went out so badly that I couldn't even move for a few minutes.  

By some miracle, my wonderful boyfriend happened to wake up and knocked on the door to see if I was almost done.  There I was naked, in tears and unable to move.  What a sight that must have been.  lol.  I couldn't even get dressed without his help.  

I don't have health insurance so I'm stuck going to the county clinic, which I called and was told that since the doctor I saw on Saturday was not in, I would have to go to the ER.  I couldn't even put my shoes on, let alone sit in a car or even get into the car.  So I opted for extra muscle relaxers and alternating cold and hot compresses along with some anti-inflamatories.  I'm moving a tad bit better but am still in extreme pain.  We'll just have to wait and see what today will bring.  I can't afford to miss much more time off of work so I'm hoping the rest will work some magic and I'll be back to normal (like I ever was!) soon.

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Happy Hump Day!

"Study of the Eyes II"

Pencil on Sketch Paper

You may or may not have noticed I changed my thumbnail image.  Not because I like to make changes like I do to my blog every few weeks, but because Blogger in it's infinite quirkiness lost my previous one.  Not quite sure what happened but I went to post a comment one day and it showed up with no image.  So I chose this sketch as it was readily available on my computer.  I have been working out of the two Lee Hammond books I have and really love doing some of the smaller sketches while I'm at work.  They're quick and I don't need quite as many supplies as I do with some of the larger pieces.  I still need lots of work on my eyelashes but I'm relatively satisfied with the overall outcome of this image.

I have just gotten Lee's book called Lifelike Drawing in Colored Pencil.  I haven't started anything yet, but it looks to be as intriguing as the first two books I bought of hers.  Hopefully I'll have something ready to post soon.  I really love working in graphite, but I do wonder, should I ever decide to sell my artwork, is there really a desire for this type of medium?  If so, are people willing to pay for the time vested in each image?  Is it better to sell reproductions or originals?  I have so many questions.  I have always been able to sell handmade items, but I'm so new to this aspect of my creativity that I'm unsure of where to go from here.

As artists, how do you decide what to sell and how much to charge?  Ah, too many questions, not enough room on my blog.  Not to mention, boring my readers.  lol.  Anyway, hope you are all having a good week.  I have decided to pick up some extra hours at work so I won't be off at 10 am like I planned.  But I will have some overtime on my next check.  More cash for my art supplies!  Shhh, don't tell my boyfriend.  He already thinks I need to pare down my quilting, sewing, crochet, knitting and artwork supplies.

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Feeling Better

'Waves'

Pencil on Sketch Paper

I just wanted to thank everyone for all of your wonderful thoughts, not only that I would feel better but all of the great compliments I've receive on a daily basis in regards to my artwork.  My back is feeling better and I hope to start visiting all of your blogs today when I get home from work.  

In keeping with the water theme (see Monday's post) I decided to post a small sketch of ocean waves crashing on a beach.  This was the first time I tried sketching water and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  My boyfriend was able to tell what it was on the first guess so I think I got it right.  lol.  

We're in for more hot weather today, yuck.  Haven't been to the pool or anything since my back started hurting.  Hopefully I'll be back in soon.  My luck it will be pouring out on Wednesday as I'm off work at 10 am and have plenty of time to swim. 

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Monday? Already?

I can't believe it's already Monday.  I don't work a typical work week though.  I normally work Sunday through Friday but last week I worked Saturday instead of Sunday.  Yes, I work part time, 6 days a week.  Thank you wonderful economy!  :(

I do get to sketch at work sometimes though and this pretty little seal was one of the practice pieces I did while at work last week.  I think it turned out kinda cute.

Hope you had a great weekend.  I'm ready for the weekend already!

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Sunday Sketches - Birds and Back Problems

Pencil on Sketch Paper

Close Up

Here's my Sunday Sketches for this week.  It's just another practice piece, I don't actually own a bird like this.  lol.  If we ever get good close up shots of our parakeets I will definitely draw them, but for now, they are terrified of the camera.  Silly birds.

If you haven't checked out Sunday Sketches hosted by Sophia from Blue Chair Diary, please do so today.  She is very talented and wonderful enough to host Sunday Sketches each week without fail.  Be sure to visit the other artists on the linky list!

I've been MIA for a few days because my back has been killing me.  You really know you're getting old when you throw your back out by bending over to put pop in the fridge.  lol  Not really, I was diagnosed with Degenerative Disk Disease in my lower back about 10 years ago.  I haven't had another MRI since then so I'm assuming like everything else, it's only gotten worse over time.  I did see the doctor yesterday and she gave me some muscle relaxers, which thoroughly knocked me out last night.  I also have ibuprophen for use in the day time.  I'm feeling a little better now and hope to be back to daily posts!  Thanks for dropping by and I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

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