Jackson House view

This is the view from a unit on the rental program at South Walton Realty, a website I designed and maintain for the wonderful people there. I painted it in watercolors from a photo, which causes some distortion.

The light on Florida Panhandle beaches is very bright, probably because it bounces off all that pure white sand. (In particular, walking on the beach at sunset or dusk feels like walking in a watercolor because the colors are so melded and soft -- pale, pale turquoise water and periwinkle shadows.) It's a challenge to recreate that light.

Those railings were a pain but a good lesson in how darker values move an object closer to the viewer.

I have a lot to learn, obviously. But it's a blast!

Fruity shadows

I wasn't really fond of this at first -- too round -- but the apple has, well, grown on me.

Oh, and the shadows in the lower corners were not drawn...I really need a new camera.

Kimberly, almost finished

She is still a work in progress (aren't we all?), but my portrait of her is almost done...

Kimmy, also a work in progress

I'm pretty sure the dog she's holding will give me fits. He is jet black.

David, a work in progress

David, age 17.

Baby Face

HOURS on this and it's still not right.
I lost a 1/2 day yesterday, but oh it was fun.
Snuggled in my blanket, erasing over and over and over again.












A sketch of one of the willowtree angels.

Wet Canvas & $5 off at DickBlick.com

I stumbled across an interesting resource just now: Wet Canvas!

Lots of "channels" with advice and inspiration for tons of different art disciplines and media...and nearly 100,000 members from whom to learn. Membership is free -- and gives you a $5-off coupon at Dick Blick Art Materials.

Amazing what I can find when I really should be working.

Go see!

Teacup and eggs

I got up the nerve to mess with a little color. The paper's white, but I took the photo in incandescent light, which my dying camera reads as even more yellow than you see here (oh, and love the little shadow in the upper right corner on all my photos...)

Here are my eggs.

But couldn't I just stand on my head?

In my voracious (and distracting-from-work) reading about all things sketchy and brushy lately, I caught what sounds like a cool hint:

Draw something upside down.

No, don't flip over, pencil in hand.

Turn a photo or drawing you want to sketch upside down, and draw what you see. The idea is that you will see the forms that are really there -- the way you used to see as a child, before logic muddied things up. It's drawing without assuming the forms add up to anything you've learned to recognize.

I think I will try this this weekend.

Sketch done in class

continued work on shading.

The New Mona Lisa

Did you know it took DaVinci 10 years to paint her lips? and she is missing a feature on her face. Can you see what it is?

a tropical storm in destin, fl

I sketched this more or less from one of my favorite photos, which a friend took during a tropical storm on the Gulf Coast. My rays are too pronounced, the proportions are all off, and the fact that the photo evokes strong emotion for me shows blatantly...but you get the idea. This exercise reminds me that 1) subtlety was never my strong point in anything; and 2) knowing when to stop -- knowing when I'm "done" -- is very, very difficult.


[the photo]

Dirty Car Art

Something to try in the spring?














more dirty car art

calendar girl

Meet beautiful Ms. Agnes, whose photo in a local nursing home's calendar inspired my very first attempt at drawing a person. She is as pretty and sparkling as June -- the month she's featured -- and capturing the memories in her face and the twinkle in her eye proved very very difficult. I don't know her, but I think I'd like to.

Here you can see the mistakes in proportion and symmetry I've made...but still, this is really fun.

very loose, very quick sketch

Chair with a blanket over it

I had such a hard time getting started with this one. It's an odd composition, in my humble opinion, but once I began sketching in the highlights, things seemed to take shape a bit better.

a hand

two hours to draw a hand, LOL!
but at least it's not a turkey anymore, it's a hand.
this one was tough.

That Leo guy was smart.

Factoid of the day: To better understand perspective in a painting,Leonardo DaVinci set up two easels and placed a large sheet of glass on them so that it straddled the gap. He then traced what he saw through the glass.

A glass

We need some Wachovia to put in it.

Blackstone, anyone?

So here's my wine bottle.

Are we annoying our artist friends and family yet? ;-)