hat 8, last one

Different style. I doubled a thin yarn and made a thicker, unribbed hat.

Now to take them to an organization who will know of people with cold heads and have some hats to offer them. Either Meals on Wheels, Salvation Army, or the Soup Kitchen. Update: I took them in to the Salvation Army local office and they were quite pleased to have hats to hand out.

wrist warmers, done!

These were a gift to a cold-wristed friend.

Simple tubes with thumb holes. Silk/wool yarn.

knitted hats 5, 6, 7

Catching up with the photos and posting.

peeking around a wall

Looking into the new year, maybe.

A wall and a mirror worked out, though the expression is pretty suspicious--what's out there?

Pencil in the Handbook artist's journal.

Santa for holiday cheer

Idle sketching, hanging out with the family and enjoying the day.

Season's Greetings and Happy Everything to Everyone!

Pencil in the Handbook artist's journal.

Just to get up *something* that's a bit Christmassy.

A stuffed Santa doll, pencil in the Handbook artist's journal

knitted hat 4

Catching up on posting the photos. But knitting is ongoing.

some of the Santas

I have a large Santa ornament collection. Didn't put very many out this year. These are all wooden.

Pencil/watercolor in the Handbook artist's journal

the secret to an unmoving model

When he reads a paper book, Jim moves constantly, fingers, hands, arms, even if it's back to the same positions over and over. A challenge!

But I drew this while he listened to an audio book and he didn't move a muscle, at all! for over 10 minutes. It was amazing for the sketcher, who was very happy!

Pencil in a Handbook artist's journal.

Portrait of a friend

Painted over a span of about 7 hours, again with guidance from an expert.


Done from a photo, but I changed the dress and necklace color, and background.

11x14, oil.

the model never knew I was there

Pencil in the PaperBlanks journal.

stop a minute to decorate

Amid all the knitting and painting, I managed to get a wreath up.

(a week ago)

M, partial scan

One third of the painting, safe for work.

The outstretched shoulder and arm look odd, but that was the pose.

DS oils on 140# w/c paper, acrylic ground.

mirrored bear

Trying a different sort of bear piece. DS oils on canvas board.

the first attempt

I did the painting of the man in the previously posted sketch, and turned him into a white-haired Trotsky version of himself.

Lots of problems here, not the least of which is the jaundiced eyeballs from the gold background showing through.

But for a 2 hour session (that's 20 minute sittings with 5 minutes in between), I felt pretty good about getting a whole head down!

Daniel Smith oils on 140# w/c paper, with gold acrylic ground.

first sketch for portrait

A 20 minute sketch of F. in prep for a 2 hour oil painting.

Pencil on Strathmore drawing paper.

hat 3

Photo is a little fuzzy, but then so is the hat.

I cabled the first section, then decided it wasn't worth it for what little the cables showed.

Switched to knit fast and finish mode!

an actual fruit still life

A painting I actually took more than 6 hours to do, in 3 sessions, helped by an expert painter.

The distant background will get more work, but for now, I'm liking the rest.

A viewer can create a story of what is happening here--fruit clumped together, tablecloth pushed back, bowl tipped over.

I like to think this still life is a narrative of an event. Feel free to create one.

12x16 canvas board.

rolling tote

With art supplies, of course.

Pencil in the Paperblanks journal.

found on the internet

From The World According to Lupus, found via a friend's link on Facebook. She fell down walking on a flat floor and broke her foot.

and another one

Hat number 2 of this knitting surge, thick acrylic yarn.

knitting season again

I always make hats to donate at Christmas--lots of cold heads out there in our winters! First one done. Noro yarn because I like to watch the colors change.

first step on a still life

I set up a still life of a clay and plastic mask with base and fabric. Beginning the layout with a viridian drawing. Oil on canvas board

the earring was the hardest thing

A 3-hour oil painting on Arches oil paper.

In my workshop group we had a lot of discussion about what color the earring should be (it was bright gold in reality).

I thought it should be a shade of gold. Everyone (experienced oil painters) told me I should make it a cool (temperature) color. I bowed to more knowledgeable artists, and this is what came out--aiming for a silvery thing. Why cool? In such an obvious spot?

Doesn't work for me, but will rethink it when I understand more.

the aerial view

A different angle on a familiar view. Pencil in the Paper Blanks journal.

bear behind a bush

It's an abstract, of palette scrapings. But when I saw the scan, I saw a bear behind a large bush. It's human to look at any collection of marks and not see a pattern that creates an object. Decoding the world around us, even if we're wrong about the message we get. Oils on canvas.

idle bunnies

Sketching a Goebbel figure, charcoal and (separately) pencil on Strathmore pastel paper.

rainbow gel pens--3 sketches

These gel pens that change color (5 colors in each pen) are great fun. These 3 sketches show how the colors progressed in one pen.

Mostly purple, blue added later after it appeared during the next sketch.














Started with purple, then it switched to blue.

Last bit of blue, then it switched to green, then orange.

There's no going back to a previous color, so the only direction is onward to use what appears, trying to make it work.

On card stock.

reading cherub

This model is a cheap clay cherub underneath her rosy glow, but any reader makes a good image. And good painting practice.

Water soluble oils on canvas board.

sunsetlike, I guess

It's actually palette leavings scraped on to an 8x10 canvas board.

3 male readers of Bujold's books

 Pencil on Bee paper.

2 women, Bujold readers

I switched to pencil for members of the audience.

On Bee Sketch paper.

Lois McMaster Bujold

She spoke at a local bookstore, and read from a partially finished novella with Miles Vorkosigan.

Gray fibertip on Bee Sketch paper.

scattered leaves

Inspired by leaves on the patio.

Acrylic on 8x8 canvas board.

scraped palette abstract

After mixing a lot of paint to create various experimental shades, I used a palette knife to spread and scrape them into a linear abstract.

Pure color is such fun!

Oil on canvas board.

G's portrait

Not sure I'll go back to tweak this one, but it's dry enough for scanning.

I'm doing 11x14s, which don't completely fit on the scanner. But I get a better jpg that way compared to taking a quick photo.

Daniel Smith oils on canvas board.

J in the chair, halfway done

This is 2 hours into the painting. It's dry now, and I'll go back to work on it more, but decided to scan it while I could.

I did the ground in chromium green acrylic with a textured finish. Then drew him in ultramarine, before painting the rest during his session.

I'm beginning to get the hang of this alla prima life painting in oils, I think! Though if I go back to work on this, it's not alla prima anymore.

Daniel Smith oils on canvas board.

Prismacolor watersoluble graphite

The 6B is nice and dark for scanning. I used to try to wet it, either with a brush or with spray, but never liked the results much.

On Strathmore drawing paper.

strange ice formations

This morning we had snow, then sleet, then rain. This is what happened on the driveway. I've never seen anything like this before--polkadot slush!

quick study of angles

I had to hang out in an office waiting for a student to arrive, so did this. Started out as an analysis of the lines and angles, then I had time to color it too.

In the journal.

Coates willow charcoal

I'm so loving the intense black of charcoal. And this isn't compressed charcoal, it's Coates willow. Great feel. On Strathmore drawing paper.

recycling, cover to cover

I had painted and made a cover for a sketchbook I would fill with good paper. It lay around for at least a year before I decided that project wasn't happening. No particular reason, just inertia.

I loved the cover through, so I cut the it into two pieces and glued them on a Bienfang spiral sketchbook, becoming the current volume of the journal.

Acrylic on w/c paper, coated with medium.

blue man on orange

My first alla prima portrait, with an unusual ground color--Octoberish/pumpkin, with ultramarine blue plus some white, for the figure.

One of the artists found this man in the Apple store and asked him if he would model. He agreed, and was excellent at doing it. Turns out that he is a potter and used to artists.

On 300# gessoed watercolor paper.

charcoal for pepper

I love the easy black of charcoal---a hard charcoal pencil, in this case.

On Strathmore drawing paper.