Inktober 2016

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#Inktober makes October way better. I have been down in the dumps lately which has made drawing a struggle. Inktober is a good push for me to get back into the swing of looking forward to a drawing. Here is day one! Not too terribly happy with the drawing, but I did it and that is what matters. I don’t usually do ink wash but though I would give that a try…I will consider ink washes for the next few sketches as well. #inktober2016 has some prompts as well…so I decided to use todays prompt to choose the subject matter. Today’s prompt was FAST.

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In Memoriam

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This has been a sad month. We lost our very spectacular dog Big on September 2nd. He did in fact have a long (12 years), adventurous and a really spoiled life. However, the pain of the loss still weighs heavy, I imagine that will last for awhile. He was a committed companion, always on watch for his family. When you have a dog you get used to all the things that go along with having a dog…saving leftovers, night walks, morning walks, morning cuddles, sharing the sofa during tv shows, making plans for travel that include finding spots that will take dogs and of course one of the most wonderful things… knowing you are coming home to someone who always has time for you. He will be missed in a Big way. I will be forever grateful to my parents who were with him at the very end, they are the kindest people I know. I only wish that I had been with him as well.

We will probably adopt another dog in the future, but Big will always have an especially special place in my heart. I don’t know why but somehow I felt even more connected to him than our other dogs…and I loved our other dogs very much!

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Sadly our friend (and vet) also lost their long time companion, Springer Spaniel Samantha. She also had a long and wonderful life. I know her family will miss her as well. I did this portrait for them as a memoriam.

Dogs are really fabulous, I just wished that they would live longer.

Trying New Art Supplies

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9" x 12" Charcoal on Paper

9″ x 12″ Charcoal on Paper

Charcoal is something I haven’t used since college. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed working with it, as I really don’t like pastels…maybe the simplicity of black and white is more comfortable for me. I am trying to keep myself occupied because my very best friend, my Big dog is not doing very well. Drawing keeps the mind occupied. Grateful for #sktchy for some nice resources.

This was done in my Strathmore toned paper journal. Magic marker under painting for some subtle color. #sketchbox art supplies that were delivered this month.

Bumps in my art world

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Well, the 20 minutes a day did NOT work out. Bad choice in terms of timing I guess. I was hoping to keep up with my portraits, but I just couldn’t make it happen.

I have been behind on my art projects. Summer at work is always busy, hoping that the fall will open up a little more time for me. I do have a new project in process, I am thinking of focusing a lot of my art on ocean themes. I love working on the fish, mermaids and beach scenes. It might help me to narrow some subject matters down and try to be disciplined. However, I am going to continue working on faces, because I am really enjoying that.

20 Minutes A Day Challenge

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So for two weeks I am going to try my best to stick with the #20MinutesADay challenge. I am on day TWO! So far so good. I decided to work on portraits as I am still trying to get better at that. 20 minutes seems to be just the right amount of time, not to little, but not too much! I am hopeful that I can keep it up.

Maybe I will develop a good habit!

Sea Creatures

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I must be easily influenced! One of my friends mentioned interest in Horseshoe Crabs and off I went to work on Horseshoe crabs. Never would I have thought to do a painting of this particular sea creature. But, it was super fun! And, I learned a little bit about them too. I am going to do a series of 3. One more to do. I actually love their shape and design. These lent themselves to the encaustic medium as a finish…and the addition of white broken shells. Both of them are done on cradled birch panel, using a combination of oil bar, watercolor and casein, encaustic and the found natural shells. Lots of fun! I just have to decide the color scheme for the last one!

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Recent Work

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I have been drawing, just not posting. Fourth of July holiday was our week vacation time. Lots of camping and sailing…and I always have good intentions to do some sketching, but it is still difficult for me to settle down. We seem to spend a lot of time moving our gear in and out of the boat and then off to another island!

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Luckily we spent two days at Little Hens so I spent a little time doing some landscape drawing (which I really never do). Once I got back home and unpacked it was back to #sktchy and faces. I am also working on some fish studies for larger paintings. The Right Whale seemed a good choice.

One and a half days left on vaca and then back to work.

Sktchy and Materials

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Along with doing quick simple faces I want to be able to do a more finished drawing. This started with leftovers (I hate to waste paint!) I had painted a blue(ish) ground on my strathmore toned paper…then had some left over acrylic paint that I decided to squash on there. Over that I decided to paint some watercolor…which looked interesting…kind of like a stain. I thought, well, this might be a good surface for graphite.

I am not sure about it. The graphite went down smoothly. But, I felt like I couldn’t get the darks as dark as I wanted. Maybe I just needed to control the ground more in areas. I think that the effect is interesting though, will try again!

Fishing

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I have been trying to finish this one up for a couple of weeks. Fish drawings for my husband! I was doing a lot of birds and he said, how about some fish! So, this is for my husband John.

Our plow guy takes out our house marker (or mailbox if up) every year. Another one bit the dust this past winter. Here is our new sign, found wood on the beach, painted in acrylic–atlantic salmon seemed a good choice for a coastal Maine house. We’ll see how long it lasts!

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Still working on my faces. Work in progress today–taking more time than I normally do.

Still going

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I am still doing a face a day…but some don’t turn out as planned. This was from a few days ago, since then I haven’t been happy with any of the others. I guess I am going through a rough patch. I always feel like outside factors (like stress or feeling overwhelmed at work) shouldn’t influence the drawing–but they seem to!

But, I will keep going!

This one was done with ballpoint pen in my everyday journal. I downloaded the Adobe Draw app which looks like a great way to add color to my sketches. But, it is different than my computer version and will take a little getting used to

Still having fun with #sktchy app!