Daily sketches and finished projects!

Been super busy around here lately - new pickup, new cows, new computer on the way, and an exciting trade on Etsy (but I'll talk more about that when it arrives).

First of all, since I'm just so excited about it, here is my new "hauling stuff to art shows" vehicle:

I've been having to borrow hubby's 4-door for shows, but now I have my own bigger cab with four doors, and I had a tonneau cover put on it too, so I can haul more stuff in the box and not have to worry about it blowing away. It will also be nice to buy gas instead of diesel! I super excited! :)

Now to my daily sketches. I don't have photos up to today, and I don't want to overwhelm you with too many at once either, so here's about a week's worth of them:

On to finished projects:
I posted a while back about my assignment for my course from The Art Instruction Schools. I finished it and sent it off last week. It was the "Drawing Objects" lesson, and the assignment was to draw a "sight-size" shoe. I can't wait to get it back and see what grade I got!

I also posted an in progress shot a while ago of the shirt I was sewing. I've finished that as well and have already worn it a few times. Please forgive my filthy mirror. I didn't notice it until I was editing the photo.

The turquoise cami underneath is not my creation, but I don't dare wear this shirt alone - seems to be a common theme. I'll have to figure out how to alter the patterns for a more modest look.

Anyone else finish any long-term projects lately?

Front page!!!

Right this moment, one of my photographs is on the front page of Artfire.com!!!

Bottom row, 3rd item is my draft horse photograph!

Another week of daily sketches

Well, I've been keeping up with the daily sketching... If only I could be as good at posting them every day. :)

Here goes:

Jan 5:

Jan. 6:

Jan. 7:

Jan. 8:

Jan. 9:

Jan. 10 & 11 - I finally decided to depart from the face. I found the tail to not be very interesting with the ceiling light, so I left it and just focused on hair detail today with the natural light.



Drawing a Day challenge

Wow, it's been a busy start to the year. I have been doing my daily sketches, but I've only spent a couple minutes a piece on them. I've actually decided exactly what I'm going to do with these sketches - I've chosen a model horse rather than using photographs. This will allow me to work from different angles/lighting, and I'm going to work from this horse every day for the month, forcing myself to study it in depth, rather than just a quick sketch and saying done.

I'm also working with a new pencil  that another pencil artist recommended to me. It's a Sanford Ebony pencil. It's very soft and smooth and has an incredible range of tone to it.

Actually, the biggest challenge with this project has been lighting. I didn't stop to think when I started that I'm going to be drawing at night nearly every day since it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home. I might have to rearange my studio table a bit at some point since the overhead light is directly above and behind me, which doesn't make for a very interesting lighting on the subject. This will have to wait until my still life drawing for my art classes is done though as I can't move that set up. Oh, the joys of living in a 100 year old farmhouse where they didn't see a reason for outlets.

January 1 - I very nearly forgot about this project, so I sat down to sketch for about 1 min. before falling into bed exhausted from the 5 hours of sleep I'd gotten the previous night.

January 2 - Drawing in the dark just isn't a lot of fun, but I decided to focus on the anatomy of the muzzle. I was bad and got bored with this very quickly and just didn't go any farther with it.

January 3 - Drawing in the dark again and, once again, not a lot of time. A side view of the muzzle this time.

January 4 - Today I'm at home, so I had some fun lighting. I worked on the eye and really like how this turned out. I'm actually thining of developing this into an actual drawing.

Meet Marabella, my lovely model. The last photo is pretty close to the view I drew from for today's sketch.