Project 365 - February 19-25

Tuesday, Feb. 19 - Bitter cold day and the brightest sun dogs I have ever seen! Not long after I took this photo, they were too bright to look directly at.
Wednesday, Feb. 20 - Watching the Scottsdale Arabian show live online. Love seeing all the different classes that I've never seen before like saddleseat, native costume, liberty, and gambler's choice jumping.
Thursday, Feb. 21 - We finally had a nice warmish day (20 degrees), so I took some photos of our new Black Hereford heifers we bought last weekend.
Friday, Feb. 22 - I was lucky enough to be watching the live feed of the Scottsdale Arabian show at the right time to see a half-sister to my colt be named top ten yearling Arabian filly!
Saturday, Feb. 23 - My sweet Border Collie begging for her treat. She almost always puts one or both paws up by her face when she begs - adorable!
Sunday, Feb. 24 - Yes, I forgot to take a photo. I'd say a 54 day streak isn't bad though!
Monday, Feb. 25 - A cute summer shirt I got for $5 through my hometown's garage sale site on Facebook.

Sketchbook Sunday - February 24

The assignment for the portrait lesson for Art Instruction Schools is coming along nicely, I think. The hair is roughed in, forehead and eyebrows are in, and I'm working on the eye.

I'm making slow progress on the Arabian stallion drawing. I changed the far ear to point forward rather than sidewise, but I'm not sure I like it, so it may go back to the way it was. I fiddled with the shape of the blaze, trying to match it with photos of the real horse.

Some sketching I did this past week. I'm trying to decide how I want the neck to "end" on the Arabian stallion portrait. I think I like the first one best - with the concave shape to the neck. What do you think? Is there a different one you like better?

"Looking Back in Time" is 2nd place winner!

I was super excited to get a letter from the Art Instruction Schools yesterday notifying me that my draft horse drawing, "Looking Back in Time" was chosen as a second place winner in their annual art competition!

For those who are new to my blog, this is quite a large drawing that I did last summer/fall; I ran a contest to name it and chose the name "Looking Back in Time". I finished it just barely in time to have it shipped in for the art competition, and after I'd already sent it off, I found out that the scan taken of it didn't turn out, so this is a very poor look at it, but it's all I have at the moment:

I look forward to getting the original back soon, and with the prize money, I'm hoping to have giclee prints made of it. The original will also be for sale; you can email me if you're interested.

Celebrating 10,000 views giveaway!

To celebrate the 10,000th view of this blog, I will give away one of my art bookmarks to every person that replies to this post in the next 24 hours. You may leave your mailing address here or email it to me at black_unicorn11@yahoo.com.

Giveaway ends at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 20!

You will receive a random bookmark of the three designs pictured.

Project 365 - February 12-18

Tuesday, Feb. 12 - We're planning a long drive this weekend, so I picked up a couple audio books at the library to listen to during the trip.
Wednesday, Feb. 13 - My husband bought two loads of cattle at a sale barn 2.5 hours from home. I went back with him for the second load. We left just after dark, hit some really crappy weather, and this is when we got home.
Thursday, Feb. 14 - My Valentine's Day rose. I love the combination of roses and sheet music. I had so much fun taking photos with this rose!
Friday, Feb. 15 - At about 5 p.m., we left on our 8+ hour drive to Missouri for a cattle sale, so this is what I spent many hours looking at.
Saturday, Feb. 16 - Early this morning, we did our Walmart Valentine mission. We each went into Walmart with a $25 limit to get whatever we could find for each other for Valentine's Day. That evening, after the cattle sale, in our fancy hotel room, we exchanged our gifts. It was such a fun idea for a V-Day on a budget!
Sunday, Feb. 17 - Leaving Missouri with our new cattle and driving through Amish country, we spotted quite a few horses and buggies - such a neat sight!
Monday, Feb. 18 - Making up information sheets for the new cattle and working out the calving schedule. With the 12 new heifers we've bought in the last week, we're up to 62 calves this year plus 17 of my in-laws', and it could get started any day now. Busy busy!

Sketchbook Sunday - February 17

Sketching from the model horse again - studying the hindquarters. Not the most glamorous thing to study, but it's got to be accurate too.

Starting the assignment for the portrait lesson. You can see the model photograph on the right and hopefully my sketch on the left - I darkened it as much as I could. I've got the head shape in along with the eyeballs (the lids will come later to make the eye shapes), the tip of the nose, and just starting the mouth.

And the Arabian stallion drawing - the outline is done, I'm pretty happy with the marking on the face (very important when doing a portrait of a real horse), and I have just the very basic values in. The dark areas are the black/nearly black points, the lightly shaded areas will be in shadow, and the areas still white will be catching the light. The main thing left to decide is what kind of shape I should make where the neck fades away. I may do some sketches to see what looks best for that.

Project 365 - February 5-11

Tuesday, Feb. 5 - I found a gently used iPod 3rd generation Nano for sale! I've been wanting an iPod for years, and I'm so excited to finally have one.
Wednesday, Feb. 6 - On our way to the sale barn to sell a couple fat steers and some of the smaller calves that couldn't keep up with the bigger calves.
Thursday, Feb. 7 - Baking bread. My recipe makes three loaves, so I had two extras to give to my two friends that I went out with later that night.
Friday, Feb. 8 - Working on my Sketchbook Sunday blog post.
Saturday, Feb. 9 - The beginning of a blizzard that shut down the whole area for a day and a half. They were huge snow pellets - that's the only way I can describe them. They looked like hail but were spongy like snowballs. Never seen them before.
Sunday, Feb. 10 - Our Border Collie, Pieper, begging to be let back in the house while licking snowflakes off her nose. She really does love the snow once she gets out into it, but being put out of the warm house into this was a bit of a shock.
Monday, Feb. 11 - The blizzard finally ended with 7-8 inches of new snow.

Sketchbook Sunday - February 10

I finally started the Arabian stallion portrait I've been talking about for weeks. The outline is roughed in. Forgive the dark shadows - I had to darken the photo a lot for the lines to even be seen.

Still working on portraits. I'll be starting the final assignment this week.

Project 365 - January 29-February 4

Tuesday, Jan. 29 - A kitchen flop. I've made this recipe for cowboy cookies many times, but for some reason, they just didn't turn out well this time. At least they still tasted good.
Wednesday, Jan. 30 - I brought home two books from the library that I'm very excited about. One is about cooking meals to stock in the freezer and the other is the sequel to Divergent, the book voted #1 on the Teen Top Ten List of 2012 and all around awesome book - dare I say better than Hunger Games?
Thursday, Jan. 31 - One of my goals this year is to do more freezer cooking. Today, I made two gallon bags full of chili, two sandwich-size bags of taco meat, and two balls of dough for pizza crusts to go in the freezer for days I don't want to cook or when my husband is home alone.
Friday, Feb. 1 - I got my foreshortening assignment back from Art Instruction Schools with a B+ grade.
Saturday, Feb. 2 - Value sketches for the Arabian stallion portrait I plan to do. Still trying to decide which one I like best.
Sunday, Feb. 3 - My mom's cat Bummer provided quite the entertainment during the Superbowl.
Monday, Feb. 4 - Food and library books seemed to be common in my life this week. This Amish cookbook has to be back to the library later this week, so I went through and made copies of the recipes I want to try.

Sketchbook Sunday - February 3

This week, I worked on learning about different facial expressions and how they affect the facial features. I was given the face of this boy minus eyes and mouth and had to create the expression. Here's what it looks like today.

And then, as you've perhaps already seen, I've been sketching for my upcoming Arabian stallion drawing and trying to decide if I should cast the shadow across the face as in the top right sketch or have the light hitting the face as in the bottom sketch. Your opinions would be appreciated!