Sketchbook Sunday (on Monday) - March 18

Crazy busy week and weekend. A new calf that was having some trouble kept me from getting the post up yesterday, but I didn't forget! Here's a look at my work this week.

The Arabian stallion:

And the finished assignment for the portrait lesson for Art Instruction Schools. Next, I learn about fabric and how it folds and drapes on the human figure.

Sketchbook Sunday - March 10

I didn't have a lot of time in my studio this week, so there's not as much progress to show as I'd like, but that's life.

The Arabian stallion - still working on the neck. Due to the roughness of this paper, it's time consuming to make sure all the dips in the paper get filled in, so they don't stay white and lighten up the whole area.

Portrait assignment - really happy with how he's coming along. Just the neck to finish, and then I'll be on to the next lesson.

Sketchbook Sunday - March 3

Wow, can you believe it's March already? This winter actually seemed to go by pretty quickly!

Let's kick Sketchbook Sunday off with some sketches from the model horse on my desk. This mostly rear-view of the head is not one of my strong points, so it's good practice.

The Arabian stallion portrait is coming along well. I turned the far ear back again since it gave him a too friendly look when it pointed forward, and I want him to look like a spirited stallion, not a pet. I adjusted the other ear as well and the lid on the eye. Now I'm starting to develop the shadows.

The portrait assignment continues to come along well. For having hardly drawn any people in my life, I'm pretty happy with how he looks. Hopefully I can finish him this week and move onto the next assignment.

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?

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.

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!

Project 365 - January 22-28

Tuesday, January 22 - I joined the county fair board and attended my first meeting. This was the agenda for the evening.
Wednesday, January 23 - I delivered Meals on Wheels to homebound people in the area with my mom. This is the basket full of empty trays being returned.
Thursday, January 24 - You probably can't tell, but this is me. This is what I've looked like the last few days of single digit/below zero temps. I don't keep warm easily, so when the temps dip this low, this is what I wear - jeans and long-sleeve shirt (and if I'll be out for a longer period of time, I add long underwear), heavy insulated coveralls, fleece vest with high neck, sweatshirt, heavy denim jacket, hood/face mask, stocking cap, heavy gloves, socks (with extra pairs if I plan on being out a long time), and heavy boots. It's a long process getting in and out of all that clothing which is why I love summer so much!
Friday, January 25 - Playing piano is one of many hobbies I never have enough time for. I especially like playing Lorie Line and George Winston pieces.
Saturday, January 26 - I actually forgot to take a photo for Project 365 today, but luckily, I had taken photos for Sketchbook Sunday, so I do still have something to show you. This is my current classwork for Art Instruction Schools.
Sunday, January 27 - Relaxing for the evening with my husband. Maybe someday you'll get to see his face.
Monday, January 28 - Looking at sales listings of bulls. We're looking at getting into a kind of new breed - Black Herefords.

Sketchbook Sunday - January 27

Working on sketching for the Arabian stallion drawing.

Drawing a practice portrait for my lesson on portraits.

Sketchbook Sunday - January 20

This week's work - I was in Wisconsin for a couple days helping my Grandpa move to a new house, so not a lot of time for art, but here's what things look like now.

I'm working on hair for the Art Instruction Schools portrait lesson. The left side of the sketch was done, and I'm filling in the right side. I found this very difficult as they had put in lines to show the direction of the hair, but they were such a jumbled mess that they really didn't help at all.

A whole page of sketches of my model horse shown in last week's post.

My next project is to draw this stunning Arabian stallion as a thank you to the people who so generously gave me my two horses, Intrigue and Encore. The photo is blurry because I pulled it from a video, but I'm thinking this is the general pose I'd like to do. I'll be doing just the head and neck, and he will be big! I'm going to work in the same sketchbook in which I drew "Looking Back in Time", approximately 14x18".

And because last week, I was asked to post the finished teeth drawing, you get this. I never finished it as I didn't find teeth difficult to do and decided to spend the practice time on something that did need it, but there's more to it than there was last week, so here it is:

Sketchbook Sunday - January 13

In my Art Instructions Schools portrait lesson, I've been drawing facial features all week. Right now, I'm working on teeth.

For my sketching, I've been doing different angles of a model horse. After two non-horse drawings, I needed to get back to my favorite subject. A couple years ago, I did this with another model horse - just rotated it a little each day and drew whatever angle I was looking at. I felt it was a really good way to really study all the different angles, and I wanted to try it again.
Here's the horse I'm working from:

And here's one of the sketches I did this week:

Still working out what I'm going to do for my next drawing, but it feels pretty good to have a break from a pressing project.

Sketchbook Sunday - January 6

Back at it this week. Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple weeks. The only thing I had to show I couldn't for fear of ruining a Christmas surprise. I showed a photo of him earlier, but here's the signed, finished scan.

Sketching from a model horse on my desk.

The finished assignment for my foreshortening lesson. I have the crappiest scanner known to man, so it's very light, but you get the idea.

And working on the next lesson - portraits. Going to be drawing lots of eyes, noses, and lips this week.

On a side note, I decided the evening of Jan. 1 to join in on Project 365 this year, so you'll be seeing weekly posts of my photos of the previous week. If anyone else is joining in this year and blogging about it, post a link to your blog in the comments - I'd love to follow you!

Sketchbook Sunday - December 16

Here's what my foreshortening assignment looks like right now. It will hopefully go in the mail this week.

And a page from my sketchbook. A quick sketch of a rodeo photo and some experimenting with how to do a black background behind the fur and whiskers of my mom's cat that may be my next drawing. I've always despised drawing light hair against a darker background.

Sketchbook Sunday - December 9

I worked more than usual again this week, but I still made some good progress on my assignment. Right arm, face, and torso are close to finished.

And a close-up of a horse's face that I did a quick sketch of.

Sketchbook Sunday - December 2

You won't be seeing any actual drawings that I'm working on for a little while. I've decided to take a little break after the last two projects. I'll probably start up again after Christmas.

In the meantime though, I'll still be working on my Art Instruction Schools lessons. Here's the current state of the assignment for the foreshortening lesson:

The hand and arm on the left are close to finished. The rest is just shadows and highlights blocked in.

And a sketch I did of my mom's cat, Bummer. She keeps nagging me to draw him for her. The black patch is just a test to see how he'd look against a dark background. With the white fur on his chin, I'm thinking that's what I'll have to do even though I don't look forward to it.

Sketchbook Sunday - November 18

This past week, I finished the bison commission. After showing him to the client, she requested I add a tail, and I really like how that balances him out.

In my art lessons, I'm working on the final assignment for the lesson on foreshortening. In order to follow the instructions, I have to work up from the line of action, skeleton, basic shapes, muscle structure, etc. It really goes against the way I typically work. I know it's kind of hard to see. The lines are so light at this point that even upping the contrast doesn't do a whole lot. I'll have better photos next week.

I didn't do much sketching this week since I was working on finishing the bison. In fact, this flower was the only sketching I did this week.

I also have been playing around with Photoshop Elements that I got for my birthday last week. Here's one of the photos that I worked on editing this week. There were just little bits of another horse in the background that were kind of distracting, and I took him out - love being able to do that!

Sketchbook Sunday - November 11

The bison is coming along well I think. I'm considering extending the front legs more and having them fade away below the tufts of hair. I'm hoping to meet up with the client soon to get her opinion.

Working on exaggerated foreshortening in my lessons. Only one more practice drawing before finally starting the assignment.

 And since it was a bit of a frustrating week, I decided to play with some color in my sketching. This is from a photo of a beautiful stained glass window.

These will be the last photos you will see from Picmonkey.com. I got Photoshop Elements 11 this past week and am excited to start editing photos with that!

Sketchbook Sunday - November 4

Sorry for the lack of post last week. I was completely consumed with choosing, editing, and naming photos for the Ex Arte Equinus competition.

It was back to drawing this week. Drawing yet more figures for my Art Instruction Schools foreshortening lesson.

Sketching from a photo I took of a group of hay bales covered with snow.

And continuing to work on the bison.

I'm really excited because this past week, I got a great deal and ordered Photoshop Elements 11! No more editing with Picmonkey.com. As great as it is, especially for a free site, I'm ready for something more advanced. Elements will be arriving just in time for my 30th birthday!

Sketchbook Sunday - October 21

Kind of a busy week again - didn't spend a whole lot of time in my studio, but I made a little progress.

Still working on feet in my art lessons. This is my final foot practice - drawing my own feet in a mirror.

I'm happy with how the bison is coming along. Doing the eye always makes the drawing come to life.

And some of this week's sketching. I'm thinking about doing a rodeo drawing next, so I've been sketching from photos I've taken at rodeos. The art lessons must be helping if I'm even considering doing a drawing in which I have to draw a human face and hands!

This week, I'll be working on knees and elbows in my art lessons, and I think it goes on to faces after that if I really make a lot of progress.
Hopefully, I'll get the face done on the bison and start working on all that long hair around the neck. I'm feeling a little intimidated about that - wish me luck!