Sketchbook Sunday - July 1

Here's what I've gotten done this past week:

Still working on sketches of signs for the churches. Here's two of the designs I'll present for consideration. There may be a third depending on if I can make it work the way I want. It's hard with the variety in the length of the names of the churches. These are just larger sketches. I'll do a more final version with everything measured out better to actually present.

Which one do you like better?

And here's a current view of the draft horse. I'm really not liking the texture of this paper. It's got more of a grain than I'm used to, and it's really difficult to get that leather to look smooth. I'm at the point where I need to decide if I'm really going to kick it to get him done this month or if I should abandon him for July and work on the bison drawing. I'd like to have something to show at the county fair the last week of July besides my ACEOs.

I haven't forgotten about rodeo pictures from last weekend. I promise they're coming. I'll also have tons of photos to share of my anniversary trip to Green Bay and Door County, Wisconsin. Stay tuned!

A look back - 5 years ago today

June 30, 2007 was the best day of my life, and I'm thrilled to be celebrating five years of marriage with the most amazing husband I could ever hope for.

I love you, Baby. Here's to at least 50 more!

Sketchbook Sunday - June 24

Not a lot of work on the draft horse this week, but I got another little section done.

And here's a shot of all the shading so far:

I finished the composition assignment for Art Instruction Schools. I have a review test to do, and then I'll be sending in this drawing:

The next three assignments are figure drawing. I'm half excited and half scared. I really need help with drawing people, but I'm afraid that I won't be any good at them. Wish me luck!

And finally, I've been asked to design a sign for the churches in town. It's 4x8 feet and will list the names of all 10 churches along with a welcome message and a cross with the phrase "Together under the cross". I have about eight different designs sketched out. Will do a few more this week and then pick out two or three to develop further. I'm supposed to present a couple different options.

In other news, I spent the last couple nights at the rodeo. I took over 300 photos, so once I go through them and pick a few to show, I'll be posting them. In the meantime, here's a look at last year's rodeo. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised in the difference in photo quality with my Canon Rebel!

Sketchbook Sunday - June 17

Didn't get a lot of work time in this week due to a couple days of subbing at another library, but I made some progress on a couple drawings - the first being my assignment for Art Instruction Schools:

 This is just about finished and will be going in the mail this week!

I also got about half an hour of work in on the draft horse:

I love the stitching on the harness. It's a pain in the butt to actually do, but I love how it looks afterwards.

Sketchbook Sunday - June 10

Since my work schedule has changed, and Tuesday is no longer the primary day I have to work on my art, I'm going to replace the "What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday" posts with "Sketchbook Sunday" to show what I've done throughout the week.

Here's the first edition:

I think I mentioned before that I had heard of someone who drew an illustration for every page of a novel. I don't intend to do finished pieces as that artist did. I'm only doing maybe 10 min. sketches, but it's a good exercise in creativity. Here's one I've done so far. The book I'm sketching is "Heartland Skies", and on this particular page a bronc fell and was injured during the rodeo.

I've finished the outline of the draft horse and am starting to put in the shading. This is a very large drawing (the paper is 18x24"), so it's going to come along at a slower pace than you're probably used to seeing me work at.

And here's a closeup of the area I've begun to shade.

And finally, a look at the current state of the assignment I'm working on for the Art Instruction Schools. This is the final piece that will be sent in for grading when it's finished.

As always, I welcome critique, and if you see something that just doesn't look quite right, you'd be doing me a huge favor if you pointed it out to me before I get farther along and it's harder to fix.

Some pretty horse photos to inspire me back to drawing

This week, I'm finally getting back into my art. I heard a while back about an artist who'd done a sketch from each page of a book, and I'm giving that a try. They're just quick 15 minute sketches, but I need something to get me back into the habit.
Today, I'm devoting some serious time to my artwork - sketching, class work, and maybe working on a commission later today if it's going well, though I want to make sure I'm at my best before attempting that.
So to get me in the mood, I'm looking through the photos of my latest trip to Wisconsin and visit to Jerland Farms.

The beautiful Arabian horses:

And some other miscellaneous shots:

All photos are straight from the camera except for cropping on a couple of them.

My last month

I realize I haven't posted anything in over a month. Life's been crazy. March 8 was the day I realized I couldn't stay at my job any longer and had to quit whether I had another job or not. The same week I turned in my notice, I interviewed for, was offered, and accepted a new job, and I became a librarian on April 2. I had two 40 hour/6 day weeks for training, almost a full week the third week due to other commitments, and this past week, I was finally able to work what will be my normal three-day work week.
To make things even more hectic, I also became a mother in early April to an adorable little calf named Pumpkinseed, a.k.a. Punky.

Her mama had pneumonia and mastitis and was unable to take care of her, so I've been bottle feeding her morning and evening for the last month. She'll hopefully be able to make it on her own in the next couple weeks.
We're up to 21 calves now, and keeping the records, getting them separated from the rest of the herd with their mamas, giving them shots and tags, and moving them to the pen with the other cow/calf pairs has been a part-time job in itself. There should be 37 more coming in the next couple months.

I'm also loving what we're having of the spring weather. It's been 40 degrees and rainy the last few days, but there have been a few tastes of some gorgeous weather.

Of course, the spring weather also means that planting has started, and I've spent some time tossing around seed bags, pouring seed into the planter, rolling up the electric fence around the fields, and transporting my husband from place to place to move equipment.

Probably the most enjoyable part of the last month was a visit from my sister last weekend. She was dogsitting and brought Champ along. He didn't sit still for very long, so I got a chance to play with shutter speed in my photography.

(For the record, that stick was a good four times his length, but he didn't believe it.)

I was thrilled to finally have a camera with adjustable shutter speed to catch a shaking dog in action.

And one final shot of Champ.

In case anyone is still looking for a replacement for Picnik, that last photo was edited with Picmonkey.com. Pretty much just like Picnik, only FASTER!!! I'm actually happy now that Picnik closed because it was so dang SLOW!

So... there's my last month in a nutshell and the explanation for why I haven't posted. I also have hardly drawn during that time, and sadly, my ACEO per month goal is not happening. My intention is to get back into the art this week now that the work schedule has calmed down.