What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday - a finished project!

Made a goal to do one ACEO drawing a month this year, and yesterday, Jan. 31, my absolute deadline, I finished the first one.

I might make another touch up or two before I seal him, but overall, I think he's finished.

If anyone is interested in purchasing him, I'm offering him to blog followers or Facebook fans for $25.

He's 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches, and as I will not be making prints, he will always be a one of a kind piece of original artwork. Email me at black_unicorn11@yahoo.com if you're interested.

I also worked more on the "broken" assignment yesterday, and here's how it currently looks.

Drawing is final except I might change the "O" a bit - it doesn't look broken enough. Hoping to maybe finish it next week.

Friday Favorites Jan. 27

Vinyl wall quote from decomodwalls

What a beautiful quote! I'd love to have this in my bedroom that's decorated in our wedding colors and with wedding photos and mementos.

Horse painting from schukina

Beautiful! Love the detail of the bridle and the braids.

Valentine unicorn from DragonsAndBeasties

I see she's sold already since I found her, but isn't she adorable?

Great quote

Crash Hot Potatoes - Warning! If you make these for your husband once, he'll want them all the time! I recommend boiling them longer than you think you need to - makes them easier to smash.

Door shelf - Isn't that the greatest? I have a door up in my studio currently (I think it came off the walk-in closet, but I'm not sure why it was needed), so if I can get my husband to help, I'm going to be doing this!

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday, Jan. 25

My first ACEO card - I've made a goal to do one of these each month in 2012. This is about an hour of work, so I should be able to finish it in the next week.

And I'm starting to work on the final version of my "broken" assignment. I started in the the middle to make sure it's centered on the page.

Other things I've been working on are collecting reference photos for the bison commission and, if you're very observant, I did a little work on my blog. Made the message area wider, so I can now share my photos at a larger size!

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday - Broken

I abandoned all other projects and worked exclusively on my "broken" assignment yesterday. Here's my final practice version done in ink. I'll make a few minor adjustments for the version I send in - the "K" will definitely be changed a bit, and possibly the "B" also, and I'll do the "N" a bit lower on the page, so it doesn't look like it's going uphill. After doing this, I'm feeling better about the inking part. I am very glad I went with simple block letters though, so all I have to do is outline and fill in areas with the ink. I don't feel confident enough with it to do shading or detail with the ink.

What do you think? Can you immediately tell what it says, or are there letters that you have to look at a bit to figure them out?

Friday favorites Jan. 13

I let the Friday favorites slip during the Christmas rush, but now I finally feel like I have time to put it together again.

Arabian horse pencil drawing from aleksandar 

Love the details of the bridle!

Work horse painting from BrentSchreiber

I can't recall ever having seen a black and white painting before. Such an interesting concept, and the detail is exquisite!

Camera strap from madebymeegz

I've decided to make my own camera bag insert, but I'm still on the look out for a detachable camera strap, and I still have my eye on this one. Just need to find some coordinating fabric for my bag insert.

Suspended lounge area - I'm not even really sure what you call it, but isn't that the neatest thing you've ever seen? I just want to curl up with a book on a warm spring day!

Slit top - I could never wear it like this, but I think it'd look great with a brightly colored shirt underneath it. I have tons of t-shirts I never wear, so one may end up with a new life.

31 Days to a Better Photo - A fantastic photography tutorial. I found it very helpful and easy to understand for someone who'd only heard of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO in circles familiar with photo jargon.

What's in My Sketchbook Wednesday, Jan. 11

I actually worked on three things during my day in the studio yesterday.

20 min. sketch of a bison for a commission just to see what the client thinks of the pose:

The "broken" assignment for the Art Instruction Schools lettering lesson. I actually worked some beyond this but must've forgotten to photograph it. I'm combining the second down on the left side with the bottom on the right side. Pretty sure that'll be the final concept I go with. I actually wanted to do the broken glass look (left side, bottom), but since this assignment is to be done with pen and ink, which I'm not completely comfortable with, I decided against it.

I don't think I've showed you this guy before. I have a couple hours of work into him already (he's huge!), and I'm feeling pretty good about how he's coming along. I'm working from the first photo in my Horse Power Event post. I haven't worked in this large sketchbook (it's approximately 16x20 inches) since college, but I thought all the detail in the harness warranted a larger size. You can see I'm using a grid for this one. I don't usually unless I'm having a hard time with proportions, but working at this size, I wanted to be sure to get it correct right away.

January 8 photo hunt

My little sister and I went out photo hunting yesterday. Still can't believe the gorgeous weather and lack of snow here in Minnesota in mid-January, so we decided to take advantage of it.

This is the first of my three favorite photos - it was the fifth or sixth one I snapped.

The second of my three favorites - right across the road and a few shots after the one above. I love the gradation of colors in the water.

I had fun playing with my aperture! I was really confused when I was reading about it, but I finally just remembered small number = small depth of field.

This abandoned farm site was so much fun to photograph, especially this little building.

This is the same building.

I love old windmills - too bad so many are missing their fins like this one is.

And the third of my three favorite photos - taken through the hole into the loft.

This was taken later that night. There was such a lovely haze around the moon, and I spent some time playing with shutter speed to capture it the way I wanted.

And I thought it was a boring time of year to take photos!

What's your favorite season to photograph?