LMacfarlane

studying Slobodkin’s illustrations

I love this illustration from the book The Hundred Dresses (page 14). The original artist, Louis Slobodkin, actually studied as a sculptor before finding his way into illustration. I had to warm up with a colored pencil sketch and then a still-not-very-precise study before I was ready to try copying the whole illustration. My finalContinue reading “studying Slobodkin’s illustrations”

cicero the cat

Meet Cicero, my cat. The day I started this I was full of disappointment about a different piece, so I decided to start pouring all that energy into something new. It started with a sketch in pastel pencils and grew into a cozy-feeling oil painting. This is my second no-gesso painting. Oil on hardboard, 11×14Continue reading “cicero the cat”

davinci face copy

This is my work so far on an assignment to hand draw a copy of a DaVinci drawing. It is painstaking work. And for the next step I’m supposed to make second copy, this time without looking at the reference while I draw! I can look at the reference before I draw, and I canContinue reading “davinci face copy”

portrait in red and green

This is my interpretation of a portrait done by Gabriele Munter, one of my favorite painters. To imitate her style of painting on un-gessoed cardboard, I painted this on the un-gessoed back-side of hardboard. The texture is a little intense so next time I’ll try sanding the surface before painting. But other than that, IContinue reading “portrait in red and green”

blotting paper art

This is a corner of a page I used for wiping extra paint from several different paintings. This kind of painting (unplanned, accidental, instinctive) is not what I want to spend all my time doing, but I like it as an exercise. And as a way to feel like I’m not wasting the excess paintContinue reading “blotting paper art”

the first green, 2021

I spotted my first green growth of the year yesterday. These chives were weak enough last year (their first year, grown from seed) that I wasn’t sure I’d really see them again. But here they are, bringing some early strong green to my garden.

pan pastels

I had fun exploring with a new medium. Pastel on paper, 6×9″.

dig a hole, fill it up

I chose this Big Cis plum tree to block the line of sight from across the street to my back patio because of its beautiful leaves and perfect size. Arborists can look down on red leaf plums because they are overplanted in some areas and they only live about 20 years, making them a short-termContinue reading “dig a hole, fill it up”

leaves turning

I love the color details on these autumn crabapple leaves.

paperbark maple

The record heat we had this summer was not kind to this young paperbark maple in its first year in my yard. It only has a handful of leaves, and most of them have suffered from sun scorch. I’m interested to see whether this tree ends up doing well. On one hand, USU’s Tree BrowserContinue reading “paperbark maple”