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 final version is large-scale compared to the printed reference, measuring 20×22.5 inches.
Ink, watercolor, and oil pastel on paper.
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, 11×14 inches.
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 can stop drawing to check the reference again and see how my work compares, but I won’t be able to put pencil to paper while the reference is visible. And no measuring. Just thinking about it makes me tired.
I’ve also been getting a little more practice with figure drawing. Same parameters as last time. First, just capture gestures, then add structure and shadow, and, lastly, just draw the shadow shapes.
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, I liked how the un-gessoed surface enabled a different style of painting.
I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure what the object in the lower right corner was, but a hat seemed like an okay guess.
The woman’s face in my painting is flatter than the original, especially the eyes. I’m still deciding whether I want to go back in and add more depth there.
Oil on hardboard, 8×10 inches.
Watercolor on paper, 5×7 inches.
Watercolor on paper, 5×7 inches.
When I bought this tree last fall I thought its leaves were sparse because they had already been dropping with the turning season. Turns out, nope. The tree was just unhappy enough in the nursery conditions that it only had a handful of leaves, and a number of bare branches. It is starting to settle in and put on new growth now that it’s in the ground, though. (New leaves on this tree come out red before maturing to deep green).
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 paint I squeeze out. Acrylic on paper, 4×7.5 inches.
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.
Pastel pencils have become my favorite drawing tool. Smudge-able, erasable, and in full color.
This drawing was inspired by my having to bundle up a lot like this just to go down to my basement art room during the winter months. I have a space heater I can turn on once I get down there, but my initial arrival can be a bit chilly.
Pastel on paper, 5.5×8.5″
mind and heart 