Long time no see...

So two years ago after I finished my stethoscope painting, I began nursing school.  This explains the extreme absence in paintings over the last couple years.  I do not have any that I am working on but over the summer of 2013 I did complete the one that I posted an underpainting for and I did two others.  It isn't enough, I have countless pictures that I cannot wait to turn into paintings but I need to finish school and get a job before I really dive into it again.  So as an explanation and brief update I'm putting this post up...
Thanks for your patience and understanding!

It's been a while...

It has been a while.  The school semesters and this summer have been gruelingly busy.  However I have been working here and there on a couple pieces.  Here they are :)

The picture above is a sunset over Lake Travis in Austin, TX  I really had fun with this one because it is on a new surface.  Colourfix paint (black) on gatorboard foam.  An artist friend gave it so me to try.  It has a lot of tooth and I really enjoyed using it.  Here is a picture when I had just started layering colors...

I am going to put the step-by-step pictures of the other painting I've worked on in another post :)

It's Official: I'm on Etsy!!!

Well I have decided to open up an Etsy shop and attempt to share my work with a wider range of people. Hopefully something comed out of it.  I hope that you check it out and over the next couple months, I hope to get to work making more pieces to sell.  While the Etsy experience is fabulous, I had a lot of questions that weren't addressed as clearly as I would have liked on the FAQ sheet.  For example, I've never had a paypal or learned how it worked on the buyer end.  So now I had no clue as a seller if I needed to accept paypal by having one or how to hook it up.  Or, if I have a paypal that is connected to a credit card, would the money go to that? What if I wanted to use a credit card for purchases with paypal but wanted the money from selling art to go to my bank? So confusing... But I've figured out enough to get started and posted a few pieces.  What I'm looking into now is to have affordable prints of my work to sell, so that I have original work for any exhibitions that may pop up.  And that is a whole can-o-worms in itself.  Anyone who has any experience with any of this, please help.  In the meantime take a look at my Etsy Shop and let me know what you think or what you'd like to see!

I did start working on a new sunset piece yesterday and wanted to post my progress.  It is based on a picture I took in Antigua on vacation in 2009.  The sunset was beautiful, but painting it was surprisingly hard because of all the darkness.  I need to make the clouds a little darker and put some texture in the hills and water.  But this is what I have so far.

 This is the end piece, which I wanted to put first so that it was the picture for the post and so that you could see what I got before looking at all of the under layers.  This is on 9x12 Colourfix paper, which I really enjoy working on.  You can see the color is like this beige/grey that I thought would work well with the clouds and foreground.  Let me know what you think and any suggestions!!

Studio Tour

A lot of artists have beautiful big studio with a ton of space and lots of light, room to hang their work, etc.  I am not quite that fortunate as of yet.  But I have made a great space for getting my work done, while watching some tv, right where I can fit.  And I have some art on display. So here it is! My studio!!

Simple Exercise

Another artist who works in Pastel gave me the advice of taking a 2D object and painting it life size.  Well I grabbed the closest thing around, taped it to the wall and started working.  It was a good exercise and I'm happy with what I came up with.  It isn't quite life-size, about half an inch off but I like it for some reason.  I think I'll do more and try to put more of an artistic spin on them.  Enjoy!  p.s. I got my Pastel Journal, yay!

5x7 NuPastel and Pastel Pencil on Pastel Paper

Reflections

Quick 5x7 Pastel inspired by daily paintworks challenge.  The challenge was reflections, this is my interpretation.  I'll probably work on it a little more.  I like where it's going! :)

Pastel Class Canceled

:(  One of the difficulties with doing Pastel for artwork is that not only are classes hard to find, they get canceled.  Its just not a popular medium compared to acrylic or oil.  Not only is finding one is a challenge, but finding one reasonably priced or priced for the hobby artist, is not easy either.  On another down note, I was not selected for the Step Up 2011 by Real Art Ways.  It was a contest for the emerging artist with minimal exhibition experience (I have none) and just out of art school (I never went).  I'm a little disappointed but I'm sure they had many talented submissions and I've only been doing pastel for a year and haven't taken anything other that a required art class.  I'll try again next year :).  I didn't want to write a post and leave it empty handed so to speak, so I'd like to post an older piece.  Orchids I did for my grandmother, Chalk Pastel on Drawing Paper 11x14.

5 Inch Heels :)

I finished the picture of my pink, grey, and black 5" heels.  It was a challenge on dailypaintworks.com.  I like the way it came out. What do you think?

Finished Paintings!!

Okay... so its been a little while.  I've been battling with my beach portrait photo.  I've been looking at it (my easel is in my dining/living room) everyday and thinking about what I want to do with it so that I don't over work it.  I'm happy with how it came out and don't think there is anything else I can do without throwing of the balance and spirit that is there.  Here it is! NuPastel and Pastel Pencil on 11x14 Pastel Paper.

The picture is not as clear as I'd like it to be but you get the drift. :)
Another photo I'm posting is a quite 20 minute 6x8 of a challenge on dailypaintworks.com.  The challenge was to do a piece based on balance.  And I figure, what's a better representation of balance than a pair of 5 inch heels?  Hope you like it.

On another note... I'm starting my first Pastel class tomorrow!!!  Actually, its my first art class since freshman year of high school.  I'm super excited about learning actual techniques and getting feedback.  Not all that excited about the teacher telling us to go get more supplies after the first class but such is life!  So I plan to bring my camera and take photos of my work as it progresses.  That way I can post what I work on and show the stages of it as I go.  Wish me luck!

Bubbles

So I usually visit my parent's on Sundays for dinner and today I decided to head up there earlier than usual with my bag of pastels, which was already packed from my figure session yesterday.  I had printed up pictures that I wanted to work on for my movement series and started one.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  A photographer that I"m working with had emailed me several pictures to get my input and when I enlarged them online I zoomed in much further than I anticipated.  Well this turned out to be one of those happy errors and I fell in love with the zoomed in pictures more than the photo as a whole. I started one of them and still have to work out some of the composition so that the focus of the picture is where I want it to be.  But I really like it and have impressed myself (don't you love it when that happens?).  Here is the first of two bubble pictures of the series. Please let me know what you think!
 



Here is another picture I took with my phone, without any flash, and in natural light.

Live portrait drawing #4

This is my fourth live figure drawing.  I'm pretty pleased.  The gentleman was from Trinidad and had a wonderful accent.  He was also a great model and held very still (and it was his first time!).  I spoke to the woman monitoring because I overheard her conversation about trying to get other monitors.  Originally, the Sat clothed figure drawing for July and August were canceled because she's been monitoring for 5 years and didn't want the obligation every Saturday for the summer.  Several members are trying to relieve her and rotate so that the sessions can continue.  Well I also heard her talking about needing models so I told her if she needed models, I wouldn't mind doing it but I don't want to do the nude modeling.  So I don't know if I'll do it once and they'll never want me to come back or if I can be someone's muse.  Anyway, back to today's session, the model was fantastic and I'm really happy with my work, especially considering this is my fourth live model. :)  Even the model liked it and took a picture on his phone for himself!

I took a reference photo and my work on it some more.  I would like to put more into the background and some detain in the small amount of shirt that is visible.  I would love to hear any comments!

Marathon Figure Drawing

Today was the Marathon Figure Drawing session.  I didn't stay the whole day, I got there at 10:30 and stayed until about 5:30.  There was a long poses and short poses room, and I chose the long poses because I wasn't sure about what to expect and I'm still getting used to the whole drawing naked people thing.  I was thinking the long poses would be about an hour, and they would do a few of them.  Nope, just one looong pose that lasted about 3 hours.  I've never spent that much time on a drawing, but for whatever reason, didn't stop and do multiple drawings.  I just kept working and working. The first model I drew enjoyed walking around and seeing what the artists were working on and at one point, later in the session she came around and said "Every time I see it, I think you're done, but then it gets better!"  By far the best compliment I've ever had about my art work.  I even had another artist that stood behind me for a few minutes and just watched me work.  I felt very flattered!  I am extremely happy with what I did.  Next I'd like to work on doing short colorful figures that are abstract in color but not shape.  Anyway, I wanted to post what I completed!

Between the two, this is my favorite.  I started with a layer of pinks and purples and slowly added oranges, blues, and lights.  I really did spend the whole three hours on it.  Great model, very elegant, with a beautiful neck.  I had a lot of fun doing this.  It is Nupastel on Pastel Paper with Pastel Pencil details.

Number two.  Again, happy with it.  This pose was harder.  While the monitor had taped markings so that the model could take up the same pose after breaks, her torso and face were slightly different after each break.  Her lips were very tight which made that particular detail hard to draw.  There was a black cloth draped over the bench she was sitting on, but I preferred to add more color into it.  For this one, I started in oranges, reds, and browns, and then built up by adding pinks, purples, greens and blues.  Same as the first, Nupastel on Pastel Paper with details in Pastel Pencil.  Let me know what you think!!

Open Figure Drawing

So the update from my open figure drawing session is interesting.  It was last Thursday (sorry for the delay) and I stayed in my car in the parking lot for a while just to check out the scene.  But the only people showing up were guys in their 40s and 50s.  So here I am thinking that its could be a bunch of perverts masking as artists to see a peep show.  And then my fears came true, my first time ever drawing a nude live model was a guy.  A guy in his 60s no less, but it was a learning experience and good practice.  Unfortunately out of the 20 people who showed up for it, only 1 person spoke to me other than the monitor.  And the monitor preceded to compare my drawing with the guy next to me... so much for constructive criticism.  Nonetheless, I'm happy with what came out of it, and pleased with my sketches.  The 2 minute gesture poses are awful so I won't show them, it was obvious that it was my first time, but I will post the two 5 minute poses, the 10 minute pose and the long pose which I think was an hour and fifteen minutes (with breaks).  Enjoy! Let me know what you think!

Adventuring more into figures

Most of the figure drawings I've done have been either in charcoal or so abstract in color that I didn't need to worry about getting flesh tone colors right.  So last night I tried doing flesh tones and they came out pretty well!!  Sorry about the poor quality, its a picture off of my phone.

I put some blue in the shadow and pink over some of the jaundice looking areas with my pastel pencils after this was taken.  I also changing the teal blanket and added more color and shading to it.

I'll be practicing some quick drawings of figures tonight because I'm going into my first ever open figure session tomorrow night at the Art League of New Britain and I'm nervous!!!  I've never done it before and I really don't want to fail in front of a bunch of people!! Okay, less talking and back to practicing! Wish me luck!