New camera

I got a new camera for Mother's Day, best present EVER! I love photography, it makes me happy to take pictures and I try not to use too many filters or any at all. I prefer them RAW! But this one is one of my favorites that I manipulated directly on the camera! What an awesome effect! I love these trees that are everywhere in my town, they smell wonderful and their purple flowers against the blue sky just bring me such joy. I am starting to get the hang of photoshop again but mostly for evening tones and levels and adding watermarks. So all you out there who want to steal my work, well, now my name is going to be stamped on all of them! I must admit, it does make me feel good knowing my work has been taken, means that someone likes it enough to want it so badly they had to have it. But still, respect for all my hard work, please. Art for me is a piece of myself on paper, it is a part of me coming out that I wouldn't otherwise let you see. So please enjoy what you see and if you do want something let me know, my prices are not high, not at all! I make it that way so my work is more accessible to those who cannot afford the "fine art" price tag that is out there.

Macro lens love and some sculpture for fun!

Macro lens on an iphone is pretty amazing! I didn't know it could zoom it this well and one day I was playing around with it while my boys played. I love Macro! It gives you a new view of things that are otherwise ordinary, like this Dandelion flower.

Art class resumed for me once my nausea settled down and we started into sculpture. Not much I can do without a studio and a kiln but we made do with some plasticine. She was a natural and loved it so much she went home and sculpted two more things! I don't have her work to show so you will just have to be amazed by mine.

 I love sculpting heads and instead of doing realistic I made an old man with exaggerated features. But first we did a small sculpture of my sleeping cat who was lying on the floor beside us. She was the prefect model for us. Not much detail but this was a first time session for my student and we were going for gesture more.

30 Minute painting

Acrylic sunflower painting done on heavy primed paper. This was done for a young woman activity for church, it was the Mormon version of painting with a twist, so no drinking, just painting and we only had 1 hour! Most of the girls hadn't painted in years or ever, even so it was fun! I managed to get this done in 30 minutes at home by myself so I knew they could get theirs done in an hour. I also made sure to not use any black, first time painters and black don't mix from what I have seen as a teacher. I had to teach them about layers and why it is important to add one layer at a time instead of finishing an area before moving all. It was great seeing their talent and I had fun seeing them learn something new about themselves.

Feeling better!

I have been sick for the last four months, nothing major, just nausea from a baby coming, so art had to be put aside until I was feeling better. It has been hard not to be able to draw and do art classes like I was, it truly is my therapy and makes me happy when I am creating. I have a few projects I am interested in starting, now to see if I stay well enough to be able to.

 Finished this beach watercolor for my friend's wedding, only 4 months late but she understands.

 Detail of the painting, this was my favorite part doing.

Back to art classes again, worked on pencil shading and coloring, this was an hour project that turned out pretty darn cute in my opinion. Have a second art class this week that involves painting, cannot wait for that one! I love painting and haven't had many chances to since moving here so this will be a fun night.

Ending the old year

 Watercolor for my friend who recently was married.

 A trial in acrylics, I was bored and wanted to experiment.

 Master copy that I started.

 Leaf pencil with color on top

 Pastels with water added, it was a fun experiment. I hated pastels before this but now I know how to use them and it makes for a nice look.

Another master copy, one of Leonardo's

Portrait and pet

Top here is my middle boy who posed for us for art class this week. I am very proud of him for sitting so still for me, and I loved how I was able to capture his look in such a simple sketch.

Below here is Suko, her owners had to put her down recently because of cancer and she was no longer eating or drinking. I had the chance to meet this sweet cat before she passed and wanted to give her family a little gift to remember her by. 

A little sample of nightly works

I am loving watercolors lately. I am still learning how to work them and coloring with blues and oranges instead of grays. Top here is a picture of a rabbit I had when I was younger. Her name was Velvet and she had her own little personality, and I loved her.

 Art class time. This plant was sitting on the table so we drew then painted it. It is one of my favorites but it is for sale.

 A work in progress, love the colors I will be painting in this one.

Art class perspective of a pepper tree. Going to keep working on this one when I get the chance.
I have realized recently that I haven't developed a style still for my works. Photography I definitely have my own style but in painting and drawing I am missing something. It is eating away at me. I am trapped. I am not sure what to do next. Some serious soul searching must be done before I can become a professional artist.

Etsy shop

I opened up an Etsy shop, figured if my tiger drawing is so popular here that everyone was taking it I might as well sell good prints of it and get my moneys worth so I can afford to keep doing art. Head on over and see!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/PaintPencilandPhotos?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Flying

Getting used to watercolors. I am loving how this bird turned out.

Finished shell.

Added stipple and some background lines to this. I wanted it to be a little more whimsical and this is the result.

Fun Friday

 Another week for art class and today was eyes, next week will be faces, then bodies. She was hesitant at first to draw eyes but these pictures say that she was ready for them!

 This was her eye she copied onto black poster board with colored pencils.

 Here is mine, it was fun doing this exercise again.

 Remember this one from several months  ago? I finally finished it using a variety of things, charcoals, pastels and watercolors on top of the pencil. It turned out better than I had imagined and I am loving the symbols of it. What does it say to you? I won't tell you what it was drawn for until at least one person guesses.

Lastly another shell in watercolor. I will work on this one a little more with some colored inks on top of it just for fun. Experimenting with mixed media is always a little scary but the results are fun

This week in The Art Class

 Last night I couldn't sleep so I kept ruminating ideas for art class for the little kids and what would keep them interested. I came up with a desert scene collage. Top one here is my little Bruce's creation. And yes I know cactus don't grow in Egypt.

 This is Jack's. He came up with the pyramid idea on his own and put a mummy in there so naturally his brothers copied him.

 This is an assortment of flowers by Ri who I watched today, she's 3 and super cute!

 This is my youngest's creation, he's also 3 so this was more fun for him just trying to do like his brother's art, looking good.

 This was mine to show them how to start it all, the clouds are added courteously of Tommy.

 Here was my best student so far of the day. She's 15 and is progressing amazingly fast. This is the classic crumpled paper project just to get line and texture down with shadows.

 This one is from my angle and my drawing, it is fun going back to basics again.

 And we have a random apple with stripes. after this it was devoured by my 3 year old.

 Back to my star student, she kept adding more shading on it to bring out the crumples in the paper.

 Her's on top, mine on bottom.

Art class is in session

 Started teaching art classes from my home and here are some of my sketches from today's lesson. The student is already ahead as far as contour lines go so we skipped to shadow and light to create depth. I didn't get a picture of her's which I regret but I did have fun using charcoal and sepia pencils again.

 My middle boy decided that this looked fun so he had fun using the charcoal bits made his own pictures. Feels good to teach someone who is learning as well as M is, next week I will take a few of her's a post them later.

Sunday Scribble to Painting

Entered into a contest for Michaels Arts and Crafts just for fun. This was my Sunday Scribble that I made into a painting. I did it in one night and left in all the mistakes on purpose. I am trying to do something new and realize now that mistakes are part of learning. I know what to do differently next time and will not repeat it. But overall this one turned out just fine.

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus trees lining a walking path. These trees can be very vibrant on their own but the unique shadows they create are some of my favorites.

Here is the same path but in color. Such a warmth to it. 

See the lovely colors they have on their trunks? As a child I didn't even notice these trees as anything more than a giant playground, the used to line our backyard. After my parents cut them down I realized how much I appreciated them. To this day the smell of Eucalyptus makes me happy.