Retract

Today I drew with an eraser.  In the art world we call this retractive drawing.  It s fun little exercise and can make for some truly beautiful creations. 

They say...

A sketch a day keeps artist block away...

Lost in Paradise

I'm currently taking a figure painting class throughout the C Gallery in Los Alamos.  This week we had our class at the teacher's house up in the rolling hills of Los Alamos.  We couldn't of asked for a more beautiful day.  The rustic italian/spanish house sits atop a hill which then over looks more hills covered by vineyards, mustard, and cows.  Its a home for the sophisticated cowboy.  

Back to class.  For the first time ever, I'm working on a huge canvas.  Its probably at least 4.5 feet by 4 feet.  I can just barely carry it.  And I'm also tackling overlapping figures.  Why?  Well why not?  I have a feeling this painting will take me many hours to complete and will most likely go through many transformations.  I've learned that skin tones look really great behind a blue wash, and that i prefer to use a rag to paint with rather than a brush.  

For this painting I was thinking about light vs. dark, life vs. death. in terns of being a Christian.  Who we are before we know the Lord, and who we are and the life we have after we have began a relationship with Him.  I envisioned the top half to be the "light" and the bottom half to be the "dark."  The bottom half has a broken, fractured person, the one on top is whole, complete.  I will bring in other elements later (rocks, water, light).  I am excited to see where this will go.  

After class we took a cruise in the ranch mobile and began looking for places to do landscape painting.  I won't attend that class, i just went for the ride.  

unfinished

pastel

I've adjusted back to America.  I have a hard time adjusting to a free schedule.  As beautiful as it sounds, it was harder to be ok with doing nothing.  Thankfully Connie Rohdes let me sit in and sketch in her pastel class.  I've been working on portraits and trying to nail the face down.  So, cheers to starting.  Sometimes thats the scariest part.  

I am also taking a paint class and am working on a huge canvas.  Unfortunately it won't be in encaustic, but it will be in acrylic.  I pray my painting skills will come back to me.  

soon to be

Im in the process of many books, but for starters here are some book covers:

This book will be stitched in a different style, Japanese stab binding.  

Its about 5" by 7"  

The paper is of old posters of different cities in Italy. 

Sunrise at the Pond

7 in by 5 in

full of lovely sketching paper

Kaleidoscope Kingdom

about 5 in by 7in

filled with lots of lovely sketching paper