Playing Catch Up Again

Whew. Looking back over the last several months I'm trying to decide what to post first. I guess I should back up to April. Today, I promised my grandmother I would post pictures of the murals

I've been working on and realized I haven't posted the most recent one. Earlier I painted the 50s children with pendants, then the next two were free standing canvases. The first was a baseball fence scene with hidden pictures and then the second was from an old photo of Roger Maris. This one was so fun because it was so different from the rest being in monotone. It also felt like the paint flew quickly for this one.

The shot below shows the size of the canvas. The living room was the only place I could fit the canvases. They were too large to take upstairs or downstairs to paint in an out-of-the-way spot. So, my kids were a bit disappointed that having many friends over to play was not happening much these days.

So fun to be painting again!

What's Been Occupying My Time Lately

Several weeks ago I had 2 very large packages come via semi truck to our home.




The kids loved the box they came in and were busy making a house in no time.



The first mural idea the client wanted was something like this (a picture he found) :

So this is what I came up with:



I changed the children to resemble the client's children and I changed the angle of the fence to make it more artistic. Finally, I added 10 hidden pictures throughout. Since this will be hung in a dentist's office, it will be something fun the kids can find.

Hidden below are a ball and jacks, gecko and teacup.

Peppermint and Bible.

It's been so much fun. However, I didn't anticipate the size or the amount of room they'd take up. I could not maneuver the canvases down the stairs so the only spot for them have been in the living room. The kids have been very good in keeping far away from it, but they've been disappointed that we haven't had many people over for visits because of the risk. I'm hoping to deliver the canvases this week and will be relieved when they leave in one piece.

Back into Paint

This year I've decided to take on some painting projects. Friends of ours, who have their own dentist practice, asked me to paint some murals for their office (their son has been one of my faithful art students). The theme is Old Timey Baseball. So this past weekend, I worked on the first project. It's been 5 years since I've painted a mural, so I was a little nervous. I went with a vintage/ Dick and Jane kind of style (from the old children's books). All 4 kids are resemblences of their own 4 children.






Notice the 3rd pendant...hee hee.

I had a lot of fun and look forward to Project #2!

Our Last Week of Art Class

The last art class of the season was this week. Our last project was using Prismacolor colored pencils. I taught them how to notice colors and mix them on top of each other to match. The assignment was to take a magazine picture, cut in it in half, then draw and color the other side trying to match as closely as possible.

My example:

Here are some of their works:

I was will miss my 16 students and hope that they will keep up the good work over the summer!

Drawing Classes

This fall I've started teaching Drawing Class again. It's been two and half years since I've taught so it has been fun getting back into it. I have 21 students come to my home (2 seperate classes). They're learning the concepts of drawing and this week we're talking about shading. Here is a sample of a great exercise on shading I found for anyone out there who wants to 'sharpen' their shading skills.

Pencil Shading Exercise

Graduated Tone
Graduated tone can be used to create the illusion of space and form in a drawing. It is a very useful skill to develop.
Use a B, 2B, or darher grade of pencil for your shading. Lighter grades (H, 2H etc.) will not give enough depth to your darkest tones.
Just start by shading the area you wish to be dark and slowly build up the tone. As you work towards the light, gradually ease the pressure on your pencil until you can no longer see it. You then patiently repeat this process, building a depth to the shading and trying to keep the tonal changes as smooth as possible until you achieve the intensity of tone that you desire.

found here

Drawing Goals

I have a bad habit with my drawing in that I have started many pieces, feeling like I get what I wanted captured well enough, then move on to another. Thus resulting in several unfinished pieces. This month of January I'm going to try to finish these three:

I have been wanting to do a beach series. This is the first one of the series. I love rocks. They are wonderful to draw too. I need to finish the smaller rocks and add much more contrast overall in order to finish them.

What can be more fun to use color with than fall leaves? The ginkgo particularly have always been one of my favorites. Prismacolors are a dream. You can work them in a way the end result looks more like a painting than a colored pencil piece. You can get the colors to run together and they are so smooth. I need to move on and finish the less vibrant leaves.

I have started this portrait of Josh holding Samantha. In this case I've stopped because I'm afraid to mess it up. Sometimes I work too long on a piece and then undo all that I've done. I need to be brave and finish it. It needs more contrast and more work on Josh's hair (one of my least favorite features to work on).

I better get busy.

American President

We've been reading this week about our first American President, George Washington:

... But the delegates who had signed the Constitution begged George Washington to become the first President. Many Americans were nervous about this new office. They were afraid that the President would soon become a king...

But the fears didn't come true. George Washington didn't try to become king. Congress suggested that he be called "His Exalted High Mightiness" or perhaps "His Highness the President," but Washington simply went by "Mr. President." He only wanted to be president for four years, because the job was so hard. His hands developed rheumatism. His hair turned white. He wanted to go back to his farm. At the end of his four-year term, the people of America re-elected him- even though he didn't run.

Washington agreed to serve one more four-year period, or term. But then he refused to be President again. He knew that America didn't need a President holding power for life! He wanted the Constitution to be the ruler of the land, not the President. Washington walked away from the power of the presidency- something no European king would ever do. When he heard the news, George III of England marveled, "[He is] the greatest character of the age!"

Excerpt from The Story of the World Volume 3, by Susan Wise Bauer

Drawing

One of my favorite things to do is to draw. I love to draw things from nature. This is one of my favorites from a berry series in pencil.