Friday, January 17, 2014

30 Paintings in 30 Days

~ Painting #15 ~

I was so excited a couple of days ago, when I had caught up with the challenge, but I'm running out of fuel, and so I'm behind again. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to catch up. I've got a couple of paintings I'd like to finish. We'll see.
In the meantime, I've got this little guy for you:


Raccoon 16 - 5x7" - Colored Pencils - SOLD

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

30 Paintings in 30 days

~ Paintings #12, #13, and #14 ~

Today I learned to use a fun technique using oil pastels, and an embossing tool. It's called sgraffito. What you need to do is add some layers of colors on your paper, and then add a layer of black on top. With the embossing tool (you can also use a toothpick, or a skewer), you scratch away the layer of black pastel and draw anything you like. For best results, it's best is to use a smooth support, and try to make sure the colors cover the whole surface before adding the black.
I got to use my imagination, be creative,  and had a lot of fun. I've got some ideas for a few more, but I had to stop at three.
So many things to do, so little time....


Raven 200 - ACEO (2.5x3.5") - Oil Pastels - SOLD



 
Cat 25 - 5x7" - Oil Pastels - FOR SALE



Cat 24 - 5x7" - Oil Pastels - FOR SALE



30 Paintings in 30 days

~ Painting #11 ~

Another little one:



Raven 199 - ACEO (2.5x3.5") - Colored Pencils - SOLD


30 Paintings in 30 days

~ Painting #10 ~

Here's a little Bluebird I did for an online class I've been taking. I did start an oil painting today, but it's not quite finished yet.


Colored Pencils on black paper - 5x7 - NFS

Sunday, January 12, 2014

30 Paintings in 30 days

~ Paintings # 5, #6, #7, #8, and #9 ~

It's not that I haven't been working lately, but rather I was busy working on a project for a client. This big commission with five gorgeous cats. Even though they're all on one piece of paper, for the 30 days challenge I'll be counting them as five individual paintings.

First is the full piece with all five cats, and then a close up of each cat. The whole thing was done in colored pencils on a 9x30" black paper.














30 Paintings in 30 days

~ Painting #4 ~

A couple of days ago I murdered a watercolor rose. The paper didn't take my beating, and I ended up giving up on it.
However, last night, after a long and busy day, I decided to stay up, and give it another shot. I started again from the beginning, and I did my best to keep it as simple as possible. I'm pretty happy with the result, and I'm glad I stayed up late to have a painting to post today. What I learned from this painting: persistence!
Hope you like it too.

Rose 3 - 4x6" - Watercolor - SOLD

30 Paintings in 30 days

~Painting #3~

I know, today's the 6th, and I'm only posting painting #3, but that's okay, I WILL finish those 30 paintings by the end of the month. Actually, I could have posted this one yesterday, but I'm not very comfortable handling a fresh oil painting.
I must say I'm so thankful for this challenge because I got to finish a painting I started 18 months ago!!!! I have a few other unfinished paintings I might try to finish this month. We'll see what inspiration brings.
In the meantime here's what I painted yesterday. I'll take more and better pictures when it's all dry.


Rose 2 - 4x6" - Oil on canvas. FOR SALE SOON.

30 Paintings in 30 days

~Painting #2~

After spending a good part of the day shoveling snow, I had just enough energy left to paint this little flower. I'm glad I'm part of this challenge, otherwise I would have just rested for the rest of the day.


Flower - 5x7" - Watercolor and ink - SOLD

30 paintings in 30 days

~Painting #1~

I signed up for the wonderful artist Leslie Saeta's challenge: 30 paintings in 30 days, starting on the first of January 2014. I thought, why not start the new year with a BANG! I know it's going to be a lot of work, and I really want to take advantage of this challenge to practice oils, acrylics, and watercolors. But if I run out of time, or if I have to work on special orders, I'll have to post colored pencils paintings too. Actually, that's kind of what I did with my first one, which is part of a fun project I've been working on.

Taz - 4x6" - Colored Pencils - SOLD

Christmas orders

I didn't blog much during the holidays because I was busy with my Christmas commission work, and I didn't want to post them here and spoil the surprise. This year I mostly did dog portraits, which is a nice change.
Here are all the portraits I did last month:

(I'm not sure why the pictures look so washed out here. But if you want to see them better you can go to my official site.)

Simon Peter - 9x12" - Colored Pencils


Henry - 8x10" - Colored Pencils


Chan Xiu - 16x20" - Colored Pencils (I need to find a better picture of this one. A bit blurry for me)


No-Be-No - 5x7" - Colored Pencil


Wilfie - 8x10" - Colored Pencils

A fun project I've been working on.

My client asked me to make the portraits of her 6 Bearded Collies. She's going to frame them as a collage. Here are the first 4, with 2 more to go.
They're all 4x6" done in colored pencils.