July 28, 2014

Teeny teeny teeny basket…

And here we have the inspiration photo…

And here is what I drew…

Better by far than anything I did with ink. So far anyway. This is done with graphite pencil and carbon pencil. 

I like this kind of shading, although I do read mixed opinions about it. Some say it ruins the paper, some say it smashes the graphite and makes it muddy, I think that I like it anyway.

July 22, 2014

My first sugar skull.  Mostly ballpoint pen and a little bit of color pencil just for his ...for lack of a better word - skin tone.

Step one…

Step two…

Step three...

And all done. I like it well enough. 

What you think?

Red and purple

July 18, 2014

I don't usually go for such bold color combinations. Any Red Hat ladies out there anywhere…

Purple and red with a beautiful oak center. 

A little bit of drawing also I've been doing some ballpoint pen practice. Here's a few shots of what I've been up to.

Ink is very hard girls and boys. I wish I had better pen / ink colors, these are little too bright for my liking, it looks cartoony.

Clearly I need more practice. Might switch back over to charcoal and pencil for a little bit, keep watching.

July 16, 2015

Scumbling, tiny circles, with blue and green ball point pen.  

I love how vibrant colors are they just pop off the paper.

Best yet with ink.  I like how well the shading went with this one.  I see form as in not just a flat circle on a piece of paper it really looks like a ball to me

Color pencil..I still suck!!!  The ball is it too too bad but the table is sitting on and the shadow arc god-awful!!!

This one is done with crosshatching and it's still not what I'm aiming for.  Did this one yesterday and just could not be happy with it, that's why I decided to try stumbling this morning.  

Trying to settle on a medium that I'm happy with, one that doesn't smudge as easy as graphite and charcoal.

This one sucks too!

Also here's a little shot of the basket I'm working on it's purple and red.

Okay now I'm going to get back to one or the other talk to you later.

Doing a little drawing.

More like practicing drawing!

Here is the inspiration picture. I found it on the Internet I do not know who drew it.

And here is my version...

Keep in mind that I was certainly not trying to exactly duplicate that photo. This is my version of a freehand likeness of it.  

Not to make money. Not to scam anybody else's art, just an inspirational photo to help guide me in my own drawing.

I have a lot of trouble with that little part over the top lip...dead center just above it.  I don't even know what that little part of our face is called, but I'm not happy with that part of this drawing.

So it looks like I'll be drying more mouths.

Just a little FYI, I never could locate a sketchbook that I was happy with. Either it wouldn't lay flat or it was the wrong kind of paper, the wrong size, the wrong texture, I just could not find one that I liked.

So I made one. I took the pads that I had bought At the art store, to my local office supply and had them cut to fit a three ring binder.

I then had holes punched in them. So now I have a very nice firm board (the binder).  I just fold the top of the three ring binder back on itself so I can draw with a comfortable size.  Plus, when I'v used the pages in the book I take them out and put them in another three ring binder in chronological order so that I can see my progress. I can flip through the pages at anytime and see if I'm getting any better or not.  Plus it keeps them nice and safe!

Here's a picture.

Already owned the art paper. I got it with a coupon 40% off months ago. The cheapest pad I saw that I thought I could live with was around $16.  Today I spent $3.47 to get it cut and the holes punched in it and I got exactly the paper I want, several kinds of paper actually. And I have plenty of refills when ever I want also.

Easy peasy and economical too.  I call that a win-win.

TADA!!!

7/11714

July 11, 2014

I have completed basket number two for this week. I like it.

And then I started another one.  This  one is tiny but I want to get it completed before I go to the market tomorrow.  

I went for neutral tones this week because everything I had on my table had bright colored threads.

Then I can start on another large one that I will only work on while I'm at the market.

July9, 2014

Practicing shading - ball point pen on bristol smooth using cross hatching, hatching and cross contour hatching.

And I still need a lot of practice!!!

This one isn't soooo bad.

This one is the worst of all...

The shadows on this one just plain suck, but I did get the shading a little better.

I'm also working on another basket!  Check it out!

Waxed braided cotton thread.  

Got to get back to it talk to you later.

July 9, 2014

Rust and black.

A 'lil tiny!!!

July 3, 2014

I finally finished at 10 1/2 inches long!!!  And a little less than 8 inches wide.

Two different purple threads iand two different teal threads.  Three different stitches.

This one had to grow on me, I wasn't too crazy about the thread colors I picked even though I did indeed absolutely love the wood. I debated taking it apart on more than one occasion but I'm glad I persevered and I think it turned out very nice.

I struck out with a friend of mine and put my larger baskets in a consignment art shop in the downtown historic district St. Augustine, Florida. 

The shop is called the "Starving Artist" and it's on Cuna St. right next door to the White Lion restaurant, basically right across the street from the fort.

Only the large ones that don't seem to want to move when I go to the farmer's market will go into the starving artist shop that way there won't be any conflict with pricing and commissions.  

One of the reasons I have stayed away from the shops downtown is because of the commissions I did not want my prices to be radically different from one venue to the other. But this way I take the small ones with me and only put the larger ones in the shop and there won't be that problem.  St. Augustine is a small town in the end and I wouldn't want people to see me with a conflict pricing between one spot in the other.  

But without further ado here are pictures of my baskets.

Now I need to make a few more small ones to put on my table at the farmers market because I depleted my stock by placing the large ones downtown, so I'm off to the Pineneedles!!!

I hope you guys have a great Fourth of July and I will talk to you soon

July 2, 2014

Making a little more progress.

Even thinking of adding some bling, maybe some glitter, or rhinestones.  Just not sure yet where it will go, maybe some silver...or black???

July 1, 2014

Making a little bit of progress on this large basket I'm working on.  (10 in long)

I have only been working on it when I go to the market , that way I have a large piece to work on while demonstrating.

I have returned to my original farmers market, the a Old City market. It is located in the amphitheater in St. Augustine, Florida every Saturday morning from 8:30to 12:30.

Here's a little Peek ...

As much as I love this piece of wood I wish I had chosen colors other than purple and teal.  Usually when I do a large piece I do them in earthtones so that they match pretty much anybody's decor. By making it in louder colors I think it makes it harder to sell. Just my thoughts of course.  And we all know I'm not a marketing guru.

I have also done a little bit of work on my Fleur-de-lis on wood. I'm liking it so far, but not as much as I liked the piece ithat looked like ribbons. I really hate that I messed that one up.

I'm being very stingy with the fixative this time till I don't want a repeat of what happened with the ribbon piece.

This is done in carbon and graphite pencil. The fleur-de-lis is drawn freehand by me.

I think I will indeed redo my ribbon piece on another piece of wood so keep your eyes peeled. I'm also going to experiment on the wood with some pastels, and some more charcoal, and maybe even some color pencil.

I'm going down into the heart of San Augustine city proper, the historic district, today with a friend of mine to set up a booth in a consignment art store. The store is called the starving artist and she has offered to let me put some of my work and her booth also. I'm thinking maybe the large pieces that I have trouble selling at the market. And then just sell the medium to smaller ones at the farmers market.

She does acrylic painting on usable objects. Here's a sample of one of the clay pots that she's done. I wish I had just a fraction of the talent with acrylic paint that she has.

Believe it or not she does all four sides of the pot. And each side is different. Check this bad boy out.

There's even little rhinestones on them just beautiful.

Such bold, bright colors. I just love them and I wish I could paint like that.

I'll take pictures of the booth and keep you updated on the name of the shop and what she calls her business and so on and so forth in case any of you would like to find her or even my own work.

 Thank you talk to you later.