Back to work after the holidays

What a relaxing weekend of festivities. Now it is time to get back to work.
Customer came in to pick up her zebras with human eyes. I am pleased that she is happy with it.
I was hard at work with the second zebra pair, but realized I need to get the framing and drawing done for the window display drawings at Springwood art shop, ColourArt. I am working on a piece with dog and child to display different uses of graphite for their sales and hopefully advertise the type of commissions I am seeking.

I just started the piece today, so there is a lot more work to be done. I have another day off tommorrow and hope to accomplish much more with an entire day's concentration.

I spent part of the holiday finishing the rough sketches for the children's dragon book. That customer will be coming after the new year to discuss them. My son got me a dragon anatomy book for Christmas, so will be going back to the rough drafts and check muscling. I based it on a blue tongue lizard so we will see how it compares with the fantasy book.

Another gift was a natural light lamp that clamps to my architect table or easels, I hope it will also assist in better photographs of the works. Have a happy new year.

Zebras Finished...Happy Holidays.

Happy holidays to everyone. I hope that you all have a wonderful season with your families and that many blessings come to you in the New Year.

I got my website up and running at http://croftangleart.mosaicglobe.com. It is such a beautiful community of artists that lends inspiration for all generations. This blog and that site I hope will be the beginning to a beautiful friendship to the network of friends made through art.

The zebras with human eyes are complete and waiting for the client to come check out the results. I have now begun working on her second piece. This one excites me as it is a larger drawing and more accurate to the animal’s true nature.

I am back to work on the dragon illustrations for a children’s book. All the rough drafts are going to be put into storyboard today so I can begin the final copy. The author will be coming after the holidays to see the progress. I bought a small dragon egg to sit in front of my pads as inspiration.

There are also the pieces I need to gather for the window display at ColourArt store in Springwood for January or February. They were not sure which month they wanted to use my pieces to promote graphite.  I’ll have to lay those out tonight when I get off work.

Thought of the day: There are no rules in painting. Imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty. - Goya

Zebras update

There was a very quiet day at the service station today so I worked as much as I could on the zebras with human eyes. The male is coming together, the eye looks as if it belongs. The client came by and is very happy with the progress so all is semi well.

I am not happy with the nose of female so will continue work tommorrow. I hope the service station will have another quiet day.

Refreshed, reinvented and busy

I have just returned from Culburra Beach on the South Coast of Australia and have lots of sketches to get scratching from. I was up 5am every day to sit on the sand dune and watch the sun come up. There was always someone there fishing or walking their dog to use as models. I also worked on the wave curls as Leonardo did on waters in Florence. Jervis Bay and Kiama also provided lots of models and ideas to get my muse flowing.

But first there are many commissions to complete. I am done with all the rough sketches of the children's book and ready to begin some final drawings. The author has approved a few of them, I still need to scan in the others for her.

There is also the rough sketches of zebra pairs. The client came in before I left and picked two of them instead of just her original idea. I took the pair with human eyes with me to the beach to begin.

I still need to play around with the eyes to get where I like the size and position. It is just strange adding different elements and making them look like they belong. I'll find a happy medium in there. Her second choice was a zebra bum and head mixture I'll post when more work is done beyond sketch.

There is still the Leslie/Charlie portrait in the works too. Charlie is blending in nicely and will begin Leslie in the next intermission available. I've cut my work days at the service station so that I can concentrate on these until after Christmas atleast.