Angels are watching

This is the quick work for this week. I found a photograph with the sweetest looking little girl and I made her an angel (with permission). She is 10X12 on bristol paper using 6H, F, and 4B. She is going to be one of the small drawings for the ColourArt Window on March 1st.

I went to a cafe in Winmalee this week to relax, have a coffee and draw in peace. The managers came over to see what I was doing. They have asked that I draw all their employees to put on the wall. That is different, but sounds like fun. A gentleman there wanted me to draw his wife as a surprise also, but when I went back yesterday to get a photo he wasn't there. (Email me please if you check the blog).

While I have the household smelling of apples, our apple tree was very abundant this year so making lots of applesauce and apple pies, I am back to the dragons.

I will be in South Australia next week drawing with four little darlings (my godchildren), so posting will run a bit later. Art lessons for all the kids, meetings with Austistic Society, and everything else my girlfriend has lined up for me will fill the hours.

All this talk about Dragons

For awhile now I have been mentioning working on illustrations for a children's book on dragons. I am finally getting some final drawings ready for the author. Getting what is in her mind into mine and on paper has been a learning curve. Today is all about the dragons and pieces are coming together.

My biggest hurdle was making an anatomy for the creature. I have never drawn fantasy pieces and needed to make this one move for the different things he does in the story. Also with being photorealistic in most of my drawings, I couldn't put too much detail into illustration so many sketches are on the dining room floor.

They will all come together in the end and there has been a lot of learning in the process I would never have pursued otherwise. The author is self-publishing so she can pretty much do what she has pictured in her head all these years of writing this series of stories (yes, she has plans for more). Challenges and going after dreams is what life is all about and this idea of hers is helping both of us with that.

Another zebra complete

Finally finished with the other zebra pair for a commission. The first one was with human eyes, this one is normal. I have wore my 4B pencils to the stub and fingers to the bone.

One more commission to finish....the dragons. This holiday seasons have been heck on me finding time to draw. The service station has been full on and husband has had a lot of time off. (When he is home work is almost impossible). I have two pieces sketched out to begin for the shows this year. I am itching to being them as well as get out the other ideas onto paper.

A lovely customer gave me 15 beautiful frames to use for my drawings. I just have to get them fitted with glass and backs. She has a friend that was a painter, so they are built for canvas inserts. There are some odd sizes I'd like to fill for the Springwood Art Show.

As my little pencil retires to its final resting place....I bring another young wood out to play.

Work Space Questions Answered

I have been asked where is it that I work on projects. Most days I have an easel table set up in the service station that pieces are worked on in between customers, but I do have a semi set-up at home. The dining room holds my architect table, work desk and chair stacked with different types of paper.

The table my husband found at an estate sale, the quilt I made of my family history, desk is always full of drawing books, magazines and business diaries. I am an organizer's nightmare. (The Beatles poster is my husband's). The attached lights are a natural light lamp for drawing and desk lamp if I am reading.

In one of the bedrooms I have a cabinet full of art supplies such as more pencils, watercolour crayons, chalk/oil pastels, oil paints, brushes, etc. Yes I work in graphite...but I always like to dabble in a bit of colour. This room also holds all my matte supplies, camera gear, books, Raggedy Ann dolls and sewing gear. It is pretty packed. All my inspirations are here too; prints of Ros Goody, watercolour of Wattle Flat general store done by a local artist, prints of Cedric Emanuel, oil painting of Bathurst by W. Anderson and oil painting of Tom Roberts by S. Mann.

Our hallway cove is filled with old frames we fix up for the drawings. Craig and the boss find old frames at yard sales and get glass cut to fit. I had to cut them off this summer as there isn't any room and they are falling behind in fixing.

I have two drawing boards that I carry around for park visits with a french easel Craig got me for our 1st Anniversary. They are also used at the service station and carrying around pieces I work on between there and the house.

I hope to have a studio one day to organize and work with effect precision. It would be nice to get more work accomplished without someone talking or the house yelling "clean me".

Quick drawing for the morning

The men of the house occupied themselves with a car this morning so I was able to sit down and complete a small drawing of my friend, Celina. It is 11X14 on bristol paper. I used 2H, 5H, 2B, 4B and F Derwent pencils with smoothing from an ordinary paper stump. I took the photo while visiting their house at Christmas. She was telling me stories about Raggedy Ann and tea parties. 

Now I need to get back to work on the dragons.

Leslie/Charlie Done...great start to a new year

This is the finished product of Leslie/Charlie that I have been posting updates of. It may have hooked me a couple more jobs from servo customers too. I was up until after midnight finishing the blanket last night and only had to finish up Charlie's legs today. The servo was so busy it took me 10 hours to get those done.

 I worked on the dragons over my days off and hopefully will have more done this week. I am converting the rough drafts into finished pieces and getting body corrections for the limbs. This is a chore with both men being home and wanting attention, but I push through.

There is still the zebra pair to complete as well. I will take them to the station tommorrow for more work. The head figure is done to the chest with his nose still being shaped with different tones.

I have some photography jobs that I will need to get done on my next days off that are exciting, have the window displays to complete for the shop's call, ideas need to be sketched out for the International Woman's Day show at Braemar Galley in March and lastly Springwood Art Show in August. I love it!!

Leslie and Charlie

Happy New Year to one and all. I hope that you had a safe and wonderful holiday season.
The servo has been quiet the last few days, so lots of time has been spent working on Leslie and Charlie. I am pleased with how things are coming along, just wish Leslie wasn't biting his tongue. I am thinking of changing his mouth to one of his famous smiles. So this is the progress so far.

I should not have taken the photo at work, but it is raining so could not carry it home to photograph. Tommorrow should prove another quiet day therefore hope to finish the rest of right hand side. I work from left to right top, then bottom to try and hinder any smudges. For the final touch-ups I use a piece of paper to set my hand on and be careful not to slide it. One fallout of graphite....smudges.