"Peaceful Farm Site"- (Wire Drawing #1within 30 Days!)

"Farm Site, Wire Drawing #1"
7" x 10", Ink on Paper, $50

This is a farm site near my friend, Jennifer Stone's family lodge near Watertown, SD.  I've had a dream of painting farm scenes with Holstein cows in the foreground for about 7 or 8 years.  I decided to build up to adding the cows and start with a farm site alone to start with.  My plan is to complete a painting of this scene to enter in the Transparent Watercolor Society of America Show.  The hard part for me is that is has to be totally watercolor, and I've become a mixed media artist these past few years.  This drawing took about 4 hours, so the idea of doing quick wire drawings is a far fetched idea, at best! Stay tuned to see the finished painting! Remember, if interested in buying this, contact me right away. 

Day 18 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"On Top of the World"            11" x 11"                $145
Acrylic painting

I love the song, "I'm on top of the World", so this time, I started with the title and then painted a painting to go with it.  Click on the link, and you can hear it too!  Again, I started with a wild under painting.  See photo below.  I highly recommend starting this way, because it takes away that initial fear of facing blank white paper.  Plus, it unifies your painting.  See Day 3 to read detailed instructions of this process.  I looked through my one year of color studies, and found one that would lend itself well to this idea of the globe, even though the colors were all wrong.  It was a starting point for a good design. I just used part of it, and worked the girl and the globe into it's design.  I drew the value sketch next, and then started painting the midtones first, to establish a unifying value.  I didn't know that her hair would be blue.  I could have made her a blonde, but it looked good as the under painting color and it related to my color scheme, so I left it that way.  Simplification is always good.  I do feel so lucky in this life, and do feel "on top of the world".

Day 17 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Whatever Works"          11" x 11" image           $145

I was up late last night working on this one, due to being on the phone with technical staff about computer problems.  I finally had to go to bed with it unfinished and get up early this morning to finish it.  So, the title kind of has a double meaning to me.  This lady has it going on.... So glad that I'm not in the dating scene anymore.  Below is the under painting and the value sketch that I used for my map while painting.  Martini anyone?

Day 16 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"Quiet Moment Together"            11" X 11"       SOLD
Acrylic and Collage

Knowing I had to leave my studio in the mid afternoon, I tried to keep today's painting more simple.  Have you ever had tiny pieces of collage papers that you've thrown away?  I use them in a complicated paper collage.  AnneBagby taught me how to do this on her DVD.  Placing the collage papers randomly over the entire surface, I have my "under painting".  I use acrylic matte medium to adhere them to the paper.  It is pictured below.  Then I draw my subject on tracing paper, placing the center of interest wherever I like the collage papers the best.  After my complete drawing is on the tracing paper, I get a print of the drawing that is only 25% of it's size.  I then make a 3 value sketch on the new small copy.  For me, I HAVE to do this on these paintings, because you are actually painting where the lights are.  Below is my value sketch too.