Painting and Sketching

It seems like forever since I posted a painting.
Today isn't going to change that.
I do have a painting I'm working on, but the progress is slow due to the emotional attachment.

Six years ago I lost my first dog, Spotty. She was a rescue we adopted at 18 months old and she lived to be 18 years old. I loved her immensely. Still do.

 This is her photo on a picnic set that Tonya from  Hillbilly Handiworks made for me.







In honour of her, I offered to "paint the Spots" on a jack russell forum I belonged to. (Jack Russells Online, owned by Bill Tomei, r.i.p.)   The bronze, silver and gold of beloved dogs who were adopted, and the bronze, silver and gold of the dogs belonging to that dedicated band of people who rescue dogs.

Five portraits were done within a couple of months. The sixth is the one I am currently working on. The rescuer involved is Suzy, who runs "Saving Georgia Dogs" . Sadly she's kept so busy it took her til now to photo and send the pics of her two dogs.  So that's what I'm working on and its bringing back all sorts of memories.

I'm also keeping up with the sketch-a-day challenge. The finish line is 75 sketches. We're in the thirties now :)
For this lot, I swapped to a coloured background and an inked subject.  Fast sketching at 3 minutes, then stopping - finished or not!   Wonder if I'll ever paint this fast? :)

Speed sketching

I've been trying to improve how quickly and accurately I can sketch.
This is because when the spring and summer finally arrive, I want to go outdoors in public places and sketch more often.
So if I can get a reasonable likeness in under ten minutes, then I should feel more confident when doing the same outdoors. That's my thinking, fingers crossed it works.

So these sketches are all done in under 10 minutes, hence not perfect, but improving :)

German shepherd dog ornament

My distance spectacles

desk lamp

computer mouse

small glass

For my followers who paint and draw, do you ever do so outdoors?
What are the pros and cons for you?

Sketching and news

The last couple of days have been hectic here!
I've managed to maintain the sketching though :)

I also have some good news!
For a while I have written stories to go with some of my paintings and after seeing a course which explains the techniques of story writing, I applied to join it.
Yesterday I had my interview and assessment and am delighted to tell you all I passed and am now enrolled on the course!
The interviewer also told me that because I have a way with words, both written and spoken, she'd like me to consider putting my name down for a teaching position at the college.
Complete surprise and great compliment !

Sketches - here they are :)

paper makes a big difference

I was experimenting with the Derwent Coloursoft range, though I had no idea which type of paper they should be used on.

I did two quick sketches of my darling girl poking her head out from under the duvet - one on my usual watercolour paper of Arches Aquarelle 140lb rough - and the other on WHSmith pure white cartridge paper 135gsm.

Arches Aquarelle




WHSmith White Cartridge Paper




These were only quick sketches so I could find the paper I was happiest with. (its cartridge) Hopefully my next piece will be more artistic !

New Toy!

I bought a new hardback sketchbook yesterday. Whilst I was in the shop I also bought a new sketching pencil - a Derwent Inktense.

Brilliant little pencil! It draws as you'd expect a pencil to do, but if you wet the area you have drawn, you get a deep intense inky colour.
The two sketches are two really quick ones I made, just to test out its capabilities. I'm very impressed and will be using this from now on for field sketches.

If you want to know more about Derwent and their range of specialist pencils, click here