Valentine's Day

A little steampunk heart for Valentine's Day!

Bassett Hound puppy finished

Well I took another few hours and finished up my Bassett Hound. I'm very happy with how he turned out! Giclee's and Valentine's Day cards of him available on my Etsy site!

Bassett Hound puppy 4 or 5 I forget!

I'm getting there. Added many, many layers of color but I'm still not done. Have to put it away for a few days and then take it back out.

Sketch glass in car cup holder

Bumpy, boring  rides are always richer and more rewarding if I am sketching! Whatever it is. Usually the dashboard! Pen on graph paper.

Bassett Hound puppy 3

Step 3 is much like the last step, keep erasing and adding color. I'm drawing on some nice toned coffee with cream orangy kind of color (don't have the name but you get the idea!) Canson paper and it seems to be taking the color well except for the white. Again, I might switch to Prismacolor for the white. I've erased all the pencil from the top of the face and filled it in with the colored pencil. I try to watch which way the fur is falling and make my stokes copy that direction. If you haven't drawn on nice Canson paper because it seems expensive, take into account that you can fold it in half, tear it and then fold those 2 pieces in half and tear it again. Makes 4 good sized sheets for only a dollar or 2 each. It's really worth the investment for any drawings you intend to finish up and frame. It's archival so your drawings will last. Be sure to apply fixative so you don't get haze (called wax bloom) over your colors and they stay bright. And if you are drawing in shifts and have applied lots of layers, consider spraying with workable fixative which will help to lift the texture back up a bit so it has more tooth. Burnishing can press the color deeply into the paper and this helps if you want to go back into it with more color layers. Gives the pencil more bite into the paper. I'm also showing the colors I will be using. Browns, reds, orange, yellow, beigey tan, and of course white. Also a pink in there. May add some blues into the whites later.

Bassett Hound puppy step 2

My next step it to start adding some color around the eyes and then start around the face. I am using Derwent colored pencils for this. I used 3 browns, and 2 yellows, an orange and a bit of white. The white pencil seems very stiff. I may have to switch to a Prismacolor pencil for that. I like the buttery feel of those pencils. As I get to the edge of my original pencil lines, I erase them because I don't want to draw over them. They can skip or become muddy.

Bassett Hound puppy

Well I started a cute Bassett Hound puppy the other night. Here is the first sketch I do when I begin. I do it lightly so I can erase it easily. It's gets all the proportions down and the basic dark and light areas.

Art Classes

I will be holding new art classes starting in January. The first one is at Whittier Vo-Tech in Haverhill, MA, starts Monday, January 23rd, from 6-8:30 pm, and is "Learn to Draw" for 8 weeks.

The second one is at Timberlane High School in Plaistow, NH and starts Tuesday, February 7th from 6-8pm, and is "Learn to Draw."

The third one is at Newburyport High School in Newburyport, MA, and starts Wednesday, February 24th, from 6-8 for 5 weeks and is "Colored Pencil Drawing."

I will also be teaching a "Learn to Draw" class at the Seacoast Artists Association in Exeter, NH, starting March 1, for 8 weeks, from 11:30 to 1:15. Also a "Colored Pencil Class", same place, starting March 1 for eight weeks, from 1:30 to 3:15. Hope you can make it to one of these classes. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in more details.

I love to teach! Who knew?

Winner of the Giclee contest!

I put all the names in a hat and pulled out "Revolving Doors"! He likes my polar bear so I'll be sending him an 8 x 10 giclee. I see from his blog he is very eco-conscious and he's from Sweden! Hope he gets my email soon and sends me his mailing address!

Then I picked out one more name just because I wanted too, and I picked out "Barbara". She likes my Barn Owl so I'll send her out an 8 x 10 giclee. Her blog is all about crafts like paper clay and sculpture crafts. She's also great at scrapbooking from what I could see. Check out both of these great blogs!

Thanks to everyone who participated. I will be doing this again next month. Maybe for Valentine's Day. That's my anniversary!