What have you been up to lately?

Here's a look at a painting I did on canvas for my living room. Is ok-

Not the best thing I ever did and not the worst. Heh!
I'm still working on my other painting of a landscape from Ireland, for some reason it has just gone down hill. I'm stuck, but no biggie, I'll get back to it again soon. Now I'm working on other projects, sewing, etc. Merry Christmas to all!

Moody and "in progress"

Wow, it has been waaaaaaay too long since I've been on here. i actually have been painting. I've been attempting to paint larger. As I've said before I like instant gratification. So painting larger scale is a lot different for me. I get a bit impatient. I like the details... and I always want to get to that first, and we all know, you can't really do that if your going for realistic scenes..... I'm waaaaaay behind. I've been working on The Virtual Paintout of North Ireland. Which was last month. This month is Nova Scotia. Plus I went and bought a large canvas today, approx. 30 x 40... Yike! I'm going to attempt an abstract for my living room. I'm thinking something like this:

Credit where credit is due here, http://www.ballarddesigns.com/ or maybe a landscape.... not sure yet.

Down below is an oldie but a goodie I did about 7 years ago this month. I was newly pregnant with my first boy and ohhhhhhh sooooooooo first trimester sick.

Off I go to work some more on my oil painting. I will get some "in progress" pics up soon.

I need a boost

It's been so long since I've posted anything! I'm not sure if it's me being busy with my kids and their activities or if I'm just not feeling the creative juices flowing. This below I did several weeks ago, color pencil. I just can't figure out what to do with the background. I'm stuck.
Seems that from May thru August I couldn't put my sketchbook down. And now I can't seem to get myself to pick it up! I'm sure it's just a phase, I'll find my motivation again somewhere....

This big fat rabbit sketch is from a photo, I just had to try it out with pastel. Well, wish me luck to find my artsy mojo. I'm going to plop myself in front of my art/drafting table and pick up a colored pencil and hope for inspiration. What get's you inspired and motivated out of a creative mind fog?

Three Friends

My newest. Oil 12 x 17 a close up

I'm considering this one as done. I am not too fond of my tree areas on either side... I didn't want to mess around too much with it tho.

The Next Chapter

Would you like to join The Next Chapter? Friday is the start of the next book to help you stay with the creative and a happy self. Come join us! Click here

Color Pencil Cupcakes

MMMMmmmm cupcakes!
Here is my entry to the Different Strokes from Different Folks Challenge from Karin Jurick. This is prisma color pencil on 11 x 13 smooth

I think I will try this picture out in watercolor also. I enjoyed this so much because I love leaving the background white and have those primary colors pop!

Army Packer- Remington

This is my Following the Masters entry

it is a Frederic Remington
for copyright legalities: This is not for sale and is for my own personal use.....
calling it a "study".... One website says this was painted before 1922, approx. 1901

a bit of a closeup As you can see I changed the background and foreground.... This below is the original:
I did enjoy doing this in oils. It was a perfect size, 5.5" x 5.5". I haven't painted too many animals before. Now on to the cupcake challenge on Different Strokes from Different Folks!!!!!

Peonies

A first look at a WIP I'm doing for a friend's Birthday.
Colored Pencil on smooth
3"x11"

The bottom here will be the vase. And then a muted brown background... Off I go to finish or maybe I should go do the dishes first...... Argh....nahhhhh....

WIP it good! Ha!

Here are a few WIP's:
This below is a pic of my Grandpa Eric. He passed when I was 6 or 7, a long time ago...
I remember him but only a few moments.
He owned a bar in North Dakota, Bondy's Bar, I'm not sure what to do with the background. I love the way the color pops from the background of the pure white when I use my Prisma Colors. Yet, it needs a background (and some other work on the eyes and hair...). I'm not fond of doing the exact background that is in the photo.
The color varies online from the actual on the paper. Oh well, one of these days I'll figure out which is better to use on which one of my programs with the pixels, resolutions, DPI's, JPEG's, etc.

The next two are works that I'm working on for a friend to use for the elementary school's
Where the Wild Things Are Fundraiser.

This first one was scanned and the white highlight didn't show up on the side of the trees, so on here it looks like the trees are wobbly but truly they aren't as unnatural....
dang scanners.......
Anyway, this one is done in watercolor

And this second I went for Illustration/Cartoon with Colored Pencil

And now I'm off to start something new...... Following the Masters, or Bill Guffey's Virtual Paintout-Google Challenge, or maybe Different Strokes from Different folks' challenge...... yipee! I gotta go!

An oil painting- Peony on Copper Bowl

My reveal- This is from last months Following the Masters challenge.

This is oil on Masonite hardboard. And I completely forgot who the original "Master" was who painted this! Someone out there will know...
I enjoy working on the hardboard more than the canvas. Now I need to go buy some more.

Veggie Crate

Here is the final results of my Veggie Crate using prismacolor pencils. I'm finding vegetables are relaxing to do. I like when they come to life. If you can't remember the old pict. without the leaves , click here for a view.

More to come, I'm working on an oil painting from last month's Following the Masters challenge. I went through a week where I just wasn't feeling creative or motivated. So now I'm a little behind, that's ok, everyone needs a break once in awhile. Stay tuned......

prismacolor on smooth

A WIP of my Great Grandfathers home in the very southwest corner of North Dakota.

Not a good scan...

The Virtual Paintout

Barcelona, Spain

Colored Pencil on smooth Bristol

The Virtual Paintout

I made messes, I wrecked, I laughed, I cried

Well, not really... I still have a few pages left. I didn't do the "watch this deteriorate" or "give this away".... and a couple others. I did enjoy this so much and I Thank Jamie for having us share our good wrecks and our bad- which actually were good when they were really bad!!!!I made "THE END" using one line, can ya find it?

it's spose to be a finger pointing at you... but i'm not sure it turned out so...heh heh

A few rants:

I tried to get the hair to stay down so I could get it to make something... it didn't happen so I will call this "Amoeba" OR "Jellyfish"????

Pocket lint

The final collection

After finishing the doodling I felt like I passed a test. So I played teacher on the page.

Can you believe I didn't really find the white things to cover this completely. I took it literally.

all white

random newspaper page

had me some chicken alfredo

This is what happens when I doodle while watching Spongebob Squarepants cartoons.

This was the most fun! I made this tiny paper chain and I managed to cut one of the lengths and leave it attatched. Therefore, the entire chain will always stay attatched to the book. Love it!

The Journal

R.I.P.

Veggie Crate

A first look at my newest project! I've been working on this color pencil drawing for about a week now. The gray area will (hopefully) end up looking more like cement sidewalk and the white splotches on the gray will be autumn colored leaves. What do you think? I have enjoyed this soooooo much! (almost hate to sell it!)

Go ahead- Wreck it!

Another week has gone by, haven't done too much with my journal. I don't carry it with me in my purse like I should. I also keep want to "save" some of the pages to do and then of course I forget.

I like my stamp page. We don't get a lot of mail with stamps on there anymore. Everything is all electronic. It was neat to see what different kind of stamps are out there since usually I don't even pay attention to that.

Below: Havin' Fun with Elmer I have no clue how to make a proper paper airplane. Mine always turn out to be paper folded in half and then the front folded to make a point. I had to enlist my hubby on what the heck all those lines were for.....
I tested it's first flight....Once again, my youngest helps mommy...

Below: Found a Blue Jay feather on my front lawn to add to the "found things" page.

Turned out looking quilted! Kinda cool!

Ew!

I helped a couple neighbor girls make a cake for their moms birthday. The journal was on the counter so I remembered the fingerprint page!

and then I got carried away with the leftover cake batter. What would happen to a sharp point knife that is loaded with cake batter? Answer: a mess and some holes in my pages! It was fun tho!