I've been sketching and re-sketching on my latest project. I finally finished up the sketch today and transferred it. It is ready to color, but for now I'm setting it aside to start another berry fairy sketch next week. Next week will be Strawberry Fairy.
I spent way to long on this sketch, because I couldn't make up my mind on the background. I wanted a background that I could reuse to keep the series consistent, so finally after about 4 days I came up with it. So hopefully I can sketch the next fairy out a lot faster.
If I get finished with the next berry fairy sketch early next week, I plan to start a fine art piece. I'm not really sure what I will draw. Maybe some wildflowers from outside of my house or a still life. Hopefully I won't get stuck on what to draw...
It really feels good to be back to work. My hrs will vary each day of work. I'm planning on spending as much time as I can with my kids. My daughter starts Kindergarten this summer and I'm making the best of my time with her. When the kids start school at the end of summer, my hrs will change and I will be at work full time. I'm using my work hrs I have now to get a new body of work finished. I'm going to be changing my style somewhat with fantasy. I'm revisiting some old techniques of outlining my work. It won't be the same, but I'm hoping it will help my art art pop more.
To the right is "Blackberry Fairy". She will be 11"x14" when completed. I still have a good bit of detail to sketch in the background, but I'm excited to share it in the next stage of my work in progress.
I've been taking pictures of wild flowers outside of around the house. I've seen all kinds of animals and birds since living here and I love it. I'm going to be starting back into fine art as well. There is a lot of blackberry vines on our property and I'm hoping they come out nice this year. I've already took pics of the flowers. I want to draw different paintings of the blackberries.
Anyhoo, this is all for now. I'll be posting more WIP here in a few days.
I'm really happy to say after all our house hunting, we finally found our dream home. We closed a couple weeks ago on it. Our new home is nestled on a hill in the woods. We are working and trying to get settled in. There's a lot of cleaning up to do on the property. There are dead trees that need to be cut down, dead limbs everywhere, and briers to be cut down. We gave the house a good spring cleaning inside and we need to power wash the outside of the house and the deck. The deck needs some thompson's water seal. We have several other projects as well.
I was really happy were able to find a house in a little forest. It is really hard to find anything like this even though WV is known for it's wooded mountains. We have a enough acres that the kids can run and play, plus no one can move close to us. I have a temporary studio space in my daughters bedroom. I'm going to have a studio built near or in the woods, hopefully in a year or so.
It's been nice having time away from art, but I'm really starting to miss my colored pencils and paper. I should be back to work some time next month.
I've decided to take a break for the next few months from art. There is a lot of big changes going on in my life right now, and I am unable to work on art or keep up with my business.
I have finally completed my first fantasy painting of 2013. This took about a week and a half. The background is more soft but completely filled in, with no white of the paper showing through. I purposely did it softer, so it would not over power the mermaids. It takes a long time to color in with colored pencil. I did use Neocolors a little in this as well. Mostly over the colored pencil for highlights. There is also a touch of acrylic, because acrylics are still stronger than Neocolors.
A lot is going on in my life right now. To much to bare or at least it feels that way at times. I've been using my art as a way to escape my problems and it really is helping with stress. For the first time in years I have peace setting behind the drafting table.
The painting I'm working on is two mermaid sisters. I'm juggling around names in my head, and I think I will call this piece. "Tails of Grace and Hope". I spent most of the day today working on the ghost ship and sunset. Just that alone feels like a painting all in it's own. The colors are way off in the photo. They are actually softer and match much better :)
This is the latest work in progress of a fine art piece I'm working on. I got the reference from a big collection of photos of my Dad's hunting trips out west. I picked out several photos from his collection, for future projects.
I got about 6 hrs into the piece so far.
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