Oreo

I was commissioned by a friend of mine's daughter to do this memorial picture of their dog Oreo as a Christmas present for her mom.  Oreo was a great little dog and the apple of his mamma's eye.  He'll be greatly missed.

Silver Palette 2011

"Doc" won Honorable Mention at the Silver Palette Competition!

75 in 75day 35

This is Kellie's cat Taz sleeping under the Christmas tree after all the pesky presents were gone.

75 in 75 day 34

This day was my 24th Anniversary! This is my husband when he was a little boy taking a nap.

75 in 75 day 32

I love to draw guys with big wild beards. I'm now over my trepidation about doing a portrait without an eraser!

75 in 75 Days 28 and 29

This is my daughter watching the pow wow drummers and dancers in her straw hat and zebra sunglasses.

75 in 75 day 27

This is my niece Lizzie enjoying ice cream.

75 in 75 day 26

The re-inactors at the Kearney pow wow had their guns set up in a tripod so I had to take one of this .  Inscribed on the gun it says 1853 Enfiled. A little Wiki info. about these guns. The term “Rifle-Musket” meant that the rifle was the same length as the musket it replaced, as a long rifle was thought necessary so that the muzzles of the second rank of soldiers would project beyond the faces of the men in front, ensuring that the weapon would be sufficiently long enough for a bayonet fight, should such an eventuality arise.

75 in 75 Days 24 & 25

I've always loved the Linoma beach light house.  Tried a colored pencil drawing once but it didn't turn out.
My first portrait in pen and ink. Wasn't as hard as I thought. This is a native american man that let me take his pic as we were watching the pow wow in Kearney.

75 in 75 day 23

This is another I did during the oil change :) I took it while at Yorktown Beach VA.  The watercolor is Derwent Watercolor pencils. I love the bright colors these produce.

75 in 75 day 22

Just in time for fall!  Okay, Okay, I'm not supposed to use anything but pen and ink but I was sitting getting an oil change and only had my watercolors with me and had to see how the paper would take water.  It did wonderfully.  These are opaque watercolor, Less see through.

75 in 75 days 18, 19, 21

These three drawings were done on the Tenth anniversary of 9/11.

75 in 75 day37

I had to post this one early and out of order for my cousin Lisa.  It's her dog Nashville. I believe he's a Newfoundland. He's absolute bear in size and teddy bear in heart.

75 in 75 Day 13

This is from the Tennessee Chattanooga Game we went to. At this point I guess they don't deserve the props.

75 in 75 Day 9

I just love this one.  When I'm done it will get a watercolor wash!

75 in 75 Day7

75 in 75 Days 4 & 5

I have to learn to loosen up and sketch, not make drawings.  Using a set of Faber Castell 4 PITT artists pens black.

75 in 75Days 2 & 3

Since I'm not going to start any big projects until after the move I thought I'd post some of the sketches from the 75 in 75 projects I'm doing to keep my art "itch" under control.  http://brendaswenson.blogspot.com/2010/08/75-day-sketch-challenge.html I decided to use my Elli pooh sketch book I got at the zoo http://www.mrelliepooh.com/ that's been sitting around waiting for a good use. I'm amazed that it takes pen and ink heavily without bleed through. Pen and Ink is not my medium but this has taught me a lot in just the short time I've been working on it.

"Just try and stay out of my way. Just try my pretty."

And DONE! This one should have been done long ago but we've been busy getting ready to move. Getting it all ready for the Hot Shops show http://www.hotshopsartcenter.com/ "Wizard of Oz" in December but first I think it will go to the SilverPalette" show. http://baacom.bellevueartists.com/calandar.shtml

"just try and stay out of my way. Just try my pretty."

I've been working on the shoe strings and eyelets.  Using 10% to 90% cool greys. I think they are taking me longer than the reds of the shoes.

"Just try and stay out of my way. Just try my pretty."

So as you can see I've decided to make the legs look decisively green. Thanks John for the advice. They may have to go a little lighter but I'm waiting to see.  I've used Dark Green, Celadon Green and Jade Green. The Red in the shoes have a few more layers too. Some of the lightest areas have Blush Pink and everything has Scarlet Lake.  The Red in the shoes will need a little more work but I need to get the rubber parts of the shoes in first to get my values right.  The rubber parts on the left shoe has only a layer of 30% to 90% cool greys and some areas the paper white.

"Just try and stay out of my way. Just try my pretty."

Just rollin' away on this one.  Really It's taken longer than the 4 days of these posts to get this work done.  Probably at least 9 or 10 days.  This shows the Crimson Lake on all layers and then a second layer on just the light areas.  Although my darks are showing up nicely hear they seem to be getting a little lost in areas on the actual drawing.  I might have to go back and re enforce those after I get the next two layers in.  Yes two more layers of red at least before the shoe strings and rubber parts. What do you think about her leg?  Right now it has a light wash as the background.  Can't decide if it needs some layers of green colored pencil to make it stand out.  I'd love to make them hairy legs but I'd never be able to pull it off realistically.

"Just try and stay out of my way. Just try my pretty."

Now we got some Ruby Slippers going on!  Two layers of Tuscan Red in the shadow areas, layers of Raspberry on everything and the right shoe has Crimson Lake on everything.

"Just try and stay out of my way. Just try my pretty."

Now you can see the beginnings of the transformation to red with the tuscan Red.

"Just try and stay out of my way. Just try my pretty."

So the local art gallery http://www.hotshopsartcenter.com/ is having a theme show in December, "Wizard of Oz" So this is my interpretation. First I'd like to thank an old high school friend for the converse sneakers inspiration.  My idea is that the Wicked Witch actually got the Ruby slippers.  Once on they take the personality of the wearer.  It's on watercolor paper with a wash of sap green and black.  The witches colors and remembering she was melted by the water.  Using dark green Prisma colored pencil I worked all the dark shadow areas of the shoes. Yes, they will turn red soon!

POW/MIA

Finished! Kind of.  I always reserve the right to make changes.

POW/USA Bike

Still working on it.  I have the black flag almost done.  It needs a little more work but I have to get some of things around it done so I can figure out the values I need.

POW/MIA

See I told you the flag would turn red! Here you see the leather seat back and the flag with all the layers of color in them.  Of course when all is said and done things will be adjusted here and there.  I can't wait for the "purple" POW/MIA flag to turn black.  In the next post I hope to show some samples of the layers it takes for some of these final colors.  I believe there are 6 to 8 layers of different reds in the stripes on the flag and as many blues in the field of stars.

POW/USA Bike

So I have been very diligent about working the undertones all over this time.  I usually fully work an area and then move on because I'm impatient to see how it will look.  It looks a mess right now since nothing is the color it should be.  It did help because I noticed a compositional problem.  The POW flag edge is too parallel to the bag behind it and will get lost together.  I've extended it out past a bit in the drawing but it may need to be moved out just a bit more. Next the fun part.  USA flag will turn red, white and blue and POW flag will turn black along with everything else

Ultra Classic Electra Glide

I just found out this drawing of Larry's motorcycle won an Award of Excellence at the ANAC show this weekend!

http://www.nebraskaartclubs.org/

Now it gets to go all around Nebraska for a year to be in the traveling show.

http://www.nebraskaartclubs.org/files/travelmap.pdf

I know it will be in Lincoln in Feb. but I don't know where yet. 

Larry is none too happy his drawing is going to be gone for a year!

POW/USA

It's been awhile and still nothing to show you as far as drawing. I've been on vacation and doing that summer thing.  On vacation I took several pics in Eureka Springs AR.  Lots of bikes down there.  I think this might be my next drawing.  After my Artist reception and everyone commenting on the drawing I did of my husbands bike I'd like to do a bike series.

Doc

   This felt like one of my fasted pieces to date. Probably because I had no problem areas.  I got it done just in time for the ANAC competition and it was chosen to go to the show.http://www.nebraskaartclubs.org/  Along with the drawing of my husbands motorcycle I did right before this.
    I really enjoyed the beard and found it much easier than I anticipated.  I'm still looking for the perfect eraser for the lifting off process.  Something that gives me a thin, thin line.

Doc

Okay I lied.  I didn't work on the beard.  I figured out I couldn't until I had some background and shirt to "erase" from.  So I've been spending the last 10 days or so working the shirt.  It's mostly done.  I'll have to fine tune the values in the shirt and background once I get the beard values in.

Doc

This is from a pic I took at the Bellevue Berry Patch. He was selling bird water whistles and when I asked him if I could take his pic he struck this perfect pose.  He said many artists have asked him for his pic. I titled is "Doc" because I thought he looked like an old time doctor.  He also looks like Santa so I probably will retool his hat and cloths at another time to do a Christmas drawing. The background, beard and face are done in graphite and the hat in carbon pencil. A combo of graphite and charcoal. In the next few days I will work the beard erasing adding graphite to get all the whiskers.  It's my first time doing this so wish me luck!

Ultra Classic Electra Glide

Got it done just in time!  I hope Larry likes it.  This took so much longer than I thought it would. Maybe I should work smaller when I use colored pencil.  Now off to a graphite project.

Artistic Rain Barrel

So the barrel is done! Well mostly.  I have to wait 2 days to spray on the top coat.  I thought it better to take some pics before the shinny top coat was put on & make my pics glare.  So this was my very first public art project and I think it went very well!   http://lincoln.ne.gov/city/pworks/watrshed/educate/barrel/artist/

Ultra Classic Electra Glide

Next time you see this it will be done!

Rain Barrel Project

So my wonderful husband went and got my rain barrel, in a snow storm, on a work night and hour out of town!   Tonight I got all the drawing done.  The front has a Sea Turtle that lives at the Henry Doorly Zoo.  I took this pic there for a photo contest they had. I painted it in watercolor and won First Place at the 2009 Silver Palette Show.  It's also been in the 2010 ANAC competition. http://theresarhodus.blogspot.com/2009/09/breaking-through_17.html The back has some seagrass that the turtles like to eat and some angel fish that like to eat things off the turtles.  The back will be up against a wall so will not be seen. But I couldn't just leave it blank with just water!  To learn more about this rain barrel project please visit...
http://lincoln.ne.gov/city/pworks/watrshed/educate/barrel/artist/

Art with Heart

My first abstract!  I did this for a fundraiser for the American Heart Association being held at the HotShops Art Center.
http://hotshopsartcenter.com/galleries.html

Ultra Classic Electra Glide

I lost count of the hours after 50.  I do feel the end coming with this one finally.  Here you can see some of the underpainting I do to get some of the subtle colors in the blacks that are so predominant in this drawing.

Ultra Classic Electra Glide

This is excruciatingly slow!  I'm now about 50 hours into this.  I think I'm getting a little quicker.  I know what my color combinations are going to do for the most part.  I find it very hard to keep the white areas clean no matter how often I brush it off.  With all that said I do like how it's turning out.

Ultra Classic Electra Glide

I bet you thought I fell off the face of the earth.  The Holidays did me in.  I have been busy doing this drawing though.  This is my husband's Harley. This is my first endeavor in colored pencil without the aid of a step by step tutorial.  Guess what, colored pencil takes even longer than graphite!  The finished areas have at least 8 layers of color. I'm more than 35 hours into this and want very badly to be done.  It's 11x14 so I have a long way to go.