Pick a Pack of Peppers

6" x 6" each
Acrylic on Canvas

Decided to do some fruit studies in acrylics that I could hang in my kitchen.  I originally had decided on citrus fruits, but I don't really like the taste of citrus much.  So I decided to go with a flavor I DO love.... Peppers!!! Bell peppers are so fun to paint because they come in unique, funky shapes and their slick skin is so shiny.  Originally all four peppers had red backgrounds like the green pepper and I was having a very difficult time making the peppers look the color they were supposed to be with the paints I had.  I thought it was a problem with my paints, but as soon as I repainted the backgrounds I was able to see the true color pop out and had to make very few adjustments after that to call it a finished painting.

Sculpey Christmas Ornaments

Rayden

 Decided to buy a box of Super Sculpey and play around with it since I've seen so many inspiring mini sculptures lately.  It really is pretty neat stuff.  I hadn't used it before, but about 5 hours later I had something that resembled a creepy pink version of my dog.  The painting was probably my favorite part since it is what I am most familiar with.  I decided to make them into ornaments so I had a decent reason to make them for each of my pets.  I haven't even attempted to make one for the horse yet, but that will come eventually.  The rabbits are about a 1.5 - 2 inches and the dog is about 3-4 inches long.

Panda

Panda

Unbaked 

Rayden is not so sure

Idgie

Truffles

Class with Bert Seabourn

Motion in Blue
Acrylic on Canvas
16" x 20"

 I enrolled in an acrylic class with Bert Seabourn for three weeks in December.  I've always had a bad relationship with acrylic paints, but I can honestly say that taking this class made me appreciate acrylics in a whole new way.  It was so much fun!  The blue horse was the painting we did the third week of class.  The reference picture we had to work with was a print in black and white from one of Bert's sketchbooks.  It was so fun to look around the room and see all the different colors that the other students chose for their horse and background.  I had originally intended to paint the horse more of a violet color, but I ended up liking the blue too much.

Cardinal
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
9" x 12"

 This cardinal was our painting for the second week of class.

Red Hair
Acrylic on Canvas
11" x 14"

First week of class we painted this girl from Bert's sketchbook.  It was a difficult subject to paint and I didn't enjoy the process or the finished painting as much as the others.  I need more practice drawing humans first.

Here are some WIP shots of my paintings that I did during class.  

30 in 30: Colored Pencil - Day 4

Day 4
~ 4" x 4.5"
Colored Pencil

I had trouble getting the subtle colors to look right on the computer.  The whole drawing is actually a bit darker than this and less "blue".  I think I am going to turn it into a greeting card.  I've always loved zebras but I don't think I've ever drawn one realistically.  Those stripes are much more complicated than I thought.

30 in 30: Colored Pencil - Day 3

Day 3
Colored Pencil
~ 4" x 5.5"

I'm not a huge fan of drawing birds, but this guy was pretty cute.  I loved working with several of my red/orange colored pencils against the greens.  It was also really weird not using much white in a drawing.  The little I did use didn't really "pop" like I'd hoped so I might go back over it with acrylic in a couple places for emphasis.

30 in 30: Colored Pencil - Day 2

Day 2
Colored Pencil
~ 4" x 5.5"

Here is day 2 for Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 challenge. I wanted to say thank you for all the kind comments I got yesterday on my horse sketch.  It was very encouraging.  I didn't have much time to draw so I got a much smaller piece of paper.  I was very frustrated having to work so small with a texture surface.  It was not enjoyable.  I loved this cute kitty though and I plan to turn him into a card that I will mail to my grandma because she loves white cats.

30 in 30: Colored Pencil - Day 1

Day 1
Colored Pencil
~ 9" x 9"

Well, I didn't do so well in the September "30 paintings in 30 days" (I only finished 14 paintings), but I am going to try again in January and see if I can at least beat that.  I hope to go back and finish those 30 watercolor dogs series at some point as well.

Anyways, this time I decided to pick a toned paper and colored pencils for the challenge and put no limit on subject matter.  I've always loved working with colored pencils, but I tend to try to detail too much.  I think I've found a way to fix that by using a paper with more tooth to it.  So far I am happy with the amount of texture and the way the pencils work on it.  Although I am eating through the pencils much faster than I had intended.