Latest two commissions have been approved so I'm just tidying them up, signing them and mount/matting them ready for despatch.
The lovely spaniel - pastels on light grey pastelmat 16" x 12"
Little lad - Christmas present for his granny. Graphite pencil on Mellotex A4 Size
So these, together with the little girl in pastel recently finished will all be with the clients by the middle of the week.
My plan now is to spend the afternoon thoroughly cleaning my studio. Everything seems to be covered in pastel dust and feels yukky. I will be starting another horse commission next and although it will also be in pastels I want to get cleaned up .... before adding a new layer of pastel dust.!! After that it will be back to graphite which is far cleaner to work with.
My Picasa picture resizing regime is going well. Another hour on it this morning and usage has gone down to 84.5% .... so worthwhile doing as their charge to increase capacity is $2.50 a month which soon mounts up when you're a 'starving artist' LOL
In the meantime, I'm keeping my eyes on the bird food/feeders. One of the new ones has disappeared from the tree and we can't find it in the garden anywhere. My money is on the squirrel having stolen it but unless I can catch him in the act ..... can't think that any of the birds would be strong enough to take the entire thing - except the seagulls and it isn't 'their kind of food' . I'd really like to get a garden camcorder set up - maybe a project for next year!
You don't have raccoons otherwise one could accuse them. Great thieves. So yes, gotta be the squirrel. Glad your pix have been finished and approved. What a lovely present for grandma.
ReplyDeleteBoth of these turned out great, Sue and it looks as if you've finally figured out how to capture a graphite drawing! What's the secret?
ReplyDeleteWhen you finish with your studio, will you please come do mine? A huge bull dozer is here to build my DH's dream pond and I'm thinking of "borrowing" it for an hour or so to clean up my studio!
Hi Jo
ReplyDeleteMy money is definitely on the squirrels as they must have chewed through the wire holder to release the food.
Hi Jan.
I started on the cleaning hours later than planned and up to half hour ago the place looked far worse than when I started. Sackfuls of old art magazines have gone and I've discovered all sorts of goodies in the storage drawers (where I haven't looked for years) LOL
But it now smells of polish and I can type without my fingertips feeling all gritty ... but I'll be starting another pastel soon so 'dust will be flying' again LOL
Good luck with your clean-up.
Ooops .. sorry Jan, forgot to respond re. the graphite capture.
ReplyDeleteAs this was A4 size I was able to scan it. The result is a little bright but much better than the 'greyed out' photos. In the past I've tried scanning larger drawings on my A4 scanner and 'stitching' them but have had a lot of problems that way. Must get some better programmes methinks?
yeah if there were raccoons here, i would have said it was them too. were always nicking things at dad's place :/
ReplyDeletegreat job on the spaniel :D the fur is really well done
Great finish on these portraits! Beautiful Spaniel fur!
ReplyDeleteHow do you achieve that rich dark with graphite?
Both of these are beautiful they are going to be much loved!
ReplyDeleteThank you Peggy. I really enjoyed portraying the spaniel - such soulful eyes :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks to Mike Sibley for the 'darks' in graphite. I attended a 3 day workshop and his most common instruction to the group was 'go darker, go darker' LOL For the darkest bits here I used 8B Mars Lumograph pencils
Thank you for stopping by Cathy. Much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteIs it still warm in Sicily?
Gorgeous work :-)
ReplyDelete