Satin Dress Drawing

   I have been very busy all last week working on a commission. It's illustration work which is all very new and interesting, but more on that later. I did find time to do some drawing for myself and here is something I worked on bit by bit all week. 

'Satin Dress' pastel pencil on paper. aprox A3.

   Another from the series of photos I took of Tabitha. I concentrated on the dress in this drawing and made that my subject. I love the folds and how there is so much reflected light in the shadows. I would like to do a bigger drawing of a similar dress and spend more time on it. My favorite part is her lower foot on the ground and the train of the dress. 

   Today I started a still life painting of my violin again. I seem to enjoy that challenge! It's going really well and I hope to finish it this week. I had a few of those good moments when I applied something new I've learnt through reading and watching other artists paint and it worked! It's encouraging to know that what I want to achieve in painting is possible to learn. Also that all my hours I spend reading about painting and looking at paintings and watching videos of people paint are not entirely wasted time!

   This week again I shall be extra busy finishing my still life, doing lots of drawing, and starting on a new commission for a painting. I'm going to be painting a horse! I've been wanting to do that again lately. Also I hope to go out and get some plein air painting done.

My Violin and Piano painting

Here is a painting I completed recently. It is of my violin and piano and painted entirely from life. I set up in the lounge with palette and easel and worked on it every day for a week. The violin is one I was given on my 18th birthday full of enthusiasm to learn, but as painting has taken over I have had to drop many things in order to give that priority. Still, no excuse really, I should practice sometime! 

But I do play the piano every day. The music in the painting is Chopin's nocturne no.2, one of my favorite pieces at the moment. Though you would find it hard to tell from my loose rendering of the notes!

Music Piece 16":x20"

Here are a few photos taken during the process. Forgive the bad quality of the images; taken with my phone.

Yes I have two pianos! Lucky girl, though the one I'm painting is atrociously out  of tune.

I loved painting the piano keys, so much fun figuring out how to bring them to life with as few strokes as possible.

Sketches of my Life

I spent several hours on my drawing yesterday while I was looking after the little craft shop. I drew this cute old fashioned restaurant in Canada from a photo in a travel book.

I used only a pen so I had to pay attention to proportions as I only had one and a half chances to get it right!

Here are a couple more of my recent drawings. I'm up to Day 125 today!

I picked a small branch off the maple tree and spent a day drawing leaves.

One hot sunday afternoon I walked down to the wharf and sat for a couple of hours drawing what was once a store on the water. Now it is a privately owned holiday place.

I've been making a pochade box out of an old wooden Whisky Soda box and plan to do some plein air painting soon.

My nephew stayed with us on the weekend and I let him use my computer on the condition that I draw him!

My younger brother, Nathaniel (16) now half owns and looks after a cute little 22ft yacht called Destiny. I think we are going to have a lot of fun sailing her! :)

Video of my Art Studio!

   Here is what I filmed some weeks ago. The painting in progress has now gone to the girl whose birthday present it was and I can now publish this. It was rather strange talking to a camera which I haven't really done before--and trying to be serious at the same time!

My exciting Monday Mornings, among other things.

  I always start my week of with a bang. I seem to have the most energy and focus on a Monday morning than any other morning, which dose not quite agree with the generally accepted rule! I always begin my most ambitious painting and do the most amount of work on a Monday. Tuesdays are pretty good too, then Wednesdays I begin to lag and usually it goes down hill from there until on the weekends I hardly get anything done painting wise. And then Monday comes round again and I begin with a new spurt of determination and drive.

   I read this short article about weeding gardens yesterday and it has some relevance to this topic. My weeds grow very quickly and are choking me up by the end of the week. From now on I intend to a little weeding every day. It really dose work, chipping away at the old block has to produce some effect eventually. I have always had a time of it trying to get myself motivated to do more paintings and pictures and not just wait for those moments of inspiration. And I have noticed lately that I have come along way for I am working on some picture every day, and even in the weekends I at least to a few sketches! Mum is always saying that good writing (for she is a writer) is %10 inspiration and %90 perspiration and this applies perfectly to the artist, dose it not? Combine this with the saying 'the more you work the stronger you get' and pretty soon inspiration will be a more frequent visitor. It was quite a happy discovery for me!

 Well, I've begun my Wednesday morning with a blog post, that's a good start, now I'm off to finish a painting. I'm videoing it so there will be speed painting video coming your way soon. :) And don't forget to subscribe to my new monthly newsletter! See right to submit your email.

  A small sketch I did in my small A5 sketchbook last month. This is pretty much actual size.