The dog, Ford

 A recent commissioned portrait of a dog. I did this in pastel pencils on Strathmore toned tan paper. This portrait went well right from the start. To begin with I had a good photo to work from, clear and nothing getting in the way of his nice pose. I was in the mood for drawing and spent a whole Sunday working on this. The clients were very happy with the drawing and hopefully it is now framed and on their wall.

Now that spring is here, and summer is on the way, my studio is getting warmer and much more pleasant to work in. I think a possum has chewed through the wires in the ceiling because my main light dosn't go any more, but I have lamps and now that the days are longer I have more hours of daylight to work in.

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 New Drawing Board

After a couple weeks of coaxing and pleading Dad finally made me a drawing board! It took him two afternoons with my help--or hindrance! He made it with no design just a couple of photos I gave him of the sort of thing I wanted. 

The angle is adjustable by unscrewing the wing nuts and putting the screws in other holes. It's a simple design but serves my purpose and I'm very happy with it. As you can see I have begun using it already.

It is very useful for drawing for I always find that when drawing on a flat surface your viewing angle is distorted and what looks fine lying on the desk before you suddenly becomes elongated when you lift it up to view at 90 degrees! The drawing board is supposed to fix that

The only problem now is I need a higher chair!

Welcome to my Studio!

  I am one of those people who loves to change around things like furniture and rearrange rooms. I have rearranged my room many times, on average about once a year! Because my room is also my studio my roll-top desk serves multiple purposes and often when I have a painting underway I can't do anything else for all the space is taken up with it.

   Today I got out a canvass but didn't know what I was going to paint. I decided to do a still life from life, but after trying to arrange things on a chair I decided I had better spent my day rearranging my room. I now have a solid old kitchen table at right angle to my desk so I have sort of cornered of a space in my room as a studio and have a lot more table space now! On the other side of the table is my bed so it also serves as a large bedside table.

An awkward view of my studio corner. Sorry about the  bad quality images I was using my webcam!

 

Unimportant things get a much smaller space now!!

                                

The four hundred plus books in my room overflow the shelves! (Yes I have counted and read them all!!! It's not really crazy, merely normal healthy behavior of a book worm!)

We being snobs! And Pansy more interested in the curtains.

The cat is Pansy, this is her territory. And she has allot more hair in winter!

I may get out the paints tomorrow now that I have a bigger space to work in.... =)