xmas cards

I am getting ready for a local art event called "First Friday". The downtown galleries hold their openings on the first Friday of every month and one of my friends asked me to participate in a Xmas show for the first Friday in December. I needed to get a couple of paintings, with cards of the same image ready for this show.I got these 2 ready and now all I have to do is get cards printed and the larger one framed! Whew!




Acrylic on Canvas
16" x 8"
Silent Night




Acrylic on Canvas
22"x32"
Sleeping spirits

Molly in progress

This pup is in progress - needs the chest resolved before I get to the background -I might be making her too brown - will have to ask the client.
9 x 12

okay - bigger is DEFINITELY easier

This guy is a commission I'm working on - he is 10x12 and SO much easier to do then poor itty bitty Maggie was. She was 9" square, and with the whole body there - she seemed tiny to me.
I still have to decide what I want to do with the background; and his right (viewer's) cheek needs a bit of adjustment.

Maggy complete!

well she doesn't look whiter to me but she does have more pop!

catching up!

I finally got down to doing all the things I had left on a pile over the summer. First, I started my commission of "Maggie", a white little girl; my first white pet!!
It still needs work - I have to figure out how to make her seem more believably white rather then grey - I plan on increasing the values in the background, hoping to have her read as white once I'm done. I'm satisfied with the likeness and character I've captured so far.




My next big job is to update my records of the paintings I've done over the last bit. I have them all on my computer, but I've found that I need a hard copy record as well - keeps them in chronological order.
I'm also busily creating an account on Yessy - an art sales site: http://www.yessy.com/ It looks to be a well organized set up with a modest yearly fee - $59 with 100% of your sales coming to you.It looks worth a try.

Tomorrow I hope to finish Maggie and start my next commission, Mac. I'll keep you updated as much as I can.

golf season is ending .....

I became a golfing addict this summer - not that I'm very good at it, but it is fun and good exercise - hopefully it will keep my cholesterol levels in good enough control to please my doctor. I have adult onset diabetis and watching cholesterol is included in the control of blood sugar. I am border line with both - so that diet and exercise will keep me pill free.
My handicap is very bad - 48 - but I am hoping to improve. My goal this summer was to break 120 - which I did 3 times - so there is hope! I was playing anywhere from 3 to 5 times a week - always 18, always walking. Boy is my ass in shape!
The down side of all this healthy stuff was that my feet got sore as hell!!! And - I needed a nap most afternoons lololol.
The only painting I've done as a result is a bit of plein aire sketching in Northern Ontario - Gloucester Pool area near Georgian Bay.
We had a cool week but the area is beautiful.
These are done in my moleskin sketch/paint pad - 5" x 8".











I did do a couple of animals to keep in practise - a close up of a kitty and a sketch of a pup which I will later paint........







I am almost ready to start my commission for Tracy - cute white doggie for her mum ... shhhhh

SNOOP

I finally got around to painting the second orange boy. I was away from the paintbrush for too long and so this one is stiffer - but he IS a more serious boy then his brother Pi. I had a lot of trouble from the start. The colours wouldn't behave and were difficult to move to create value. I started with quinacrodone sienna which settled very flat and even - not an effect I care for so I switched to burnt sienna and quin gold for my major oranges. The background gave me the willies as well. I wanted some burgandy in it since in real life he was sitting on a burgandy leather chair with a denim cushion. The burgandy didn't give me the effect I wanted so I went over it with ultra blue and burnt sienna - the paint wasn't dry enough and so I got some odd blossoms - urgh! As you can see, it's still wet! When it dries completely, I will look at touching up some of the worst of the bleeds - particularly the one on the left above the cushion.

10 x 13 watercolour