Day 3

Day three

Day three

Day 3 of the inking and it’s going well.  This project is probably the most fun I’ve had with a drawing in a long time. Lovely landscaping and interesting stone work.  What more could I ask for in a drawing.

The landscaping is pretty well done and the doors and windows are in.  Next session will concentrate on finishing the stone facade.  It has been a while since I have done stonework and I am looking forward to it.

I’m back from vacation and back to work

New commission

New commission

What happens when you try to go on a little vacation in the dead of winter after the Christmas holidays?  That’s when someone decides that she needs a commission piece done for a February birthday gift. Right in the middle an out of town trip to visit family, I got a request for an 8×10 architectural watercolor and a few days before I returned the etsy listing was purchased.  So there I am, happy to have a job to come back to, when the woman who has had me draw wedding venues as gifts the last couple of years contacts me about doing four 8×10 pen and inks for her.  So I am back in the studio and booked for February.  Yippee.

This first one has quite lovely landscaping, with irises and peonies flanking the pebbled concrete stairs.  The facade is various sized rough stone work with an archway over the front door.  I think it’s going to be quite lovely when it’s done.

Jasper color

Watercolored in

Watercolored in

The watercoloring is finished on the Jasper, Indiana streetscape and it is ready for listing in my etsy shop.  While it is not quite as colorful as some of the others, I do like the blue gray siding next to the red bricks.  We actually went into this shop and bought some gifts and a little sign. It is a lovely little store to walk into and explore.

I am going to have to go out this spring and take some local small town photos.  I really have enjoyed creating this set of streetscapes.  The big problem is finding a small town mainstreet that is as vibrant as Jasper is and lots of open, well cared for stores.  Small towns are having a hard time surviving.  Jasper deserves a lot of credit.

Back to Jasper

Back to Jasper

Back to Jasper

After all of the holiday work, I have returned to doing some of my own for listing in my etsy store.  This piece has sat half finished since sometime last fall and I decided I should go ahead and finish it. Two of the three streetscapes I painted of the unique shops in Jasper have sold already so this is a logical choice.  I may have to dig out my pictures of other small Indiana town main streets to work from. There is obviously pride of place here.

All of the decorative brick work took some time, but it is finished now and time for the watercolors.

Big bucks

Big bucks

Big bucks

No, not that kind.  The deery kind.  I was looking out the front garden window at the kitchen sink and saw some does go past the driveway in the upper field.  I hadn’t taken any wildlife photos to post recently, so I thought, what the heck and headed down to the studio to get the camera and put on the telephoto lens.  When I glanced out the rear windows, I saw SIX bucks down by the lake, at least three of which had very large antler racks.

Plans changed in a hurry as I decided to photograph them instead.  I haven’t seen any large bucks at all over the last few years and here was a large herd right before my eyes.  This is the best of the 15 photos I took.  Late afternoon light, a telephoto lens and a bunch of moving animals conspired against me, but this one is not too bad.  I think you can see how big these guys are and how huge their racks look.  I sure would like to find some of those antlers when they are shed in the spring.  Wouldn’t you?

More bookmarks

New bookmarks

New bookmarks

Now that the holiday commissions are finished, I decided to add a few new things to my etsy shop. I sold a bunch of bookmarks as Christmas gifts and needed to replace them. With Valentine’s Day coming up, I thought it would be nice to make a few romantic ones as well as to replace the linocut sets.

Next, I’m back to the Jasper streetscape from a month ago.

 

Red brick in the mail

Red brick ranch

Red brick ranch

After several rounds of watercoloring, the brick ranch is finally finished.  The brick was a solid red with no variations which is always a little harder. There are no subtle color combinations to move the eye around the facade, so I had to use the shutters, quoins and set back entry to help do that.   Because this is only an 8×6 drawing, the smallish doorway got lost in the shadows of the porch.  I used a narrow white line to bring it back out.  I was rather pleased with the effect since the door had effectively disappeared and who doesn’t want to see the entry of their home.

It is off to its new home in Virginia, I think as a realtor gift.

 

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