Winter Wind

So this is the next painting I'm working on. I thought I would do a characture of my cat but this came out of me instead. Deb was working on a princes that turned into a snow queen. Check it out on her blog..."it's all good". Again we were on a similar wave length....totally different executions.

I was teetering on whether to make it a fall color scheme or a winter one. But I wanted to at least have it drawn out, and burned into the wood with the skin tone and the eye color on the board. So when we got together to paint we would be close to the same stage. Only to find she was already nearing completion by the time I made it over to her house this weekend to paint. That's OK she was already on to her next creation. Which is stunning by the way.

I knew I wanted to use patterned paper for her coat dress. But I neglected to bring some paper. I guess I thought I could add it later. But once I was there sitting down to do it. I found it pivotal to have it. So I would know what background colors I should use.

So Deb let me shop for paper in her stash. She has lots and lots of yummy paper. I found the above and it has set the color tone for the whole painting. I plan on using some puff paint for the faux fur collar. I also had to borrow her snow flake stamp set mine didn't make it in to my bag. So you see how far I am..... and you see I have a ways to go.

Painting with Deb

This is just the face section of the painting I've been working on. Inspired by Suzi Blu and her techniques. Totally encouraged by Deb. Going from the top to bottom you can see some of the stages it has been going through.

Jump over to It's all good from my likable links to see what Debra has created.

Fallen Leaves

Well, today was a winter bust. Some would say blast. But you would have to like snow. It snowed all day. So we reasonably had to cancel the Art Group meeting that was scheduled for today. As much as I didn't want anyone to have to drive in this mess. I felt as though some one had let the air out of my tires. I really look forward to the swaps and creating our art projects together.

The poem I selected to put on my leaf fits me to a tee. It says "A fallen leaf is nothing more than a summers wave good bye." I believe the author is unknown. I could add.. "Or a wave hello to winter." Either way it doesn't make me happy. So I selected a pout-y faced girl then I digitally airbrushed color in her hair, eyes, lips, cheeks, and dress.

The maple leaf was oh so fun to cut out of mat board. And since I didn't have enough fun cutting out the shapes the first time. I added glossy paper so I could use my alcohol inks and create the background paper. So I had to cut the maple leaf shapes out a second time.

Nearly finished I couldn't "leave" well enough alone I wanted to see what the poem would look like with antique glossy accents on top with a sprinkling of glitter. Well, it wrinkled up. I should have known. I decided it added to the eventual decaying of the leaves. So this time I left it alone.

The picture you see is the partial swap. When I get the other two I'll up date this blog.

What A Week Can Bring

A week ago Chip, Deb and I went to the apple orchard. It was a beautiful crisp fall day. The leaves are mostly gone now. But our apple tree in front likes to hold onto it's apples as long as possible. We had a delightful trip. Even a free sample of freshly made hot apple crisp. Yum. Now we had all the apples we wanted to make our own pies. We had just received the first light snow fall of the year a couple days before. I was happy that day because it was melting off.
Then today just a little more than a week later I was awakened by a 7:30 AM phone call. It was Darwin asking if we wanted our driveway ploughed out. Well, in my comatose state I didn't make it to the phone it time. Fortunately he called right back. I had no idea so much snow had fallen over night. I was expecting it to come during the day. I told him yes please come. So I have made a slide show...click on the link if you care to view it.

http://www.slide.com/r/XBBPK2qr2j-Y1p4o0nrWeCP6SlFI1Czr?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original