The Past

The Past

by Kay Ryan

Sometimes there's 

suddenly no way

to get from 

one part to 

another, as though

the past were

a frozen lake

breaking up. But 

not from the

top; not because

it's warmer

up here; it's not.

But from underneath

for some reason --

perhaps some heat

trapped on its own

for so long it's 

developed seasons.

I'm taking an awesome workshop with Misty Mawn combining paint, poetry, pastels, sculpting... and that's just in the first week! *sigh* This piece is done with charcoal, pastels and acrylic. I'm having fun experimenting with everything. No expectations when I sit down and sketch; just seeing who or what develops.

Maybe it's because I can't seem to stay warm (I've been bundled up in the house all week fighting off the flu). I thought this looked like a sheet of ice surrounding the face so I went with that. When I found Kay Ryan's poem, it clicked. :)  

This is my entry for Paint Party Friday. I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it around to see every one's work last week. It may take a few days but I will be visiting your blogs this week.  :)

Mixing It Up

I mentioned in a previous post that I am taking Misty Mawn's portrait drawing class. This is week two and I have already learned so much. She is an awesome teacher. I can't say enough about how impressed I am with her class. This is a sketch I did from week one. I'm still learning to do the shadows and shading. That's a challenge for me. I used a model from a fashion magazine as my guide, especially for the lighting and shadow work. Of course this sketch looks nothing like the model but that just makes her uniquely mine! ;)

One of the reasons I'm so interested in these drawing classes is that I want to incorporate more of my own drawings into my art. I'm obsessed with faces so I want to learn all I can about different ways to draw and paint them. Ahh, painting them. This week in Misty's class we start painting our sketches. I haven't drawn one yet that I want to paint but I'm working on one. Watching her paintings take shape is so inspiring (and scarey)! Oh, to be able to do that. Hopefully, someday...

In the meantime, another reason I love using my own drawings is I can paint them any way I want digitally and do something like this:

This was my entry for this week's challenge at Digital Whisper. I love all the special effects I can add to my drawings. Just for fun I did a little graffiti girl:

This one incorporated one of my CitraSolv backgrounds:

And speaking of CitraSolv backgrounds, today I am the guest artist at Toni Brown's very cool blog. Thank you, Toni, for inviting me! I wrote up a little tutorial explaining how I made my CitraSolv pages. Check out her blog. It's full of great tips, techniques and inspiration.

So I'm mixing it all up: original sketches, digital art, some homemade backgrounds...just to see where it all takes me. Stay tuned! More from Misty's class will be posted soon.