Progress November 11

 I haven't blogged in a while. I don't have any explanation for this. Here are two of the pictures I've been working on.

Progress October 15

Here is the latest 

Progress October 12

My kids are home from school this week

Even though I haven't been posting I still surprisingly have been able to work on my projects

This is a drawing on Bristol in graphite. I've been experimenting with drawing media this year and am so far happiest with graphite. Hobby Lobby had a bunch of new products I haven't tried yet. I got some of those yesterday. I am planning to work bigger and have some large sheets of Strathmore Bristol board on order. Hopefully it will arrive within a week.

I also got the chance to revisit a picture I started last year.

It's been bugging me that I haven't really gotten it to a stage I'm happy with. I was able to set aside and get back to it this morning. I am in the process of lightening it overall and removing much of the blue hue. More on this one after Tuesday.

Progress October 1

I think all but a few details are left to do on this one. Actually I am not too happy with this photo. The darks in real life look richer than the photo depicts. Uggh. Getting work to look good in reproduction is an unending struggle. I am going to wrap up his dark valued companion picture next and work on a drawing that is in its final stages, The goal for fall is to finish up many of my projects in progress and start some fresh new pictures.

Progress September 30

I'm a bit nervous about shipping my painting to Kentucky. It got accepted in the American Academy of Equine Art's juried show The Blue and the Gray. It went out today in a custom box from the shipping store. Fingers crossed that it gets there safely and on time and that maybe someone will buy it :-).

They are going to have another Civil War themed exhibit at this time next year to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the end of the war. I hope to get into that one too.

I decided to spend the rest of the day painting. It's been a while and I had to clean off my palette and reset my paints. I want to try to finish up some of the pictures I started this summer. Here is one- I think I am going to call him Wary  or something similar. 

Today I worked on his right to left. I am going to paint his neck tomorrow morning.

Progress September 29

Finishing up the tonal drawing of the wee beasties. I really enjoy this Canson gray drawing paper. I have to go back to Hobby Lobby and pick up a few more sheets.

I am hoping to ship my civil war picture to Kentucky tomorrow. I am having it packed professionally. I watched the first half of Gone With The Wind this evening and picked up a few more Civil War themed painting ideas. I just need a cast of actors, costumes, and horses to portray all of my inspired ideas haha.
Watching that movie every year or two reminds me of how it scared the heck out of me when I was a kid. My mom took me to see it on the big screen at the old Lansdale cinema before it got torn down. All of the carnage was awful, but as a little kid I was most upset about the two horses in the movie that died. What was mom thinking?
So tomorrow is a shipping day and the start of a new drawing. Yay.

Progress September 27

I started a new picture on paper I've never tried before. It's Canson gray drawing paper. The surface is super smooth and allows for nice detail. The pencils glide over it. The paper is really nice but I have to get things right the first or second layer. Anything more than that and the waxy pencils stop making marks. I might try the skirts and spurs image one more time on this surface.