Portrait Sketching in Oils

A quick portrait sketch in oils. I went straight onto the canvas with paint and a largish brush (no pre-drawing of any kind). I didn't capture a likeness but that wasn't really the goal (although it would have been nice!). I really am enjoying the "push" and "pull" - putting paint on...pulling it off- to get the form down. The way the paint just glides around on the canvas makes me feel like I am playing with silk!

Oil Sketch

Acrylic Workshop for Kids

I was teaching a workshop at a school the other day. It was a 1-hour acrylic workshop. I don't usually paint in acrylics so it was a challenge for me! After a bit of research I came up with an easy, abstracted vase of flowers.

I was able to teach the kids a little bit about light, shadows and form, and then the rest was more of a creative exercise. It was busy with 22 kids, but everyone followed along, and had lots of fun. The kids sure got creative with their flowers. I was impressed.

After we were all done and I was cleaning up at the sink, one of the young students approached me and told me that she felt she can become a much better artist after today. What a wonderful ending to my workshop.

I wasn't able to take photos of the students...that's a no-no these days, but I was able to take photos part way through. Unfortunately I didn't get any of the finished product :(

Ballet Shoes and Broken Pencils

I thought I should actually do something while sitting on my butt in the evenings! Obviously oils and pastels are out of the questions especially as I am such a messy painter.

A while back I had bought a Cretacolor Sanguine Dry pencil , it had been sitting on my table unused and unloved for way too long. So I got out my craft knife, sharpened it to a point and to a point, and to a point again, and although I was able to use it for this drawing almost half the pencil is now gone :( I guess it must have been broken inside, perhaps dropped on the floor or mishandled in some way before it was shipped to me. It's disappointing because while there is half a pencil left, I still can't sharpen it without the lead breaking off!

Off to a good start

All finished. The drawing and the pencil!