Chickadee Sketch

No new painting tonight so I thought I would share a page from my sketchbook. My chickadee paintings are created from combinations of sketches and reference photos.... the sketches help to figure out the anatomy of the birds and placement of the scenes. I like to keep a sketchbook handy at my desk and I tend to 'doodle' when I'm on the phone, waiting for programs to run, or generally just taking a quick mental break. In the end, I get lots of these little doodles that I can use to compose future paintings.



Chickadee Sketch, ballpoint pen
© 2009

Dark and Stormy Night

There was more snow again last night which inspired me to paint this little fellow today. Flipping through some of the painting that I have completed recently I noticed that I have not painted too many wintery pictures. That will have to change. Even though I do complain of the snow... there is a calm happy feeling watching it slowly float to the ground. Or... sometimes it is blizzarding so hard that one can hardly see across the street. I think the later image more closely represents the painting below... either way, it was fun to paint.



"Dark and Stormy Night"
2.5" x 3.5" watercolour
© 2009

Oh, and the forecast for the next five days... rain. Go figure!

Singing of Spring

Felt like painting something a little 'springy' with all the snow on the ground lately. I know I shouldn't complain about the snow (and it does look very nice indeed from indoors)... but it has been making getting around town rather hazardous. I've been keeping my trips in the car short and local... really just getting groceries close by and nothing more. The weather people are calling for lots of rain tomorrow and I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.



"Singing of Spring"
3" x 6" watercolour
© 2009

Ruby Red

Happy New Year! I spend most of today painting this guy, which is also one of my goals for the new year. This year I plan on painting at least one 4" x 6" picture each week along side all my other mini's (ACEO's) and (hopefully) larger oils. These weekly challenge paintings will be available through my Etsy store.



"Ruby Red"
4" x 6" watercolour
Reference photo by Natalie (Dreamin) from Wetcanvas
© 2009


My hope with this new challenge is to create more and procrastinate less. Hopefully it will work. I still have a couple of oil paintings that I am working on still and I will be posting some update photos of those by the end of the weekend.