Winter white

Single-digit temperatures for quite a few days now.  Looking out the window... snow caps on the leaf-less shrubs.  Are the birds okay?  I hope they are keeping warm.

Perhaps these thoughts prompted me to paint a warm-weather scene with plenty of color :-)

"Journey"

Magic horses that are basically the same... but different :-)

My sketch:

The use-the-paint-tube as a tool technique (Carla's 2014: Year of the Fairy Tale) yielded this horse:

Bold.

Using the same sketch for inspiration, here's the next drawing:

I immediately thought, "Inktense colored pencils".

And here he is:

Gosh, another mixed media magic horse... in w/s Neocolor II

Some photos showing another magic horse, this time playing around with Caran d'Ache  water soluble Neocolor II wax pastels.

Graphite drawing of an imaginary horse; I drew this with the horse sculpture (see this blog post) in mind:

7B pencil on 140# hot press water color paper

Choose some colors and lay them down in a sketchy manner:

Define some features, too.

Blend the wax pastels with water and add more depth with graphite and charcoal:

I like the intensity of the colors.

Neocolor II wax pastels are lovely to work with; they "melt" onto the paper.  With water, a little bit goes a long way.

Baby bird by chance

because he started out as several random daubs and strokes of watercolor and gesso:

"Peep".

Flying...more

Yes, another version of a "Picasso Dog" drawing and this time it's a horse.

Not jumping...Flying!

Fly Boy

I do my best not to do any planning in advance as it defeats the spirit of a Picasso dog drawing. but I suppose do I have a particular breed in mind, though it's difficult to tell, huh?
So after turning the page around and around this dog made his appearance ;-)
Meet the soaring "Picasso dog":

AKA "Fly Boy"

Picasso Dog-ing an Elephant

Yes, I am still using Carla's (www.carlasonheim.com) Picasso Dog drawing exercise, especially in the sketchbook I carry with me. I hardly notice the time I have to wait for an appointment or a friend because I become so involved in making these little sketches!
And now, Picasso Elephant:

Picasso Elephant...relaxing :-)

Unfinished fun

The Blobimals Artist Books class ended on Friday. I managed to get a start on all three books, but omigosh, there's so much remaining to do. It works out well because as something needs to dry in one book I go on to the next and work on that one.
This is the start of the front cover of Book One:

Starting the cover of Blobimals Art Book One

I plan to work on these books in the background as I am starting another week-long online class tomorrow (oy!) but that's just how the class schedules worked out.

Scribble blob...

from the last day of Blobimals class:

A Bunny-roo :-)

That Carla Sonheim...

what a creative teacher.  Yesterday's drawing assignment was so simple...but brilliantly done! Use really "awkward" [my term] collage scraps to create three creatures. It was so funny because the scraps she used were ones she picked up from her studio floor (yes, the scraps I always toss).
I really enjoyed the the exercise; here's my take on it:

Rescued collage fodder :-)

More "Picasso"-ing

So I thought I'd use Carla's [www.carlasonheim,com] Picasso exercise on another of my favorite animals - Birds.
Presenting Picasso Bird:

I remember feeling this way after a particularly strong margarita; I probably looked a bit like this too :-)