Artic Blue Alpaca

Artic Blue

canson 12x9"

      My first attempt at painting a baby Alpaca known as "crias". This is from a nearby Good Time Ridge Alpacas a farm right down the road from us in WV. This cria has different colored fur on different levels and fuzzy! Its difficult to find a photo with their eyes showing as the hair overhangs them as it grows out.

Levi in the field

11"x14" Pastel

After a lot of summer vacation visiting family, I finally started finishing some paintings. This began as a Plein Aire at my brother-in-laws fields, then brought home to finish in studio. I'm a bit rusty. :) I had a lot of fun and even got up on a horse...after 25 years...ouch!

Two more paintings

    

      Another two from this weekend. I didn't have enough time to take photos and post as my mom, dad and aunt came up for a visit.

 

This one is of Connor, Cassies brother.  It was suppose to be an hour, but ended up double that because I was having so much trouble with his face.  It was too flat looking, and I was having trouble with the shadowing and having stripes at the same time.

   

Connor

Canson smooth side 9x12 pastel

Vermont Field

 9x12 Canson smooth side pastel

 This is from a hiking trip this past summer in Vermont.  I drove Russ my husband and daughter crazy because I kept stopping to take photos.  Its suppose to have Queen Annes Lace flowers in the forground that I didn't get time to in for the  1 hour sketch limit.  I can't decide if I should continue or not.

Sitting Pretty

9x12 Pastel on Canson

This is one of the one hour sketches finished. The sketch itself looked like a puppy and considering I was suppose to drawing an adult, I went back in and fixed it. Another 1 hour to do that.  Generally the lower jaw was too small.  Lots of other little things.

Here is the one hour sketch

RIley smiling

8x10 pastel on canson

My 2nd offering today for the one hour sketches that I would like to get done daily. This is Riley as a big boy, I went over by 5mins again for a touch up.

Casie on Red Stripped Towel

8x10 Pastel on Canson- smooth side

Another 1 hour study from yesterday I didn't get the photo because the battery died. This is Casie our tinest cat in the house. She stays mainly upstairs, not liking company or the dog. I have a little timer that I set for an hour, but I noticed that I forgot whiskers and her nose looked strange. So I need to add on another 5 minutes.

I'm going to try to get atleast 1 one hour sketch out a day before I start in on other paintings.

RIley Pup

9x12 Pastel on canson

I had a little time today to do a 1 hour sketch. I really should be doing them more often, but its been ignored lately. I'm glad I did because it, the sketch reminds of the its importance Getting the quick broad gestures down, cuts all the tiny mark making and really plays a big importance in understanding value. You have to block in your values and then layer. This is my pup Riley looking all innocent and stuff.

2 cows grazing more

Another update to the cow painting. Trying to add further darks into the painting. Adding more warms into the foreground again.

Hoping that this is the finish. I increased the lights on the cows and played around with the shadows on them. Darkened the grass with greens, blues and oranges.

2 Cows Grazing in Field

12X16" on mat board coated with colorfix primer

A new painting this week. I needed to do some more landscapes and wanted to give the cross-hatching a break. I started off with nupastel for the under painting and began to ruff in the mountains and sky first. I hated the mountain color and decided that the house and barn were much too large for its placement. I like the cows though :)


I decided to wash it off thanks to the colorfix primer. You have to really look, but I changed the house barn to an intirely new one with the side facing into the sun...and smaller. Not much else besides ruffing in the irrigation stream.


I then changed the mountain to a purple pink and got bored with the regular type of strokes with the side of the pastel. So I started cross-hatching again. The house looks much better and shows more atmosphere now.


Added more green to the front trying to get warms in front and cools in the back. I added more greens to the tree line toning it down somewhat.



This last one had more darks added to it to increase the value range in the painting. Larger strokes in the forefront, smaller as it goes back. I lightly suggested a path going opposite direction of the water/weeds hoping to create a zigzag effect.

I'm going to sit on this for a bit and decide if I need to add something else.

Baby Calf

11x14 on canson the bumpy side nupastels and rembrandts
On a roll, I needed to have a go at another. Babies are so cute.

lil piggies

11x14 on canson nupastels
I thought I would try a different subject using the cross hatching strokes, and this is what I came up with. It was about an hour and I had a great time doing it.

Beautiful Bloosom

Ahhh Im finally back and painting again. This is Bloosom one of our egg layers, she has a twin Daisy they always seem to get into trouble. Thier eggs are a pale peachy/tan and are Xlarge. Fat, they are fat chickens! Guess they need to be to lay such big eggs.
This is 13.5x10.5" on watercolor paper covered with clear colorfix primer. The underpainting was an old watercolor of a rooster I did many years ago that was pretty messed up in proportion sizes. I think next I will address the ground a bit more and add to the background some sky blues. She needs some highlights on feathers here and there and on her eye.