Fushsia from my garden. This drawing was done with Faber-castell polychromas and then prisma cp for added detail,finished with sepia artist pen.

Foxgloves

These are foxgloves growing in my garden. This drawing was done with Faber-Castell polychromas and Faber-castell sepia pen.

Telling Secrets Finished!!!

Telling Secrets is finally finished!!! For some reason this photo isn't photographing as crisp...probably the time of day I shot the WIP yesterday. Anyway...Telling Secrets is done. All I have to do is mat and frame.

Telling Secrets

Telling secrets WIP. Bella and Maggie were soul sister. When I first brought Maggie home, Bella couldn't stand being in the same room as Maggie. But Maggie being a loving puppy, wormed her way into Bella's heart. These two were inseparable. This was a typical scene...Maggie telling Bella all sorts of interestings secrets about the walk that they'd go on, a trip to the pet store, or a long ride in the car.

This colored pencil was created on Mi-Tientes sage drawing paper. I'm still working on a few spots that I need to fine-tune and give more detail. Once I finish with this drawing...I will finally be caught up and then can start on something new. YEAH!!!!

Sophie

Last year I lost my beloved Maggie who was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Tri-color. Maggie died unexpectantly and I thought my heart would break. She was only 3 years old.

I didn't think the void in my life would be filled, but it was. On June 25,2005 I brought home my baby Sophie. She'll never replace my beautiful Maggie. Sophie has found a special place in my heart. She is loving,sweet,and playful. From the time she wakes up in the morning she fills my life with joy and kisses.

This colored pencil drawing was created on powder blue Mi-Tientes paper.

Bernie the St. Bernard

Growing up I had several St. Bernards...and this guy reminds me of one of my Saints. This colored pencil drawing was done on Art Spectrum Colorfix white paper and I used prismacolor pencils.

Finished colored pencil drawing of my house

I think I'm done with my house drawing. I'll take this to my colored pencil class for a critique next week. I'm just glad I'm done.

It was such a beautiful day, I spent my afternoon in my backyard sketching. I did this in Faber-Castell colored pencil 8 x 8 inch paper.




Hostas

I've been going through all my unfinished drawings (WIP) and the drawing of my house was on the list. I still have work on the middle part of the drawing and once that's complete I think I'll be done. The biggest challenge of this colored pencil drawing was trying to get the various lights and darks. After experimenting I think I've gotten a good variation.

What I learned at colored pencil workshop

At the colored pencil workshop with Kristy Kutch, I got an overview of the different colored pencils on the market. Kristy demonstrated all the colored pencils
and tricks of applying to various paper surfaces. So on Saturday I drew a Calla Lily from memory with Faber-Castell polychromos.

On Sunday Kristy demonstrated water soluable pencils. Again applying water soluable pencils to various paper surfaces. I loved the quick and easy application of the water soluable pencils; again I'm with my favorite Faber-Castell 60 piece pak. I was amazed at the control I was able to achieve and how quickly I was able to develop my Showy Lady's slipper.

The one insight I got this weekend about myself was how confident I felt about drawing and using my material. I finally felt like I was in the "zone." Also because I've been doing art for a while, I'm now able to quickly work on a drawing or painting and finish in a short time, as apposed to taking weeks to complete a project.

I came away from this workshop happy and ready to get down to business and create more pieces.

Colored pencil workshop

This weekend I went to a 2 day color pencil workshop in Gearhart, Oregon with Kristy Kutch. Kristy wrote "Drawing and Painting with Colored Pencil." This workshop was fabulous. I liked Kristy style of teaching. Very generous with tips and "how to's," and loved all the goodies of various colored pencil samples. www.artshow.com/kutch

Another batch of flowers

Just when I think I'm done with my blue series of flowers I discover that I still have more to paint. These were all done with a Faber-Castell artist pen in Sepia and then I added color with watercolor paints.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July! And "Happy Birthday Marti"

To celebrate...I decided to draw peonies from my garden. I used my new Faber-Castell watercolour coloured pencils. The pencil lays the color down rather nicely and with just a tip of a wet brush the color just explodes and fuses together. I'm gonna like these pencils.

My new watercolour coloured pencils

Today I went to Daniel Smith Art Store in downtown Seattle. I always seem to get into trouble when I go to this store...I tend to go overboard and buy lots of art supplies...and you know I need them all!

This coming weekend I'm going to a two-day colored pencil workshop in Astoria, Oregon with Kristy Kutch. After looking over the material list I realized that I needed some water soluble colored pencils...a complete set which I do not have. I bought a 60 piece set of Faber-Castell watercolour pencils. They are a little bit thicker than the regular size colored pencils. They seem to be just as creamy and easy to use as my polychromos by Faber-Castell.

I also bought a small Fredrix Archival watercolor canvas board. I've been wanting to try since I first noticed them over a year ago. I got a 8" x 10" piece. I figure it's small enough to try out and if I mess it up, I won't be upset.

So it was a good day of art supply shopping.

Flowers from my garden

Yesterday was such a beautiful,warm,sunny day, that I sat in my backyard sketching flowers from my garden.

I used various colors of cardstock paper and a gelly roll white pen. I loved the affect of the pen that I went out and bought more colors.




















I had already cut all the roses from my rose bush,so all I had left were leaves. Using a pen really makes me think about placement of each stroke and forces me to see how the next stroke may interupt the flow of the drawing.

I have 60 rose bushes in my backyard and each is in various stages of blooming. I have this yellow-orange rose...really need to get tags to identify what rose I'm drawing.

I also have lots of Yellow and Red Yarrow plants. I've been cutting them too and adding them to my fresh floral arrangements that I've been displaying all over the house.

I guess the good part about having so many flowers in the backyard is that I don't have to go to the flower shop and buy flowers all summer long.

Peony

There is something about the simplicity of a line drawing. I was going through my collection of photo's from my garden and was delighted to find a snap shot of Peonies. I did this on purple card stock paper using a white gel pen. Originally I thought I was going to add color, but after showing the rendering to my husband, I decided I would just leave it as is.

Love in the Mist

Some flowers have such beautiful names. Here's two more flowers in my botanical series.
Geranium in shades of voilet and Love in the Mist in shades of blue. I sketched both with a Faber-castell artist pen in Sepia and then used watercolor and colored pencils for detail.

I was a busy girl....

I was a busy girl yesterday. My new special order David Yurman blue topaz w/diamond ring came in, so I went to Nordstrom to pick it up. While there my partner in crime sales associate said "Would you like to see the new pieces we just got in?" Duh...of course I wanted to see...big mistake. I ended up buying a Bijoux necklace. So I think I'm set for a while with jewelry. I'm not sure what is worse buying lots of clothes or buying jewelry...what can I say...it's an obsession...me and David Yurman. I have so much of his jewelry I probably could open up my own store. I'm just rather lucky my husband let's me indulge in my passion for jewelry.

Hand made journals

In one of the daily digest I receive someone had given instructions on how to make your own moleskin type journal. The instructions were easy enough that I decided to give it a try. The first journal was
done in pink flowers is 5 1/2" by 8 1/2" using card stock paper. The second one I did was a 5 1/2" by 7" watercolor journal done in light blue travel paper. I used 300lb watercolor paper.












I really enjoyed making these journals and probably will make more in different sizes and give as Christmas presents this year.

Blue Poppy

Here's another in my botonical series. I first drew a line drawing using my Faber-Castell sepia marker and then painted the detail in watercolor. I had bought yesterday a new Black Gold 3/8" dagger watercolor brush by Dynasty, which is good to do fine lines.

Botanical Flowers

I thought I'd try my hand at botanical flowers. This is my blue series of flowers. I think I might have 6 more to go. I did these sketches using Faber-Castell sepia marker outlining the flower and then added watercolor, finishing off with colored pencil. I really love these MarimeriBlu Venecian watercolor pallet.

The ten thousand dollar dog

This is my lastest pet portrait of my husbands beloved "Benji". As I like to call him "the $10,000. dog." Benji has been gone now for 12 years and it was only recently that my husband agreed to having a portrait done. Benji was a stray that my husband Rick found on the side of the road leading to Bodge Bay, California one Spring day. Benji was some type of terrier mix who was lame, had bad doggie odor even after a bath, and the tip of his nose was a pinkish red. Benji also had numerous medical problems, hence, the $10k nickname. The last year and half of his life Benji was in and out of the vet's office, with each visit we'd think this would be the last, but he always seemed to rally. Benji was with us for 14 years and finally his body could take no more and we had to put him down. My husband was heart broken and all pictures of Benji were put away. During the last few years that I've been building up my pet portrait portfolio,I would ask my husband Rick if he'd like a portrait done of Benji. While he finally said "Yes." So as a surprise I did his beloved Benji. I did the portrait in colored pencil on Art Spectrum colorfix paper. The paper feels like sand paper and eats away at your colored pencil tips, but takes the colored pencil with no problem. I rendered the portrait rather quickly and I think all my portraits will be done on this Art Spectrum.

I finally figured out headers!!!

I finally have figured out how to put a header of my dogs at the top of my blog. It was through trial and error that I finally got it to work. I'm so happy...one more thing about blogging.

As my blog title says "I'm crazy about David Yurman jewelry! My husband bought me this lovely smokey quartz with diamond ring...just because! A girl can never have enought DY jewelry.

Me at San Marcos Square

This is me standing at San Marcos Square. The weather had been perfect for the whole week I was there. I think when I look at this picture I'll always remember what a wonderful day that was.

View From Venice looking at San Giorgio











Side Street in Venice

Gondolas on the Grand Canal

I thought I'd post some colored pencil drawings that I did while I was in Venice, Italy. These were done in my small sketchbook moleskin. I used a combination of Derwent Artist Colored pencils and Derwent Colored Inktense pencils. I really liked using the Derwent Artist Colored pencils but wasn't too thrilled with the Inktense colored pencils. The Inktense had a tendency to smear and transfer the image to the other side of the page once the moleskin was closed. Probably a way to stop that from happening would be putting a piece of paper over the image so that it only transfers to the paper and not the moleskin drawing.

I'm hoping to develop some of the drawings that I did in Venice into larger pieces. Not sure if I'll do them in colored pencil or combination colored pencil and watercolor.

When I was in Venice Italy last month I really enjoyed seeing all those gondolas in the water. So I thought I'd try to capture them in watercolor. This was done in my small watercolor moleskin using Maimeri Blu watercolors.

My new watercolor molesking

Yesterday I finally got to use my small watercolor moleskin that I bought at Dick Blick over a month ago. I had taken it to Venice, Italy with me last month, but never had the opportunity to use it. When I was in Venice I bought a Maimeri Blu Metal box with half pans. I can't get over how vibrant the colorers are and I think this will become my new watercolor palette. Luckly I can get replacement colors from Dick Blick, Cheap Joes, Jerry's artarama, and probably some of the other online art suppliers.

Port Townsend outting

I always have good intensions to post daily, but I don't. Currently I'm participating in a Sketching class over on WetCanvas taught by Katherine Tyrrell.

The first week was trying to do daily 5 minute or less sketches leading up to longer sketches. I experimented with pencil, pen and ink, and finally colored pencil.

On Saturday I drove out to Port Townsend,Washington which is about 40 minutes from my house to have lunch and do my first outdoor sketch for week two of the sketching class. I had bought one of those Large Cahier plain paper notebook Moleskins (5.25 x 8.25) w/80 pages. I discovered that the paper was rather thin and not really good for detailed sketches using colored pencil. It took the colored pencil, but when I got close to the edges , the paper tended to get creases. So now I'll just use this notebook for practice sketches, things I don't care if they have mistakes.

Ok it's almost May

Ok...it's almost May and I haven't posted anything since January. I've been experimenting with my moleskin using Faber-castell pens,Derwent Graphitint colored pencils,and black sharpies.