Be With Me Still

Be with me

Still

Is the night

For two?

Nice To Sketch You

I read last night that the "Happy Painter" from the sketching group online called Every Day Matters, started painting faces earlier this year. She is an inspiration - in such a short period of time she has developed a wonderful style. Cool too.

Her amazing progress was on my mind while drawing this model. It pushed me to jazz it up.

The photo I worked with came from Ophrah's Magazine on a page called "square faces".

October 5 2008

Destiny: "the seemingly inevitable or necessary succession of events". Webster's Dictionary

September 30th 2008

I don't know why I love this painting so much but I do. The original is really small, 3x5 inches, and was completed using a sharpie on
watercolor block.

The image you see has not been altered in Photoshop. The color came directly from a little $ 3.00 set of student watercolors.

Joan Oliver Next To My Painting, Miss Chrissy

This photo of Joan Oliver was taken at my art opening on Friday night

She's with "Miss Chrissy, Anything is Possible"

Watercolor

September 26 2008, Brainstorming

Here is a drawing that was never intended for the web. My friend Joan Oliver and I occasionally get together to "co-coach" each other - we each pick an area in our life that we would like to excel in and then we go about putting structures into place to assure success. I love to cold call and recently decided to pursue a position for 20 or so hours per week doing just that. Joan had asked me to collage the dream job and this lighting speed sketch lists qualities that are important to me.

September 24 2008. A Study in Values

Tonight I'm missing my parents. It's late and there is a photo right next to me. The moment captured took place in my home state, Vermont. Beautiful Manchester. My mom and I are laughing and surely my dad was amused taking the photo. We were at one of his favorite restaurants. When I wrote "Value Study" across the sketch I immediately thought of the incredible values my parents instilled in their children.

Both pieces were done as a sketch first using a regular pencil, scanned and loaded into Photoshop.

September 23 2008, "Love is a Choice"

Doing the best you can. Making something special. Today I've been consumed with creating some meaningful images to fit the theme of my first ever art show - Abolition & Justice.

This piece is a watercolor painting of mine after a trip through photoshop.

This was inspired by a Carter Hayward quote:

"Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being "drawn toward." Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one's friends and enemies"

September 21 2008, Flowers

Tonight I wanted to draw something beautiful and picked a pot of yellow flowers. The black and white sketch you see here got clipped in the scanning process but given the late hour (3:00 am) I thought I'd go with it. After all , sometimes mistakes turn out best. I really like the photoshop version.

September 20th 2008, Epiphany Moment

September 19th 2008, An experiment in drawing and ink

Here's my first ever ink/wash drawing . I was inspired to give one a whirl and scouted out a marker that would create a wash by simply painting water into the drawing. What a fun adventure! Never having done anything like this before, everything was a surprise. And i LOVE surprises. I couldn't help having more fun upon seeing the cropped the image you see here to your left. Look above and you'll see what fun I had "on Photoshop".

What a delightful and funny moment it was when I realized the the image I made up had turned into my friend Mark .We shut down Friendly's Ice Cream earlier in the evening and he clearly made a big impression :-)

September 18th 2008, At the End of the Day

In the end I suppose it all boils down to what actions we choose in life. It's past midnight now and quite as a mouse. Part of me wants to sleep and the other part is whispering, psst, it's a thirty day journal, the idea is to do a drawing every day ... tomorrow you'll have a blank page where September 18th was going to be unless you do something now . I am sharing this piece because action won out.

September 17th, 2008. Spontaneous Adventures

I sooo wanted to run wild with loose free lines and abstraction while drawing today. I made a little notation on the spot where I almost couldn't contain myself. See it there on the left? Spontaneous adventures always call to me, the lines were beckoning me forward as well. In the end I resisted in order to study and focus on contours.

September 16th , Breakfast

The true confession is that this morning instead of drawing I was compelled to take a photo of the dark red kidney beans I was sauteing. They are so tasty with garlic powder and a little ground Cayenne pepper.... well, here they are.....

Septermber 15th, 2008 , Full of Firsts

A quick contour drawing and I'm off to meet my friend Mark for some Monday night football. Doing this piece was a welcomed reprieve from the earlier stress of the day. I was knee deep in detailed mathematics earlier while preparing my work for the professional lab handling my digital art. The pieces are for my upcoming art show on September 26th. Two firsts: an art show and preparing digital art. Good news, everything is looking good and I can't wait to see it framed. Danny Gregory says not to rush while doing a practice drawing...oops, have to fly, Chrissy

September 14th, 2008, Miracle of Life

It was fun to draw these paintbrushes in a vase - eventhough one of them looks like a fish. I worked quickly doing a combination contour drawing and loose sketch. Although you can't see it the bottom of the page reads "Today I'm grateful for the beauty of human expression and the miracle of life". That miracle is something I try to never forget.

September 13th 2008, Time for a Sketch

I just love jazz and this morning I was listening to Bill McCann on WCDB while creating this piece. His self proclaimed "tasty treats" of uptempo jazz never fail to make my soul sing. There is a video on the web where Danny Gregory demos painting a gentleman's face, upside down. That video inspired me to do the same today. The process loosened me up and I felt confident when I completed piece # 1. Here is the second piece sketched from a photo, right side up. Now I'm off to an Energy Festival at Hudson Crossing Park and Mexican food with good friends.... Cheers!

September 12th 2008, Day Three of Art Journaling

Frequently I enjoy fruit shakes in the morning so there are lots of bananas around. This morning I started by focusing on a contour drawing. Next I shot a digital photo of my journal page and altered it in Photoshop. I love Photoshop - we work well together :-)

Joycie Comes to Town

It is hard to see but if the image of my September 11th page was large enough to read you'd find a line where I reflect on how grateful I am that my good friend Joycie is in town visiting from California. This shot was taken our way out for lunch. We had a blast. That's me on the right.

September 11th 2008, My second day of Art Journaling

Doctor Doctor,I have an official addiction. An affliction. Ever since seeing Danny Gregory's video where he is teaching how do a watercolor landscape in his art journal, I've become hooked on "Art Journals". He has a way about him that inspires me to have fun and simply create. This morning the first thing i did was jump out of bed, ready to draw. A whole community of people on the web are connected through Danny's website and a yahoo group and they share their work - that's a big pull for me. I can't wait to join them.

September 10th 2008, My First Day of Art Journaling

This is the beginning of my journey through 30 days of art journaling. This adventure has been inspired by Danny Gregory the creator of "Everyday Matters". Danny talks about the "experience of drawing" and encourages one to slow down, take your time with drawing and have fun. Keep experimenting. Express your emotions. In one of his short instruction videos on the web Danny gives a 30 day assignment: draw every morning for 30 days - 15 to 20 minutes and capture the experience by putting captions into the piece describing what you learn about each piece of the drawing or reflect about your feelings during the endeavor. Here is day 1 :-)