I could do this everyday....

I did a dragon for Elisabeth. Here is it:

Addiction Part 2

And here's another. Like I said, there's always an island... (This one has ruins.)

Addiction

So I had some fun this morning when I should have been getting ready for work:

Found a sketching program on http://sketch.odopod.com/ thanks to Kati Barker, and I will shortly be addicted. Knock yourselves out!

Bookend Sketches

Two recent (and unfinished) doodles. One, a paisley pattern gone epic. I started with the classic shape, asked "What if?" and pretty much abandoned classic. Can you find Rainier, and the ship?
Two, a castle on an island in front of a Maxfield Parish sky. There is always a castle on an island in my mind.This makes me think of Guliver's Travels, and The Fisherman's Wife, and of days spent in the Red Books when I was a child. When I look at this sketch I want to dip my hands into the pictures and scoop the island right out of the sea and inspect it very closely. Grr.

Coy

So this is not "what I've been doing lately", but after a year of having it on the board I finally decided to quit and got it scanned. I may work in a few water ripples later and repost it, but we'll see. Today, I'm just glad to be able to bring you..................
COY!

Phipps at midnight

On Tuesday my drawing instructor asked me to bring in what I'd been working on lately. "There isn't much," I told him, but upon rounding up six different sketchpads I found more than I'd remembered. Here is the best of the lot, a sketch I did late at night while genius burned and I was supposed to be sleeping. It's left-handed, as most of my best stuff usually is. The original is a portrait of Mrs. Wilton Phipps by John Singer Sargent, c. 1884. The man is far-and-away my favorite portrait artist. This challenge was to open the book anywhere and draw what I found.
The lift of her right eye (on our left) is wrong and makes her look less awake than she is, and the smile I gave her is not nearly as sweet at the one Sargent gave her. I have her face a little narrow overall, and her ear too small and too prominent. But for an hour's work I'm fairly happy with it. And I really like her hair.

Russ and Annie

Last weekend I went to a wedding in California. It was a total gift. While there I planned and executed a painting for the happy couple just before, during, and after the ceremony. It was a really fun challenge to get something workable in that short time, but I'd had a chance to think about composition and test colors and sketch a rough before the actual event. Still, their position and the dog were a complete surprise, so God kept it fresh. ☺ I'd love to redo it of course, but at the moment, I'll take what I can get!