Sweet November

Why is November so sweet?  Why, because it's my birthday month and it started off so great!  I spent over an hour with my new addiction, Tumblr, looking and drooling at all the art from all the people I follow.  It gave me so many ideas for doing a new painting keeping the month of November in mind.  Tomorrow, I'm going to buy a bunch of white spider chrysanthemums and set them up for a photo shoot with some dramatic lighting.  I can already see the painting in my mind!

I also spent most of the morning taking my dog for a 4 hour nature walk at Mission Trails.  It's part of my routine of walking at least 3 miles a day for 5 days out of the week.  Fall light is incredible and makes everything beautiful.  This is a view of a  bit of our path near the Old Padre Dam with some dramatic shadows.

Mission Trails - Padre Dam

There were lots of crows flying about and at the dam, I saw a grey egret standing on the wall of the dam.  Sometimes we see deers, coyotes, redtail hawks, crows, an occasional garter snake, but mostly it's rabbits and squirrels which my girl, Roxy, loves to go after.    

The closet in my studio has been cleaned out, painted and now the shelving is up. After I organize all  my art supplies and put them on the shelves, I can then move the desk to the other side of the room and bring in my drawing table to put by the window which happens to have the north light. I'll also have more room to work on my easel.  I've been cranking art out in cramped quarters, sometimes with my painting up against the blinds of the window. Having my drawing table means I can also get really splashy with my watermedia!  

Lucky me, I was commissioned to do two pet portraits all in colored pencils.  The first is of a dear cat named Citrouille which means pumpkin in French.  This kitty looks so much like my former cat Snookie and she was really easy to do.  Her she is sitting in her owner's backyard garden on the bench.

"Citrouille" Colored Pencils 5x5"

The other is a handsome Samoyed dog named A.J.  He was a bit of a challenge being all white and also trying to come up with a background to flatter him. So, keeping in mind what another artist said, when in doubt make it red!  I also broke up the red with dark penciled pattern.  For both pet portraits, I tried to give a "L" shaped composition for the eye to follow and to nestle the pets.  The quality of these photos may not be so good since I did it myself.  There was no time to run them down to the photographer.

"AJ" Colored Pencils 11 x 14"

I've been giving myself a little break and doing a lot of fun stuff like art trading cards for the Halloween-a-thon for IATCs.  I never realized how much fun that was and that you can collect so many artists cards all at once!  I'm also busy making Secret Santa art gifts and so far have one of my two done.  I wish I could describe and show, but that will have to wait until Christmas.