Paint Party Friday - Week 47 and #3 of 29 Faces

Finally! A productive week and a great way to start February. (Already?? How the heck did that happen??) Inspired and encouraged by your responses to my pages in the Travelling Sketchbook last week, I decided to get my act together and work on the Christmas paintings I started in December. This is a foursome that will eventually hang together in a grid - at least that's the plan...

I think I have finished the Nutcracker. I need some advice though...

Nutcracker - finished??

I am uncertain about the background for these. Last time someone suggested underpainting it red and green. I think that helped. Then I thought copper might be nice...

then I didn't...

This painting (below - my favourite by my now-deceased sister) will come down and the four paintings will hang here over the holiday season. (I decorate with paintings too -  is that weird?)

The wall is a creamy colour with a hint of yellow and I want to co-ordinate with that. 

Clara - WIP

Clara is the second in the series and for Clara I also need some help. Again, I'm unsure about the background, and I know I need another coat of paint on the nutcracker... but what about her hair? I think of her as blonde but might black hair be more effective? What do you think?

Clara - WIP - with her model nutcracker... (against that wall)

I also did a bit of work on the remaining two paintings:

Mouse King - WIP

  

Herr/Professor Drosselmeyer - WIP

Any recommendations are appreciated!

I also started Ayala Art's new challenge for February - 29 Faces. Great inspiration - especially if you are like me and want to practice "portraiture".. (Doesn't it sound fancy saying it that way!)  Here is #3...

(Charles Darwin)

Want to join in? 

Hope you have a great time at Paint Party Friday or creating Faces in February!

29 Faces in February - #2

Ayala Art has a new challenge for February - 29 Faces. Great inspiration - especially if you are like me and want to practice "portraiture". (It sounds so fancy saying it that way!) 

Day 2 - I was flipping through a cosmetics flyer....

And decided this time to add a bit of watercolour pencil to the pencil sketch (and a little water to her lips). (Clarity improves with double-clicking on the sketch...)

Looking forward to seeing your faces! 

29 Faces in February - #1

Ayala  at "I Love to Paint" has a new challenge for February - 29 Faces. 

I have been wanting to sketch more faces and have procrastinated dreadfully and haven't made much progress so far.   :(   So this is a great challenge for me! I am starting by trying to sketch from photos in magazines...

Do you recognize him?

29 Faces - a great idea and hopefully an achievable goal. Posting every day in February? Not so sure - mine may be intermittent posts with multiple faces.

Looking forward to seeing your interesting faces!

Paint Party Friday - Week 46 - Travelling Sketchbook for December

I finished December's Travelling Sketchbook this week! Yay! It was a fun one to do as December is a very full and eventful month. This book belongs to Brandy. I started with a nutcracker, as December always starts with nutcrackers for me. They start their exodus out of storage on December 1st and slowly emerge until the tree is up when the rest burst from their confines, onto the Christmas scene. 

Brandy has pink hair, so in her honour my nutcracker asked for his hair to be painted pink.

Spread with words about my Decembers

 

My other spread... wordless at this stage...

Snowman Spread with words/poem

Snowflakes

(to the tune of "twinkle, twinkle little star")

Snowflakes, snowflakes falling down,

On the trees and on the ground.

I will build a man of snow,

Tall black hat and eyes of coal,

If the sun comes out today,

I will watch you melt away!

Brandy also gave us butterflies to paint and use as sign in cards - this is mine - green is the rear view and red, the front view - and in her book it has my contact information written all over it. (They are small, only about 2 inches in size, if that.)

This book is a bit out of order and is now on its way to Carmen in the UK! I'm still awaiting the September, November and January sketchbooks. Until they arrive, I hope to get some painting done on canvases. And gasp  - maybe finish one? Maybe my nutcracker painting?

What are you planning to do this week?

Hope everyone has a great Paint Party Friday!!

Paint Party Friday - Week 45 - Travelling Sketchbook for October

The travelling sketchbooks are moving again! Yay! Many seemed to have stopped travelling for one reason or another last year and I haven't had one since doing my August spread. This week I received 2 books! My October and December.

The October book belongs to Andrea of Falling Ladies, and while I didn't do a falling lady, I did paint a dancing one!

The quote is from one of my favourite songs - Moondance by Van Morrison. (Double clicking increases the size of the image above.) The words read:

"Well, it's a marvelous night for a Moondance

With the stars up above in your eyes

A fantabulous night to make romance

'Neath the cover of October skies

And all the leaves on the trees are falling

To the sound of the breezes that blow

And I'm trying to please to the calling

Of your heart-strings that play soft and low

And all the night's magic seems to whisper and hush

And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush."

-  Van Morrison

My page took inspiration from the song/quote (Hey! I think this means my pages also fit in with the theme of "Poem or Quote" this week for the Butterfly Effect!) and includes some of my October favourites such as pumpkins and squash, fallen leaves and a friendly witch! Some Octobers, my friend Ann holds a "Witches" party and invites all her female friends to attend - witches garb preferred but not required. It is always wonderful fun! While we haven't had any moondancing yet.... it may be an idea for next time!

Andrea also wanted us to create tags for out input and this is mine:

This book will be heading is now in the mail to Nicola in Australia very soon!

Hope everyone has a great Paint Party Friday!  I missed last week - just couldn't get my act together to paint or visit. Looking forward to seeing everyone's efforts this week!

(P.S. I have started a new little blog about local Micro-Adventuring - Want to join me?)

CONNECTing to my City

When I decided on CONNECT for my Word of the Year (or it decided on me), many ways to connect began to jump into my mind. Two of the countless things I wanted to connect with were to my sense of adventure and to the city I live in (Ottawa).

So I have created a new little blog "Microadventure in Canada's Capital" where every week, I will write about (and hopefully show in photos) a micro adventure I have taken that week, somewhere close to home.

Two things prompted this idea. First was last year's (failed) attempt to take "Artist Dates" a la Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way. I loved the idea but seemed rarely able to follow through. Partly I think it was because she said they should be alone/by yourself and partly because they seemed to be mostly about art - which I love  - but didn't bring forth many ideas for things to do. The other idea that propelled me was reading about one of National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year - Alistair Humphreys who took microadventures around Great Britain in 2011. I loved this idea. 

Now, I am on a different end of the spectrum from Alistair's extreme adventuring. An adventure to me is getting out of the house and doing something different. Something physical or something intellectual, something alone or something with other people. Something I haven't done for years or something I have never done. For these adventures, anything goes and company is welcome! And if  (likely) you can't join me in person, maybe you can have an adventure in your city and tell me all about it! Blogging about it weekly aims to help keep me on track and putting myself out there.

First Adventure - Canada's Museum of Nature!

Sweet Saturdays - Not food but these are sweet to me!

Christmas is over and the General said "Prepare to retreat!"

And they did...

Now all my nutcrackers (well almost all - a few are acting as models for unfinished paintings) are in their boxes and tucked away in their furnace room storage. When the  nutcrackers are out, they are very sweet to look at - so I am linking to Diana's Sweet Saturdays.

Are you undecorated yet?