Pansies

Okay, I woke up this morning, and decided to get my artwork out of the way, so I can go outside and play the rest of the day, however, I do see me doing another project later this afternoon. It's just that when the weather is nice, it seems sinful to stay indoors. So, I have to get out, even if it's just take a walk, ride my bike, or sit in the yard with a magazine. I did this project based on my pastel work book. It's better than the stupid flowers I did yesterday, but so far, this weekend, my Lilacs are the winners. I don't have quite the same color palette as the author of the book. I think I should have made the background darker. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Ellen's Still Life

Maybe I should stick to fruit and flowers. You can make mistakes on the shapes, and no one has to know exactly. I chose these items, because they're me. Strong coffee and chocolate. That's what helps me through the day. Oh, I try to be a goody goody and eat my fruit and yogurt, and yadda yadda, but that's only a prelude to the chocolate. I didn't like this picture at first, so I did the flowers next, determined to do a picture that was better. Turns out this one is the good picture for today.

Bad Flowers

I thought the goal would be to improve. A number of factors have helped me to not like this picture. I wanted to do this on brown paper, and I don't have any brown paper. I started this one, and then some people came over. I was distracted, and then went back to it. Using red paper, my color choices are all wrong. These colors may have looked all right on brown paper. Oh well. Oh, and it's hard for me to do well, when the weather is nice and it's beautiful outside. I can't seem to concentrate, and I'm too embarrassed to work outside. I feel like people will make fun of me, because I don't consider myself an artist, I haven't taken ownership of it yet, or there are some days I don't take ownership of it, and I know that's wrong, that's totally the wrong attitude.

Lilacs

Voila, it's late May and these Lilacs won't be around long, so I took the opportunity to sketch them with my new chalk pastel pencils. I see the need now for big chalk pastels also for doing larger areas. I like how the white ones turned out. The lavender ones were more difficult. I actually do have white and lavendar ones in my yard.

Country Scene

I give up. I tried 4 times to get this picture on here the right way. I don't even like the picture. When, I'm on my own, I'm totally lost with pastel. I thought I would do a landscape like the one on orange paper with only black and white. It's spring, and everything is coming up green. This picture doesn't show progress or skill. Something that is postive? I like the white barn and red stop sign. Green is calming and soothing.

Still Life with Fruit

I wish I would have taken this photo a little better, now the batteries on my camera are dead. But, wow, light and dark, shading, shadows, are much more dramatic on this one then the one I did on my own. If I don't follow instructions, I'm kind of lost, but I'll keep experimenting.

Still Life with Apple and Vinegar

Here is a still life I tried to do by myself, and not copy what was in my work book. I tried to work on shading and shadows and light and dark, but I think the fruit that I did from the work book is a lot more dramatic