This has been one crazy year. It’s been scary, difficult, awesome and life changing. Starting a career in your late 40’s is pretty daggone daunting (especially after being a house mouse for the last 10 years). But I’m getting the hang of being out there again, and I am meeting some great people. The downside of all this that I have been M.I.A. on my blog and art in general.
I am hoping to get on some kind a schedule. I am at a point where my life is running me and I am not running my life. But there are people that work full time and still manage to find time for art and blogging. And I will be one of them…eventually. I guess in a nutshell, I just wanted you to know that I am not giving up my blog and I haven’t quit drawing or painting.
Now on with the drawing, This thing was a beast to draw and I thought about throwing it away a hundred times. If you draw and paint, you know about the ugly stages and how you are suppose to work through those ugly stages. But I was so frustrated. Those ugly stages were fighting and clawing and just didn’t want to leave. Even though the photo quality isn’t that great, in real life this is one of my better pieces and I am so glad that I didn’t give up.
So, How long are you willing to work through the ugly stages?
It has been so long since I have blogged that I don’t know where to start….So, I guess I will begin with the painting.
This fluffy friend has been on my board since October and it finally completed and sold! To be fair, I stopped and put it away a lot but I didn’t struggle getting this completed which is very unusual for me, huh?
This subject and on this scale is perfect for beginning acrylic artists, because it is basically two circles and a triangle. Give it a go!
Where I’ve been?
I got a job in October and quit said job in January, lol. I just didn’t like it. So, I decided to go to Real Estate School. Then, after studying for a trillion hours I passed my State and National exam!!!! Now, I am with a Company and waiting for my license so I can get this ball rolling.
Everything has gotten so chaotic that it has been hard to find time for art. But I hope things will get back to normal soon. Take Care!
Things aren’t going too great on the art front I’m afraid. It seems that I have forgotten how to paint. I have spent hours on 2 separate canvases and both ended up in the garbage. So it is back to the drawing board for me and time to dig out some old acrylic books. I will admit that I am more than a little frustrated considering they were big art pieces. I guess it is all in the experience. (A glass half full thing.)
I have been reading a little Art History and instead of Realism, maybe I should give Impressionism a go 🙂
Since visiting the National Gallery of Art, I have been absolutely enthralled with Impressionism. My love began with the piece by John Singer Sargent entitled “Repose”. And then there was Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Renoir….I could on about these Masters of capturing light and darkness. I have always appreciated art, but being in front of the actual work, the actual piece that they laid their very hands on almost brought me to tears and made my heart hurt. But what I found very strange is that I didn’t care for the work of Degas and I only liked one of Van Gogh’s pieces and that was “Starry Night”.
Although, I do love Monet’s work, I found piece entitled “Death Bed” disturbing . Death Bed is Monet’s wife as she lay dying. And it bothers me. It angers me. His wife lays there probably in pain, scared and alone. While he sits across the room and paints her! Wow! he should win husband of the year!
In the book, it talks about how much Monet loved his wife. He may, I’m not the Great Judge, but he had to have loved painting more. He was a great Artist though and I am doubly glad David is not an Artist….he does golf though…..
Just for my benefit let’s pretend that there is a picture of a piece of art or at least W.I.P. LOL
I don’t know if you would classify my life as of late blog worthy, or exciting but it’s all I got and I don’t like being M.I.A. for long periods of time. So I thought I would check in and say HI! and fill you in on recent events.
❤ In September, I was the make up artist at the wedding of my youngest niece. I had a lot of fun and was extremely honored to be a part of such a special day. For a bride to trust her face with you on one of the most important days of her life? I was touched. The day was beautiful and made even more beautiful when I was able to spend some time with my sweetie, Alana.
My goodness, I miss my girl so much and I feel like I have this huge chunk cut out of me. As a parent, I guess this is the sort of thing that we sign up for but man, it’s hard. On the other hand, she is having such a good time coming in to her own and who doesn’t want that for their child. I am trying to suck it up and I am certainly not going to lay in the middle of the road, but it’s a sad adjustment.
“Thank You God for Skype!”
❤ I have few short-term goals and personal situations that have me pretty stymied.
#1.) …..
#2.) I’m in serious need of time management. Yes, I am one of those girls who writes it down old school. Now, I don’t write down,
12:00 / Take Break
12:15 / Pee
but I have so many things in my life that I love doing. I refuse to give anything up for the sake of anything else. I just need to figure out how to have it all.
#3.) Yep, saved the best for last. Finally! I have come up with 2 sets of series paintings that I want to do. One is still an idea, but the other is ready to go, if I can figure out the scale. Do I want to paint it on large canvas or smaller for prints? Or two versions of the same painting? Unless I do both sizes I will be limited either way, huh. I have no idea if these pieces will be for competition, sale, show or print. See what I mean? I still have way too many unanswered questions… (which is why you get to look at a sentence instead of art at the beginning of my post) but I guess this is a good problem to have.
I know this post, like most of my posts kept you on the edge of your seat. If you stuck it out to the end then you are truly my BFF4L 🙂
Over the weekend we took the opportunity to deliver this housewarming portrait to our nephew and his girlfriend. And this sweet four-legged fur baby met us the door. Brody licked my face, laid his head in my lap and just let me rub and love on him as long as I wanted. He is just precious as could be and (sorry guys) but if I could have slipped him out with no one noticing I would have dog napped him.
We also got to hang out awhile and have dinner together. We had a very good time. On the way home we could get over the fact that they remind us a lot of ourselves back in the day. Well except for they are smarter, prettier and more successful, but I can see many great things in stored for them. Anyhoo, They seemed to like the portrait, so that’s a good thing too 🙂
Well, since I didn’t post anything Friday, here is my sketch. I love my erasers and I spend as much time drawing with an eraser as I do a pencil. This was a quick sketch so it isn’t very detailed, but I suppose it is much better than a staple, lol
Draw the office supply that you find you can’t live without?
This is a staple. It may seem like a cheat, but this little guy has saved my butt on so many occasions at home and on the job. And the lack of using a staple has also on occasion made me scream, “Why! Oh Why! didn’t I take the time to staple my pages together”! lol I was going to draw a staple gun, but the gun is just a vessel, and during the times I had to search for 3 out of 10 pages, it was mostly due to the stapler being empty and I was too lazy to fill it back up.
On the home front, this is the last week Alana will be home for a few months as her new adventure begins in college. Luckily, it has been too hectic for self-analysis, but as I type this, I really don’t know how I feel. On the one hand, I’m so proud and excited for her that I could burst. But on the other….she’s my baby and when I’m 80 she will still be my baby.
Lots of changes…Lots of uncertainties and lots of praying and that is my only certainty. Okay, this is too much reality for me, so I am going to end my post here. Have a great weekend!
Drawing Prompt
Draw the art supply that you find you can’t live without.
What in the world was I thinking. Well, I will tell you. Probably what I was thinking was that this was going to easy peasey…Pffft…..I started over so many times that I almost put a hole in the paper. So after that, I held the knob in my hand choose the easiest angle. It still doesn’t look all that great, But hey! Pencil was put on paper this week AND I know that I need to work on the ellipse shape and my circles are all that hot either.
Drawing Prompt
Draw the office supply that you find you can’t live without?
Well, that’s about it for me and I hope you have a great weekend!
I have added two tabs to my bar (above). The Portfolio tab has some of my previous artwork and Zentangles in 2 slide shows. The Tutorials Tab include links to my previous tutorials and patterns, all for easy access 😉
Shoes
I thought I would post the shoes that gave me the shakes Zentangling. I think they turned out really nice and I hope my m.i.l. likes them. My sister wants me to Zentangle her golf shoes….her Foot Joy golf shoes! My goodness, I don’t how I am going to manage that one. I did tell her, if I mess up and/or you don’t like them? It is on you and she still handed them over to me. So we will see, so far I don’t even have the guts to pull them out of the bag.
WIP
This is a WIP of a pet portrait that I have been working on for my nephew and his girl friend as a housewarming present. I have been having trouble with this little guy, and so far there are a lot of redos. I haven’t picked up a pencil in a while and I’m rusty, but I hope that I can give them something special.
Haul
Also, we went Dorm shopping with mini me last weekend. And I found these awesome hard covered spiral bound sketch pads. What’s so great about these pads, for me at least, is that the paper is smooth. If you have a Ross, TJ Maxx or Burlington Outlet near you? You’d better scoop these puppies up!
Prompt
This week, I am going to commit to a sketch in one of these little beauties and we will call this Sketch Crawl Out Of Bed, LOL
But what will I sketch? Hummmmm……. What. will. I. sketch?…I think I shall sketch a door knob. Exciting choice huh? (Yesterday, I took the knob off the door to paint and as I type this, it is glaring at me from the console.)
Would you care to join me?
If you do, please comment in the post next week with a link to your sketch. I would love to see it!
If you read my blog and don’t know how to draw, but always wanted to here is your chance. You can only learn by doing. I did not know how to draw until I started small sketching exercises. So grab a some paper, a pencil and give it a go.
Hello! It’s been quite a while since I last posted. Life has a way of getting away from you if you aren’t careful and I suppose that is what has been happening to me. Although I don’t have any art to share, I wanted to touch base with you guys so I will call this post the Art of Life.
Well, I guess I will start off by sharing the exciting news of the smallest Ottaway, Alana. In June, after many years of hard work she graduated from high school with honors and accolated with an advanced diploma and an aviation seal in the magnet program. Her dad and I couldn’t be any prouder of her. The weekend was full of family and we all had a great time. I could tell that the family was betting to see how long David and I would last before the tears fell but I am happy to report that although her dad and I teared up, none were shed. And I am very proud that I didn’t run down to where she was standing grabbing at her legs, screaming, ” I wanna do over!”
In the fall, she will be headed off to college. I am so excited for her and I’m more than a little terrified. So, when I feel a panic setting in, I remind myself that I am not the first parent to send their child off to school and I certainly won’t be the last. Which doesn’t help much, lol but I guess it will have to do.
For the next Ottaway, my beloved David. After years of dedication and hard work, got another degree. His job is demanding and he travels a lot often times working at night. So his dedication to school and the completion of his degree (on the President’s List) is no small feat. I am so proud of him! And I am certainly grateful that I don’t have to share him for a bit.
And then there is me, lol and I’m still plugging a long… My nest will soon be empty, so there is no telling what kind of mess I will get into!
copyright 2014 Alana Ottaway (used with permission)
My sister and brother in-law hosted a week-long stay in Hatteras celebrating my mother-in-law’s birthday. Oh my goodness, we had so much fun! The house was so beautiful and had a pool. So when we got tired of the beach we could lay out by the pool. We ate fresh fish caught by the fisherman of the house that were so tasty and laughed until our sides hurt. It was especially nice catching up with everyone and just enjoying each other’s company. Thank you Vicki and Chris for a wonderful time!!!!
My sister-in-law and I zentangled shoes. She was good and finished hers, I just got too nervous. The shoes I was working on were leather so I waited until I got home to finish so I could use a soft pencil to make the design first. Vicki’s shoes are so cool and she’s a pro at zentangling!!!!
****If you are a Zentangle artist you may want to read her post. CLICK HERE.
And also, check out the beautiful quilt she made Alana for graduation. CLICK HERE.
I guess that’s about it for now. I will be posting my Zentangle project very soon. I am working on an art project that will be house warming gift for my nephew and his girlfriend that I will be able to post after delivery. So, until then…
You’d be surprised how fast your mind draws a blank when you are searching things to sketch. Nothing seems to be appealing for some reason, so you spend a good chunk of time looking for that perfect item that you never find. Don’t be so critical of your objects. You’d be surprised how nothing becomes something quite spectacular.
I remember sitting on the couch and there was a Mountain Dew can sitting on the coffee table. I had my sketching supplies out and being too lazy discard the can, I decided I would draw it. To this day it is still one of my favorite sketches.
Below, I am going to give you a few ideas to get those sketching fingers a movin’:
1.) Sit in a room and just draw random items that you see. Everyone has at least a couple of chatskis that could be rendered. Bathrooms are a great place to sketch small items.
2.) Get your children (or grandchildren) in on the fun. If a child was particularly well-behaved, tell them that you will sketch whatever they choose. Trust me. It is like a sticker to them…
3.) Join the Every Matters Group on Facebook. This group is based on the book written by Danny Gregory. The EDM Group are the most supportive group of artists that I have encountered so far. They provide a weekly prompt for you to sketch. You can share or just sit back with some coffee and peruse some of the beautiful sketches from other members of the group.
4.) Gather some like-minded friends, hop in the car and go riding around in town. Stop at a great location and sketch what’s around you for an impromptu sketch crawl.
5.) Join or Start a sketching group.
I hope you find this helpful and a great start on a very fulfilling sketching journey.
Carol Ottaway 