MY SKETCHBOOK

When I started painting, I did everything free hand and on the fly. I still do everything free hand but I tend to get most of my ideas when I cant actually sit down and paint. Since painting grew from sketching and drawing, I thought why not go back to a sketchbook? So (because Im a dork) here is one of my favorite sketchbooks. And how handy it is to have it labeled so clearly. You know, in case I forget what it is. Is that my kitchen sponge? Is that YellowDog's leash? A baked potato? Noooo, its my SKETCHBOOK! Duh.....silly me. Thank goodness the thing is labeled.

Nothing super fancy and it is just from Barnes & Noble. What I love about this sketchbook is the large (but not too large) spiral binding and the paper. Ooooh the paper. Its a bright thick smooth white paper and it doesnt let my favorite pen (another post maybe) bleed through. I also found the super thick and strong covers provided the perfect set up when it came time to paint. I could prop up the book off to the side (safely out of painting range-usually).

So here are a couple peeks into my sketchbook and the paintings that came from the sketches. You will see the paintings do not match the sketch exactly and that is intentional. Sometimes when I go to paint I find that a part of the sketch stands very well on its own or maybe I picked a huge canvas and I need to add to the background for color or depth or I drew a couple sketches with similar backgrounds but want the paintings to differ more from each other.

So Jessica formerly of the HSCC really liked the Rabbit Ears piece and was thinking it would make a good gift for her brothers upcoming wedding. She had some different color preferences and ultimately decided on the biggest canvas I had in stock. And when ti came to the end, I LOVED her choices! It was so much fun to do this for her and she was so excited about the process. And I have to say she did a great job on choosing details for the piece. Amazing. I hope her brother and his new wife to be know what she put into this gift. I tried to take some pictures to show her the process but forgot to share them with her before she left for PA. So here for everyone to see are a few steps in the process.




Above I am testing the same three colors in different areas of the painting. Jessica wanted a wine color scheme so we ofcourse went with Napa Red! I just made small mock ups of the piece and alternated the colors.





Here is the color set up I planned to go with. It is what we originally discussed but it was good to verify this was the best choice. The lighter green background allowed the dogs to pop. And using the red for the dog making the rabbit ears helped point the focus to the mischievous one.





Here is a peek at my messy messy downstairs studio. Using the largest canvas I had in stock (36"x48") left few places to play with this piece. Not to mention I havent cleaned any studio area in my house since I started working on pieces for the HSCC event a couple months ago(guess what Im doing this weekend?!). I put the base coat on the canvas while on a table. Although I dont love using an easel I did move the piece to an easel for the rest of the work.




I am very happy with how the piece came out and I think Jessica was too. She is such a sweetie. Im bummed I didnt meet her sooner. You cant really see from this picture but I added tiny little girly eyelashes to the green dog. The two pups are supposed to symbolize her brother and his wife-to-be. And in my cold medicine induced state, I almost forgot to take a picture before sending the piece off on its way. This is not the best pic but I had to use it because you can see a tiny bit of YellowDog's butt. He is pretty used to the camera at this point. At this particular time he was sulking because he knew I was leaving and not taking him. I just couldnt with that huge canvas in the car. No worries though, he got a nice dog ice cream treat when I returned. Plus, my portion of the proceeds from this commission went towards YellowDog's vet bills. Cute little sick booger!