Starting to GET it!!

These are the last two days of in class model paintings.  Amy gave us a demo the time before these, and I think it reeeally helped.  Look look!!  They look like people!  First one has jaundis.  Poor guy.  His name was Boris.  Today we painted Ryan!  He's looking much more healthy.  ;)

"Bugs"

Bugs

I like bugs.
Black bugs.
Green bugs.
Bad bugs,
Mean bugs,

Any kind of bug.

A bug in a rug,
A bug in the grass,
A bug on the sidewalk,
A bug in a glass - 
I like bugs.

Round bugs,
Shiny bugs,
Fat bugs,
Buggy bugs,
Big bugs,
Lady bugs,
I like bugs.

- Margaret Wise Brown

Still needs a lot of touching up.  Lady bug still has no spots.  But here it is!  First assignment for Will Terry's class.  One of the most AMAZING children's book illustrators I know.  How did I get so lucky to have him teach me this class!

Lee be my art friend (see her awesomeness here), among many other wonderful things, and she lets me come to her and her hub Tyler's house to do homework.  You know those days where you have to paint aaaallll day like until midnight even? ...You don't?  Oh.  Anyway, it's WAY easier to keep going when you wanna poke your eyeballs out... when someone is suffering next to you.  Thanks to lots of laughs, jokes, stories, movies, music, Tyler entertaining and encouraging, while we paint, it all helps me to just keep swimming... just keep swimming...

Painting the HUMAN HEAD

Fall Semester has begun!  Ah my lovely "Painting the Human Head" class.  That's what I love to do on a rainy day.  Paint human heads.  Lots of them.  Oh GOOD THING because looks like Amy, our teacher, wants us to paint 48 heads outside of class by the end of the semester.

Oh... sorry let me make sure you understand.  FOURTY EIGHT HEADS.  In ONE semester!  OUTSIDE of class.  Did I mention we are spending TWO HOURS on each of them?

If I can't paint an amazing portrait by the end of this semester, well... you just don't wanna know what's gonna happen.  ;)

This should be good!  Truly though, this is really good for me!  And... maybe by the end I really will love to paint heads.  ;)

So these are done IN CLASS from a live model:

And these are a few of my outside class 2 hours paintings:

(painted from PHOTO reference... not as good as you can tell... live models are much better)

Grapes!! Mmmmm

This was for my parents' "Mother's Day" and "Father's Day."  My high school drawing had been in the kitchen a LONG time and that was pretty cool but I finally decided they might like something other than a huge shark on their kitchen wall.  ;)  This is watercolor.

My Own Story Illustrations!

My friends and keep inspired artistically with a monthly themed "creative challenge."  It's been fun to try different categories of the arts.  Poetry, music, writing, etc.  This was part of my July submission.  The theme was "poppies."  As in the flower.  I wrote a story, and these are the quick illustrations I did for it.