Happy New Year!

Well, Chinese New Year's celebrations began the same day this year as Valentine's day. This year it's the year of the Tiger. I have to admit I didn't do any sketches or paintings to celebrate either holiday, but I did sketch. My first sketch is out of the book. It's one of many sketches on a sketchbook page of Leonardo da Vinci. There were quite a few others on there and I mean to try my hand at a few more; but for now, that's what I sketched.

Friday... after one part of a page of Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and child and other studies"

Saturday... a daffodil flower

Sunday... an anthurium floral

Monday... a girl

A warning about lily leaves for cats and some sketches

Edit: Actually it turns out that it can be deadly for the cat to come into contact with any part of the plant. Here is an article about it.

I love lilies and I love cats, but if I had a cat, I would have to forgo indoor lilies. Apparently lily leaves are very toxic to cats. Someone gave a friend some lilies and she noticed her cat was nibbling on them. She looked it up on the internet and rushed her cat to the vet. The cat is okay, quite a lot of money later, but if she hadn't taken the cat in as quickly as she did, it might have been fatal. Apparently lily leaves cut down their kidney functions or liver functions (I can't remember which) and nothing seems to be wrong with the cat until it's too late to do anything about it. I had no idea this was a risk.

Anyway, this week's sketches are one short, I lost track of time on Sunday, and I've yet to do anything from the book, but maybe tonight.

Saturday... a daffodil

Sunday... nothing at all, tra, la, la
Monday... a girl

Tuesday... a girl

Wednesday... a tulip

Thursday... a bird

Drawings that I'm drawn to and other sketches

I really love calla lilies; no matter what the color, I think they're beautiful flowers. This week I sketched a couple of them. I missed my Thursday sketching, my head ached; but I'm throwing in some feet that I sketched for the sketchstorm topic on Friday. Also, I've decided to read through "Drawing Lessons From the Great Masters" by Robert Beverly Hale and sketch the drawings that I'm drawn to as I go. My second Friday sketch was my second from this book, the first was the cropped nude from last week.

Monday... a calla lily

Tuesday... a girl with a hat

Wednesday... a calla lily

Thursday... nothing but the pounding of my head

Friday... feet

Friday... after Honore Daumier's "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza"

Sweet pea blossoms painting and some sketches

Above is a small 5"x7" pink sweet pea flower bloom painting that I finished on Friday. It is, as yet, untitled. Below are some sketches. I did have to crop one of my master studies in this post and one in last week's post as nudity on blogspot might make my blog a mature site, and since I mainly paint florals and clothed fantasy it doesn't seem worth the risk. When I need to do this, I'll just write (cropped). The sketches really are for my practice mainly, I'm posting them here to try and keep myself honest and consistent.

Tuesday... I believe the flower I based this on is called a cosmo

Wednesday... Orchid floral

Thursday... after Annibale Carracci's "Standing figure of a nude woman" (cropped)

Friday... after Degas' "Dancer at the barre"

Saturday... a girl

Sunday... Columbine flower bud

A new painting and some sketches

Here is an untitled 5x7 purple calla lily flower painting that I finished on Friday. Below are some sketches. On Thursday before doing a master study sketch, I did a warm up sketch of some little Iceland Poppy buds, it's wild that such pretty flowers come from such interesting little buds. Monday's sketches are inspired by a couple of sketchstorm topics.

Wednesday... Iceland Poppies

Thursday... Iceland Poppy buds

Thursday... after Peter Paul Rubens' "Study for Abraham and Melchizedek" (cropped)

Friday... a girl

Saturday... an Anthurium flower

Sunday... a girl

Monday... an ice cream cone and a panda bear

Illustration Friday topic Wilderness & some sketches

This week's Illustration Friday topic is wilderness. I chose to sketch a tiger for this theme. Although it may not be apparent since graphite doesn't convey color well, this tiger is basking in the water. Apparently tigers enjoy spending time in the water.

To see more Illustration Friday themes, please visit http://illustrationfriday.com.

As far as my daily sketching went, I missed Saturday; but did sketch Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. My Tuesday sketch doubled for the sketchstorm topic of hair at http://www.imaginefx.com.

Saturday... Nada

Sunday... A girl

Monday... Calla lily floral flower

Tuesday... A girl, focus on hair

Thursday and Friday sketches

On Thursday I did a master study sketch of a drawing by Singer Sargent. I didn't intend to do another master study sketch so soon, but the Friday imagineFX sketchstorm topic was Gustave Dore and how could I let that go by without giving it a go. I only attempted a tiny portion of one of his works, to try and do more exceeded the scope of time I had available for sketching. Neither of my master sketches are as powerful as the originals, but I enjoyed the attempt. I'm also including a floral from Friday.

Thursday... Flora Priestley after Sargent

Friday... Orchid flower

Friday... Tiny portion of Gustave Dore's "The Fairies"

I had the opportunity to see a Dore study at a temporary exhibit at the Getty and it was absolutely amazing. He is such an amazing artist!

Happy New Year!

On Sunday I decided that I'm going to try to sketch daily, I'm sure I'll miss some (possibly many) days, but I'm going to make the attempt to be as consistent as possible. As you will see, even in this post, some days are better sketching days for me then others... By sketching more often, I'm hoping to even that out some.

Here are some sketches:

Sunday... A Bird of Paradise flower

Monday... A girl

Tuesday... A girl

Wednesday... A floral orchid

Small Works Invitational

This 5x7 original acrylic orchid flower painting titled "Red Abundance" is being included in Elon's Annual Small Works Invitational. All of the works in this show do not exceed 100 square inches.

The show opens today and runs through February 3rd 2010.

It is located at:
Arts West Gallery
Elon University
Elon, NC, 27244

Questions: Michael Fels, 336-278-5597

A sketch inspired by Albrecht Durer

I took too many liberties with it to call it a study, but it is inspired by Albrecht Durer's Venetian painting.