work in progress: celtic raven

After finishing Dad's painting, I decided I wanted to do another acrylic before I get back to my apples. I spent the better part of the day yesterday deciding what I would do, and then last night worked up a sketch.
The first picture shows how I often compose paintings. I've drawn the elements of the compostion on tracing paper. Then I can move them around until I'm happy with how it looks.
Next, I lay another sheet of tracing paper over the design and trace everything again. Sometimes I'll do this tracing in ink. The next step is to turn the sheet of tracing paper over to the wrong side and trace each line in charcoal or graphite. When I flip the tracing paper over to the right side again, I have "carbonized" the image. I position the image over my canvas and tape it down, then re-trace each line again. When I peel off the tracing paper, the image has been transferred to the canvas.
Here you can see the carbonized image:

The next image is just an undercoating of paint, so I don't have to worry about rubbing the charcoal off the canvas. But, you can get an idea of what I'm doing. The image of the raven pinned to my easel is the reference image I'll be using... I swiped it from an old issue of Saltscapes magazine. As you can see, I like to work on the kitchen counter during the day, so I can see the kids and chase/fetch/feed/potty/rescue terrorized animals as needed.

Oh yeah... I'm thinking of starting a petition or something to have the school board subsidize nerve pills for parents of children who have been snowed home from school for four days now. Aaaaargh.

I'm back!

I've taken an extended break from the computer for the holidays. Phew!... We're almost there! Now that I'm a mom, I appreciate how much work it takes to make Christmas happen. But, I've also had more fun than since when I was a kid. My kids help me relive my childhood.

Today's sketch is a still life of some pizza ingredients for our party tomorrow night. Just add a nice Merlot to wash it down , something fizzy at midnight, and some friends to enjoy it with.

first snowman of the winter

We made him yesterday in a blinding, sideways-driven wet snowstorm. R. rolled the balls himself. He has rosehips for his mouth, a spruce cone for a nose, beach rocks for eyes, and alder twigs for his arms. It was blowing a gale, hence he is hatless & scarfless.

The new snow has inspired me to dig out the decorations, so we are decking the halls this evening, complete with freshly baked gingersnaps and hot chocolate. Ho Ho Ho.

another early morning

Lobster season has been on again for just over a week now, so that means ten days of 5:00 am mornings again. It wouldn't be so bad if I could get myself to bed at a decent hour. It's just too tempting to take advantage of a few uninterrupted, kid-free hours in the evening, and too hard to put the paints, or remote, or book away and call it a day.

Bob has a windy, rough day today to be on the water. So far, his catches are up a bit from last year, but they're still only giving $4.75 / lb. for the lobsters. Yes, folks, that's right: that lobster dinner from Red Lobster or wherever for $20 or so only got the person who caught it about $5. Another example of the unfairness towards food grower/catchers.

R. has the day off school today for a doctor's appointment, so it's off to the mainland for the kids and I. I think we'll try to get some Christmas shopping started. And I have to remember to get some cards mailed out.

Reading:
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (not too far into this, yet, so will reserve comments for later)
The Secret of Parenting: How to Be In Charge of Today's Kids - from Toddlers to Preteens- Without Threats or Punishment by Anthony E. Wolf (ha... as if... and that's quite a mouthful for a title, eh?)
R. & I are reading The Wizard of Oz, again, at bedtime. Last night, the Wizard sailed off in his hot air balloon without Dorothy.