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  • Rusty WIP #5

    May
    14
    2005

    To view progress within the category, click here.

    Looking at the last work in progress shot compared to this one, you can see how I’ve used the underpainting as a base for his right ear and his chest. I have most of the wave & curl laid down now, and once this layer is dry I will apply the final layer which will further enhance each curl, deepen and lighten his coat all the way around. Then I’ll sign him. (I don’t ever sign my pieces until they meet my own standards!)

    So, basically one more layer which will be a very thin one just for highlights and lowlights, to really bring out each hair as much as possible.

    M-I-C-K-E-Y

    May
    14
    2005

    E-R-I-K-I-E!!

    Here’s my good buddy Erikie donning her new Ears, one of several fun gifties I finally got out in the mail this week. Thanks for showing them off, Erikie!!

    Sorry it took me so long to get everything to the post office!

    I hope you guys enjoy your goodies, and I have to apologize too for running out of cashola to buy stuff for everyone! I still love ya, I really do!!

    😉

    Reminiscing

    May
    13
    2005

    Sue commented on my last work in progress shot of Rusty, and it occurred to me that many of you guys don’t know much about my background as an artist! So I whipped out a couple of my really, really old pieces and figured what the heck. Here you go:

    Keep reading »

    Rusty WIP #4

    May
    13
    2005

    You might want to look at these in the category view so you can see the differences without scrolling much.

    You can see the differences between this one and the last around his muzzle. I deepened the shadows in his left ear and started working on his right ear a little bit, but with the way his ear hair curls up over his left ear, I have to finish his left ear first. (It will be dry tomorrow.)

    Mini-drama’s are FUN!

    May
    13
    2005

    Happy Friday! We won’t think about how today is supposed to be an unlucky day. I don’t believe in that stuff anyway. But. Did I tell you what happened on Tuesday? It’s my little mini-drama. Our Friday the 13th was actually Tuesday, the 10th.

    After Mark’s surgery, we came home and it was turning into a beautiful warm, sunny day. I decided it would be good to go pick up that new pool I got for Mother’s day, so off I went. It’s not a huge inground pool that comes with a pool-boy or anything (that I really wanted), I always get the scaled back version of what I see after I close my eyes at night. Harumpf.

    I spent about 3 hours assembling the pool. For the last three years, we had what I referred to as the “upside-down mushroom cloud” pool. You know, the one they say is “10 feet” but in all reality, when the usable portion of the pool is measured, it’s about 6 feet across. Yipee! Fun to dunk in, but you really can’t swim let alone put a decent floatie in there. Well, you could, but the kids have to stand perfectly still in one spot while you float, and listening to them tell you that “you’re hogging up the whole pool mom!” is not what I call relaxing. But I digress.

    The new pool is 15″ across, and it actually is 15 feet. Much better! Yahoo! I was so excited to have the pool set up by the time Caitibug got home from school!

    When she arrived, I was just putting the hose into the pool to begin the 3,000 gallon 2-day fill fest. Not ten minutes later, both girls were asking “is it done yet?”, “can we get in?”. Heh.

    An hour into it, I checked to see how things were going. Not so good. I’m calling it a “defect in workmanship”, because it seemed that the entire seam that is supposed to seal the bottom to the sides, didn’t. Next step, actually read the directions and watch the video to be sure I set up the pool correctly. It’s not brain surgery, you know. And yes, I did everything right.

    So of course, I begin cussing the pool. I bought the last one, and they’re not sold anywhere else around here that I know of, so it’s not like I could (or really wanted to) disassemble the whole dang thing and try to stuff it back in the box. No thank you. I called the manufacturer, who confirmed “this is not normal”. No kidding! Darnit, I was hoping that after it was completely full, the leak would just disappear. Crud.

    Do you know what comes next? heh! My box cutter! That’s right. I grabbed my box cutter and began cutting huge sections out of the pool liner to return to the manufacturer. Apparently they need the crucial pieces of their pool back to ensure that I’m not just pretending that my whole day was wasted, that I’m in so much pain from assembling that my fingernail beds are sore, and that what I really wanted to do was set up another pool.

    Well since I was mildly annoyed anyway, I took my cutting spree a step further. I decided that instead of disassembling the pool, that I would just shred the liner to bits (FYI that really helps with draining the pool!) and peel it off the frame.

    Now the frame sits, assembled, in my backyard. On top of the pool ground cover. In three inches of water. It’s been raining here since Tuesday night! LOL

    The good news, all of the flower seeds we planted last weekend are sprouting up. YAY!

    The bad news, after I shredded the pool I decided it would be a good time to lay more grass seed in a part of the yard we’ve been landscaping for the past few weeks.

    The good news, I bought enough stuff to lay the seed and I did it all myself!

    The bad news, the rain washed all of the seed into little puddles, so we’ll have patches of new grass when and if it does grow.

    The good news, I haven’t had to water it in 4 days!!!

    So how was your week???

    😆

    Daddy Goldfinch

    May
    12
    2005

    She told her hubby about our finchy feeder! Thanks, mama!

    :mrgreen:

    Rusty WIP #3

    May
    12
    2005

    I’ve been working on Rusty, and thought I’d share the work in progress. I’m still nowhere near finished with him, but wanted to point out some differences between his underpainting and what I’ve been working on.

    You can see from the underpainting that there are obviously none of the final details. The way I work my portraits are such that the first layer of color is a basecoat, and they are the deepest colors that I can see on the photograph I’m working from. On the current work in progress shot, I’ve only worked on his neck behind his ear, the top of his head, I’ve roughed in more of his eye, darkened his nose and layered the next coat of fur around his eyes and muzzle. I haven’t even touched his ear from before, so you can see the difference between what I’ve worked on, and what will be getting another layer of paint. (Actually, there will be two more layers of paint before he’s finished.)

    Anyway, I’ve been suffering from a large artistic block, and I’m trying to work through it. They happen, not very often but they do. I motivated myself a little bit today after picking up a new chair from Dick Blick, and praying like crazy before I cranked the tunes in the studio.

    I am not working on webcam, sorry folks.

    More Birdies (and Squirrels)!

    May
    12
    2005

    We’ve seen this Goldfinch a couple of times in the last week, so I picked up a thistle feeder to get him in a little closer. I’m hoping he tells his friends, and they bring their friends, and so on. heh. They’re pretty birds.

    This Cardinal mama is a beauty isn’t she?

    This was one of those precious moments this morning, baby all floofed up sqwaking at mom for more seed. I say, get it yourself, it’s right there on the ground next to you ya little fuzzball.

    I had moved this feeder up on the picnic table right outside my picture-taking window yesterday. The squirrels were loving it, even with me right next to the window. He looks like an addict, huh? I should drop a Nutaholics-anonymous brochure out there for him.

    Then Chickeymonkey realized that they couldn’t get her, and they wouldn’t leave, so she stood right next to the window and giggled for a while, pointing and waving at the squirrely.

    Huh?

    May
    11
    2005

    Are you lookin’ at me? C’mon over here, I’m gonna slap you silly.

    😛

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