I began working on this lovely brindle pit bull portrait this afternoon. Her name is Josie, she’s a Christmas portrait so I’ll be getting this drawing done up in the next day or so to put it with a Gift Certificate for my client – I will be painting Josie again some time in January. My client rescues pit bulls and I have to give her props for that, she has 5 dogs at the moment (Josie, sadly, has gone over the rainbow bridge).

I am really drawn into this offset curled up pose, after looking through all of her photos I thought this best suited her personality and comfort in her surroundings.

I’ll post all of the progress together so you can “watch” the piece as it develops.

 
View more of the Holdman Christmas light displays here. They’re incredible!

I’ve completed this pencil portrait of Audrey and Janeice, matted it and have it wrapped in and ready to present to Audrey today at Church. I’m not sure if all my little modifications are even noticeable to you, the eyes, a bit more blending in the skin tone and deepening, I’ve tweaked both of their noses – little things that seemed off to me as I kept looking back and forth from their photo to the drawing.

Here’s the piece matted and I’ve signed the matboard and it’s ready to drop into a frame, just in time for Christmas.

It’s been a busy week here in the studio, I’ve tried to get away a couple of times to get some Christmas shopping done – I’m so glad I can do so much of it online! Today I’ll be getting another piece ready, I’ll be drawing a brindle Pit Bull named Josie over the next week. I’ll also put together my Handmade Gift Exchange packages (Catie joined in on the fun, and her gift is just so cute!), get a hundred or so Christmas cards and postcards addressed, and attend the girls Church Christmas Program later on in the evening.

If you’re on Facebook – I did get the girls Piano Recital videos uploaded to my wall – go have a peek if you haven’t already, I’m so proud of them!

I hope you’re all doing well – and that you’re getting everything in order for the Holiday without panic! It always seems there’s less and less time every year, doesn’t it?

Another graphite pencil portrait that I’ve been working on, Audrey and Janeice. I started yesterday with penciling in the facial features and general outline – it’s pretty light but you get the idea of how getting these proportions is crucial as I’m working in the shading.

I started with Audrey, working left to right across the piece. Most of these progress shots are pretty rough, and even now I am still in my contemplating stage with the portrait since I notice things every time I look at it that need just a bit of tweaking.

Just like my previous portrait, I get the details down, shade in a medium value, and then return to blend, darken, and lighten or lift the pencil.

Audrey is all sketched in, now I’ll bring in the blender (a tortillion) and lighten with either a kneaded eraser or for this portrait, I’ve used a pink pencil-top eraser as the areas are much smaller and require a fine edge eraser.

Audrey’s portrait is blended now, though I’ll keep returning to it to make minor changes.

Moving on, I’ve begun Janeice’s portion of the portrait, roughing in those medium values.

Darkening in the hair, skin tones – her skin tone is really dark at this point so I lift a lot of that shading off with the kneaded eraser blend, and lift more.

This is the latest photo, and at this point I’ve gone ahead and signed the portrait and I’m calling it complete, however I am still going back every half hour or so and re-evaluating, making more tweaks as needed. I’ll post the final scan in my portfolio.

Hey! How are you? Me? I’m well, thanks. It’s been a few days. Why has it been a few days? Hm. Well, I have a mild Facebook addiction (You don’t? Then you haven’t joined yet. You can thank me later.), I’ve even made a page, where you can become my fan.

Now, lest you think I spend every waking hour updating my status on Facebook, I have to show you that I have, indeed, been working! I’ve finished up a site design for Houston Photographer Patrick Bertolino. The design itself is simple, it’s the gallery that makes it what it is – and it’s his own Photography that makes the site delicious. You have to see his work! Go! I’ll wait.

I’ve also started another drawing, and have been doodling a bit on a custom dog illustration to be used on a previous client site. Very interesting things going on over here!

Last Friday, a very large package landed on my doorstep. Four new backdrops for my pursuit of studio photography! I will be revamping my studio to better accommodate portrait and still life sessions. I’m really excited about that, and will update you (and my site) when portrait packages and studio sessions are available.

I’m expecting another shipment in the next day or two – of course that would be the Christmas Postcards that I designed, and I’m so excited to send! If you received a card from me last year, you’re still on my list. If you’re a regular here, I am going to ask you to click on my “contact” form and don’t be shy about sending your address! I’d love to share my card with you this year!

I’ve also heavily discounted my “Eye Ate It” Series as well as Kiki, my beautiful Calico Cat painting in my Etsy Store, so there’s still time to give something sweet to someone you love for Christmas!

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Those of you participating in my Handmade Gift Exchange, you received your partners last week. Just want to remind you that your Handmade gifts should be in the mail by the end of this week (the 14th), beginning of next at the very latest to be sure they reach their destination in time for Christmas. I’m really excited to see how it goes, and would love to see photos of your gifties, too! If you haven’t received your partner, then something has gone amuck. Please let me know if anything is amuck, as I have a brand new box of Hello Kitty band-aids, and I’ll fix it right up.

* * *

On the home front, we’ve all had the flu here, and I’m glad to see it depart our household. It’s a nasty bugger! I hope that none of you are down with this!

The girls have piano recitals tonight so I’m really looking forward to that – they’ve got brand new dresses, of course, because you can’t wear the same dress twice. I’m raising my girls up right, you know! I’ll get video of them and post it to my Facebook. Catybug will be playing a tune herself, as well as accompanying another wonderful young pianist with vocals.

It’s going to be a good day, as long as this rain doesn’t turn to ice!

Update: I’ll be making my annual dough ornaments this afternoon. I gave the recipe a couple of years ago but here it is again, for those of you who are :cough: bored today and want something creative and fun to do!

DOUGH ORNAMENTS
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Knead, add more flour to make it really doughy if needed, sprinkle water to make it more pliable as needed. Roll on very lightly floured surface, cut shapes using regular cookie cutters of your choice, bake at 250 for 2 hours.

Handy & Creative Tips:
– Roll them out on the backside of a non-stick cookie sheet so they don’t need to be transferred to the sheet.
– Fill in any cracks with water, smooth with your finger.
– Use a straw to punch out holes for ribbon before you bake them.
– Once completely cooled, paint them using metallic craft paint, or use a shimmery iridescent glaze over a solid color.
– Glue foil to the back to reflect the lights on the tree
– Use glitter sparingly to make them shiny
– String with ribbon and hang them on the tree!

Get in the Christmas Spirit!
Now Playing : Oh Holy Night
[audio:ohholynight.mp3]

I’ve completed Jerry’s portrait and received the proof approval from my client, so this piece is now officially complete!

Much has changed since my last update, I’ve blended a medium tone over his whole face, then lightened and deepened further to get those final details. It’s turned into a very artistic yet lifelike rendering that I’m pleased to sign my name to!

I’m still working on a few other projects as well, another drawing, an illustration – and two blog/site design clients to button up before Christmas. Can you believe how fast the days are going by?!

I’m sharing a few stages of Jerry’s portrait with you today. Above, you can see I’ve already worked in his hair and have moved along to the left side of his face to work in the shadows. Initially, I’ll start with a medium value and work either lighter or darker depending on where I’m going in the portrait. I’m wearing a cut up sock (isn’t it cuuuuute) to keep the oils on my hands to myself and to prevent my wrist and hand from smearing the graphite.

Still working in facial features, darkening in the creases, browline, right eye.

Here I’ve got the portrait pretty well drawn in. I’ll go back with my eraser pencil (yes, it’s a pencil with eraser instead of lead, one of my favorite pencils!!) and also darken and lighten further. I’ll use my blender pencil (if there’s a cool pencil to be found, I’ve probably got one) to really give that depth and dimension to the finished portrait.

Overall, I’m very pleased with his portrait. It’s been a while since I’ve worked a two-legged creature (as June put it) and I rather enjoy the challenge!

I’m working on this graphite portrait for a client for Christmas – he’s a handsome fella, isn’t he? This shot was taken on his wedding day, such a warm loving look on his face – of course he was sharing that look with his bride!

So far I’ve lightly penciled in his features and just started working on his hair. I’ll post more photos as I progress.

 

I’ve just drawn ten random numbers from all entries using this random number selector.

Here are the numbers/winners of these awesome Lee Jeans!!

12 : Taba
72 : Grace @ Sandier Pastures
81 : Mary Beth I
70 : Lady Lu
20 : Becky
17 : Mir
66 : MomW
91 : Charlotte (Life’s a Charm)
5 : Usedtobeme
61 : Patois

Congratulations!!!! I’ll be dropping you an e-mail to get your size, color preference and mailing address!!

Here are your choices:

The One True Fit premium bootcut comes in four different washes: Union Blue, Blackdigo, Shadow Blue, and Galaxy blue. Union and Blackdigo are darker and Shadow and Galaxy are more of what you think of when you think “blue jeans.” These are available in sizes from 2-16, short, medium or long. The plus size scale ranges from 16w to 26w, available in short or medium. For this jean, there is also a petite scale from 2-16.

Thanks to everyone for participating!