Drawing of Katie ...

I did a drawing a my oldest, Katie this evening. I used a carbon pencil. LOVE those pencils!  They don't have wax in them like graphite does so there is no sheen in the light. And it draws super dark if you want to like a charcoal stick.  I'm always wanting to make my darks darker and I never can with graphite. The heaviest shaded areas are always dented from me pressing too hard. Not any more!  Love it, love it. 

Rose #1

I've decide to number my rose paintings because I think I'm going to be painting a lot of them and I am not creative enough with words to come up with a cute name for each of them.  So numbers it is.  I painted a rose the other day and it looks awful so I tried a again and this one is much better!  I really like it!

A mother first...

While I was painting the cat tutorial the other day, my two-year-old woke up early from her nap. She came downstairs all cranky and fussing. I couldn't make her happy so I sat down on the couch and held her. Well, she instantly fell asleep!  I was shocked. None of my children have ever fallen asleep in my arms during the day like that!  Oh, I cherished it!  Luckily, I had my phone with me so I snapped a couple quick pictures. I knew they were destined to be painted. Here are the pictures from start to finish.   I LOVE how it turned out!

Practicing...

I adore Karen Mathison Schmidt's artwork!  It's just breathtaking! Well, I discovered that she has a couple painting tutorials in the book Acrylic Secrets: 300 Tips and Techniques for Painting The Easy Way by Gill Barron. Awesome!!!  I am so excited to try them out!  I've already started one of a cat. Here is my progress:

Three Little Artists...

My three little artists drawing and creating with me on a dreary Sunday afternoon.  :)  I love them so much!

Value studies...

So an area that I struggle with when painting is value.  I can make black and white paintings and drawings with perfect value but I have a really hard time understanding the value of color.  I mean it's pretty easy to see that a dark blue will be on the darker end of the scale and a pastel would be on the lighter end.  It's the mid tones that get me.  And yellow throws me off a lot I think.  I sometimes use yellow for highlights and it ends of being more of a mid tone and makes the whole painting flat.  Anyway, here are a couple value studies I did last night.  I'm anxious to see if they help my painting at all.  :)  I would love to hear any advice you have as well!

And the finished painting!  I think the value study helped a lot!

Summer storm...

A small painting of a storm cloud I did last night.  I love the blue sky in the background.  :)