Illustration Friday: Mysterious

Technical difficulties left me unable to scan. So here is a crappy iPhone photo, adjusted in PhotoShop. I'll update when I figure out how to make my scanner work again.

I would like to explore minimal color with more drawings.

Happy Birthday Max!

Our friends' dog turns one today. I made him (them) a card to celebrate his youthfulness and his approach to chasing balls. He starts with a run...and then right before the ball, there is a terrific pouncing form he adopts before getting the ball. It makes us laugh. Happy Birthday Max! You're a great dog!

Front

Back

Cupcakes

10" x 8" colored pencil on bristol
© 2009 Stephanie Smith

Dexter in Chicago

5" x 7" colored pencil on bristol
© 2009 Stephanie Smith

Orson the Cat

9" x 9" colored pencil on bristol
© 2009 Stephanie Smith

This is my donation to the Powder Factory Cat rescue art project. Check out the site for more information, but basically there are a bunch of stray cats living at a cool old munitions factory near Loveland. Some people are collecting the cats and spaying or neutering them, giving them vet care if needed, and trying to adopt them out. This is Orson, who I believe is a kitten. I thought his huge eyes sucking in everything around him were pretty fascinating.

The art show opening will be at my studio building, Loveland Artist Studios on Main, during our 2nd Saturday Event on February 14th from 6pm - 10pm.

If it is like the previous cat rescue, a silent auction will be set up. People can bid on the donated art that night and also on eBay. There will also be merchandise with the different artists' art printed on things like tote bags, coffee mugs, tiles as well as prints to buy of the art (a more budget friendly option if you're interested in the art!)

Please come check it out!

Portrait of a Man

This is my submission for the most recent Different Strokes from Different Folks challenge- a portrait of a fellow DSFDF artist. After artists who wanted to participate submitted their own photos, the blog moderator, Karin Jurick, paired us up with another artist to paint.

I don't know this man's name but his photo was interestingly lit with deep contrasting shadows. I drew a few studies of it before I ended up with the final seen here.

Portrait of a Man
colored pencil on paper
























It was hard to paint another person I didn't know. I hope I got his likeness accurately enough and at least close enough to not offend! Unlike painting or drawing a scene with which you can totally fudge, imagine parts of and "take artistic license", someone's face creates a lot more pressure– at least for this realistic artist.

I am happy that it is done and can't wait to see what I end up looking like!

Tiger

7.3" x 8" colored pencil on canson paper
© 1999 Stephanie Smith

It's been a while - busy with the holidays, etc etc, but I thought I'd post something at least. I did this tiger while in college. It may have been due to a sudden need to draw and not use a computer!

Shopper Shadows

7" x 5" colored pencil on bristol
©2008 Stephanie Smith

This was my first attempt at doing a submission for Karin Jurick's Different Strokes blog, but I had my days mixed up and missed the deadline.

Woman Walking

7" x 5" colored pencil on bristol
© 2008 Stephanie Smith

This is my first submission for artist Karin Jurick's blog Different Strokes from Different Folks.

She posts a photograph each Wednesday and takes artists submissions within the week's time. She also will link your site to your name on the blog, so it's a great place to see other people's work, and I appreciate the possible exposure to others.

For this week's reference photo from Karin, she posted it upside down– and told us we were to paint it upside down, to paint what we see rather than what we know. I followed suit, but found that about 75% of the way through it I was getting bored! This made me realize the constant "dialogue" I have with the subject I am drawing, while I am creating it...from start to finish. I gave in and flipped it over and was so much happier while finishing the piece. Very interesting!

I am looking at these photos from Karin's blog as exercises or assignments. I hope to explore a little bit and see what can develop from it.

Dexter

8.75" x 8.75" colored pencil on bristol

© 2008 Stephanie Smith

Here is my first official art post for my blog. It is a drawing I did of my beagle Dexter. He is a wonderful dog with a unique and loving personality. The loving part is mainly for food. This pose of him captures his confidence as well as his nose– probably his most treasured body part.