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.

Welcome

Welcome!
Welcome to my art blog. My name is Stephanie Smith. I'm a professional graphic designer and have sketched, painted and colored pictures of the world around me for as long as I can remember. I hope you enjoy scrolling through these pages.

The Blog
It is hard for me to not spend all of my time looking at all the awesome artists that now have web presence with their sites or blogs. There is so much inspiration and great work out there. I especially enjoy artists' blogs and will make sure I attach a list of links to my favorites on the side of this blog as I develop it. Also, I hope to post my drawings as often as I can.

Please feel free to contact me at helmssmith@yahoo.com

Thank you!
Steph