30 in 30 - Day 14 - Annie

Today is Day 14 of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. My internet friend, Jean Ogden, has a group of assorted animals. From what I know of Jean she studied zoology which may explain her menagerie of animals. Annie is a Chinese Crested, an unusual looking dog if I may say so...big hair and a bald body. When I saw her I knew I had to paint her. I decided to experiment a little this time using an underpainting of assorted colors of oil pastels as a resist for the fur on her head. Then I used watercolors and some assorted inks to get the dark areas.

Don't forget to check out the work of the other artists participating in the 30 day challenge. There are some great pieces. https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

This Tuesday morning Ariana posed for our art group.

30 in 30 - Day 13 - Maggie (SOLD)

Here is my Day 13 painting for Leslie Saeta's "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. Maggie is the third cat that belongs to my friend, Rhea, and was painted from her photo reference. I have now painted Rhea's entire feline family. This was done with a watercolor base, watercolor pencils and black ink.

Don't forget all the other artists that are taking part in the challenge. You can view their work for today here: https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

I have quite a collection of pens of all sorts that I have been keeping in a regular pencil case. Of course I can never find the pen that I want and half of the time I end up dumping out all the pens and pawing through them before I find what I was looking for. So I started looking for a way to keep my pens more organized. I found this pen case on Amazon (under $10) that looked like it might work. 

This is a LIHIT LAB Pen Case that measures 4.7 x 7.9. What I like is that it has sections where I can put the pen and they actually stay there. Here are a few photos of what it looks like. Why orange? To be honest...it came in several colors and I liked the green the best, but that one ships from Japan rather than directly from Amazon. The reviews said people waited for a while for it to arrive, but the orange was available in two days with Amazon Prime. That was a no brainer. I figured the orange color would make it easy to find in my backpack or carry bag. So far so good... I will let you know the final results after I use it for a while.

(I am not getting anything from this company for this product review. I just though you might like to see a bit of how I carry my materials. )

My small palette fits in the large front pocket.

Two sides hold a lot of my pens.

The left side has small mesh pockets and the right has a mesh pocket that can hold pencils,
my water brush, and my travel brush.

30 in 30 - Day 12 - Chester

For Day 12 of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" I give you Chester. He is my niece, Jaime's dog and is now about 16 years old. He's slowed down quite a bit since I met him. This is 5 x 7 done with a watercolor base followed by watercolor pencils and touches of black ink.

Pop over to Leslie Saeta's blog and check out some of the other 300+ artists who are participating in the challenge this year. https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

Last night my sketch group met at a local library. We all brought along something to create a still life for our sketching. There were various setups around the tables. Typical of me, I brough things related to food. lol This was my setup from the items I brought with me.

30 in 30 - Day 11 - Budah and Jade

Today is day 11 of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. Today I am posting my painting of Budah and Jade, two Siamese cats, done from a photo reference by my friend, Donna Howard. Donna also has a third cat but I couldn't possibly fit all three of them in the painting. Again I used watercolors, watercolor pencils, and an ink brush.

If you would like to see the work by the other artists participating in the challenge you can see them here: https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

On our return trip from Maine I was able to fit in a few sketches. First I sketched Bob's Clam Hut in Kittery, Maine done after we had our last Maine seafood feast.

These last two were done on the ferry coming back to Long Island.

30 in 30 - Day 10 - Willa

Today means we are 1/3 through the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge with Leslie Saeta.

https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

Today's Day 10 painting is of Willa who is the pet of my niece, Caity's girlfriend, Kate. I did this one using watercolors, watercolor pencils, and an ink brush.

We got home from Maine last night. Here is another one of the paintings that I did of a view out one of the windows at Tina's house across Hodgdon Street.

30 in 30 Challenge - Day 9 - Minotaur

Today for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge I did Minotaur, the bull terrier. He belongs to my friend, Jean Ogden. I think he has a great face.

Don't forget to check the other paintings by the artists participating in the challenge here at Leslie Saeta's blog. https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

Yesterday it was bitterly cold up here at my sister's in Damariscotta, Maine, so aside from going out to church and the grocery store, we stayed in. It had snowed a bit on Saturday which made the views out her windows look really nice. Here is the first 5 x 7 painting I did looking across Church Street. The view reminded me of the scenes often selected by another artist I follow, Shari Blaukopf (https://shariblaukopf.com), who paints a lot of "ordinary scenes" with trash cans, electric wires and poles, which are like the accessories to a scene.

30 in 30 Challenge - Day 8 - Daisy (SOLD)

Daisy is another of the three cats owned by my friend, Rhea. It is Rhea's reference photo that I used for today's Day 8 painting for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. This time I used mostly watercolor pencils (chocolate, gunmetal and ultramarine) along with touches of watercolors. So far that's the best I've found to do the textures and colors of the fur on the light colored animals.

Here is a link to the other paintings for the challenge: https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog