Ink Sketches

Here are a few ink sketches done recently....by the water...

...and two while I was having breakfast in Penn Station. 

Still Life with Fruit

With the winter weather our Wednesday evening sketch group has been meeting indoors at a local library. They have been very accommodating and give us a room to work in. Last week people brought in fruit to sketch...and a few other accessories.

Well, today is Day 3 of the February challenge and I still haven't started. I have some catching up to do if I'm going to take part. lol

Boatyard

Over the years we've lived out here, I've sketched scenes at this boatyard in West Sayville so many times. There is almost always a big boat being spruced up or repaired. Sometimes if I'm lucky, there are workmen on scaffolding or ladders to include in the painting.

Artists at Work

Sometimes when I go to the South Bay Art Association's Portrait Group I finish before the 2 hr session is over. In that case I usually do another sketch of the model. This time I did a sketch of the group. They were all so pleased to have been included in the sketch. 

It is strange to have the challenge over. I am thinking of doing one for February...am I crazy??? Doodlewash has one. Here is their list. I don't have to do the entire list.

30 in 30 Collage and Wrap-Up

As a finale I've created a collage of all the animal portraits I completed for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge. Oh, no....I think I'm missing one of the animals. I only have 29 in the collage. I wonder who escaped.

My thanks to Leslie Saeta for inspiring all the artists around the world who participated in the 30 Day  Challenge. Today on her blog the artists are all posting their collages, which is a good way to see a lot of the artwork at once. https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog

So what can I tell you about the experience of doing the 30 painting challenge this year?

• I am glad I did a theme again this year. It took the worry about what the subject would be each day. It was fun doing animals, which I rarely did before. I did learn that most cats look more like each other than dogs do. lol I hope I didn't insult any cat lovers out there, but cat faces are fairly similar. Different dog breeds can look extremely different.
• I primarily use watercolors but I enjoyed adding some different materials to the paintings at times. I used combinations of watercolor pencils, ink, or even oil pastels to get the textures on the animals, although a few of the paintings were done in just watercolors.
• Even though I tried to keep a day ahead of the challenge, there were a few days that I was scrambling at the last minute to keep up. I should have tried keeping two days ahead...and I didn't really have anything that was a surprise pop up and take a day away from me.
• One of the special things about doing the challenge is seeing the work of the other artists that are participating. I didn't have enough time to see all the work this time, so I plan to go back and review each day. I like finding artists I like and visiting their blogs to see not only their work for the challenge, but their other paintings too. Sometimes I visit people several times and then realize I really like their work and begin to follow them. I did that with Nelvia McGrath at http://nelviasworkshopchallenges.blogspot.com and Beverly Shipko at http://www.beverlyshipko.com/blog-2/. 
• It was great to see other artists that I know who participated again this year (some for several years) like Val van der Poel at http://mellowoodgallery.blogspot.com, Jacqui Petersen at http://www.jacquipetersen.com and Sandy Sandy at http://www.sandysandyart.com.
• I do wish I had done more experimenting with other materials...maybe yupo paper for a few or masa paper. I tend to use the same materials, so it was a big stretch for me to add the materials I did use this time.
• Will I do the challenge again? Yes. I know Leslie organizes it in September also, but that is a time of year that I am too busy plein air painting. The challenge at this time of year comes at a time when the most I am doing outside would be small paintings or sketches from my car, so I have more time to participate. 

30 in 30 - Day 30 - Sabrina

Today is the last official day of the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge, and it has been quite a challenge for me to do so many animals. For Day 30 I have painted Sabrina, who belongs to my friend Mary Weeks. I thank her for sending me a photo to work from.

Here is a link to the other paintings from the challenge: https://www.saetastudio.com/30-in-30-blog Now that the challenge is over maybe I will have a little more time to visit Leslie's blog and look at more of the other paintings submitted. I still have a few reference photos that were sent to me and I do hope to get to do paintings of those as well...but at a more relaxed speed.

When my portrait group met this past week, Chris posed for us.

30 in 30 - Day 29 - Louie

My Day 29 painting for the "30 Paintings in 30 Days" Challenge is of Louie. He belongs to my friend, Jean Ogden, and he resides with Annie who I painted a while ago for this challenge. Jean has lots of great pets.

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

The boatyard by the West Sayville dock is such a great place to sketch and paint. There is always a large boat being worked on (usually one of the ferries for Fire Island).