The Variations of October and November

I finally found the time to get some photographs shot of the most recent of my Variations Challenge paintings. You might remember this was the challenge I set up for my students, and added on WetCanvas, as well. It's been a lot of fun to try to repeat the same image, in the same size (9x9"), in 30 minutes or less, and see how many ways there are to do it.

Variation 9

Variation 10

Variation 11

Variation 12

Variation 13

So, what do you think? This last one really pleases me, even though it's a bit of a departure. I used Colourfix Premium and PanPastels, and it was as fast as it looks!

Deborah

A Loving Father and the 1930 Yearbook

My mom is 97, fairly healthy, and lives with us. Not long ago she and I went out together on the Internet to look at her old hometown of Council Bluffs, Iowa. She hasn't lived there since the 40s but it's still 'home' to her, of course. There are a lot of memories tied up in the place where you grew up.

We spent some time looking at Abraham Lincoln High School and I found a link on the Pottawatamie County Genealogical Society's page where you could request photographs. Her graduation year, 1930, was listed, so I sent off a request, mentioning that Mom had never received a copy of her yearbook. I forgot about it until today when I received an email telling me... well, here, read for yourself:

Hi, You are in luck - we have a spare 1930 AL yearbook. I find your mother pictured, so pretty. If you want to purchase the book we ask $10.00 plus $2.00 postage and handling.

Now, I'm not so sure it's luck at play here! Mom tells a story about how she never purchased a yearbook because she had stretched her father's budget pretty far and just didn't want to ask for more to get the book. Then one evening somewhat later someone was visiting and her father asked to see the yearbook. She confessed she hadn't gotten one--and he was upset (probably a bit embarrassed). That's most likely why she remembers it some 79 years later.

Needless to say, I'm delighted to spend $12.00 to be able to give her something so long awaited. Mom has made a new commitment to the Lord in the last two months, so it's no surprise to me that her Heavenly Father has seen fit to supply something that fell through the cracks all those years ago.

That's the Abba I know!

Deborah

Blind Contour Fruity Friday...!

Blind contour fun on Diahn's blog again... this time bananas and apples for me. Hey, she did pears, so I thought, why not?

Oddly, I think practicing is paying off. Why is that odd? I haven't practiced that much! But just doing it is probably firing some synapses in the brain, using some part I've had hidden away for a long time. A good friend gave me Betty Edwards' book years ago, so unfortunately titled 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain'. (Why, oh why, could they not have titled it 'Drawing FROM the Right Side of the Brain'?) At any rate, I always returned to the exercises she used in the book whenever I hit one of those sudden full stops that artists and writers sometimes suffer.

Have you ever had that happen? Things seem to be going along fine and then one morning you get up, go into the studio and everything you paint is just gar-bazhe? Full stop. I'd haul out the book, get out the bird-decorated tin box I keep my pencils, pens, markers and erasers stashed in, grab a sketchbook and go for it. It just seemed to calm me down and get me engaged in the process instead of the problem.

So maybe it's that connection that's firing away in my brain. Whatever it is I'm having fun. Maybe you can see it in the line work here.

Deborah

New PanPastels Video

Dancing Sunset
18x18"

This is the painting I did in the new video demonstration that PanPastels has produced. You can take a look at it at:

http://www.panpastel.com/learn.html
(Or view it at the bottom of this page!)


In the video I use PanPastels on my favorite paper, Pastelmat. You get to watch over my shoulder for a half hour as I paint and talk. I share a lot of techniques you can use with the Pans and a bit about painting the landscape, too.

So grab a cup of coffee and take a bit of time to watch me paint. I hope you enjoy it!

Deborah

Psalm 51 and Blind Contour Drawings

I know it sounds like an odd combination, but I hope it will make sense.

If you don't remember psalms by the numbers (who does?) this one was written by David about his, ahem, indiscretions with Bathsheba. Let's face it, he committed adultery and then arranged the murder of her husband thinking he could cover up the conception of a child. Yeah, the child was born early. No, really...it happens. Uh huh. His sin was uncovered.

So how does David's song of repentance and restoration relate to blind contour drawing? In doing this kind of drawing you gaze steadfastly at the object and draw it without looking at the paper. I was over on one of the other sites where friends have joined in the fun (see my post on Blind Contour Drawings below) and there was a mention that the trick is to match the speed of your hand with the speed of your eye. Part of the reason these drawings are hard is because your hand and eye don't move at the same rate. Your eye is so much faster and when you aren't looking at the paper (the definition of BLIND contour drawing) you have to match the two. It's hard!

I think David let his eye get out ahead of him, gazing at the object of his lust, and instead of using the lag time while his 'hand' caught up as a chance to think it through and resist the temptation, he just slowed down his eye and lingered there. He went through with it.

Well, we're all sinners, and I can't cast a stone at David for what he did. But I'm so grateful that he wrote Psalm 51.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

Temptations come, but I have a choice. I can practice blind contour drawings, learning to see and do simultaneously, allowing my eye and hand to work together. Slowing down helps a lot. It gives me time to draw the picture the way it really is and think things through more clearly!

Deborah

Blind Contour 'Friday'- Week 2 sneaks up...

Pretend it's Friday.


It's Blind Contour Friday and I hope you recognize my standard everyday household item...

No? Hint:

It dispenses.
It rolls.
It's sticky.
This one is empty.



As usual, I had to play. I'm not sure it tells you anything more about what it is, but it's graphic!

Take a look at Diahn's Blind Contour drawing, which is easily identifiable, and peek at the other links, too.

Then why not join in the fun!

Deborah