Chaco By The Fire

With Jim's and my time sucked up by continuing and trailing loose-end projects on the house, we've become pretty good at tucking small creative things in while waiting for the contractor to arrive, or paint to dry or deliveries.  My studio is still only that cool refuge downstairs that Jim and I retreat to with a glass of wine in the evenings, to watch the sun go down over the garden.  All my studio furniture and equipment is there in disarray, still waiting to be organized into a functioning space for painting and writing.  However, for the time being, I can put in fifteen minutes here and there with Procreate on my iPad, or macrame a beaded cord on a clipboard for a pendant, etc.

The above is "painted" in Procreate from another photo of a friend's old Maine Coon cat.  The only part of the photo left that I haven't painted over is the center of the cat's face.  And even there I've enhanced it.  The background is a fabrication on my part, the cat just looked like he needed to be by a fireplace.   A regal animal, for sure.

My Mom Talks To Bigfoot

Once upon a time, my family was famous for it's great Halloween parties.  The one depicted here was in the late '80s, my girls were teenagers, and one of the decorations was my recently sculpted and fired "skull" we referred to as Bigfoot.  I found this photo in a box a few weeks ago, had forgotten about Bigfoot until it showed up!  I forget now what happened to this guy....

Expanding Kizzy

I know, this is cheating.  I have used a photo sent to me by a friend of her cat to practice my Procreate tools on my iPad.  This is Kizzy, or at least the dreamlike Kizzy I manifested from the original.  I recreated some of the background to give her more room in her setting, and greatly expanded her coat, using the tints Procreate said were already going on in the photo... I just exaggerated them a bit!  The last challenge was the lit eye.  In the photo, it was all but washed out, so I recreated it, from a description my friend gave me of it on the phone.  

This beats doodling any day.  

Waiting To Eat

So nice to get out and have some fun in Port Townsend the other day.  Jim and I went to see a movie at Rose Theatre after a lovely lunch at The Fountain Cafe across the street (just before they closed).  A funky place with outrageously wonderful food!  I'm getting faster at sketching, now, and enjoy establishments or scenery that are colorful and different.  Or textural.  LOVE texture!  This was done in my little Moleskine with pen and Cotman watercolors, some of which I've pried out and squished in my own colors because I like them better.  Funny, after having been a portrait painter for so many years, you'd think I'd do more sketches with people in them.  I guess I can't get over the privacy thing.  

A Dream of Sierra

Another shot of our geriatric kitty, Sierra, that lent itself to painting digitally with Procreate.  This week is her last with us, Jim is creating a sweet slideshow with music as a tribute.  I like that I can take the photo of the cat and play with her fur, ears, whiskers, body shape, eyes, and recreate a version of our little friend that is more dreamlike.  A fantasy version of Sierra.  

Imaginary Village Perspective Revisited

Along the lines of my previous blog postings, I photographed with the iPad outdoors my original sketch of "Imaginary Village Perspective" (refer to my 4-28-12 posting), then put the image in Procreate's gallery, and went to work on it.  The photo was imperfect, so the paper came out blue.  I liked the blue and ran with it.  Using a slight purple palette, I drew, painted and smudged until the Village had filled out.  Do you like it?  I am learning something new, so PLEASE feel free to comment!

Forest Extensions

Another try at fooling around with Procreate.  This was a photo I took with my iPad from our office window upstairs.  The photo only went so far, so I "painted" forest extensions (think hair extensions) at the top quarter of the page.  I enhanced some tree trunks (on the lower part), twigs, shadows, plunked in a little sky.  As I seem so miserably inept, so far, at painting a "canvas" from scratch on Procreate, I'm practicing my skills on imported photos until I'm a little better.  Sometimes I get so into it I forget it's not a "real" painting, and I impulsively try to dip my stylus in my ice tea and swish it around.