Did you think I was lost!!!

Life has been a bit busy in the last two weeks... what with the Spring show, a two day trip to Toronto, preparing for a fashion show & a one day show, keeping up with my Market Board work, and last but not least...the possibility of a move after 20 years...I've not had a great deal of time to visit my friends. For that I'm sorry!

I don't have any new jewelry photos but thought I would show these two portraits from the art class I took this winter...this one done with pencil.

This one done with pencil then paint over top...never did like this one...did the eyes over 4 times and then just left them like this because I couldn't get them the way I wanted them!!! Never did finish the nose or the mouth either. While I'm not thrilled with the face parts, I was somewhat happy with the shading I managed to do with the paints...which is what the lesson was about...

I'm not a portrait painter, never will be, but that is fine, I didn't take the course for that reason...I found I liked my face parts when I did them by themselves but when I put everything together I couldn't seem to make them work, I know it takes practice, but I think I would rather practice drawing & painting something else, :0). Regardless this was a great class with Misty Mawn, she is a wonderful teacher...I learned a great deal about drawing & shading, which is what I was hoping for. I would definitly take another class with her!

I'm hoping to have a few "bright" days shortly so I can take some jewelry photos, not today though, we are having freezing rain...can't complain as our weather since the beginning of March has been amazing! I will be patient and wait as I've learned the photos are so much better on a nice bright day!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!

Cheers
PS...watch for the fabulous give away next week!

Here is the cutest Snowman!!!

On December 19th I was fortunate enough to win a great Christmas bead from ArtBeadScene Blog ...my prize is the cutest Snowman made by Jennifer Heynen, from Jangles holiday bead collection, ...it arrived yesterday and here it is below.

I think it is so cute...I'm not sure whether I will make a Christmas tree decoration or possibly a broach would be great at Christmas time!!!
Thank you Jennifer for providing the snowman, and Art Bead Scene for the contest!

Portrait Workshop with Misty Mawn!

Next I'd like to tell you about a leap of faith for me...some of you may know that I've always felt that I should be painting...I gave it a try about 10 years ago, but I didn't have the patience for it as I didn't know what I was doing...this fall I signed up for a water color class, but only attended one class as sometimes things change, I just couldn't work it in...but...I happened to see a post regarding an online art workshop, painting portraits, at a great blog I visit The Art & Life of Misty Mawn. That sounded perfect for me...I've never been interested in portraits but I'd never tried either so even if I didn't learn to love doing portraits I would learn aspects of painting, besides I felt drawn to this course, I do believe in following my instincts...so tomorrow, January 15th we begin!!!

The pencil drawings are a warm up given to all the participants...a "blind drawing"...and yes they look rather funny but drawing without looking at the paper produces the following sketches, at least from me it does...here is what we did...

Below is a self portrait

Use a photo or live model place your pencil on the paper and very slowly follow the outline of the face with your eyes at the same time draw what your eye is following...but here is the catch...without lifting your pencil!!! That made it doubly difficult for me...at first I didn't enjoy the process as I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I didn't like that the faces were all messy...funny I know!

At first it rather frustrated me so I would erase a whole face...but I reminded to go slow and enjoy the process, not worrying about the results!!! That was uncomfortable at first for me...

I did a total of three pages, and by the end I was having fun and not worrying about the face being a mess...which I'm sure was the intention of the exercise...

My grandson is the two on the right, not sure about the other two?

This is my daughter!

I'll post more as the workshop progresses...I'm excited to see how it will allow me to express myself...

Cheers