Current project

I've decided I need to get back into journaling.  But I haven't been doing a lot of art lately, and am a bit rusty.  So, to get the juices flowing, I've joined a Journaling workshop, the Strathmore Online Artist Journal Workshop 

And, here's my flickr site with the first week uploaded.   More to come!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sddonlon/

Ah, Back To School!

Recent work

Hi there!
Well, I've been getting back to painting.  By working smaller, I can just hammer a bunch of stuff out.  Plus, being relatively new to water-soluble oils, there's a lot to experiment with.

A lot of the online art stores have had back-to-school sales, and I'm ALWAYS up for a sale, especially art supplies.  I was able to get a bunch of 8 x 10 canvases cheap. 

Living up in the boonies makes it difficult to practice my favorite subject matter, portraits.  Anytime Sean or Mike see me coming with sketch pad and pencil, they mysteriously have very important stuff to do...somewhere else. 

But, knowing a teenage boy's need for $$, Sean was willing to sit for me...for a price.  Kids, sheesh!!  So, below is the work I did...in 3 stages. 

Day one:

Day two:

Day three (and final):

 Let me know what you think!!  Thanks for looking!!

-s

Turn a Photo Into a Drawing in Photoshop

One of my Photoshop heros is Bert Monroy. In this vid he shows how to create a drawing on a canvas from a photo. All courtesy of the cool folks at CreativePro.com and Revision3.com
Enjoy!

Ok, up to date

It's a beautiful day out, too nice to work.  So, I got out the journal and worked.

We get a delightful catalog - Dr.s Foster and Smith - for everything pertaining to pets.  And they have the best photos.  So, I periodically go thru and cut out the ones I like and paste in my journal at random.  Today happened to be on the lab puppies page.  :D

Hope you enjoy 'em!

Day 2 AND 3

Ok, so it took me more than one day to finish.  Not sure if it counts, but oh well.

We went to see "Avatar 3-D" in the theatre, and was blown away.  It was SPECTACULAR!  So, when it became available on BluRay, we had to get it.  On the smaller screen, it was easier to follow the story and take in the entire thing, and it was just as cool.

So of course, I had to draw Neytiri.  :)  My poor little journal's pages started to reject the amount of graphite.  Oh well, hope you like her!

Ok, NOW I've done it!

I've gone and committed to a few things. 

1) Flying up to help Mom clean out the family room and have the "Mother of all Garage Sales". Should be "interesting". She even said (albeit jokingly) that she might even buy a computer with the money she makes off the garage sale. Hmm.. should I hold her to that?? :D

2) Every year the Yahoo group to which I subscribe does an "Everyday in May" drawing challenge. I did it last year, and I enjoyed it. So, here I go, once again!! 

3) Since discovering I have lupus, I've been watching the national lupus site, and found they are throwing a big walk next October. So I've signed up. Actually sounds like fun... 3 mile walk around Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on October 24. If you're interested, you can support me and learn more at my walk website..http://donate.lupus.org/site/TR?px=2022409&fr_id=1370&pg=personal or click on the image