Wednesday, February 20, 2013

A brightened day

I have been reminded of a simple pleasure of life...receiving a package or envelope from a friend.  As a child, I eagerly awaited letters from my friends I had moved away from...but time passed and we drifted apart.  Letter have been a thing of the past.  But through Flickr and Instagram I have connected with some old-fashioned pen pals.  

I am trying to get better about writing to those who mean the most to me (I have sent out a few but still working on everyone else).  I never have anything interesting to say, it seems so it's easy to not write.  With Facebook, emails, phones, texts (none of which I am good at using) letters seem less about keeping in touch and more about an old-fashioned simple pleasure.  So, family and friends, know I have a goal of writing to each of you at least once this year...even though I have nothing interesting to pass along.  Hopefully it will brighten your day as it has mine!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Spring?

There is no time to really blog but just wanted to post a few little surprises I found on Saturday when I went to dump some things in the compost bin.  






Friday, February 1, 2013

Christmas drawing

There was no money for Christmas this year so I wanted to draw a portrait.  I scoured my files and found this one.  But it's from when he was still wearing glasses so I decided to leave them off in the drawing.  I printed it off in black and white to make it easier to see the shadows and highlights.   


It was the quickest portrait I've ever done.  I worked on it on three separate days, that's it!  I finished roughing in both faces and the hands before calling it a night.

 The next day, I had jury duty so I took it with me and worked on smoothing out the shading and started filling in the black of the shirts.
I finished it the day before Christmas Eve which was the last chance I would have had to work on it.  Whew!  I bought the frame at Goodwill some months back.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I loved it and it went to good use.  

I messed up on Adam's right eye.  I tried to fix it several times but it just wasn't having any of it.  Seems I always mess up an eye on these portraits.  He said he couldn't see it, even after I pointed it out.  But the rest of the face, I like.

And for me, I think it turned out well too.  But for some reason, I put this dark shadow under my hin, on my neck.  I have no idea why I put it there. :o\

 I am pretty proud of the hands.  I find hands even harder than faces.  I still need work on eyes and hair to make it look more professional.. Perhaps that will come with time.    Anyway, for now, I am happy with this one. :o)

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