January

So far most of January has been devoted to a big house project: thoroughly cleaning and finishing our kitchen. That means scrubbing inside, outside, on top of, underneath everything and building the last two cabinets and putting in a tile backsplash.  Fun and rewarding but time consuming. All my creative energy has gone into that but I have been drawing everyday and stuck to my goal of a portrait a day. I'm not liking every one so I haven't been posting. Here are a few I do like:

great great grandfather

In addition to our kitchen, I've been going through and organizing ALL my photos---feels like I have thousands---which have been the inspiration for these portraits (with the exception of the last post).  Some of them are very old and faded with not much information, it's like I'm drawing ghosts. 

grandfather

grandfather

Granny Lita

Howard

William

Sarah

Kevin

I was flipping through a magazine and this image of the actress Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games) caught my eye. I like her expression.

Jennifer

Nesting

My regular painting schedule has been put on hold for this busy holiday season but I did do a little fun painting...

...our family in nesting dolls. They were a gift for my husband's birthday this year which was a couple days before Christmas.  They elicited a great laugh from him especially when he noticed we were all dressed like the dolls, even him. Before he opened his present, I had asked that he wear his grey shirt and overalls.  Looking at me suspiciously, he went a long with it thinking I must have done a portrait of him since he knew I had been up to some secret painting (he told me this afterwards). Ha, Ha--- he wasn't expecting that kind of portrait. This little yellow one on the end is our dog Jack.

Sketchbook Portraits---This week in Prismacolor

More Prismacolor marker portraits:

Mr. Dombroski

When my older son saw the above one he said, " Oh, you drew Frankenstein" and then my younger one said, "Yah, that was when he was younger before he had the knobs".   That made me laugh although, Frankenstein wasn't my intention. It's the hair, I think, I did a little too much on his left side.

Manley

Colleen

Bryan

And... my boys and I played with some porcelain.  They didn't want to keep their creations but I kept the one I made.  If it makes it through the firing, it will serve as a tray to hold my salt and pepper grinders that now just sit on the kitchen counter and make a sprawling mess. I have a few more functional projects in mind.

porcelain, leather hard stage, 5" x 8 1/2 "

Sketchbook Portraits---Prismacolor and 1984

Some more Prismacolor Marker portraits from this past week:

Mr. Evans

My references are small black and white photos from a 1984 yearbook.  Some of the portraits from the previous posting were also from the same yearbook.  All the different face shapes on a page are so intriguing.  I'm making up the color and most of the shading, playing and experimenting and enjoying these studies immensely.

Mark Kahlhoefer

Marc Stager

Mrs. Lucero

And, I finished the slipcover project. It took me a little longer because I decided to make some pillows. Now the test will see how it works.

Portrait Sketches in Prismacolor

Even though this summer I haven't been able to paint, I draw a little everyday.  For awhile I was doing a portrait a day to practice capturing faces.  In trying different drawing media I fell upon Prismacolor Markers and my drawing people routine morphed into doing some experimental abstract sketches.   Once I felt I was getting the hang of the markers, I returned to doing portraits and now I'm finally getting around to posting some of them (as some are really too bad to share!).  I think they're a bit odd (and a little off) but I'm really loving the medium.  I don't do any preliminary drawing, I just jump right in with the pens.  There's no going back on mistakes---I have to work with the marks I put down.  It's a joy to make these sketches.

Here are some of my favorites in order starting from the most recent (today):

Jonathan Toulin

Mrs. Nolan

Bob Smith

Gloria Smith

Mrs. Martin

Mrs. Sanders

Shane Winfield

LaVonda July

Christopher Koster

The Violin Player

The Chef

Man in Gray