Happiest Holidays!

Have I truly not posted for a whole month?  I hope everyone has had a fabulous holiday season!

I have been putting most of my energy into my Facebook page lately, which has left le blog a bit neglected (I seem to only be able to juggle so many social media things at a time...  *sigh*).  On Facebook I had a little contest over Christmas.  If you'd like to see the tales of people's treasured friends that were shared with me, be sure to check out my Facebook page. The winner of the contest (by random draw) received a digital painting of her dearly departed friend Rex, showing here;

Which is not showing up properly here - I'll try to re-upload it later, but you get the gist of it

I have several works closing in on completion and one new one getting started right now, so I thought I'd give you sneak peaks of them....

A long overdue portrait that is in my 'new' style of whiteboard - I'm really excited about how this one is progressing!

A little demo piece that is 95% scratched but only about 10% coloured so far.

Another portrait, also in my 'new' style and the biggest colour piece I've done to date, very close to completion.

A brand new portrait getting started, this is a portion of one of several quick digital thumbnail sketches I did for the client.

Another little demo piece, can you guess which of my other works this one is related to?

This is probably the most difficult piece I'm working on right now (and the slowest to progress), but one that has very special meaning to me so I want to get it just right. 

Over the next month these are my top priority pieces.  As they are completed I'll post them here with some discussion and work-in-progress shots where available. 

I recently found out I'll be doing some traveling in the next few weeks, which means 1) I get to experience winter this year after all (with all the mixed emotions that brings... I've been adjusting very well to 27 degrees (celcius, which is high 80's F) weather in December thank you very much!) and 2) I will be able to take these WIPs with me and see how much I can get done without the distractions of a home studio (which seriously could go either way). 

Shipwreck Beach Bar

Just a quick little ink painting I did this morning.

Enjoy!
:)

The toads told me to do it...

My last post suggested what I haven't stated overtly - I've moved again, the studio is now located in a very different place than Ontario, Canada.  As the fall progresses in Canada, where I am there is very little to mark the passing of the seasons (except we do hear seasonal music around now and my favorite Christmas album - Boney M - for once in my life fits in with my cultural surroundings!).  

 Ginger, the last cat, surveys her new domain.

It's been a very busy few months taken up by relocating, unpacking, assembling furniture and trying to find all the various bits of my studio and supplies as well as a job interview.  I am without finishing spray and it's apparently really difficult to get aerosols delivered overseas - oh Krylon, how I need you now!  Well, by the time I figure out how to get some I should have a few pieces ready to spray.

And here is the new workspace....

Yeah, it's rough working out here!

I have a bunch of pieces in progress, but none ready to post today - so instead I'll share this trio of sages with you:

These guys live on the patio of my new location - they mostly stay in the dark cool spot under the old patio table base (okay, they exclusively stay there except in dark of night when they come out to hunt - I snapped this picture the day I discovered them when I tried to move the base, it's now safely back in place and they are happy with that).

Now the only thing I need still to do is impose some structure on myself.  I've recently found my interest in Myers Briggs typology rekindled.   Yeah, I'm one of those people who loves to dissect the human condition whenever I can (note that I'm a dissector, not a categorizer).  I'm pretty sure I'm INFP, though I've tested INFJ before and my cognitive function tests are never consistent with anything (other than Ne/Ni/Fe/Fi always jostling for the top four in frequency... I have zero doubt that I'm NF temperament).  At any rate... a four letter code isn't any excuse for being a great starter-of-things and a dismal finisher of them, but it does help me to recognize that enforcing a schedule without external stimulus doesn't come naturally to me and that it's okay to leverage other sources to help me create and impose some structure on my art time. Now I just have to figure out how to do it!

If any of you are artists, or similarly plagued with inherent schedule hyperflexibility, let me know in the comments what tricks or tips you have for creating structure in your workday without dampening your creativity!

Floral Inspiration

These are some shots of flowers on my regular walking route that I thought I'd share.  I've got inspiring beauty all around!