I've Missed You!

 I've missed my blogging buddies and I've missed writing.  I hope everybody is doing well.  I admire those of you who have kept blogging.  Hooray for you guys!  I thought I would post this year's Christmas card.  It started out as a desert scene.  A friend said I need to do something to tie everything together.  She suggested a wash.  I couldn't bring myself to do anything for a couple of weeks because I liked it the way it was.  I kept looking at it.  I decided to make a snowy desert.  I had to cheat and use gouache because I hadn't planned on snow in the first place, so I hadn't left any whites.  

I'm working on Christmas Cards.

 I've missed my fellow bloggers.  I usually make prints of Christmas paintings on card stock.  This year, I decided to get an early start and paint cards.  It has been fun.  I'm almost done.

Here are a few that I've done so far.  I just realized that our feet are in the first picture.😊  Hope you don't mind.

Sad

 I'm sad that David Crosby passed away yesterday.

 

 

Christmas Card for This Year

 This is the Christmas card I'm sending out this year.  In past years, I have usually done 2 or 3 different paintings.  I like this one because it has our dog, Georgie, and a snowman:)  As I type, Cary Grant and Chip, our two cats, are helping me and giving hints that they need to be on a Christmas card, too.  Maybe I'll do one more...  I use white only in an emergency, but I had a heck of a time with the trees, so I used some white on the branches:)

One More Time!

 I tried drawing this portrait of my granddaughter (Jade) and her girlfriend (Daphne) one more time.  I think this one is a little better, but I still didn't get Daphne's head tilted back far enough.  It was a tough angle for me.  I do have fun with charcoal.  I told Jade that it reminds me of painting because of the way you can move the charcoal around on the paper.

Getting Ready for the Daniel Smith Zoom Meeting

 Jim and I do the Daniel Smith Zoom meetings on Fridays.  We love the meetings.  We always learn something, see great demos and get that international feel.  Alex Hillkurtz was the guest artist at one of the meetings.  We liked him so much that I ordered his book.  The book is excellent!

 

Today's guest artist is Jim L'Oste-Brown from Australia. I'm not familiar with his work, but I'll let you know what I think.

Oh, and speaking of that international feel, we've discovered a show called The Brokenwood Mysteries.  Have you seen it?  So far, we've watched 6 episodes.  It's really good.  It's filmed in New Zealand.  It has a little bit of everything - interesting plot, likeable characters, humor, mystery, drama.  Check it out.

Drawing People! Yikes!

 I seldom draw or paint people, definitely not portraits.  This means I need practice.  I decided to draw my granddaughter, Jade, and her girlfriend, Daphne.  This drawing is pencil on 16"x20" drawing paper.  It's off.  I'm going to try again.  I finished drawing and whining to my husband about how hard this was last night.  This morning he showed me a video.  This is how it's done.  I totally cracked up.  I hope you guys think it's funny, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enZbw1j8-ZE

I don't understand how she does this, but she's awesome!