Dusting Off the Ol' Graphite Pencils

My lovely parents bought me a full spread of solid graphite drawing pencils for Christmas and I finally packed them up and took them with me on an excursion. I've been neglecting my sketching lately--largely, I think, because I've been struggling to find a new place to do it. I used to sketch all the time in college classes, and take breaks at coffee houses for more sketching. Outside college, and in the working world, where do I go to draw?

I spent last Saturday afternoon at a brewery, sipping a beer and drawing anyone in my line of sight.

A cyclist who came in to cool down:

I'm planning on making this a regular thing--either drawing at a brewery, or a coffee house, or a park. The long, long hiatus I had from drawing people from life caused me to almost forget how much I enjoy it.

Broken - Still Life

In keeping with my New Year's Resolution, here's what I'm working on now. Not the best quality photos, given that there wasn't any natural light. I'll definitely take better pictures once it's finished.

 

A burnt-out lightbulb, a yellow flower, and a few pages torn out of an old, less-than-mint condition copy of The Simarillion. These are just a few things I had laying around my apartment. Put together a still life, sketched out a drawing, and started painting.

New Year's Resolution

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this blog! Well, I'm still alive. Just trying to juggle art with full-time, non-art related work. It's an adjustment that I'd like to think I'm finally starting to get better at.

My New Year's Resolution is to Make More Art and be more consistent about sharing it.

So here's a teaser picture of my studio with my current painting on the table. I'll post a better picture of the painting soon (I need to watermark it first, which means resurrecting my dying MacBook).

I've been trying to adjust to making art in a tiny little apartment where my drawing table doubles as my dining table, and my studio consists of 1 table and 1 overcrowded plastic taboret. My current struggle is figuring out the best light source for painting.

My current studio set-up, complete with laptop and iPhoto, because I went several months without a digital camera and had to resort to taking pictures with my phone (then viewing them on the computer, since I have no printer). Two lamps. Neither by itself is good enough--alone, each casts a huge shadow from my hand right onto whatever I'm working on. But the two-lamp solution is working for now. 

Side note--this is not the first time I've painted by referencing images on a computer. This painting was also done largely by glancing back and forth at pictures on a screen. A pain in the butt, compared to looking at prints. But doable.

New Website

I'm still tweaking it and working on putting more images in the galleries, but it's up and running: http://jennydavis.4ormat.com/

Book Ornaments

I just finished making three little book ornaments. I used pages from a vintage art/design textbook, Japanese paper, and a bunch of drawings from my sketchbook to make these tiny novels. There's a fish one, a bird one, and a forest one (and I'll be making more). Each one took about a day to make. These three are available on Etsy for $40 each.

New Stuff

Cerulean Warblers, 9"x7", ink and watercolor. $45

Added a new painting to my Etsy shop. Two cerulean warblers on a branch. 9"x7"

Moth Drawing

Moth in Yellow & Gray, 8" x 11", ink and watercolor, 2013, $40

Posting some new stuff on Etsy today. This one's already up, adding more later this evening.

Zombie Christmas Ornaments Part II

Zombies in the Snow (Zombies in Winter). Acrylic on glass.

This is the second of the zombie Christmas ornaments I made this month, for a friend who loves winter, snow, and zombies. The sun rises in the background and snow drifts against a lone church graveyard as zombies trudge toward a sleepy, unsuspecting town in the distance. The ornament is already on my friend's tree and looks great with her blue and silver decorations. :-)

Zombie Christmas Ornaments Part I

Zombies in a Storm (Florida Storm). Acrylic on glass. 

I started a series of Christmas ornaments featuring zombies lumbering on the horizon. I've made four so far, all as gifts, and I'll be making more. This is the third ornament in the series, painted for my brother who loves Florida. Palm trees and a Florida pine stand watch as a horde of zombies crawls from a church graveyard and makes its way toward a town in the rainy distance. It took about a week to complete.

Two Sisters

Finished this up last weekend. Just a quick shot, I'll take a better photo over the weekend. :-)

New Stuff

Made three little ink & watercolor paintings of birds this morning (of which this bluebird is one). They're posted at my Etsy shop. I'll also be listing several cards featuring birds in the coming week. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!

Etsy

I've finally joined the 21st century! Just opened my new Etsy shop. I'll be adding more artwork soon (I have another batch of drawings I need to add color to and photograph). I have several items available already, though. This little bird is one of them. :-) Take a look and let me know what you think!

A Commission & a Work in Progress

Coming along, slowly but surely. This is what I've been working on between commissions.

On a side note, Apple decided to discontinue their MobileMe service... so my other website disappeared. I'm looking into options to make a new site, but in the meantime, this blog is it. If you're interested in past work, most everything I've done over the years is here in the archives.

Moving in

My artwork will be in Studio 15 in the Torpedo Factory Art Center starting today. I'll be in Sundays, plus some weekdays as my work schedule allows. :-)

In progress...

Spring cleaning...

... and I keep finding random sketches buried among receipts and textbooks. This is my cat Nimrod (along with some unintelligible notes about who-knows-what).

In Progress...

Started this little 6"x6" one the other day... The jewelry and the magnifying glasses are gonna be fun to do.

Three Brothers

18"x15"

Portrait of a Girl

Finished this one in December. :-) I have some more new things to post too - will do that soon.

In progress...

I started this way back in August (late July, actually) and have been plodding along ever since... but it'll be worth it when it's done. Really not much left to do - just need to fill in a few of the bare patches on the skirt, finish the shawl and the balls of string, finish the sash, and do some touch-ups.