Melissa’s Artist Blog

 
Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything, but with the baby now, I haven’t been able to paint at all. Don’t worry , though, I haven’t given up on painting,, just taking a forced break for awhile. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to it in a couple months. Untill then, I’ll try to think of some other things about art to post about. Or you can visit my Mom Blog and see what’s going on in my life!

Hey everyone. I know I haven’t been here for awhile, but I thought I’d let you know that I fixed the Trojan problem with the site. I found some wierd code that had been placed in my source code and that was causing, at least for me, my antivirus software to not allow me to open up the website because of a trojan horse virus. Anyway, all is good now.
Sorry about the inconvenience!

Snow Play Horse ACEO Painting in Progress

Well, it’s coming along slowly. I got a bit more done last night even though my hand was not holding up very well. I basically just did some finishing on the trees, fence, and a bit on the snow, although there are a few more details I’ll get back to once the horse is done such as a bit more shading on parts of the snow and probably some more finishing touches on everything else. I also laid in some color and shading for the horse, though I’ve got more underpainting to do with him. My hand was ready to give out by the time I got done with the other stuff that I just wanted to quickly get something done with him, so it didn’t turn out quite as I’d imagined. (:  Well, sorry this was not in more detail, but I’ll spend a bit more time explaining more the next time I post (hopefully the finished product).

I thought I should do another drawing for a free aceo. Anyone can enter and all it takes is to do one or all of the things listed below and you’ll get 1 entry for each thing that you do. The drawing is for an original horse or landscape aceo, your choice. You get to choose the breed, color, season for a horse aceo,, or if you only want a landscape, you can choose  the season, type of landscape(mountains, valley, trees, river etc…). Or I can just surprise you if you want.

Drawing ends October 15th 2009 (winner will be drawn on the 16th and posted on my blog)

1. Comment on this post telling me what breed, color and season you’d like for a horse one- or if you’d like a landscape and what kind (if you don’t care what breed, color, etc… then you can just say so and I’ll surprise you, if you’re the winner)
2. Subscribe to my artist blog (You’ll find this on the right side of the page) and post a comment here telling me you did.
3. Join my Facebook page and post a comment here telling me you joined.
4. Bid on one of my ebay listings and leave a comment telling me you did. You’ll get 2 entries for this one.(you do not have to be the winning bidder to recieve your entries)

So that’s it! Hope many will join in,, everything is free, shipping and everything!  Once the contest is over I will begin on the painting and ship it out within 2 weeks after the winner is announced.

Have a wonderfull week!

Snow Play ACEO Under Painting

I know, I know, I said I’d have something for you all yesterday morning, but I didn’t have time that night to get any painting done whatsoever, so I hope you’ll forgive me (-:  I did, however, get some done last night, although not quite as much as I’d hoped, but at least you’ll get to see more of the process. My hand needs more and more breaks, so this will probably be a 3 day painting.

What I did here was basically a simple underpainting, just to lay in the color basics and placement of things. First I filled in the sky with a mixture of paynes gray and white. Then I added the trees with some raw umber, a tad of paynes grey and a little white to lighten it a bit. And then I added some snow on the ground with mostly white and a tad of paynes grey. After that I added the fir tree and then I added some far off evergreen trees in the distance with a mixture of some hookers green, paynes grey and white.

I really should have done the distant evergreens right after painting in the sky, but I didn’t think of it untill later, but that’s ok!  So I’m not real concerned about color right now, except for the sky and distant trees, just so I have the basics laid in and I can see clearly where everything is going and the light and dark areas.

I’ll get the background finished tonight and maybe do the underpainting for the horse. Don’t worry, he will have a  tail when I’m done!lol (:

Hope you’ll continue to follow me with this painting! Have a great rest of the week!

Arabian Horse Art ACEO Painting

So I am finally starting another “painting in progress”. Though I’m not sure how my right hand will hold up. The last couple weeks it has been getting numb and tingly on me whenever I try to do much with it because of swelling from pregnancy. I may just have to take lots of breaks and take a little more time for now. 

I think this one is going to turn out beautifully though. There are times when I’m trying to draw the first sketch for a painting and I wonder,, “Do I even know how to draw??” I end up erasing and starting over untill it finally comes together,, but for this one, the horse just flowed right out and I only had to fix a couple little things.  Now I usually end up fixing a few more things once I get started painting the horse, but for the rough sketch, this turned out just the way I wanted it to.

So this is going to be a snow scene with lots of snow covered trees in the background and some of the grey sky showing through. The fence in the middle ground will be topped with snow and I’m thinking of maybe putting some sort of winter type bird or squirrel on top of the fence, or maybe just a nice white snow rabbit running out of the horses way as he charges playfully through the snow.  I haven’t quite decided yet on the color of the horse. Maybe a lovely sorrel with flaxen mane and tail and some nice high white socks that almost go to his knees,, or a black Arabian….. Anyway, any suggestions are certainly welcome. I’ll need to make my mind up by tonight though, as I plan on starting on it tonight and hopefully finishing it too, although this is one that might need 2 nights to get it the way I want especially with my hand acting up.

Well, that’s that. I’ll post another pic probably tomorrow morning of it in progress and I hope you enjoy!

Well, I’m back. I know I haven’t posted anything for awhile, but I’ve been so tired with this pregnancy and unmotivated to do much, especially with 2 young boys to deal with already! I just got 2 more paintings done and listed a couple older ones on ebay so feel free to go check them out:
http://shop.ebay.com/a-higher-focus-art/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1 

Here are some pics of the 2 new horse ACEOs I just finished…

Home Sweet Home

Autumn Mist

Ok, I’m going to restart this giveaway since there was no participation last time. I am going to be taking entries for a drawing  to be held on April 24th. The winner will recieve a free original horse ACEO painting (2.5″x3.5″) by me. Winner will get to choose the breed and color of the horse and the season, and I’ll do the rest. So here’s how to enter and you’ll get 1 entry for each thing that you do:

1. Comment on this post telling me what breed, color and season you’d like (if you don’t care what breed, color, etc… then you can just say so)
2. Subscribe to my artist blog (You’ll find this on the right side of the page) and post a comment here telling me you did.
3. Join my Facebook page and post a comment here telling me you joined.

So that’s it! Hope many will join in,, everything is free, shipping and everything!  Once the contest is over I will begin on the painting and ship it out within a week after the winner is announced.

Have a wonderfull week!

It’s finished! It’s done! Yeah! Sorry, I got a little excited there. I also have it listed on Ebay now, so just click on the picture!

"By the Lake"

Anyway, here he is. A young mini pinto horse standing on the shore of a lake. Beautifull green, spring grass and little white and yellow flowers are sprouting up all around. The mountains are starting to lose thier snow  to the warmer weather, and the lake gives off a beautifull, clear reflection of the mountains and the sky.

So after the last underpainting in my last post, I started on the mane and tail. I just can’t save those to the very last because it always makes me feel so much better once I get them in. It just makes the horse look more finished and gives me the courage to go on… LOL  So I laid in the mane and tail roughly and then started finishing the body up. I changed his color to more of a red and then did some more highlights in the light areas where the sun hits and then darkened up the darker areas. Next I cleaned up the edges and then finished up the mane and tail with some lights and darks. Then I worked on the grass starting by the lake with some lighter colored grass and then adding some darker grass and alternating between light and dark leaving it a little darker up around and in front of the horse using a combination of Hookers Green and Titanium white. Add some little dots of flowers using white and yellow and the foreground is done! And last but definately not least, I touched up the eye and mouth area, darkened a little around the eye and mouth and added that little twinkle in his eye.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this painting. I would have liked to show a few more of the in between steps, but these little paintings go so quick and it was late at night so I was only able to scan it twice last night. (didn’t want to wake the hubby while he’s trying to sleep since our computer is in our bedroom :)   Next time I’ll try to show a few more in between steps.

Hi all! Well, I finally got started actually painting  this one. I actually finished it last night, so I’ll just post all of the pictures of it now. 

I started with the background and completely finished that first. I wanted it to be fairly light, so it went quickly. I started with some gesso and went over the whole sky and then I mixed in a little curelean blue. After that, I was going to just do a field in the background, but then I thought some water would be nice, likea  a nice blue lake with the mountains reflecting. So I added the water next, the same way I did the sky. Then came the mountains with some paynes grey and a little purple, making sure to add the reflection below with it a tad watered down.  Then I added a little snow with some titanium white.  Next I put in the shore line with a small liner brush and some titanium white, along with the rest of the ripples in the water. Then I underpainted the foreground where the horse is standing. Hmmm, not the color I should have chose, but oh well, I can change that,,, and of course, I did (-:

Miniature horse Aceo underpainting 2

Alright, now for the next underpainting of the horse: