Hi guys,

hope you're all doing great. Have been busy lately working on my blog, changing look, adding new features to it. Let me know if you'd like me to post any of your artwork or link to any of your sites from it. It hasn't got that much traffic (yet ), but at least spent a while among the 100 most popular "Culture" blogs in Sweden this month . Just let me know if you'd like me to feature your artwork or actually anything fantasy/sci-fi/horror -related in it. My poor readers are probably getting tired of seeing my daily sketches all the time.

Have decided to try and post there more frequently for a while, so if I'm not quite as active around here you know I'm not just playing video games (at least not all the time ) 

You all take care and hug each other a lot.

Here's my latest ink sketch:

Frosty.....hey.... Little Frost Mephits would be fun. I might just try that and see how it comes out.

MB. You sound busy. Where can I find y our blog? "Talking to himself" : what a funny word blog...you see a guy on the street you don't like...you wave and call out  "Hey Blog YOU Buddy!!!"

Blog...could be a noun or a verb...if you try really hard even an adverb or adjective....

Bloggly...hmm....adverb

"your mate has a really blog car" adj.

no....I'll just stick with the noun and verb parts. I wish all of you a wonderful bloggy day....wait is that an adj. I just used...Damn.."Blog me" grrrrrr

woo another blog to add to my growing list of blogs :D /follow

i like blogs there useful for information.   i have an art blog  called Ode to Crayola (http://wildhaggisis.blogspot.com/) though i can see me getting side tracked and it been about everything XD i would read your blog now MB but i gotta g back to sewing my damn halloween costume XD

also sadly i wont get the witches moon picture i have started finished on time for the deadline (and i was hoping it would be my yearly Halloween picture too :/)  but i will finish it regardless of the contest ending along with my other work! and get back to the challenges here :D

carly801:

Frosty.....hey.... Little Frost Mephits would be fun. I might just try that and see how it comes out.

MB. You sound busy. Where can I find y our blog? "Talking to himself" : what a funny word blog...you see a guy on the street you don't like...you wave and call out  "Hey Blog YOU Buddy!!!"

Blog...could be a noun or a verb...if you try really hard even an adverb or adjective....

Bloggly...hmm....adverb

"your mate has a really blog car" adj.

no....I'll just stick with the noun and verb parts. I wish all of you a wonderful bloggy day....wait is that an adj. I just used...Damn.."Blog me" grrrrrr

Yep, it's a funny word. Supposedly short for "Weblog". My blog is here: Fantasytree.

Just added WildHaggis to my link list of "Other fantasy artists". Let me know if you - that goes for all you guys - want your site to be in that list as well (next to names like Donato Giancola and Ken Kelley )

The wonderful thing about running this blog is that I can combine my passion for art with my passion for blogging. Every new sketch or WiP is actually a potential blog post. A positive spiral (a contrast to the negative cancer related one that's been dragging our family down...). But you're definitely right - I'll have to make sure it won't take too much time. 

I'm glad to be apart of your Journey MB. I prayed for your wife the other night. I used to be a huge skeptic about prayer...especially about whether or not anyone hears it....if the God of the universe hears it..and if it matters. I suppose that's up to each person individually. I do now...and I have faith...but hard roads have brought me here. Somehow my ....well....somehow the art that I do...is apart of that....somewhat like a prayer...an expression of the soul to the creator who gave us life and our art. This is all the preaching I'll do .... for now anyways. I do hope you are well and don't give up hope...but if you do....that's ok....you're not alone. So in your blogs and your art express the good and bad you find in this life.

I won't be oil painting for a bit because of some problems I'm experiencing here for a while. My picture will have to wait on the back burner with all the others.

I apologize for the lack of structure here lately. I think I'm going to go back and study Frazetta on here. Since you've been studying him on your on....I might just do a more in depth look into his line art and color work. Explore some simple things I overlooked in the beginning. Scribbling and minimal line art expressing emotions. How just a few simple lines, hard and soft show emotion. Then how color reinforces this.

Hmmm.....and life goes on.

Thanks my friend.

You know, the more Frazetta the merrier! I have also taken a step back, focusing more on line and less on mass drawing/painting at the moment. Probably will try a different approach next monthly challenge, doing a less planned, maybe even b/w piece. I keep up those daily "line exercises" finding they actually resemble the sword techniques I used to train when doing Aikido. All art forms - drawing, music, chess, martial art, poetry etc. - really seem to approach and overlap each other more and more the longer you practice them.

To me, like for you, art is closely related to the spiritual side of life. But then again, you might argue that all distinctions and categories are merely constructions and not separate at all (approaching Zen philosophy again). But I think we'll leave that discussion for now and focus on the practical aspect of artmaking here and now instead.

Hey MB!  Yes I am still alive over here on the other side of the ocean.  I have been busy this past few months; will write about it in a bit want to get through at least the last few days of posts.  Man you guys have been really busy with the posts.  I will have to go back and read them when things calm down a bit.

If you wish to add my website; please do.  :)  It is lisa@dragonportraits.com  I do not have much traffic at the moment but you never know.  Thanks for the offer, when my husband Glen has time I will get him to show me how to make links to other sites.

I know I have much catching up to do but I will ask how your wife and family are doing. 

 I will go back to the messages and then come back to post the latest with my life right now.  I wrote back to Carly but not sure he got it this week (Thursday I think it was).

Hugs to everyone and keep going guys and girls.  Yeah I am not the only girl anymore!!!!  :D

Hey Carly!!!  Yes I am back!!  It has been a long time and a lot has happened to me lately.  I am not sure you got my email in reply to your concern. So if you did get my email and not sure how to respond and to update everyone else here goes Cinders life part whatever number I am at now.  :(

 Thank you by the way for caring.  It always feels nice to be missed and believe me I needed the caring and hugs.  Here goes the update for everyone else who may be interested. 

  I really wanted to be on here but with looking after my friend for a month; it was a nightmare.  We ended up in emergency three times with two of those times all nighters.  Aputik (my friend from high school) that I sometimes mention, had her thyroid out in September.  The incision site got infected; the first trip to Emergency,  The second trip was for the fact the antibiotics where not working and she was bleeding/ the infection was leaking out.  The doctor in the Emerg room took one look at it and almost freaked.  He had her put on an IV pump and arranged for a nurse to come in every day to change the antibiotic's bag.  The last time was to make sure that she had her prescription renewed because the surgeon did not fax the renewal to the pharmacy.  She was on the pump meds for two weeks.  What a disaster.  Anyway she is doing much better and has a nasty scar at the base of her neck which will hopefully fade in time

With all the sleep I was getting (NOT) I caught my son's cold from my husband (everyone had it).  I was coughing so hard I threw my back out again.  It has not been too happy with me lately anyway and that was the last straw.  Man did it hurt; I thought it was Bronchitist or something, but I guess it wasn't.  This was around the long weekend we have in October (second Monday of October each year). 

The week before I had gotten a blood test to check my Diabetis (where my blood sugar was staying at) and was planning on seeing him for the results two weeks ago, that did not happen. 

Friday October 16 I got a call from my dad's sister that my dad was in hospital since Saturday and that they did not know if he would make it through the night.  His other sister called to say he had passed away on the same day.  Apparently my Aunts thought I knew my dad was sick with the throat Cancer again.  I did not know because the few times I talked to him he never said anything about the Cancer coming back.  I know he could not swallow well but not the real reason why.  He would just tell me his throat was soar or the throat walls where hardning from the radiation treatments in 2003.  He could only swallow the liquid food called Resource.  It had all the vitamins and stuff he needed to stay healthy.  I found out from my Aunt that he could not swallow water in July.  He apparently was living on two large bottles of alcohol and was smoking again.  (My dad was an alcoholic since he was 18 or so and a smoker since he was 12)  He was 75 when he died.  Glen and I had to take the kids out of school for the week following week.  He was living in my Aunt's (his sister) basement apartment.  He apparently had passed out and was conscious long enough to call her to call for an ambulance.  When my Aunt saw him she did not recognize him.  He was just a walking skeleton with the Cancer growth prominent.  As much as I wish he had told me I think I am glad that I did not see him in that state.   

I had to go through the apartment and decide what to do with his stuff (I being the eldest of two kids) I am the executor of his will.  The apartment was a disaster.  I guess my dad could not look after himself by the end.  My Aunt and a friend of hers cleaned up the worst of it before we got to Ottawa (it is around 6 hours to drive up there from where I live.  My sister was not much help and did not want anything from him.  I got her to take some stuff for her kids to have from him.  He was an artist too, in his own way.   

Anyway sorry for all the details.  I am still in shock and feeling like an idiot for not realizing that the Cancer had come back.  When they treated him in 2003 the hospital had a power failure and some patients got too little radiation and some got too much, which is what happened to my dad.  Because of the extra radiation the Cancer returned.  We can't go back at the hospital because he signed a waiver that he would not hold the hospital responsible for any side effects of the treatment.

Glen and I have to go back up and finish the cleaning and take or toss the rest of the stuff in his apartment.

On a twisted note my dad's oldest sister has Alzheimers (not sure of spelling) and I found out a bunch of things about my dad's family that he never talked about. All I can say is that I am glad that my Aunt is good natured because she was always getting yelled at by her sister when the same story would be told over and over and over..... I also found out that when my ancestors came to Canada in the 1800's they probably married First Nations women, so that I may be related to them somewhere.  It would explain my dad's darker skin.

Again sorry for the long post just wanted to update you to what I have been dealing with.  Thank you for being patient and understanding.  Hugs to all and I am not sure when I can post again but hopefully it will be soon.

I have been doing some artwork on the computer since most of my drawings by hand have been a mess so here is what I am working on I will post two versions since I am not sure what to do in the foreground.

Here is the first one I hope

Here is the other version. Any ideas or comments welcome.  I guess it is my Halloween painting or something.

On a different note my cat has decided that she does not like me to be away for a week and has not left my side or at least the same space that I am in.  She even comes to bug me to sit with her on the couch or on the bed if no one is around or she sleep on the computer desk.  I guess she realized that I may not be around when she wants it.  Whatever at least she is more affectionate now.  :)  She is actually on the desk as I am typing here.  After seeing my Aunt's cat my two are kitten size they are 3 years old.  Her cat is 20 pounds and when he is sitting he has to be at least 20 inches tall.   He is only 13 monthes old!!!  . 

Anyway I had better go my hands are protesting all this typing.  :( 

On an even more twisted note my sister remembered to call me on my B-day!!!  She never calls me on my birthday.  None of my family ever remembered to call, Glen's dad remembered but not my family.  Go figure.  I guess there is always a first time for everything.  Take care people.  I hope everything is going okay with you out there.

cinders65:

Hey MB!  Yes I am still alive over here on the other side of the ocean.  I have been busy this past few months; will write about it in a bit want to get through at least the last few days of posts.  Man you guys have been really busy with the posts.  I will have to go back and read them when things calm down a bit.

If you wish to add my website; please do.  :)  It is lisa@dragonportraits.com  I do not have much traffic at the moment but you never know.  Thanks for the offer, when my husband Glen has time I will get him to show me how to make links to other sites.

I know I have much catching up to do but I will ask how your wife and family are doing. 

 I will go back to the messages and then come back to post the latest with my life right now.  I wrote back to Carly but not sure he got it this week (Thursday I think it was).

Hugs to everyone and keep going guys and girls.  Yeah I am not the only girl anymore!!!!  :D

(Nudity alert!)

Hi, Lisa.

Great to hear from you again and of course I'll add you to my link list.

Speaking of line practice and master studies, here is my latest ink sketch for the Sketchstorm thread (a Raphael study from Hale's book):

what nudity....that's terrific!

MB...seriously.

Keep going mate.

I'm going back to Frazetta or Frazetta like work. One thing I'd urge you on to that he did  alot was a very strong confident line stroke.

So the next question and challenge is....CAN you do this same figure but with one single stroke on the parts where you've done multiple strokes on top of each other? I still have'nt perfected this challenge....so I'll be here right along with you.

It's all about "LINE CONFIDENCE" .... but I love your anatomy and sense of movement. I'm assuming you did this from a model yah?

LISA  !!!! ::hugs:: so glad to see you around :) fun fun

I'm back from my short trip, and though sidetracked by several other ideas and challenges, I've worked some on my Renoir copy.

Last time I posted, nothing was going right. I redid the linework using a grid to get proportions right. Today, when I started out, I copied my line work and placed over my original to see what I missed and it wasn't too much. I keep getting the woman's head wrong though. It was too small and too high up. I tried to fix that and then I moved on to what I think is my fourth attempt at painting this in greyscale. (First attempt with the corrected linework as a guide though.) I've made a very very rough greyscale pic, and started to fill in details. Nowhere near done, though, and mu fingers are hurting. Plus I'm hungry. I think I need to go shopping :P

Anyway, here's another double wip (sketch plus where I'm at with greys, right now - and again that woman's head and her facial expression has proved very difficult to capture):

Hey Vol, good to see you again. We've missed you. You're Renoir is coming along quite well.

Right....keep going but I've been pondering this and while we all work on more complicated pieces I want to go back and review some solid basics but with a twist.

I'd like everyone to develop line confidence with different mediums. Chalk, Charcoal, Watercolor pencils, Colored pencils, plain pencils, digital media, and if you can post it here. And I will do the same. Oh yes Markers. I worked one summer as a caricature artist for Sea World and I learned by using a pointed black marker on white paper, one can almost imitate color in a bizarre way. By using light strokes on top of your figure/face/ body/object you imply a light source...and then by a harder darker stroke under neath your subject you imply shadows. The trick is to do it with confidence and with one confident stroke. By twisting your pencil, marker (a preferred medium) or paintbrush you can do the same thing. This by far is more important than most artists are taught and are aware of. The strength and confidence in your line or paint stroke will come across to the viewer.

If you all don't know what I'm talking about exactly, I'll show you on here soon. Hopefully in the next few days. Just in a bit of pain lately.

So let me recap:

1. Pick a few different mediums to use
2. illustrate and show different line strengths without trying to pick up your pen, marker, paintbrush, etc.
3. Hopefully you have a scanner to show this
4. Try different ways to hold your intrument...there are a few ways then the traditional way we think and just twist and swirl it to show and display differnent widths and shades, tones, and strengths.
5. If you can, go ahead and do a light abstract subject...i.e. the back of a model, something organic like a tree, try to show some type of action in your piece but keep it simple.
6. I'll show you mine soon.
7. Keep doing what you're currently doing too...it  shouldn't be hard to squeeze this in between your real pieces.