Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Blog Award!



I just received a blog award from Who is Arthur Simo the Outsider Artist http://simoartcorner.blogspot.com/! This is a wonderful blog, please check it out.


I am supposed to name seven things I love and pass it on to seven other bloggers. I named 7 things for another award I received so I'll try to name some different ones. In no particular order:

1. My family, 2. Spring, 3. Fall, 4.The Ocean, 5. My pets, 6. Sunrise or Sunset, 7. Creating my art


Now to the blogs I would like to pass this on to:
Teresa at Tresses Art Blog http://tressesartblog.blogspot.com/
Robin at Art and Animals http://artandanimals.blogspot.com/
Jenna at Color Conscious http://color-conscious.blogspot.com/
Rose at ACEOS by Rosehttp://aceosbyrose2.blogspot.com/
Teri at Teri's Painted Daisies http://painteddaisies.blogspot.com/
Laure at Painted Thoughts Blog http://paintedthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/
Teresa at Blueberries, Art and Life http://blueberriesartlife.blogspot.com/

Please check these blogs out if you are not familiar with them. They are worth a look. Congrats everyone!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Sunflower

Sunflower
By: Lori Talbert
3/21/09

I've had some other things going on lately that maybe I'll talk about later if it works out, so I haven't had a lot of time for artwork.

However, I did manage to produce this. It is from a drawing challenge on a forum I belong to from a couple of months ago. I just had not gotten around to working on it. Flowers are not my strong suit but that is what a drawing challenge is about, getting out of your comfort zone and stretching your abilities.

I think it came out pretty good considering I don't usually do flowers. I wanted to do something colorful as I am longing for warmer weather and spring. Even though yesterday was officially the first day of spring it does not feel like it here.

It is an OSWOA, 4x6 colored pencil on bristol board.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Baby Orang in Color

Baby Orang 2

By: Lori Talbert

3/11/09

I did an earlier version of this in graphite and posted it on my blog last month. At that time I said I would do a color pencil version and post it for comparison. I had a couple of things come up and had not done any art for awhile but I finally got back to the drawing

This is from the same reference pic in color pencil, 4x6 on smooth bristol board. Although I love graphite, for this drawing I would have to say the color pencil version is better. The nose was very difficult and it doesn't look as good on the scan as it does in real life, but for the most part I am well pleased with the results.


My son asked me why I made the background yellow. I didn't have a reason I could put into words so I just told him I wanted to. For some reason the drawing just seemed to call for a bright yellow background. I like the way it plays with the browns and it seems to make the subject "pop" for me. I think it works well anyway.


So this is the color pencil version of the Baby Orang. On to the next project and hopefully I will be able to do some art soon.




Monday, March 9, 2009

Birthday

Today is my son's birthday and he is 11 years old. We stopped doing the birthday parties with children invited after his 9th birthday. Now he gets cake and presents and he gets to choose which restaurant we go to for his birthday dinner. It is more of an immediate family celebration.

He said he hated that his birthday was on a Monday this year since he had to go to school and I told him he was born on a Monday. He was kind of surprised by this and said he hated Mondays so he wished it was a different day. I told him that at 1:15 this afternoon he will be 11 years old, as that was the time he was born.

I haven't figured out why but every year whatever day his birthday is on my birthday winds up being on the same day of the week. So my birthday will be on a Monday this year as well. However I have no prejudices against Mondays.

Haven't done any art lately. I am feeling the urge but just haven't had the time. Hopefully, this week I will be able to get something started. We co-sponsored a Career and Education Fair last Thursday and had over 600 visitors. (I saw myself on TV!) We worked really hard on it last week and was exhausted when it was over. We were all dragging around at work on Friday and had a customer tell us it was great, when were we going to do another one? I think I heard a couple of staff members groan. It is great to do something for the community that is really needed like this but visitors don't realize the amount of work involved. We host a job fair once per year and start on it several months ahead of time. Anyway I am glad it was a huge success and hopefully some visitors will find jobs. I know already that one person did.

We have a plant closing down and we have to go out and conduct what we call employee sessions. This is where employees are given a packet and told of transitional services and assistance that are available to them as a dislocated worker. We have two tomorrow and three on Wednesday. Wednesday we have to be there at 6 am. I don't usually get up until 6:45 am so I will probably have to get up at 4:30 as it is a 1/2 hour drive. Our last session there will be at 5 pm so I will probably not get home until 6:30 pm or after. I am dreading that day but I am really sorry for the 200+ people that are losing their jobs.

Hopefully I will find some time for art and my next post will contain some. Got to get through these tough work days first!

Happy Birthday, son!

Monday, March 2, 2009

Winter's Last Gasp?

View from my front porch

Snowman my son and I made

Winter's Last Gasp? I certainly hope so! Anyone that has watched the news has probably heard about the winter storm that started in the southeast and headed up the eastern seaboard.

We had rain starting Friday around noon, all day and night Saturday, all day Sunday and then it changed over to a mix and finally to snowfall. We wound up with around 4.5 inches. The largest snowfall we have had in 5 years! I know I had an earlier post where I was talking about the 3 inch snowfall and how that was the largest in several years up to that point. Well now we have this snowfall and it was beautiful waking up to a winter wonderland. We went out and had fun in it but it is super cold here and I have been longing for spring for several weeks.

We actually had some buttercups blooming but today they are covered with snow and I don't know how they will look once it melts. That will probably be around Wednesday. By Friday the temperatures will be around 70 degrees so I sincerely hope this is winter's last gasp.

I went out with my son and we built a small snowman and had a snowball fight. Later, we made snow cream which was nice and I told my son to enjoy it because hopefully that is the last snow cream this year.

Oh well, you know what they say about March, "in like a lion, out like a lamb." Let's hope they are right!