Back To Work

I had written that I had a long Christmas vacation returning to work January 5th. Well, I really paid for my vacation. I work in a non-profit assisting individuals that are unemployed or underemployed find employment, update skills, or retrain (through a grant) for a new career. Due to the state of the economy overall and especially in our area we have been swamped with customers coming in and the phones ringing off of the hook. The result is that I was exhausted last week. Friday night I could hardly wait for bedtime. It was a long busy week. I have not done any artwork since I returned to work as I have simply been too tired. I did complete another OSWOA before returning to work and have completed an ATC for a trade but have not had time to post them. I believe this week will be just as busy at work but maybe I will be more used to it now and not be so tired! I have many ideas for artwork but must find the time and hopefully some will be posted here. Until next time!

New Year 2009

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Christmas holiday! My family's holiday was very quiet. My parents and in-laws are deceased and brothers and sisters are busy with their own families, etc. so Christmas Day was very quiet for us. We had our family gathering a couple of days after Christmas on Saturday.

It is now New Year's eve and tomorrow will be the first day of 2009! I really don't make new year's resolutions because I rarely keep them more than a few weeks. So I will just hope that 2009 will be a better year for my family than 2008. We have all had some health issues, job issues, and various other problems. I am going to begin the year with the positive mind set that 2009 (The year of the Ox) will be a better year for us in general. I know that there are many families that have had it worse with the state of the economy and the high unemployment rate. Our state of North Carolina has had the highest job loss in the country and predictions are that more jobs will be lost in our area. My husband lost his job last February and fortunately he was able to go ahead and retire. If I lose my job I would not be able to retire and I know it would be a difficult job search and probably impossible to replace the salary I presently earn. I am truly thankful for each and every day I have a job to go to.

I took a nice long Christmas vacation and do not have to return to work until January 5th. I had some projects I wanted to complete and have been successful so far. I cleaned my son's closet out and reorganized his room, going through all of his clothes and boxing for Goodwill the ones that he had outgrown. Believe it or not that took a full day. I then cleaned my closet out and reorganized it and boxed up clothes that I no longer wear and delivered both boxes to the Goodwill store last night. I have a couple of other projects I would like to complete and of course the Christmas decorations will need to be taken down and stored.

I have also continued working on my artwork and have completed another OSWOA and started on a new one. The one I completed is below:

Barnyard Friend

By: Lori Talbert

12/27/08

It is colored pencil on smooth bristol board. The new one I am working on is a still life. Until next time!

Graphite Drawing Completed!

Finished the graphite portrait of my husband and son. I put a lot of hours into this but I really enjoyed working on it. Just needs a couple of touch-ups, spray fixative, matting and framing and it is ready to wrap for Christmas! Below is the completed result! I'm satisfied with my efforts on this portrait and I believe my husband will like it also! Hope so anyway!

A Good Time

by Lori Talbert

10/2008

Finally Drawing Again!

Well, I have finally started drawing something of note again. I have a photo of my husband and son that I love because I think you can really see the love between them. I planned to do a graphite drawing from it for my husband for Christmas last year but never got around to it. Portraits are not usually my best subject and I was a little afraid of tackling the project. I purchased a book by Lee Hammond "How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs" and studied it. I guess I have been drawing the portrait in my mind for a year and that helped. Anyway this is the reference picture:





I am still working on the drawing but this is what I have so far:




I am pretty pleased with the results. The scan didn't quite do it justice, a lot of the shading did not show up. I plan to mat and frame the portrait when finished and give it to my husband for a gift this Christmas. Will post the finished results!

Don't anyone tell him!