New Work Completed

Red Wagon Wheel

By: Lori Talbert

5/25/09

8x10 Colored Pencil and Graphite on Bristol Board

Just completed the most recent piece I have been working on for the past couple of weeks. I found the reference pic on morgue file when I was browsing and saved it for future use. Something about this pic fascinated me and I thought it would make an interesting subject.

I started in in graphite and realized it would not be as interesting as I once thought completed all in pencil. So I decided to take a chance and add some color with the colored pencils. I chose the wagon wheel and then that stood out too much so I also colored the ground.

Its works pretty good for me. Not nearly as difficult as the last piece I completed but good to get me going on my artwork again.

Now I don't know which one to use as my third entry for the art show. This piece or the last one entitled Millboro Post Office / General Store. What do you think?

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.

Back To Graphite!

Baby Orang

By: Lori Talbert

2/14/09

I have not done any projects in graphite lately and came across this reference pic in the image library of an artist's forum I belong to. I decided to do the drawing in graphite in the OSWOA format of 4x6. An OSWOA can be any medium just the size is required.

I learned that for me graphite (my preferred medium) needs to be practised frequently. With colored pencil I can sometimes rely on just the colors to show what I want but graphite needs to be more subtle using just different shades of the medium. This little guy took a somewhat longer than the other OSWOAs I have been completing but I was glad I tried it in graphite. I will definitely begin using graphite as much as color pencil in my work in the future. I want to keep all of my skills and continue to improve in them.

However I think I may also try this little guy in color pencil as well!

Two Days In A Row!

We had snow again last night. Shortly before 8 pm it looked like blizzard conditions it was snowing so hard. We thought we would really have a big snowfall and the forecasters were calling for 1-3 inches. Well, the snow didn't last very long and we awoke this morning to only a dusting. It is all almost melted now. It is only 27 degrees farenheit but the sun is shining brightly. The road crews were on the ball this time and the roads in my area looked clear but once again the schools were closed.The weather forecasters described it as "snow showers" and said some areas really had a lot so maybe that is why the schools are closed. So, here I am stuck at home, using up another vacation day. I didn't have enough work to do at the other location to last all day. Hopefully this will be the last snow/ice situation we will have. But we have quite a few weeks of winter left yet!

My son wanted to go out a play in it so I let him. There wasn't enough to make a decent snowball let alone a snowman. This snowfall wasn't worth taking a picture of but I finally downloaded the pictures I took of the January snowfall.

This is a picture of my son with all of the snow he can gather. He called it his snow mound.

Picture of my house covered with the snow:

Also last night I created another OSWOA (original small work of art). I called it Spring Bird. I found the picture on Morguefile and I don't know if it is supposed to be a baby robin or what. It only took an hour or so and is not my best work but I enjoyed creating it. I think it has a "painterly" look.

Spring Bird

By: Lori Talbert

2/03/09

Thank you to the individuals who are following my blog! I appreciate it and enjoy reading your blogs as well! Until next time!

Difficult Week

This past week it just seemed more bad news followed bad news. I work with individuals who are unemployed and looking for work and this past week around 200 people in our county lost their jobs. We also learned of over 50 more that had lost their jobs in the previous week that we had not heard about. January has been a bad month in our county.

Our unemployment rate for December was 8.9 percent and I wouldn't be surprised if it topped double digits for January. It is hard to hear all of the stories these people tell and very sad. We offer all of the assistance and referrals we can but what they need most is employment and unfortunately there is just not much available.

I know the entire country is being affected, not just our county but these are the people I interact with and am working with on a daily basis. I can only hope that things begin to improve soon but I fear that will be a long time coming.

With all of this going on it was hard to get into the mood to produce any art work but on the other hand I knew I needed to do something because creating art is good therapy for me. It relaxes me and improves my mood and I always feel better after I create.

One of the artist's forums I belong to had a drawing challenge for January. I selected a photo and used that. It is an OSWOA (original small work of art) 4x6, colored pencil on bristol board. It did not come out quite as well as I had hoped but it is OK.

I have become addicted to this form of art as with my busy schedule of working and raising a family I can complete one of these pieces in an evening with very little mess. I believe this type of art work is becoming more popular as more and more works show up on the internet for sale. When I first began researching this type of artwork, there would be around 90 works for sale on Ebay. Now there is continuously over 130 offered on Ebay at any time for sale and many more on other places on the web such as Etsy.

Anyway here is the latest:

Butterfly

By: Lori Talbert

1/29/09

I have also been searching for other artist's blogs on the internet, especially artists from North Carolina. I have made some new friends this way and have viewed some really great works of art. I hope to add links to these blogs on my site soon so stay tuned!

Recent Works / Snow Tonight!

It has been extremely busy at work and when you work full time and have a family it is sometimes hard to work on your art like you want to. I haven't taken the time to post recently but I have completed a few things.

The first is an ATC (Artist Trading Card) for an exchange on a forum I belong to. The theme was the new year and after turning over many ideas I thought of the Chinese calendar. A little internet research revealed that 2009 was the year of the Ox so I decided to work with that. The first Ox I tried was a realistic representation but it didn't seem to work out that well so I went with a cartoon version. It didn't take very long to complete and although not a work of art I thought it was cute and decided to send it to my trading partner. I received my card from my partner and I felt kind of bad because theirs was very detailed and intricate and obviously took a lot of time. Mine took less than an hour to complete. Well, that is the fun of a trade, you never know what you will get and you are always surprised. My partner liked their card so that is what is important.

Year of the Ox (ATC)

By: Lori Talbert

12/27/08

I also completed a couple of OSWOAs (Original Small Work of Art) that I haven't posted yet. The first was a still life that I had originally done as a digital work. It came out very well in digital but not quite as well in this version. Some parts of it I am pleased with such as the glass vase the flowers are in.

Still Life with Flowers

By: Lori Talbert

1/01/09

I also revisited the cardinal sitting on the fence and completed another version of it as an OSWOA.

Cardinal 2

By: Lori Talbert

1/13/09

All works are in colored pencil on bristol board. The ATC is 2.5 x 3.5 inches and the OSWOAs are 4 x 6 inches. I am thinking about another larger work in graphite probably 8 x 10 and am turning over a couple of ideas in my mind.

On another note the weather forecast is calling for 1-3 inches of snow tonight and early tomorrow morning. That probably doesn't sound like a lot to many of you but here in our part of North Carolina we sometimes go all winter without any snow at all. If we get bad weather during the winter it is usually freezing rain or sleet which is no fun at all. When we do have snow virtually everything closes down as we see it so rarely southerners do not know how to drive in it and slip and slide all over the roads. I have a 4-wheel drive but I usually stay home as well because the 4-wheel drive does not guarantee that someone will not slide into me! My son is extremely excited! When he was almost 2 years old we had a whopping 13 inches in one night! We were without power or telephone for practically a week but he doesn't remember that. He will soon be 11 and has only had enough snow in his life (since the 13 inches) that he remembers to build two snowmen. He is hoping for the 3 inches so maybe he can build one.

And Again!

I guess I have gotten on a bird kick as I have completed another OSWOA of a bird. This one is a cardinal. I keep working on something until I have it the way I want it and I am working on the colored pencils and bristol board. I experimented with illustration board but liked it even less. Anyway this is my latest:

Fence-Sitting Cardinal

By: Lori Talbert

12/02/08

More OWSOAs!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Holiday! I enjoyed mine even though there was the usual family drama that I won't bore you with here. It seems there cannot be one family holiday that there is not some type of drama occuring. However, I did find time to complete a couple more OSWOAs over the Thanksgiving Holidays. This is the first one:

Yellow Bird

By: Lori Talbert

11/26/08

I also was not satisfied with the Bluebird drawing I had previously completed. The bird faded into the background unless you were looking at it under very strong light. So I took another try at it and came up with this version:

Bluebird 2

By: Lori Talbert

11/29/08

I am more satisfied with this version. I made the bird a little rounder so it looks less predatory, darkened the colors of the bird and lightened the colors of the background. What do you think?

Second OSWOA Completed

I finished my second OSWOA (original small work of art). It is of course 4x6 on smooth bristol board. I wish I could find another firm surface that accepted the colored pencil better. It almost comes out like watercolor. I cannot get the colors as dark and rich as I would like. If anyone has any suggestioins please let me know.

This is the piece:

Bluebird

By: Lori Talbert

11/24/08

Completed First OSWOA

Definition: An OSWOA (original small work of art) measures 6" x 4" or 4" x 6" and fits into a standard 6" x 4" photo album sleeve or can be matted and framed and can be any medium.

Anyway I have been looking at some of these on various websites and wanted to try creating an OSWOA for myself. It would be bigger than an ATC but not as large as the last work I created.

This is the result:

Owl Portrait

By: Lori Talbert

11/22/08

It is colored pencil on smooth bristol board. I wasn't that happy with the bristol board. It made it really hard to blend the colors possibly due to the slick surface. However I wanted a firmer surface than regular drawing paper.

I am currently working on a second OSWOA and should complete it soon. Hope you like it!