Portrait #3 for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

Virginia Hein is a California artist, Urban Sketcher and a member of Julia's portrait party found here on Flickr. She has wonderful hair and a sweet orange cat.

Portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

I joined Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr last week. The process is to submit/post photos of yourself on Flickr and in turn you do portraits of all the other artists in the pool. How FUN is that!!!

Over the weekend, we were enjoying the gift of warmth and sun for the first day of spring, so I was sketching outdoors. Today it is gray and cold, as it usually is this time of year, so I'm back in my studio (It's not really a studio, it's a desk or the kitchen counter or the dining room table or even the bed). Top is my first submission, which is of the host of this fun party, Julia Kay.

My second submission below is Mariah O'Neill.

The first day of spring

Sunny and 70° for the first day of spring, so it was great to get outside. Always lots of dogs frolicking at the beach.

Fetching,

chasing,

leaping,

playing stick,

and rolling in seaweed.

Cold north wind blowing today, so winter has returned.

March in Maine always seems to be...

...gray, cold, windy and rainy

at the beach

in the fields

at the tidal marshes

and in the city

but warm and cozy by the fire.

Exercise and other weekend activities

The temperature shot up to 55° this weekend, so I couldn't face the gym. Sophie and I walked 8 miles on the beach with a good friend on Saturday and on Sunday we ran five miles. It was great to get outside.

Sophie likes to stop a lot. There are things a dog just has to do. Then there are the times she doesn't want to go any further. We have learned to compromise. When she stops I will do lunges and when she won't go any further I pick her up and do walking lunges. You do what you got to do. We must be quite a sight!

Cold again and it was early so I was back at the gym. As I was lifting weights, a man came up to me and asked what I was training for? I looked at him and said "life, I guess". Yes, that's it, for my life. Sometimes I just don't want to do it (and sometimes I don't), but usually I do something everyday, because it is for life.

In between exercising in the gym and walking and running outdoors this weekend, I made these watercolor sketchbooks. Two were made from recycled books that I got a the "Dumptique" and three I made the hard cases. Thanks to Jana Bouc of JanasJournal and Shirley Levine of Paper and Threads for their informative posts and this $15 DVD that Kate had recommended to Jana: Bookbinding: A Traditional Technique, the handmade journal mystery has been solved. All were made with various watercolor papers and decorative papers that I already had, so I just needed a few bookbinding tools. It's actually quite fun and very satisfying. Also, a little addictive as you can see.

It blew and blew

The other night, during a storm, the winds were blowing about 6o miles per hour. The windows were rattling, the building was swaying (I think), the BBQ slide across the deck thankfully still tethered to the gas line and I even saw a witch on a bicycle (I think). The next morning I noticed several flower pots scattered around the neighborhood, both whole and broken. I knew they were from my deck and gathered up the debris. They were faux pottery so I knew no one had gotten hurt, but it must have been quite a sight seeing them fly off the deck.

Cooped up

We had a wild storm that lasted for several days. Rain, sleet and wind—blowing 50+ miles per hour one night. Just Sophie and I listening to the rain pelt against the rattling windows and objects flying off the deck. Being on the fifth floor it felt as though the building was swaying.

Self portrait 1—after the gym.

I usually managed to get to the gym despite my not wanting to face the nasty weather.

Self portrait 2—All dressed up.

The major part of the storm is over so I am finally getting out. A quick self portrait before going to Sarah's to learn how to make handmade journals.

Sophie managed to sleep through it all.

Parisians

This morning, I was admiring the talented Rick Tulka's wonderful images on Flickr. I saw that Giorgio Bordin had done a sketch of him from his posted photograph in front of the White House. Giorgio had added a sketch to his comment. Several other talented artists had done the same and with such a great face, I couldn't resist joining in. It was the first thing I did this morning while catching up on the news, so it was quick and sloppy. He noticed that he was dripping...

What a wonderful way to start a cold, gray, rainy morning in Maine.

Since the paints were wet, I decided to finish this sketch I started weeks ago on my trip to Paris. These wonderfully dressed older Parisian women waited outside the cafe where we were siting late one afternoon. I was able to get the basic outline of their poses only to abandon them for a Kir Royale. Would't you?

a bunch o' challenges

I loved Nina Johansson's "week drawings", so I decided to give it a try. I started at the end of last week using EDM challenges to fill the page.

Check out how old that mustard is—YIKES!

Olympic sketching continues...

I am continue to watch and sketch the Olympics and I am so in awe of these amazing athletes. I sometimes find myself just staring at the television as I watch the events. So many times the sketching stops and I have to finish the next day. All these sketches are combinations of the athletes doing the sports. I added features to try to make them look more like the individuals.

Shawn White—Halfpipe and Snowboard Cross.

Lindsay Vonn in Downhill win.

Apollo Ohno in short track relay.

I have started to do these on cheap watercolor paper that I have cut up in small (about 5X7) sizes. I am throwing so many away that using a journal just doesn't make sense.

What will I do when the Olympics are over...

More Olympic moments

Once again watching the Olympics, drawing with a pencil and a BIG eraser then correcting and coloring the next day. This is from Tuesday nights Women's Snowboard Cross. I guess this sketch is suppose to be Lindsey Jacobellis, but it is a combination of all the boarders.

Lots of interviews with the beautiful Lindsay Vonn. Pencil in small Moleskine watercolor journal. I was going to add watercolor but liked the pencil lines. Maybe later I will add color. What do you think?

Another pencil sketch of Lindsay Vonn adding color with colored pencils in Handbook journal.

EDM #261—an olympic event

I was watching television last night trying to sketch the Men's Downhill for this challenge. These are small (done in a small Moleskine watercolor sketchbook). I used pencil to draw because I kept having to erase—THEY GO SO FAST!!! I added the USA uniform, color and corrected body positioning today.

Valentines Day

The Aftermath—I finally succumbed to the call of the dark chocolate. I ate three and when my back was turned so did Sophie. She managed to get up on the coffee table, unwrap and eat several out of the candy dish before I caught her. She is a good dog that does bad things!

24 years of "The Valentine Phantom"—The earliest known occurrence of this phenomena was 1976 in Portland, Maine. Every year since, Portland awakens to red hearts taped to all the windows throughout the city on Valentine's Day morning. This Sunday when Sophie and I took our morning walk, all the local shops were once again plastered with red hearts.

Happy Valentines Day

I bought these Hershey kisses to create a Valentines Day post for my best friend who is in Bali. Surprisingly, my willpower is winning and I haven't had one...yet...

Winter Studies

We are too far north for the recent snowstorms, so there is not much snow left here on the coast of Maine. The landscape is shades of browns and grays along with cold blue water and the temperatures are even colder, especially with the wind. On a walk, I snapped a few photos and came home to paint.

Winter study #1

Winter Study #2

Winter Study #3

A week in Paris

Winter in Paris

I'm off to Paris for a week, so I will be sketching around the city while Jerry attends a World Seafood Summit. Being January, the weather looks to be not unlike Maine—cold, rainy and even a bit of snow. There may be a lot of cafe sketching, but it's Paris!

The above sketch was done late last night from a photo I found on the internet before I packed my paints and sketchbooks.

Au Revior

Mail Me Art 2

The cold and snow of winter in Maine has kept me inside so I decided to enter the Mail Me Art Two project with an envelope I found laying around in the office. Rangda, the "Black Magic Woman" of Balinese mythology was my subject with her outrageous costume, long tangled hair and those great hands. It's going in the mail today.

Jacqueline upside down

I recently visited Joanne's Journey into Art and read her post about working upside down and saw her amazing watercolor painted with the reference image upside down. I had also seen the talented Andrea Joseph do this exercise. My curiosity finally got the best of me. So last night as the rain pelted against the windows I sat in front of the fire and tried it. I turned an old black and white photo of my mom circa the 1940's and quickly sketched with a pencil on a cream colored textured paper. It actually looks like her (and a little like Betty Crocker). Great fun exercise that I will continue to explore.

Little town in the mountains

We took a hike in the mountains of Bedugul Bali and had to walk through this little cluster of houses to get to the trail. A traditional Balinese neighborhood close to the village overlooking the lake. We heard that the house on the point was for sale—real cheap and Jerry got it in his mind that we should buy it—What?

Of course, once we did the research we found that you had to buy a larger parcel of land than originally stated. The land was all terraced and planted with vegetables, accessible by a stone stairway that leads to the lake. As we were looking out over the lake a woman came by with a huge basket on her head and dumped it down the stairs. We then found out that that is where the entire neighborhood dumped their garbage and if we wanted that to stop we would have to deal with officials and find an alternative dumping ground. We have subsequently moved on...