Eye on the Sparrow

Started a new drawing today.  I took the photo out in
Texas..it's some old farm equipment.  I thought it needed a
bird..so I added the sparrow for one of my other photos.  There is
a lot left to do...lots of different textures: rusty metal, weathered
wood, metal bolts and springs, background foliage.
It should be fun!

sheltongail@hotmail.com

Show Time: Tom Peyton Memorial Art show

Received word that these two pieces made it into the Tom Peyton
Juried art show in Alexandria, Louisiana.  The show is in April,
and I have to mat and frame these, and then hand deliver them
to the show.

"Basket of Blues" is colored pencil on watercolor paper, from a
photograph I actually took in NYC down in Chinatown.  They were
selling them in the market, and they were still alive.  They were
waving their claws, and hissing like they do.  Very fierce....
I knew I wanted to draw it.  The original photo is much larger, and I
cropped it to the long format.

The street musician, "Street Sounds" was in New Orleans. She had
an entire band with her, and she was wailing away on that
clarinet...all the blues and jazz you can imagine.  It was hot,
of course, and the steamy music added to the warm, sticky,
afternoon.  I loved the lighting in the photo, and decided to
do it all in warm yellow tones with purple accents...some
popular Louisiana colors!

Both pieces are for sale.

sheltongail@hotmail.com

"Flower Child"

"Flower Child"  Polychromos and Prismacolor colored pencils on
Fabriano watercolor paper from my photo.

When I was in high school, I really thought I could draw.  Our art
classes were made up of 30 students or so, and I was one of the more
talented ones in the bunch.  A lot of students took Art because they
thought it would be an easy A.  When I went to college, however, I
had to take Life Drawing 101 with Mr. Buscaglia, who was known to
be a tough teacher.  He expected perfection and excellence, but in a quiet
humble way.  He never raised his voice, but would simply walk around the
room, and point to an area on your drawing, and nod.  That meant that area
needed more work.  Many times I thought I was finished, and he would
indicate I was just getting started.  He pushed all of us, and helped make
me the artist I am today.

According to him though, "a drawing was never finished, only postponed".
He always said you could come back to it, even years later and re-work
something.  I still hear his voice in my head as I draw...the basics
about line, lost edges, shading, etc, still rattle around as I draw.  So, I have
worked on this enough to make him proud.  I have spent hours
shading, re-doing, adding values, erasing, etc...and now, I
think I am finished!  At least until tomorrow....


For info on children's portraits in colored pencil or graphite:
sheltongail@hotmail.com