A Portrait with Plumeria Blossoms

I enjoyed drawing my Cherry Blossom portrait so much (Click here to see my blog post showing this piece) that I decided to do another portrait. I was having some trouble deciding upon a flower to use for this one so I asked people on my facebook page to come up with some suggestions. The winning suggestion was plumeria. I had never heard of this flower but fell in love with it's lovely shape and beautiful color immediately.

Something that I had played around with for the first time in my Cherry Blossom portrait was the idea of keeping the portrait in black and white while adding a pop of color with the flowers. I added the color using Adobe Photoshop Elements. I enjoyed the final look so much that I decided to try it on this one as well, though the colors of the plumeria blossoms are MUCH more complex and I have never been very adept at photoshop.

This is the original black and white portrait done in graphite

Here is the portrait with the plumeria blossoms painted.

Which do you prefer?

Shall I continue on with this series? 

If I do continue with it, which flower do you think that I should incorporate in my next piece?

Japanese Cherry Blossoms

My latest sketch is inspired by all of the cherry blossoms in bloom during the spring months.

 

I've often wanted to travel to Japan for their Cherry Blossom Festival, but apparently I can travel to a much closer location in Macon, GA. How many times have I traveled through Macon on my way to North Carolina and never knew that it's considered the 'Cherry Blossom Capital of the World"? It's home to approx. 300,000 cherry blossom trees!! I had no idea!

Anyway, all of the photos on Facebook of these various festivals is what inspired this 'Sketch-of-the-Day'. It's just a basic pencil drawing on paper, but I added some color to the cherry blossoms in my computer just for fun. I sort of like this monochromatic look. This pencil drawing is far more detailed and realistic than my usual sketches, but I was really enjoying just building the layers of shadows.

What do you think?






Are any of you from a place that has it's own cherry blossom festival? What sorts of activities do they have for you to do? What are some of your favorite spring blooming flowers?

My Winter Painting is Done!

I'm happy to announce that my Four Seasons series is FINALLY finished!! The final piece for this series is 'Winter' in all her icy glory.

 

'Winter'

acrylics on panel

                                                
                                                   detail of 'Winter'

This series has been ' in the works' for over four years! The final designs and paintings were started about a year and a half ago. Needless to say, I'm relieved to have them completed.

        

Poster design for 'The Four Season'

available at http://society6.com/phoenixartstudio/Four-Seasons-c79_Print

Do you have a favorite season? What are some of the things about that season that draws you to it?

Busy November!

Good morning everyone! Yet again, I have been remiss in my blogging duties. No matter how much work I do, I never seem to get finished with my to-do list!

Here are some things that have been happening as well as things that are coming up in the future...
The cold that I had when I was writing my last blog post ended up being a super bug from hell. I had the most horrific coughing fits and ended up pulling a muscle in my side and pinched a nerve in my neck because of them! My doctor prescribed an antibiotic, steroid, antihistamine and decongestant all in one fell swoop. I've never been on so many drugs in all my life! Needless to say, each one seemed to have it's own special brand of side effects that ended up making me feel much worse until I finally started to feel like myself again.

ook about 2 weeks out of my life where I barely had the energy to get out of bed let alone go to the day job and get artwork done. However, I still managed to get to my burlesketch sessions. Here are a few drawings from the first one that we had. All of the poses were no more than 20 minutes so you really had to work quickly!

Because of Halloween, the theme was a naughty witch. Very fun to draw!

Some other projects that I have going on right now are about three portrait drawings, one painting and one pair of custom earrings. I am also working as the costume designer for a photo shoot in L.A. that my talented friend, Drew Bates, hired me for. I'll be working long distance helping him with a fun 1950s look.

< If you are going to be in the South Florida area Dec. 2nd and 3rd, I will also be at the Palm Beach Gardens Holiday Art Show. There is always a nice turn out and it should be lots of fun!

I hope to be better about blogging more regularly, but we know how well this usually turns out... Anyway, I hope that you have a fantastic week and I will be sharing some new artwork soon!

Your creatively overwhelmed artsy friend, Rebecca.

A Portrait Drawing and a Painting of Spring

Well I had yet another unexpected day off today. (a result of our tourist season being over with here) I'm sad to not be earning as much money, but grateful for the time to work on my artwork.
Today I worked on a portrait that I have been commissioned to do of a woman's grandson. She just wanted a simple drawing.
I must confess, I haven't done a portrait like this in a very long time. ( or a basic pencil drawing for that matter! )  It felt sort of weird at first, but then ( just as with all of my art) I felt the momentum growing and the interest in the piece as well. I still have a little bit more defining to do, but I'm pretty happy with him at this point.

                                     Something about his eyes hints at the mischievous don't they?

Once I got this far with him, I took the time to work on my painting of Spring for my four seasons series. ( to see Summer, go here) I still have about 2 hours worth of work to do on her, but she's also at a point that I'm pretty happy with. I've been enjoying the challenge of painting flowers like this. Next will be Autumn, where the challenge will be painting leaves. Fun!

      This particular photo was taken with my phone, so I apologize for the crappy photo quality! 
Hoping to have time to write another blog post tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful night!

Doctors, Tests and Artwork

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten to tell you about my latest doctor's appointment. The truth is, that there isn't much to tell yet. My rather overbearing and gruff Jewish rheumatologist has sent me onward to get more bloodwork done. ( I don't mind really, I'd rather a doctor be thorough than not.) Auto-immune diseases are prevalent on my mother's side so he says that I have a predilection for the genes that cause arthritis and such. However, just having the gene doesn't mean that you will ever develop the disease itself. So the tests are apparently to determine whether I have a disease or simply the genetic makeup to develop the disease. I'm learning all kinds of scientific and medical gargon! Don't I sound smart? Ha ha!
My doctor actually seems to think that I'm pretty healthy. He insists that a large part of my problem is my sleep patterns. I tend to go to bed at around midnight or 1am and then wake up at 7am or so. He has ordered me to go to bed  at 11am and to take melatonin about 20 min beforehand. Well it's night 3 of doing this and I feel that the doctor's "treatment" is making my sleep pattern worse! Night 1 was me tossing and turning all night long. Night 2 I completely woke up at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep until around 5am! Well here it is Night 3 and I'm writing a blog post at 3am. I am sort of fed up with this! I might have only gotten 6 hours of sleep before, but I got 6 HOURS OF SLEEP. Nowadays I might be laying in bed 8 hrs but I seem to be getting less sleep than ever!

Ok, that's enough of my ranting. I apologize. Hee hee hee. Anyway, on to my current artwork. I am finally working on Spring for my Four Seasons series. I have been doing color studies for these since they contain so many various plants and colors and I want to make sure that the composition is right.

I have also done a quick underpainting in browns and am now working on layering in some color.

Lately I have been getting a lot of commissions for portraits! I have about 3 going on right now with the possibility of a fourth! I have to be honest, it's been awhile since I've done an honest-to-goodness portrait of someone and I am worried about it. What if the client doesn't like it? Or think that I've captured "little Johnny" quite right or something? This is why I have avoided them in the past, but lately it's become unavoidable. Oh well. It's a challenge, and I LOVE challenges. :) I'll be sure to share the end results with you.

Until then, have a wonderful weekend and hopefully many pleasant nights and sweet dreams. ♥
Your sleepy, yet awake Rebecca