God Bless Andy Williams!

 My childhood best friend and I were among a handful of students selected to sing the song, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" in front of the whole elementary school and all guests. We listened to Andy Williams for hours in preparation. Throughout the many years the song was popular, whenever we heard Andy sing it, it made us remember that day. Andy Williams and that song were a very special part of my life growing up. May God bless him!

Face #701

Until next time, take care!

Gone Bananas, Face #700, Just For Fun

As it so frequently happens when dining out, I was searching the back of a paper place mat just to doodle or draw a face while at a local Denny's Restaurant. However, on this occasion, the particular place mat was printed on both sides. I decided to improvise by adding a face onto the photo of a banana milkshake. I really do love the whipped cream dollop hair! The result is shown below... 

Have an amazing and fun-filled day! Until next time, take care!

Mixed Bag

Faces#691-#699 are a mixed bag of pastel pencil, ink, and just regular no. 2 pencil all on large drawing paper or in the sketchbook. I liked the way the pastel pencil worked out on the drawing paper...much better than I would have thought it would. Also, after numerous sketches, I think the mermaid in the navy ink is almost the final version of the boat decal I was requested to design. I may make copies of this version, and just tweak the hair, face, and the end of her tail a bit.

In spite of the fact that I have been busier than I want to be, with just one more face, I will make a short term goal I made of 700 faces by the end of this month. Although I am disappointed that my two year blog anniversary is the end of next month and I had hoped to be up to a thousand faces by then, I am pleased to have made it this far and pleased that my efforts have brought improvement to my work and brought me pleasure along the rocky way. There's a tremendous satisfaction in the getting closer to reaching a long term goal.

Until next time, take care!

Funny Papers, Faces #689-#690

 Because my last few posts have been mostly work in black and white, I figured I'd throw in some color today. These below I did really just for amusement yesterday, more than anything else. They certainly won't be entered into any shows or competitions anytime soon. There are elements in each of them I may use in another piece I am wanting to do (hopefully soon). 

This first one below I initially drew with some exaggerated features in his face and head, but I wanted to keep the skin tones on a more believable note. There were some very distracting errors in the foreshortening of his torso, and I didn't like the way he looked in this background I rendered. He was to be an outdoors man of sorts, at a lake...but that's getting away from my original idea of more comedic value. The subject and background just don't play well together. I find in the second photo where I have cropped it, I like it better. The focus stays on his face and its exaggerations.

 In this next one there was a lot more harmony between the subject and background. This is one of those pieces you do where you are in it solely for the laughs, and just grab colors for their feel-good qualities.

I will try to squeeze in another post later in the week. Until next time, take care!

Opportunities, Studies, Faces #681-688

When is a "study" a "study", and not just a sketch? I think sketching with a purpose and setting aside a specific area of which one wants to focus, makes the sketch a "study". To that end, all these below are studies with a particular area on which I concentrated.

Not too long ago I had wanted to enter a pastel competition, but thought I missed the deadline. For some reason the deadline was listed as one date in a magazine and e-mail, but then I also received another e-mail saying it was another date. Fortunately, I had time to enter and the earlier of the dates was incorrect. I entered four different pieces. It seems to be a time of opportunities for me with shows and contests and other ways to be showing my art. I am not sure I will get to all of them, but will certainly be exploring some. But it means I may be busier than usual, and not get to do as much blogging as I have been. There may be some upcoming months that are lighter in the amount of posts. But I'll always be back!

Until next time, take care!