Shizen Paper, Irises

I bought this very colorful handmade deckled edged Shizen paper after Christmas, and have been experimenting with it. While it would never take the place of the more traditional pastel surfaces I've worked with, it's been fun using it here and there. Originally I thought I'd use it all for faces (below is one face I did using the paper, shown paired with some decorative paper.) But the paper doesn't tolerate a blending stump very well, and forms pills at anything but the most delicate blending. You can't really see the paper pills in the picture of the face below, and I tried picking the little fuzzies off.

  I did, however, like the paper for these irises, below where form, blending, and lots of layering isn't as critical. No fuzzy paper pills transpired while working on this piece. 

I also did this sketch, below, a couple days ago...

She has stars falling from her wine glass. I couldn't decide whether she should be adorning the front of a ship, or if she was an angel, or maybe even an apparition.

These winter months seem to be the least productive time of the year for me. This week, I decided I need to jump in and start trying to get more work done in spite of a lot of things going on here. I just went through the last half of a 200 hundred dollar Dick Blick gift certificate from Christmas, so I have some goodies on the way to help me get more motivated. I hope to be able to post more work in the near future. Until next time, take care!

I'm Back!!!!!

I'm back! As to whether or not it's a limited engagement, is anyone's guess. But the problems uploading pics has gone away, and I decided I will go on here until I hit the thousand faces or until I have blogger issues again. In the meantime, I also have my new website and a blog there as well. My web hosting there is through "Artspan", a web hosting service specifically for contemporary fine artists. I look forward to using their unique print on demand feature, and will be offering prints there once I've had more time to work on the site and get it all set up.

Below, I have a pic of some toying around on a piece of bond paper and envelope back with some beautiful handmade colored pencils from Nepal that were in my Christmas stocking this past year. The pencils themselves are as pretty as anything you could make with them!

 And then, here is Face #756 done in pastel pencil, and ink. 

I really hope my luck holds out and I am able to get up to the thousand faces here. I sure was unhappy about the technical problems I had, and glad that whatever the problem was is now gone.

Thanks for returning here and visiting! Until next time, take care!

My New Blog Address...

I am thrilled to announce my new web site and blog! Please come visit me there! Link provided below!

http://beena.artspan.com/

Moving

I am moving soon...

.

It's not another physical move like last year to a new home, but a blog move. I am a little disappointed that after just over two years here some Blogger issues have arisen that can't be resolved. But it was probably time anyway, and I've been having the growing pains for a while now. I've been doing some careful shopping around for a web hosting service with a blog feature. I am sort of on the fence between two different services which both offer some other very unique features. I will probably decide and start construction over the weekend. I will keep you posted!

Thanks for visiting, as always. And until next time, take care! 

Faces #742-#755

I'm finally back here to post after taking a break while my back was on the mend, only to have problems with Blogger this morning which is not allowing me to upload photos. So I threw together a quick slideshow instead. I will hopefully straighten out these Blogger issues and explain some of the photos at a later time, but for now, here's a slideshow of some faces I rendered... 

Until next time, take care!

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone has had a Happy New Year so far. After jumping through holiday hoops for all the perfect gifts, surviving family mayhem and melodrama, I somehow through my back out. It goes out every few years or so like this, and I usually just have to hang in there for a while before I bounce back.  I did have about eleven new faces to show. Most were just sketches. But since I was having trouble with my back, I just took a quick picture of the best one to have something to post here after so long. (below)

I'm taking care of myself, but hoping to be back soon to post again. Until next time, take care! And again, Happy New Year!