Mandala

This is done with Adobe Illustrator. It's harder to learn than Photoshop, but your payoff is very

rewarding. Here is another link.

Radishes

I can't believe its been over a month since I posted. Time just flew by. This is a start for a new still life of radishes. I've been working on better starts, ones that didn't seem so stiff to me, something more painterly. I am pretty happy with this one. Over at YouTube, painter Jos van Riswick has a video of a radish being painted. And of course there are always radish recipes like this one here.

Honey Comb part 2

Done. I liked doing the honey comb, but the plate was the very interesting to paint too. You don't realize the subtle shadows on such an ordinary object until you try to paint it. All of a sudden it becomes an intricate puzzle of interlocking shapes.

BTW, the honeycomb is delicious.

Honey Comb

A start for a new painting of honey comb. I made it rather rough because honey comb is rough,

almost like an iceberg in miniature. It will smooth out some in the painting, and the plater will get more plate-like too.

My Parrot is Stuck to my Coffee Grinder....

My African Gray, Amanda, has decided to sit on the handle of my coffee grinder and I cannot get her to leave. She thinks its a fun thing to do( I guess) and its even more fun to see me try and make her move. Birds used to be dinosaurs, and I think they know it. They sure are smart, and dinosaurs must have been amazing. I've been carrying her and the coffee grinder around all afternoon. I was going to paint a still life of her and set her up in a pose, but then I changed my mind and just decided to snap these photos. When she was sitting next to the computer she was following the cursor with her bill. She is so funny.

Illustration Friday "Renewal"

This was done for the meme "Illustration Friday" and it gave me the chance to use some new

software called Alchemy. It's a drawing program, it's open source and free, and it is so much fun to use. Anyone interested in digital drawing should take a look at this program. Its compatible with Photoshop, Painter, and Illustrator in case you want to take your drawing farther.

It has a feature where the shapes are controlled by sound, so by playing a combination of Bach and Ry Cooder I came up with this drawing. Well, OK, not exactly. But it really does have a feature controlled by sound, and the music playing on your computer does influence the type of line you produce.

The topic for this was Renewal. It's been Zero degrees outside for days. All I have been able to think of are flowers coming up in Spring.

Pansies part 2

Pansies part 2. Not done yet. I took some time off and went up to the BridgeBetween Retreat Center. It was cold here, but it was way colder there.

Pansies

A start for another still life. I am never sure any painting will be what I want it to be. I wonder if paintings are like the stories that authors claim write themselves and they don't even know how they will end. Maybe I should just start painting without any plan and see where I get to.

There was a huge storm, and now that its passed, its a simmering 3 degrees F.(-16C)outside. No more pansies until spring.

December 7, 1941

A picture of the beginning of the attack on Pearl Harbor as seen from a Japanese bomber.

The explosion is going off near the U.S.S. Oklahoma.

Somewhere down there, and I think it's on the Oklahoma, is my neighbor's son.

Its an odd feeling to sit at a computer 68 years later, and find a picture of the precise moment when the life of someone you met and knew suddenly changed forever.

Milkweed Pods, part 3

The latest version of this picture. I haven't compared it to the others as I am writing this, and to my eye, I might have gone too floofie with the milkweed fluff. When I post I'll be able to tell. Maybe I'll back it off a bit./// Now that I saw it, I am thinking just a little adjusting here and there and it'll be done. I like the floofie.

Milkweed, part two

This is the second stage this painting, and its coming along pretty well. Its all earth color, if I remember correctly. There is raw sienna, raw umber, trans. red oxide and white, and thats it. Its only about half done, and the challenge will be to get the fluffy milkweed seed painted fluffily enough.