I started out my painting session today by further refining the flowers, adding more shading to the leaves, and more detail to the colorful centers. Unfortunately I only have two shades of purple, so I had to layer pink and white in areas to give the painting enough color variation.

I ultimately decided to add a stem because the flowers looked a little strange just floating in space. The finished product…

Like many pastel artists, my hands get very dry from frequent washings while I’m working on a painting. I use regular hand lotion after I am finished for the day, but since I use my fingers to blend, I don’t want a greasy lotion smearing up my work.

The last two times I picked up some new pastels at Jerry’s, the checkout girl gave me a free sample of Gloves in a Bottle lotion. I finally used it this afternoon and wow. It goes on smooth and after it’s dry you don’t notice that anything is there—it looks like regular lotion and has no smell.

Interestingly, I have noticed a difference in my blending ability… because this stuff seals in natural oils, my hands are less likely to contaminate the paper.

The biggest benefit was the fact that the pastel chalk came off my hands much easier and my skin didn’t feel dry even after multiple washings. I am definitely going to have to pick up a full bottle of this stuff!

I haven’t done a flower portrait in a while, but I always have a bunch of reference material ready when the urge strikes. These shooting stars were found all along the Riverside Walk trail in Zion National Park when we visited in May.

I always start out with a soft charcoal drawing to help with composition and placement. You can faintly see my drawing below…

Next I filled in the purple petals, roughly adding some shading and highlights along the way.

After I get the petals where I want them, I began adding color to the middle portion of each flower.

I haven’t decided if I want to include the stem or the bud in the lower right corner yet. I’m going to leave it for now and ponder my options tomorrow afternoon.

Eric will be on an interview in Oregon for the next few days, so I am planning to use my free time in the evenings to complete two paintings—a shooting star flower painting and a dog portrait of our friend’s adorable chihuahua, Lucky.

Truthfully, I spent the whole day watching football instead of painting. Oops.

I completed this hibiscus drawing ten years ago for an independent study course in intermediate drawing. It was also the first drawing I had ever given away as a gift. I was able to scan it this morning because I happened to marry the recipient. We’ve been together ten years today, in fact.

Technically I would change a few things, like the leaf position on the right, but I’m still fond of this drawing… one of my first attempts with graphite pencils.

I hand-delivered Ella to Christina in North Raleigh this morning.

For transport and storage, I sandwiched the painting between a sturdy piece of cardboard after I covered the pastel with a sheet of tracing paper to prevent smudging. I wanted her to be able to keep the painting safe until she was ready to frame it.

I let her know how to handle the painting, but from now on I am going to include a little “how to take care of me” sticker when I deliver my commissioned work. I never use fixative, but my pieces are blended fairly well so there isn’t a lot of chalk sitting on top. Pastel paintings can smudge unlike acrylic or oil paintings, so when you frame a pastel it has to go behind glass with a spacer or mat separating it from the glazing.

I’m so excited, my first official commissioned work!

This evening Eric and I attended a workshop on financial planning. The information that was most useful to me was the terminology as the concepts of balancing my checkbook and saving for retirement aren’t new to me.

Since I quit my job it’s been even more important for me to create a budget and financial plan outlining where I want my freelancing business to take me. (Barcelona, anyone?) Sporadic income is going to make my taxes next year interesting to say the least but I’ve been keeping excellent track of the money I’ve earned so far.

Eric gave me a crash course in Quicken for Small Businesses and I’ve been using that program consistently to track invoices, payments, and expenses. It really helps me to see everything in spreadsheet format. That way I know who owes me money and whether I’ve sent them a bill. Plus, I love pie charts.

One the surface this might not seem like a typical “art blog” post, but if I’m going to make a living from this, I better have a sound plan in place!

Last year I was inspired to buy a blank moleskine journal, hoping it would encourage me to paint during my lunch hours at work. I haven’t had much time for it recently (freelance work has been keeping me busy) but I am looking forward to adding a few new drawings this month. Here are a few of my favorites…

You can see all my moleskine sketches in my Flickr set.

Landscapes are not my thing, so I am finding that finishing this painting is taking a bit more effort than I am used to. However, since I am posting every day this month, now is the time to get things done!

This painting was shelved when I switched entries for the show in Blowing Rock this month, but I had finished laying color down in the sky, rock, and foreground areas.

My next step is to continue adding details until I think the painting is finished and this is where I am running into trouble. Most of my work is detailed, but not hyper-realistic. So, do I want a lot of detail or should I keep it loose?

Here’s what I have so far…

I had to put off working on this painting while we were traveling to Curacao and Florida, but I had a wonderful time finishing it up this afternoon.

I had already finished the general outline of the cat, so I started by adding more detail to the body and face. I worked with several different shades of gray to create a more three-dimensional image. Ella is entirely black, so I needed to exaggerate some of the highlights to emphasize her legs and head.

Once I had the level of detail I wanted, I added a red background to represent the red door she was photographed in front of in two of the pictures I was given.

After smoothing out the red and adding some texture to the door, I realized that the cat’s head was not quite right. I went back into the black with a kneaded eraser and filled in the background as needed.

Finishing up, I added a rough white floor, whiskers, and the final detail to the eyes. For the quality of photos I had to work with, I am very happy with the outcome.