On My Drawing Table - Author Portrait, Jane Austen

As an artist one of the scariest things for me is a white sheet of paper. Or getting to a certain point in a drawing or painting about half-way and it can either come out the way you imagined or need to start over. Especially when working with ink on bristol board.

First a careful pencil sketch, being mindful not to press too hard or erase too often.

I got this far on this one, but didn't like the eyes or the way the ruffles on the cap was looking.

 So I re-inked and made some changes, started to pencil in the framing around her and for me another fear: the great fear of lettering. Now at one time, BC (before personal computers) I worked at a nursery/garden center and my job was to make signs for the entire store. I worked with huge markers and heavy illustration board. The amount of signage varied from week to week and season to season but at the least I made 25 signs a day. All nicely calligraphic with little illustrations added here and there. It's been awhile since then.

Out came the ink, the pens and brushes. I played around for a bit and then dove in.

 

Not perfect, but I'm happy with the way it looks with the portrait.

 

Tomorrow I will erase the pencil lines and scan her in. I want to print this on some dictionary pages.

Look for her in my Etsy shop soon.

On My Drawing Table: Author Portraits, Washington Irving

The third in my (very slow to put together) series of author portraits.

 

I completed the pencil sketch last year,

 



After researching images of Washington Irving ...

I also wanted to combine an image of one of his most popular stories, like I have done with Poe.

 



 

 I think that my image has shaved about 20 years off of the one I used for

research. But that is not necessarily a bad thing :)

 

Prints of him will appear on my etsy site tomorrow. And I will be bringing

them along to the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Craft Fair,

 

October 26th.

I Am Having Too Much Fun Building Inventory!

 

 

Last year I started playing around with collage work. I used prints of my art that just weren't good enough on their own, but added in with vintage papers and embellishments, additional painting and some quotes from very clever people unique artwork is born.

 

Each one of these canvases are different works of art that

 

although seemingly mass produced,

 

are thoughtfully and delightfully created.

Bits of ephemera, fabric, prints of artwork all join together with acrylic paint.

Finished off with varnish and all set to hang!

On my drawing table: Author Portraits

I have wanted to do a series of author portraits.
Since I have a 'thing' for crows, blackbirds and ravens, the first portrait just had to be Poe!

The idea is to make them look sort of vintage, but with a playful, whimsical touch.

Shakespere was next, but he needs more work and I have a better idea now of what to do,
instead of the comedy/tradgedy masks.

And considering the time of year and following a customer suggestion, Washington Irving is being worked on right now.....

The finished product, printed on a vintage dictionary page. I will be listing on etsy sometime this week.