Gothenburg, Sweden

Today I decided to work on finishing up some old pieces that have been hanging around waiting for some attention. 

This is a street in Gothenburg, Sweden that I did as part of the September 2014 Virtual Paintout destination. 

My perspective is a little wonky but given that the original is 4 x 6 inches, I'm going to cut myself some slack about that. 

If I were going to change anything it would be to lighten the window in the front door of the first house - the contrast against the bit of white from the porch pillar really draws the eye and I'd rather the eye go to the bow of the boat against the reddish purple foliage. 

Gloomy day doodle

This is my version of a piece I saw on Pnterest called "Red Robin, Red Berries" by Yorkshire artist Rachel McNaughton.

I've always been intrigued by these little guys, so dainty and reserved compared to our North American Robins. I first saw them on my first trip to London in February 1986. OMG, that's 30 years ago!

2016 First Work

Inspiration - mixed media 12 x 16 on canvas

It's a new year and one of my goals in my art this year, as well as my life in general, is to push myself out of my usual comfort zones. 

This piece definitely does that. I don't have much experience painting in acrylic and boy, does it feel different than my usual watercolours LOL. But it is definitely something I want to do more of this year.

The other change, besides working on canvas, is the size. At 12 x 16 inches it's considerably larger than anything I've done in wc in quite some time. I still have another this size as well as two 16 x 20 canvases just waiting to be used. I'm working my way up to art that's measured in feet! 

This piece is also meant to serve as a daily reminder to me of where I want my focus to be as I head out to begin my day. Sometimes I forget that. 

Abbeydale xmas card

An Abbeydale Christmas (c)Susan Langdon 2015 watercolour and graphite on Strathmore CP paper 8 x 10 inches

Everybody made it in except for the chickens! From left to right that's Minx, Flora, Fauna, Tabby, Halle and Itty Bitty up on the roof. 

In Gratitiude

InkTober update

Have continued to meet the daily (mostly) challenge of an ink drawing a day. It's day 9 and I have 9 drawings so that works for me LOL. 

This one doesn't look like much now since it's the barest outline at the moment. When it gets painted in January hopefully it will more closely resemble the image that inspired it - a windowbox of pink petunias against white clapboard and black shutters. 

Most of my subjects have been floral but I've also done an old pair of boots, a peacock feather and two sheep together. Will be interesting to see what draws my attention (pun totally intended) over the course of the rest of the month. 

Day 2

Poppy seedheads (C)2015 Susan Langdon - 5x7 Strathmore CP

Today's drawing done with Pilot V-pen, which does wonderful things when you wet it. 

I may or not post every day, I'll see how it goes. I may choose to do a mass posting once a week of what I've drawn.

Inktober

Decided to participate in InkTober this year. I've read about this daily drawing challenge in the past but usually well after it's over. This year I put it on my calendar ahead of time so my aging brain wouldn't forget and it worked! 

In 2009 artist James Parker started the InkTober drawing challenge

My participation serves two purposes though - I do a pen drawing every day during this month which then provides me with at least 31 drawings that I can paint in January, a time of year that I often find myself lacking in motivation because it's not Spring yet. Win-win in my book.

Mason jar flowers pen and ink (C)2015 Susan Langdon 8x10 Strathmore CP

This one doesn't count towards the challenge as I drew it quite a few weeks ago but it gives you the idea of what I'm hoping to stockpile for the upcoming Dark Time.  Hey, it's no secret; I'm not winter's biggest fan. 

Started working on today's entry and ran into a little problem. Since I've been busy lately planning an upcoming bathroom reno and mucking out my closet, I haven't had my paints out for a couple of weeks, so of course I had to throw some on. I'm writing this post while I wait for it to dry LOL. Oh well, will just have to do another drawing to put away for January. 

Hoarding Bits and Bobs

I'm always amazed when something that seems to have gone wrong in the first pass can eventually be turned into a much better something with a little time and perspective. 

This was a random doodle basically done as a stream of consciousness painting last Fall. No pre-planning just sketch out a pumpkin and some indian corn using only my brush. 

Wasn't happy with it - the husks from the corn were going every which way, defying gravity; it just wasn't speaking to me. And yet, I couldn't put it in my scrap/testing paper pile. Fast forward to this year where I had forgotten what my original intent was behind the exercise and sat down to see what I could salvage. This is what I came up with.

The husks are still as willy nilly as ever but i feel like this was more what I was hoping for. Knowing me, I'll continue to play with it - the husks continue to cry out for more attention in terms of texture and shadow - but at least I don't feel like I should be using it to test colours on either. 

A Hawk and a Wolf, in Acrylics, Oh My!

It's done! 

Things have been quiet here because I've been working on a commission that I received this summer to paint a metal crosscut saw. Not my usual substrate but a challenge I was up for. The brief was it needed to contain the owner's last name, a hawk and a wolf. And the teeth needed to be up because they look like lots of "H"s  - they do - which echoes back to the name. 

First off, my hat goes off to the sign painters of old who did this kind of work day in, day out by hand. It takes an incredibly steady touch and a ton of patience LOL. I had to constantly tell myself to slooooow down. That patience came in handy as well as I had to adjust to painting with acrylics. 

They work completely differently from my familiar watercolours.  It's been about three years since I've had them out of the cupboard to play and while w/c will always be my first love, I don't want to let another three years go by before I work in them again. To that end, I've signed up for a self scheduling class on Craftsy, that I will get into this fall.

 Here's a closer look at the hawk and wolf. It's hard to see here but I tried to make the moon show some of its craters so that it wasn't just a big ol' blob of light. Quite pleased with my hawk. Fingers crossed the client likes it too!