Waiting to Croak...

...is the title of my latest ACEO. This lovely green frog is rendered in soft pastels featuring a somewhat Christmas holiday color palette. Have I mentioned lately that I've really enjoyed getting my hands dirty with pastel dust?

Most of my ACEO drawings have been (at least at one time) placed on eBay for sale. The most popular items are the (nude) figure studies, but they're great practice for me in terms of composition and improving my life drawing skills. One of the classes that I REALLY wanted to take when I went back to art school was life drawing, which was part of the curriculum when I enrolled, but got dropped out of the requirements a few quarters after enrollment, so I feel that is the biggest part of formal art education that I've not yet had. Someday...I'll take that class...somewhere. Until then, I'll keep practicing!

UGH Daylight Savings Time

People used to wonder why I didn't like to travel. Among other things, my body is extremely slow at adjusting to time zone differences. And, with the recent time change, I'm again out of kilter, as is my dog, Crash. He's pestering me to get out of bed earlier in the morning and wanting to go out on his evening walk as soon as it starts to turn dark. Fortunately for him, I've been working from home and can still accomodate a late afternoon tennis ball chase game, otherwise he'd be absolutely unbearable!

We'll work it out though, we always do. And, with the writer's strike that's crippled the late night talk show circuit, going to sleep an hour earlier isn't such a big deal. That is, for those of us who live without cable or satellite TV services, whatever travels through the air waves is what we see.

So, you see, it will be time again to produce more and more art. The creation of miniature art in the form of ACEOs (artist cards, editions and originals) continues. And, the pieces are beginning to sell on eBay, so I'm VERY encouraged. The Bird of Paradise card is shown here, a creation with Pitt art brush markers and metallic Prismacolor pencils.

Artist Cards, Editions and Originals (aka ACEOs)

I am getting back into making ACEOs, trading card size art for the masses! What fun. I especially enjoy the small format for some subjects and feel that this is a way to reach a much broader artistic market at a lower price point. The piece below is a scenic image from Bryce Canyon and Rainbow Point.



On the same road trip, I passed a lovely group of four horses enjoying a hot afternoon graze next to a rest stop in Iowa. I captured my favorite of those horses here in this simple composition, Munch a Bunch. Both of these pieces (or perhaps new pieces if you're looking after November 6) are currently up for auction on eBay...so get your bids in now!