Shadow Creek Falls - Sketch

This is a prelimary sketch of a drawing that I am currently working on. I wanted to explore the shadows and the shapes of the rocks/boulders as they envelope around the water falls.

Lake Ediza

My son will be keeping me busy with all the beautiful scenes from California. Over Labor Day weekend he went hiking in Yosemite. As they entered an opening in the trail, this is the view they were welcomed with. This is part of the glacial area. Snow is in the mountain all year round. They just reached Lake Ediza as the sun was setting.

Human Portraiture

There is a small group of artists who belong to a yahoo group called "Drawing Line to Life". We started the group to study Mike Sibley's book of the same title. I am the moderator and over the last few months have started to review Mike's book again. We have reached Chapter 8 where Mike demonstrates drawing his granddaughter Charlotte. We have decided to expand the topic to encompass human portraiture.

This is such a big topic that we have decided to it break down into smaller segments. As we finish up on our first topic, eyes, I thought it might be beneficial to layout the schedule for the next few weeks. I would like to welcome anyone interested in exploring the topic of drawing human portraiture to join us in our discussions, step-by-steps and sharing of our progress.

• Feb 1-13 Eyes
• Feb 14-27 Nose
• Feb 28 - Mar 13 Mouth
• Mar 14-27 Ears
• Mar 28 - Apr 10 Hair
• Apr 11-24 Head
• Apr 25 - May 8 Hands
• May 9-22 Clothed Figure Drawing

I am the first to admit that I am not a portrait artist, but I am using this opportunity to stretch my skills and I hope you all join me in this journey into human portraits. After we have exhausted this segment on portraiture, we will resume our study of Mike's book with Chapter 9.

I would like to invite you to join us.......

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DrawingLinetoLife/

Diane

Editor's Choice

I am so excited! I made Editor's Choice on Mike Sibley's Starving Artist site. It has been 5 years since I've had this honor. It is a hall of fame that I feel very priviledged to be a part of.

I have had a gallery on Starving Artist for 5 years. It's a great site for exposure, as Mike gets well over 10,000 hits per month. Walter Foster and Quarto publishing both "discovered" me from his site and it is an excellent match with my own website.

I can't thank Mike enough for all his support and encouragement over the years. He's been the greatest influence on my development as an artist as well as my success. Thank you Mike.

www.starving-artists.net

Commissioned Artwork of Small Proportions

I recently completed a commission for a client of small proportions. He requested three landscape drawings 3"x 3" square in size. He plans to matt them together. Here is what I created for him.

Season's Greetings!

Wishing you all the warmest greetings

for this holiday season!

From my hearth to yours,

Merry Christmas!

This is Copper, one of our five fur kids. I put up our Christmas tree and he instantly started chewing on the artificial needles. I scolded him and this was the look he gave me. Sort of a combination of sheer disbelief and "I am king, how dare you scold me!" .....priceless.....

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Diane

Harvest Moon

Les called me outside this evening to take in the moon rising in the night sky. What a beautiful harvest moon - weaving in and out of the clouds. I'm not much of a night photographer but a couple of the photos turned out. Our neighbors tree added some rich reds. And our soft maple has just a couple of leaves hanging on. Fall has definitely taken hold.