Art Studio Assistant

Pace is fully adopted now and I’ve put him to work as my studio assistant. I am having difficulty convincing him to file my papers.  He seems to prefer to sniff my paints, lick my watercolor paper and critique my work. He feels I should paint more animals and not too many flowers. 

Since I need marketing advice on what type of subject matter sells I am taking the beagle’s advice and painting animals.

I am working on this boho elephant, using lots of thin glazes of watercolor + raspberry ink and white paint.   

Beagle Sketching

After a visit with my friend, Nancy Holtz, the pen sketching artist, I decided to use the pen she gave me to sketch my beagle of a certain age, Socks. 

Nancy effortlessly ink sketches what she sees without drawing in pencil first. The thought of not using a pencil first brings me back to my sad memories of 3rd grade when my teacher took away my pencil. The teacher said my writing was too small and that I needed to use only a crayon until I enlarged my writing. I ought to talk to someone about this as my stomach churns at this memory.

The new pen beckoned to me. Nancy received this pen a Pentel Hybrid Technica directly from Cheap Joe when she took a class from him in North Carolina. In my book, this is like receiving a gift from the guru of art supplies. 

Many of you dear blog readers know my house is filled with a pak of dogs including 2 beagles. Socks is our beagle emeritus and deserves to have his beagle poses documented for posterity. So yesterday I over came my fear of not sketching with a pencil first and sketched him with "the pen." 

The first sketched resembled chicken scrawls and I wanted to quit. However, I remembered I tell everyone that drawing requires practice. I had to keep drawing. Today's sketches were better. Then I invented the beagle project; 25 Sketches in 25 Daze to keep me going.  

Would you like to join me and find a subject you can sketch for 25 Daze?