Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Animals ATC Exchange Project

This post won't have images of my art. Only the images of eleven beautiful small pieces friends have sent me in the "Animals" ATC exchange. It was limited to 15 people and started January, 2015. I've gotten eleven of them and am still waiting for three more. Sadly, life interfered and the project of doing mine to send them out got held up by health and some money problems. It's not the first time that something got put off by forgetting about it till reminded. I meant to do and send all of them at the same time for that reason, not play favorites.

 Some ATC supplies - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" watercolor paper, archival soft sleeve
and an Ultra Pro archival Top Loader protective display envelope.

Six "Animals" ATCs from friends, top left a lion, below that a cat's face
center row a cormorant on a rock, center bottom a sea turtle
right top a cheetah above a card with a seagull. 

Five more "Animals" ATCs - top row left two chicks, right a tiger,
bottom row a raven, Ari Cat's portrait and a male lion profile.

So at long last, I've gotten started on doing mine. I'm sure the other three latecomers will do theirs too or have done some but just not gotten to me yet. All of these are much brighter and richer in person than the photo. I love them and spread them out to motivate me.

So far I've finished six cards, nearly half the set. My goal is to finish and mail them out this month. I was getting close anyway, finally got to eBay to get the Top Loaders for sending them when I got a gentle reminder from the organizer. 

Mine are all in water media, so far one dog (pet portrait) and one white egret, plus one cat portrait, two Ari paintings and today's is a painting of my daughter's enormous black cat Armand. He's a 20lb long hair who likes camouflaging himself on black furniture or floating around the house like a small bear. I might add some big cats to it or some other animals, just doing whatever creature I think of next. But it's going well and while I can't post them, wanted to update and let y'all know I have painted steadily the past four days! 

Lots of sketching too. I participated in a Weekend Drawing Event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Tombow dual tip brush pens in 8 1/2" x 11" sketchbooks, one my good Stillman & Birn hard bound Beta, te Tombow ones in a Target drawing book I got in my Christmas package.

 Black cat from a reference and red geraniums from memory, 8-14-2015
This is the one in archival markers on S&B Beta journal.

Greek waves from a reference by Qty on WetCanvas 

Ionian Sea rock near mouth of Acheron, Qty reference 

Some Greek street cats in an abandoned campground, Qty ref. 

Character "Musky" from my Pleistocene animal novel, Elder's Pride. 
The book is still in editing stage.

White Rose on green foliage from Qty reference, Ari sketch at bottom.

I should have posted the sketches as I did them, but didn't think of it at the time. Will start updating more regularly as I do other projects. Once the ATCs have all gone to their respective new homes I'll post those as batch. I'm having fun laying them out as a group, they vary a little in style and technique butt so far all are in archival pen with watercolor on the same Stillman & Birn "Beta" paper. It's now available as loose sheets as well as in the journals, which rocks since it's my favorite watercolor paper.

2 comments:

  1. Great exchanges. Look forward to seeing yours all laid out before you mail them!

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  2. Oh you bet! I seem to be in another growth spurt too, they get better and better! Some of it is getting used to the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.

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