Focus52/5: *ice* cold

Week five's theme of Focus52 couldn't have been more appropriate. "Cold" it is indeed this week, with temperatures gradually dropping lower and lower below zero, and bringing, at long last, some snow - and turning the waterfront along the lake into a spectacular natural ice garden. Pure magic.

Lines in the snow

Theme for Focus52, Week four (January 22 to 28): Leading Lines

I think I'm really going to enjoy this portrait thing!

Working on an other portrait tonight, and I'm am really beginning to enjoy taking my time to complete a drawing, working on the shading, blending and highlights. I was a bit sceptical about the attempting portraits, but I think I'm going to like it a lot. I'm usually too tired to take out my paints and stuff by the time I finally get home in the evening. But a bit of pencil or charcoal drawing, that is manageable. And so relaxing and satisfying.

This is a charcoal and pastel work in progress. I can't wait to continue working on it tomorrow!

Focus52 ~ Something New

Last night, I was thinking that I should get some kind of basket to put the rolls of paper into. I kept moving them from one place to another, because somehow, they were always in the way and didn't really have a place to live. I looked around at home if I had a basket or something I could use, but the only thing I found was a green plastic bucket. Not really something I wanted standing around in my "studio".

This morning, when I went out to do the shopping, thinking that I might see if they had some kind of decent waste paper basket I could use at the supermarket, I walked past the "Brockenstübli" (a sort of second hand/thrift shop) around the corner, and what did I see, standing outside? A basket, about 40cm, which was just perfect. And at a bargain as well.

And it was also perfect for this week's prompt, New, for Focus52, another challenge I decided to try and do this year. I've been thinking the whole week about what photo I could possibly take for the prompt (you don't have to use the prompt, but I wanted to).

So here it is, my new, perfect basket. Isn't it funny how sometimes things just work out like this?

A little bit of orange

I started working on a little painting on Monday, the last day of my Christmas break.  A new painting, the first in the new year ("new" is the January theme for both the Creative Every Day Challenge and Focus52, which I signed up for in order to try and keep up the creative habit more regularly. I hope to incorporate the themes a bit more creatively in the future...). I wanted to incorporate some orange, start working with that colour, as it is the colour for January in the Creative Colour Challenge (more about this, and my other projects/challenges for this year, later). I love textures and structure, building it up layer after layer on the canvas.

I quite like how it turned out so far. If it was a lager canvas, I might even be tempted to just leave it like this. But it's only a 24x30cm canvas, so the effect isn't quite the sames. And I have an idea in mind that I'd like to try out. Something keeping with the orange theme.

So this is only the background. And it's ready to be painted on to. But before I go on adding my little idea, I first have to do some sketches and exercises in my sketchbook. Try the idea out to get it right when adding it on to the canvas.

But first, I think I'll have a little tea break, if you don't mind. After all, there's no hurry :)