Lil' Dragon, Pyro Training - Day Six

Working on Lil' Dragon, Pyro Training has been a bit slow going ... seems like yard work and house work seem to be taking precedence lately!  Pooh!

Today was the only free day I have this week (meaning no appointments, no shopping) so this morning I got an early start before the heat set in and edged the entire back yard!  In most cases, edging wouldn't be a big task .. however, in our case, the edges rarely get trimmed and soon they begin to drastically encroach on the grass area.  As the grass (er, mowed area that is comprised mostly of weed type vegetation) becomes smaller and smaller I begin to envision a huge weed jungle of over 6' high beginning to take over!  Ergo, today I donned my "Edging" gear, plugged in the weed eater and mulched weeds back to fences, garages, and house foundation!  Tomorrow, all that downed vegetation should be pretty well dry and I can rake it up before my first appointment of the day!

Once that was done I had about 4 hours left over for me!  I opted to trot up stairs and work on my favorite little dragon!  Here is what day six resulted in ....

The little guy is coming to life!  I am liking the color selections in this version but have already figured out some more changes that need to be made to this charming little character in my next rendering!

Take care and happy day!
Karen Anne

Lil' Dragon - Pyro Training - Day Five

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY USA!  Hope everyone is having great weather to celebrate this day of Independence!

We are just hanging around the ol' homestead.   I was able to spend a bit of time working on "Lil' Dragon, Pyro in Training".  Yes!  I was able to apply a base coat with watercolor paints to the body and the fire, and then I began work on the shadowing of the wood in the fire pit.  I also lightened up the sky a bit, to add more contrast, with a light grey colored pencil.  I am looking forward to working on the little guy some more tomorrow!

And Jim tried, in vain, to locate which circuit breaker has deadened all the electrical outlets on the north side of our home; the circuit box labels do not make much sense at all and after 2 days of trying to figure things out, Jim finally broke down and called an electrician who should be here next Tuesday.

As an alternative project, Jim is now working on putting together our new Gorilla Garden Dump Cart!
It should make yard work much easier than trying to drag stuff around in a recycling tub!

Best wishes for wonderful 4th of July celebrations all across this great nation!

Take care and be happy,
Karen Anne

Lil' Dragon - Pyro Training ... Day 3

In addition to five loads of laundry and walking the doggie, I also managed to get the background watercolors painted.  I can already see how the colors are going to dictate the ink work I add to the piece tomorrow ... hope it turns out as well as I am seeing it in my mind!

I have covered Lil' Dragon and the fire with frisket film to protect that portion of the drawing while I am working on the background.  The hardest part with the frisket film is cutting around the protected area with an X-acto knife then removing the excess film, tedious and time consuming work.

I have to tell you, working with watercolors on Stonehenge paper is terrific!  I literally had this piece of paper sopping wet today, I had applied too much dark paint and I was dunking paper towels into water and sopping up excess paint; I am just amazed that there is only a slight curve to the dried paper.  Amazing!

So much for all the technical chit chat ... here is day 3 progress:

Take care and be happy!
Karen Anne

Lil' Dragon finished on 6/18/2014!

Lil' Dragon is officially completed as of June 18th, 2014!  I am pleased with how the little fella turned out and hope you like him too.   The finished, trimmed size is 8.278" x 10.803" ...

I'm thinking that I would like to try my hand at another Lil' Dragon ... ;)

Tuesday Progress on Lil' Dragon

I had a bit of time after all the other stuff that needed tending today so I was actually able to work a bit on the Lil' Dragon.  Today his face and arm/hand holding the Dragon Pop have been completed and I started shadowing on the yellow part of his torso ... I think I may just complete this lil' guy tomorrow!

PS  Today I received two lovely comments from Oma Linda and Lise ... would you believe, I hit the "Delete" button instead of the "Publish" button!  I just want you both to know I received you comments, and I loved them ... that Delete button is just too darn close to the Publish button!  Sorry Oma Linda and Lise!  

Monday progress on Lil' Dragon

Put on some nice classic Rock Radio today and began working on the Lil' Fella!  Using my Yarka Watercolor paints I applied a nice bright coat of color which I am following up with shadowing using my Prismacolor Verithin pencils and Tombow Irojiten pencils.  The pens are Prismacolor Premier Fine Line Markers (.005) for the extra fine and color lines, with Faber Castell Pitt Pens for the stronger black ink lines.

I managed to finish up his wings today and I am very happy with the results.  I'll have to wait until Wednesday before I can work on the drawing again because I have too many scheduled things to take care of tomorrow.  Really looking forward to Wednesday!

Here are some photos of today's endeavors ...

Here is a close up of the detail on the wings ...

Happy day to all!

Karen Anne

"Mad as a March Hare"

I belong to a team named "ACEO ~ Art Card Editions and Originals on eBay" (this is their Facebook Page) and each month they hold a theme week contest that runs from the first of the month to the seventh.  The theme for the first week in March is "Mad as a March Hare".  Now of course that title sounded like a lot of fun to me so I just had to create two ACEOs to enter!

Tomorrow (3-1-13), all participants will be posting their entries, I am sure they are going to be quite creative and a lot of fun!  To view the entries, wait until 3/1/13 and go to eBay by using this link:  http://search.ebay.com/ACEO-TW  or just go to eBay and put ACEO TW MAR in the search area.

You know, if you create ACEOs and sell them on eBay ... you might just want to join this group!  The members are wonderfully creative, supportive and welcoming.  I joined through the Facebook page.

So, with no further ado ... here is a preview sneak peek of my two entries in the March Theme Week Contest:

"Mad as a March Hare #1"

"Mad as a March Hare #2"

Now I'll have to actively get down to the pursuit of "clean house" ... ugh.

Have a great day!

Karen Anne

"Bitty Betta #12" !

The series is complete!  Here is the final little charmer .....

"Bitty Betta 12"

Hmmm, he seems to look a bit sad that the series is ending.....

You can find the original ACEO for sale on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=281065909961

Open Edition ACEO Art Prints on Etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/IrelandBrady?ref=si_shop

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Karen Anne aka Ireland Brady