Here is my Swiss Chard piece on my drafting table. As you can see, I have put in a background and the rest of the piece is still looking quite bright! :-) I am on the home stretch now and at this stage I am just going in to deepen some of the dark green values. The next time you see the chard it will be finished.You can also see my laptop on my drafting table. Yup, perched on an angle and everything. This is the first time I have worked this way. Normally, if I am working from photos, I print off some references. I needed to see lots of detail and as the image I wanted to work from is quite wide, I decided to work directly from my Photoshoped images. I can click back and forth between pictures and zoom in when needed.
I have seen photos of some artists working directly from images on their computers but in these cases they were working next to their computer desk. I really like to colour with my work on an angle so leaving my drafting table wasn't an option. Fortunately with a laptop, my computer could come to the drafting table. The down side is that it takes a bit of self control not to check email or surf the net!
So how do you work, do you work from images on a computer screen?
Yesterday we received another eight inches (at least) of snow. Here is how my front yard looks today...
Drifts and drifts of the stuff. Fortunately I love winter and I love snow. I am not keen on the really cold temperatures but it has warmed up considerably so it is wonderful to be outside now. This morning I went snowshoeing with my dog and afterwards I filled the bird feeders (we have eleven feeders and three feeding platforms). I put out cracked corn, a millet mixture, sunflower seeds and suet. The birds and squirrels are happy and so am I. Sure beats driving a morning commute to work.It is hard to believe that the Forsythia bush below will turn into the bottom picture in about nine or ten weeks.
Okay, I'm heading back to the studio...oh and the February newsletter is just about ready to post so watch for it this weekend.