Here is an example of how I start my pet portraits…I do a sketch to lay out how I want the pet to look. Then I sort of play around where he would look best on the page. I usually photo copy the sketch so can play around with color and make adjustments on photocopies so I don’t ruin the original.
Rebel’s eyes are a little cloudy in the photo and I actually took the reference photo. I took several photos and his eyes are cloudy in all of them. He may be pre-cataract. I will need to need to correct that in the painting.
He is on grass so I roughly added that. I still have to play with background details but I will do that on the duplicates.
For the past few days I have been working on holiday stuff. I forgot to post yesterday but creating can be intense work. I was thinking on making some cards this year instead of printing them even though I have had my design done since the beginning of the year. We’ll see. I may cut back on how many I mail out. However, I have been making all these “parts.” I may even sell some.
Also, if you are looking for a personalized gift this year, I still have time in my schedule to do commissions. Pets, homes, businesses. That favorite vacation spot. Or something different to fill that empty space that you can’t quite find what to put there. Contact me for pricing.
I am working on another project and this is my sketch. I have already scanned it and I will load it into Procreate. I will then turn this sketch into something digital…
I worked on a couple of things today but I didn’t think you wanted to see some boring prepped boards so this is from my morning routine. 2 boxes for the weekly is done and the little green guy is a blob exercise I do every morning.
I am also including my Sketch Design Repeat 3×3 submission that I submitted Friday for holiday baubles. I haven’t posted yet this yet on social media.
I have had a busy day today. It was a gorgeous day here by Jensen Beach. It’s been windy all day and the wind brought in cooler weather. We opened all the windows. It won’t last long. In a couple of days it will probably be around 80 again but we’ll take what we can get.
Here are my morning sketches, if you saw yesterday’s post, you’ll see how I filled the first daily box from yesterday. I was outside when I did the daily box and my uniball spit some ink. It does that once in a while. I also did my Sktchy portraits, one is a timed 5 minute and the other is a Cheater Blind Contour. Those are my warm up sketches for the day and I don’t worry if they are perfect. I used to worry about perfectionism until I realized that from an illustrator point of view, my best character potential came from the imperfect and spontaneous sketches.
Also today, I started a little holiday project. I pulled out my scented Daniel Smith holiday colors. The red is peppermint. The yellow is mulled cider and they smell good. However, the green is pine or Christmas tree, but it smells like Pine Sol. Oh well, two outta three isn’t bad.
Last but not least is my sample spread below for a story that John and I are putting together. I signed up for a Children’s book writing course this time last year but it actually didn’t start until October 12, 2020. There are lots of good tips and John and I came up with a story together while were taking our morning walk. More to come on that.
It’s November, again. Last November we were packing to move to Florida so anything that I regularly did this time of year went right out the window. Usually I followed Inktober with Art Every Day Month. I didn’t last year.
I am settled at the moment in our garage. We had plans to build a studio in our backyard but after much discussion, I suggested we wait. I don’t like creating in the garage but I guess it’s better than the kitchen table.
Where did the Dragon go? He’s around. I think he’s digging a hole out back.
OK, so what is Art Every Day Month? AEDM was created by Leah Kolidas. I found out about AEDM from Kelly Rae Roberts, many years ago. In a nutshell, all you have to do is create every day. It’s very simple. You don’t have to finish something every day; you use this month to focus on a project. It can be ANYTHING. It can be sewing, or crocheting. It can be a painting or drawing. You can write poetry or write a story. The idea is in this busy time leading into the holidays, you take the time to do something creative, for you. It’s actually liberating to create for the sake of creating. There’s no popularity contest like some of these on line challenges, there is just you and whatever you decided to tackle. Each day, you post what you did either on Facebook or you post it to your blog, if you have one, and link to Leah’s AEDM blog.
If you decide to participate, you can find out more here:
So what did I do today? I prepped by daily page for the week and I added today’s entry for last week. I work Monday through Sunday so today ends the previous week.
Here is my two page spread with last week and this week…
That’s it. Easy Breezy. No fanfare. No competition. I created something.
This isn’t the only thing I did today, but this is an excellent example of what AEDM is.
I follow Sketchbook Skool and they do weekly YouTube gatherings where you sketch along with Danny Gregory. I am not always able to attend but yesterday was Monsters for Halloween. I had to do that one! I wasn’t able to finish these yesterday because I was working on a project but I finished them today on a Zoom happy hour.
This page is Dracula and the Bride of Frankenstein. Good oldies!
The background ink is a sample of Sailor Ink Studio 123. All those background colors came from that ink.
The sketchbook is homemade with Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper
I spent the entire day on a project so I am barely getting this one done. My mom always loved to dress as a witch on Halloween so I made her witch shoes.
Gina Lento: Fine Art and Illustration 
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