Gina Lento: Fine Art and Illustration

AEDM Day 13- First Thanksgiving 2.0

I upgraded my First Thanksgiving design to add “menus” and then submitted it for posting to They Draw and Cook. I haven’t posted there in a long time and I originally intended to do a map but it segued into a Feast. I am still wanting to do the map.

Researching foods for the first Thanksgiving feast got me to thinking how grateful I am in this shell shocking year. We moved to Florida a year ago. We were getting settled after our first holiday season in Florida when whispers of a virus started coming from China. We Americans used to scratch our heads about the visitors from other countries who were wearing masks. Now we are thinking that wasn’t such a bad idea.

Life with masks are an inconvenience but if it means a little more freedom, I’m in. Things aren’t as we planned, but we’re making the best of it.

Here is one of this morning’s sketches. I loved her hat. The reference photo is from the SKTCHY app. When I posted the sketch, I told Linda I loved the hat. She said she liked it too but wound up buying a different one. I liked that I could be part of her shopping trip.

AEDM Day 12 – First Thanksgiving Foods

Here’s what I worked on today….just an idea for what a spread on the first Thanksgiving would have looked like.

AEDM DAY 11

Happy Veteran’s Day to those who served for our country.

I am still working on that food project but it’s in a messy stage right now so it isn’t quite feeling photogenic.

However, I am posting a rare glimpse into my morning portrait sketchbook. I don’t post these every day because they aren’t meant to be works of art. They are my way to focus. It’s a nice way to start the day and the quirky sketches actually give me ideas for characters. I use the SKTCHY App for my references photos most of the time.

The reference photo for this sketch had a man looking out over what looked like Manhattan and he had a chocolate/coffee looking drink in a cocktail glass in his hand, with a SWEDISH FISH as a garnish.

I had to look at it twice. Cool. Would love to know what drink it was so I did the sketch. I like practicing profiles anyway.

I also posted the sketch on SKTCHY. It’s always interesting when the little blue flowers in the paper show up in the right places.

If you would like to see more Art Every Day Participants, please go to the http://www.creativeeveryday.com website.

AEDM Day 10

Working out some food ideas….they’ll go through many changes before a final product but it’s a “list” of foods I may want to include.

If you would like to see some of the artists participating in Art Every Day Month, please visit https://creativeeveryday.com

AEDM Day 9 – It’s all about Process

Since I committed to doing a post a day for ART EVERY DAY MONTH, I am posting this, although much of today was doing research and sketches for a map I am working on and there is nothing sexy about a page full of lists. I won’t bore you with that. Plus, you’ll see the results soon enough. I did learn some exciting things about my subject, though.

Although I did do my morning routine and those sketches, I decided not to post those.

Instead, I am posting the color sketches of “Madison,” who owns my friend JoEllen.

For Madison’s portrait, I did several different sketches, which is why I make sure I do a pencil sketch first (like the one you saw of Rebel yesterday) and then make photocopies on cardstock so I can do these color sketches like you see here. The larger sketch was a Tombow marker warmup for me to play with the shapes and colors and get a feel for what paint I might want to use and getting to “know” Madison. I wasn’t quite going for accuracy, I was testing color relationships, carving shadows and just having fun. You can see where I put color swatches on the side. Then I did the small color sketches. One is ink and watercolor and the other is acrylic. The final that you saw the other day was a blend of mediums. You can see how each medium feels different. There is a lot of work that goes into doing a portrait like this. I might try a whimsical Madison sometime in the near future.

Thanks to JoEllen and Madison for the lovely portrait opportunity,

Art in Progress AEDM Day 8

Taking a break from holiday stuff….

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.

More to come….

AEDM Days 6 & 7/Commissions

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.