Waiting 11"x14" Graphite Pencil

So once again it's been a while: my apologies, life just keeps getting in the way. But no fear, I have two pieces to show for the past few months, although one is going to have to wait until the end of the month as it's a commission for a birthday present, and I wouldn't want to inadvertently ruin the surprise.
This piece is pretty cool because I took the photo I drew it from: Dad and I were out in Wellington for the Winter Equestrian Festival back in January and we spotted two Labrador retrievers sitting very nicely on this golf cart parked in the middle of the show grounds. I took a few photos and this old dog was gracious enough to get me the photo that I then started back in February but didn't finish until mid-July (you can't rush art).
I really love how this piece turned out, especially because getting the texture of fur is difficult, but I think I managed it pretty well. I'll definitely be making prints of this and hopefully finding some venues to sell my work in the following months. I'll keep you updated.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to start a landscape, as I haven't tried one of those and I'm on an oil pastel kick at the moment and have a photo that my brother took that's calling to me. I'll post the other piece I've completed this summer as soon as possible, so hold tight:)

Pelican 14"x16" Oil Pastel

A commissioned piece that gave me a lot of creative freedom, this piece let me do some exploring with color and a medium I haven't used in a long time. Oil pastel comes in sticks of oil that go on like crayons, and with blending of different colors the oil becomes smoother, like oil paint. It is a difficult medium to work with because there's only so much pastel the paper can take, so the artist has to be careful not to over-saturate the page.
I'm very glad I got to work with color, because I really took advantage of it and tried to experiment with the varying shades and complementary colors to get some depth to the picture. The original photo print-out that I had was not a particularly good one, so I had to take some liberties with the colors--adding some purple and yellow to the pelican's head, some red and yellow into the wing feathers, and grays and greens into the water. It was challenging, but very rewarding for me (and trust me, the piece is much more vibrant in real life, the photo I took was not particularly well-done:)

2004 Mustang GT 9"x12" Graphite Pencil

So it's been a while, but I had to wait to post this one (it was a gift, and I didn't want to ruin the surprise). This was a bit of a challenge for me, as it's the second car I've ever done (the first being the old red Ford) but I really enjoyed it. Getting the perspective right was a bit rough, and I had a very hard time getting the front of the car to accurately match the back. I played around with it quite a bit, but I think it looks much better than the first time I thought it was done. Doing the shading on a black car, with the paint job reflecting light the way a car's exterior does, was something new for me. Originally I was thinking of doing something in the background, but ultimately chose to leave it blank, as I thought it would detract from the car itself. The shading is so busy as it is, creating a backdrop would have swallowed the car, and I didn't want that.
I really enjoyed this project, and the next is going to be something much bigger and more colorful. I'll keep you posted--now that school's underway things should be coming along a little faster, I hope:)