Apologies and updates

So sorry to have been away for so long.  I have been dealing with some health problems and personal issues and all of my obligations (and art work and everything else) has been completely abandoned for the past 2+ months.  I'm trying to get back into it all now as I am starting to feel somewhat more human these days.  Huge, HUGE, HUGE apologies to all of you waiting on your artwork from the giveaway .  I will complete it and get it to you as soon as I can.

The only thing I have worked on recently is this new knitting project; it's easy to take along to doctor's offices.


I am interested in the idea of creating large, 2D art in knitting.  I also like how graphic designs look in knitting.  I'm experimenting for only the second time with intarsia for this, so it's a bit ambitious to say the least.  I haven't measured it, but it's approximately 50" in width.  I hope it will turn out good enough to hang!




The design is a group of crows in silhouette.  Did you know a group of crows is called a murder?

Here is the "design" I'm working with.  You can see, I am kind of making it as I go, and drawing in the stitches when I get to the section to be worked on.



You can read more details about the project and see the latest update on it also on my ravelry project page .

Patrick's piece, sketch 2

Oh my gosh! My first ever use of charcoal! I have fallen in love with a new medium! I can't wait to try it again!!!

Jacira finished!

Hubby kept complaining that my drawing made her look heavy so there was some tweakage this morning. You know you're done tweaking when you made one tiny tweak too many.
Went to scan this but then realized the size if the paper is too large
for the scanner! Ugh! I think I will have to get it professionally
scanned. Drag!

Jacira - Work in Progress

Been working on this portrait again today. Much better this time. Had some problems though. Was working on it outside, and my muddy dog actually STOOD ON IT!!! I shrieked! I tried to rub off the mud, even began damaging the paper, but no, couldn't get the mud off. So I began again. But nothing I drew could approach this one. So I went back to it and decided that most of the damage would be covered by Jacira's jet-black hair so I would let it go. Still, there is some raw/rough paper where I rubbed too hard, and the texture of my color changes there. Bummer.


My 'real' camera is in repair and the iphone never keeps the proportions right. This does actually look better in person. There is still some tweaking to do for sure though. And obviously I have to finish the rest of the piece. But I am mostly happy with it. Obviously it's not her face precisely, but if I don't show my hand and my interpretation than what's the point of doing the drawing? If you want true photo-realism without flaws, hang up the photo. 




[EDIT - 5:40pm]
Finished?

Still needs some tweaks. I think I will sleep on this and see how it hits me in the morning. Not set on the background either.

Sketch for 2nd giveaway winner

I started off thinking this might be a finished portrait but I'm
definitely calling this a sketch. It's a start but Jacira is much
prettier than this. Some proportions are off and I think the messy
colored pencil look doesn't work for a portrait. Or at least not like
this. Back to the drawing board!

Here are a couple of recent sketches.

The first one is for a bunny painting I did for a little friend on her first birthday.


The second one is the third version of some preliminary sketches I've done for the giveaway.


I think, after the third try (it was the charm I guess!) I am getting there with this latter drawing.

Will keep you guys updated with these pieces as I work on them!

And the final winner is...

 

Jacira!

And here's her photo:

All right, now I'm off to go work on some art!  Wish ME luck this time!!

Winner #4 -- Ted

Ted with a picture of Teddi!

Winner #3 -- Rose

Winner #2 -- Patrick

Winner #1 -- Allison

Oh there were so many good photos.  So many I'm bummed to not be working on!  But it's time to start letting you know what some of the winning photos are...

And the winners are... (Part 1)

This competition has been a little bit educational for me. I learned a lot about communication and that my limited instructions can mean lots of different things to lots of different people.

You know, when I think portrait (especially one I'm going to draw) I think... one person, human, upper torso, and head. I knew I was going to get some variations on that. But I didn't expect LARGE group photos, photos with lots of scenery, photos of animals, photos of statues.

No worries peeps! I'm not mocking your misunderstanding. But I am laughing at myself and how this sort of turned out to be a little game of "Chinese Whispers" or "Telephone" as Americans call it. Anyway, I really would have found it HILARIOUS to be doing a portrait of a Buddha statue or a camel as a result of this competition, so I left most of the entries in.

There were a lot of entries! 16 people and 44 images! Phew! I weeded out a few that just wouldn't be feasible for me to draw and then this morning I lept out of bed and ran to my desk to write down all the image names on little bits of paper. Then I thought that was so fun, so tactile, and so old-fashioned, I went and grabbed an actual hat to put them in!

My son didn't turn out to be too much help.  But I selected five images from the hat.  And here are the winners names...


(DRUMROLL PLEASE)

Haha!  Tricky me!  The last name and all the corresponding images to be revealed soon!  Stay tuned!

Giveaway Deadline!

All right peeps!  This is it!  Today is the deadline for the custom portrait giveaway.  If you're thinking about entering, now is the time.  You have until midnight tonight.

Entries received so far: Rose, Jake, Sunit, Patrick, Leslie, Gladys, Christine, Katrin, Jess, Ted, Teddi, Jacira, and Sara.  If you don't see your name there, I have not received your entry, please send it to me again.  Email your photo or links to me at artbyelisabeth@gmail.com by midnight! Winners will be announced tomorrow.

Art posts and giveaway results coming!

I have some new drawings to post, but our scanner has still not arrived from our move back from Penang. As soon as I get the scanner I'll start posting those drawings and paintings again. In the meantime I have some more photos to post. Unfortunately I'm having problems with the focus on my camera. My son has pulled it onto the floor too many times. I think it's time to take it in for repair. Sigh. Please excuse the softness of the photos!

Regarding the giveaway ending on Friday. I will let the submissions continue until midnight Friday. And that's wherever you are. If you are in Hawaii and it's still Friday, then you still have time to submit! I will announce the winners on Saturday.

Again, to enter, send your photo or a link to your photo to artbyelisabeth@gmail.com.

Also, I'm responding to each and every submission. If you haven't heard from me, I haven't received it. Submissions I've received so far are from: Katrin, Jake, Jacira, Gladys, Sara, Jess, Rose, Teddi, Patrick. If you don't see your name there, submit again! And remember, you can enter as many photos as you like!

About the Giveaway

Hello everyone!

I wasn't explicit about a couple of things in the custom portrait giveaway. First, you can submit as many photos as you like. I will select those I think work best, and then randomly choose 5 winners from those photos. That could mean someone could end up lucky enough to win multiple portraits, who knows! Second, you will hear back from me when I receive your submission. If you haven't heard from me, I didn't receive it; please try again.

Please help me spread the word about the giveaway. Tell others who might be interested so they can have a chance to win too.

Also, again, if you like my work, please visit my Flickr and Facebook pages. Be a fan of my work on Facebook! I'd sincerely appreciate it.

Thanks and love to all!

Free Art!! (and other news)

Ok, so I'm feeling a resurgence of inspiration and urgency to restart my art. I think I'm going to start offering custom art pieces for sale here, and to get me going with that I've decided to offer five lucky people free portraits drawn from their photographs. So send in your photographs! It doesn't matter if I do or don't know you, if you're a stranger, commenter, lurker, family, friend, just send in your photo and I will choose five from the batch.  The deadline to get those photos in is Friday, March 13th.  This time Friday the 13th is a lucky day!

Notes about the photos you send:
Make sure you send something of reasonably good quality and clarity. My choices will be semi random, but will also be based on which of the photos I feel will be good candidates for drawing. Classic portraits are generally better if they have simple backgrounds and show mostly just the upper torso and face of the subject. Faces generally should be forward or on a 3/4 angle. Not that I won't accept photos that stray from this formula, but I am more likely to choose the classic shots.

Good luck!


Other news:
I now have a Flickr for all of my art work. So far it shows the exact same images that you can see here, but if you are more of a Flickr person, feel free to subscribe there instead. You will miss my discussion here, if I have any, or news bits like this, but you will have access to all of the images. I'm still deciding if I want to do something extra there that I don't do here. For now, one of the main benefits for checking out my Flickr is all of the sets I've created.

Let's say you're a really big fan of my drawings and paintings but are just not interested in my photography. Well, you can subscribe to just this set:

DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS


Let's say you are only interested in my night photography:

NIGHT/LOW LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY


You can check out all of my sets here and my photostream here.