Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

The last couple of days I have been playing with my new Christmas toys.  I got an Icarus drawing board and some oil pastels.    Never used either before and it was definitely fun but challenging.   The Icarus board is basically a heated drawing board.  Half of it stays cool, the other half you can heat up to different temperatures to melt the pencils or crayons to blend better.   Up until now, I have also used Turpenoid which is odorless Turpentine for blending.   This is obviously a better option, but I have a lot to learn.   I have never used oil pastels which I did like but I found them quite challenging.   I am so used to very fine detail and using very sharp pencils, that a thick crayon will definitely take some getting used too.   I did love the vibrancy of them.   You can see my first attempt of using this in "Bella".   The oil pastels were mainly used in the background and the white details.   

Well 2013 is going to be an adventure for me.   I am going to focus more getting a portfolio set up and entering Call for Artists.    I have never done anything like that before, besides the group project that I did this last fall.   I am very excited!  I just found out about one that is due January 31.  It doesn't give me much time, but I am going to try my best to see if I can get a picture done that I can enter.  If anything, it will be a great learning experience!

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 2013!

Kelli