Hello-


I am posting all of the pictures that were done for Christmas!  I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday filled with family, friends and love!

Kelli

Merry

Christmas!!!

I hope you and your family have a safe and happy holiday filled with love and peace.

 Love,

Kelli

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everybody! 

I hope everyone is doing well.   I have been incredibly busy working on pictures and getting ready for the holidays.   I will have several to post here after Christmas.   I was able to post "Nicque and Carson 2".    This is the second one of them that I have done.   I did this one using a combination of watercolor, ink and color pencil.   It's still 90% + color pencil.   I used the water color and ink mainly for the background.    Definitely throws me out of my comfort zone but I it is so much fun and I am starting to create more detail than I thought would be possible.    The picture is a lot darker than reality.   My house is either really bright or really dark.  There was a such a glare when I took the picture that it distorted the coloring in the photograph.   Hopefully you can get a sense of what it looks like.  I am quite proud of it!  

I need to get back to drawing!   I just wanted to take this moment to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!!!


Love,

Kelli

Happy October!

Today is my Dad's 70th birthday, seems so hard to believe.   He is by far the most important man in my life and my hero.    I posted below a picture I did for him as a gift.  I wanted to do something special for him and not the usual new shirt and black licorice combo :o)  He was my guinea pig, its his baby picture.   The original picture was in sepia tones.   This is the first time that I have done color without actually following the tones from a picture and I also experimented using watercolor and India ink.   Still not completely comfortable with that so its mainly the background.   I can still safely say its 90% or more is color pencil.   But I do like how it helped me with adding some depth to the picture.   I think I will really like it more when it comes to animals.   We should soon find out, as I am getting ready to start another picture.    Been at a delay because my computer crashed, but my new one arrived yesterday and I am ready to draw.   

I hope everyone is doing well!

Kelli

Christmas in September

Is anyone like me and get ridiculously excited over art supplies??  I hate shopping, but holy cow let me loose in an art supply store and I can seriously go crazy.  Today I woke up to the shipment of art supplies I have been waiting for and I can not wait to start learning how to use everything!!  It makes me consider canceling the plans I had so I can stay home to play, but its going to have to wait til later.   I am going to mix color pencils with watercolor and pen &ink to hopefully be able to get the kind of detail that I crave to have in my pictures.   I haven't played with water colors or even pen and ink in more years than I care to admit.  So I basically relearning it.  But I am excited to begin.  Look forward to sharing my attempts with you!  Happy Weekend!!

Kelli

New Picture

Hello-

I worked on a picture all evening and I finished it and for once it was just for me.   I had spent yesterday at Art in the Park and was fortunate to meet an artist that I am a great fan of.   Her name is Eileen Sorg, check out her blog she is absolutely talented and amazing! 

http://www.twodogstudios.blogspot.com/

If I could reach her level of artistry I would be absolutely blessed and amazed!  She also let me know of some local artists that I may have a chance to meet and learn from and I look forward to that.   After arriving home, I heard from the CPSA chapter in Idaho Falls that is also going to help me learn more.   Idaho Falls is not exactly next door to Boise, but there is some artists in Boise that I was not aware of and I am going to join their chapter so I have some more potential learning opportunities. 

I wanted so badly to draw, but I didn't want to draw anything serious.  I wanted something fun, inspiring and  just for me.   Something that made me smile every time I saw it.   Plus, after hours of watching documentaries on the 9/11 Anniversary, a smile was needed.   Ten years later and I still cry non stop remembering that day.  

So I chose a picture I took years ago of my cats Cooper and Addison.  I had wanted to do a picture of them forever but when it comes to personal pictures I find it incredibly hard to do.   Both of them are siblings, but Addie died a few years ago of congestive heart failure.   I hadn't been able to even think of doing a picture without tearing up til now.  I hope you like it and that is brings a smile to you as well. 

Kelli

Oops! Its been awhile!

Hello!

I hope everyone has been having a fantastic summer!  I can't believe how fast it has gone by!  I have actually noticed some leaves changing colors.  I love fall but not so sure I am ready for it yet.   This weekend is our annual Art in the Park, so looking forward to seeing some of the artwork that people come up with.  Not sure I will ever be so far a head in the game that I could participate in that but I bet it is fun.  It is definitely my favorite event to go too. 

I haven't blogged in awhile, sorry about that.   I have had a very hectic schedule and I haven't drawn as much as I would have liked too.  Things are finally calming down again, and there is something about this time of year makes me crave drawing and taking pictures.  

I have done some rearranging in my house and I have created an actual studio for myself.   My "studio" before consisted of me piling everything on my couch and on my lap and losing half my pencils in the cushions.   In the last couple of weeks I sold my dining room set and set up that area as my studio.  It is not fancy but its comfortable, has great lighting, and I can see the tv.  LOL  That is a necessity for me....need the background noise. :o)  I am having a friend make me a really cool rotating color pencil holder and light box.   And I have laptop cart with storage on order.  Can not wait til everything is done.  I have included pictures of it.

I have been doing a lot of research so I can learn more techniques.   I have signed up to a new website, my link is... http://addisonla.deviantart.com/   So far it looks very cool, and it is opening some opportunities that I didn't have before.  Not only can I get some great critiques on my pictures, which I really need, but it will allow you to buy some of my prints if you are interested. 

I am also including my last picture that I have drawn, "Naomi and Karlady" which I hope you like.   I do have several pictures lined up to work on.  I am going to start hinting at about holiday gifts.  I know it is early but I need to give myself more time to get pictures done the best that I can.  Last winter was just amazingly overwhelming and I do not want to feel like I am doing a rush job on any one's pictures.  Actually I refuse too.   Let me know if you are interested about getting a picture done and we can get you scheduled.   Doesn't mean it has to be right now, it can be weeks out.  But I will be having a deadline this year for pictures and will be posting that soon.

Well off to drawing!

Kelli 

Happy April!

It's official!!!  I absolutely love drawing babies!  I had so much fun drawing "Lexi", "Cole", and "Lola".   I am learning something new every time and I am enjoying every minute of it.  I treated myself to some new colors that I did not have before.   I got to use some of them on "Lola" and I couldn't believe how much of a difference they made.   I hope to keep the pictures coming.  ;o)

I hope that Spring has found you!

Take care!

Kelli

Hello!

Here is my latest portrait, "Double Trouble" and it was so much fun to do! I swear these boys have got to have the bluest eyes and are going to be heartbreakers when they grow up!  

I am finally used to night shift and spending my free time drawing away.  I have another drawing that is almost completed.  Working nights can sure be hard on the body but definitely good for my art.  :o) 

I hope everyone is doing well!

Kelli

Hello!

I hope everyone is doing well.  I am finally back on nights and adjusted and have a lot of projects to do.  Very excited!  I just finished "Nathan and Piper" and added their pictures below.  It is an 11x14 with 2 separate pictures on it.  Both pictures are 5x7.  This was incredibly hard for me.  The original background paper is a cream color.  I found doing 5x7 to be hard since the features were so small.  Nathan's features especially, adorable little squint of his made it very hard to get to come through.  Plus color pencils smear, I love that about them.  But once I would start working on another section or the other picture it would smear.  I actually got to the point on Nathan's picture where his face stopped taking ink.  Once I had everything done, the cream color background just did not work.  So I colored in the background black as if it was a mat.  Overall I think it turned out well, unfortunately my picture taking doesn't show it justice.   I had troubles with glare.  But I was afraid to scan it since my scanner is smaller and I didn't want to take a chance of wrinkling the picture.    I know this is a learning process and I planned to get as much practice and learn as much as I can.  

If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear from you.  That is how you learn :o)

Furbabiesportraits@gmail.com

Thanks!

Kelli

Happy Spring!!

Okay, it may not be officially Spring yet, but a girl can dream!  I am happy to announce that I am FINALLY back on night shift!!!   Yes, I know that sounds like a strange thing to be excited about but when I am on that shift I actually have time to draw.   I work shift work and rotate between day shift and night shifts every 10 weeks.  One thing that helps me stay up all night while the rest of the world is out cold is drawing.   I found it is a lot harder to do on day shift.  My days off are spent running errands and spending time with family and friends, followed by going to bed earlier so I could get up at 430am.   I just never felt that I had the time to relax and concentrate on my pictures.  But with night shift, I am on able to get everything done when I first get up.  Then after everyone falls asleep I can work on pictures til 6am.   :o) 

I am on a mini vacation this week before starting night shift next week.   I have plenty to work on and should be getting some pictures posted on here shortly. 

I know its rather early for most to think about it, but its time to start scheduling for Mother's day.   Time is flying by fast and I want to make sure I can get pictures done on time with a lot of details and quality that you would want.  I learned a very hard lesson during Christmas that even something that I LOVE to do--you can get burned out on.   I took on way too much.  Now I am slowing things down and taking time to make sure that I can get them done on time but also be the best work that I can do.

If you are interested in a picture, please contact me at furbabiesportraits@gmail.com.

Thanks everybody!

PS

If you want to check out some other very AMAZING color pencils artists check out www. CPSA.org

Hello!

Just a quick update to let you know what has been going on.   I was able to finish the portrait called "In Love"  while I was on my mini vacation.  It turned out to be a lot harder than I had hoped.  I usually take a picture and "blow it up" on my computer so I can go into to it section by section to see detail.  But the original picture just would not let me get it any bigger than it was without digitizing.  So I just was not able to see a lot of details when it came to the facial features.   I still have a lot to learn and rely so heavily on the photos to get the details I need. The original photo was just as cute it could be and I wanted to so badly make the owner very proud of it.   I hope she is.  I still get very nervous when doing portraits.  My comfort level is still animals and small children.  But even then, I know I am no where near done learning what I need to learn.  But I hope with time and practice my art work will become as life like as a photograph.  That is my goal :o)

I have started another portrait, rather its a two in one.  Its a little boy and girl, separate pictures that I am doing an 11 x 14 on.   They are absolutely adorable but both pictures will be 5x7.   I love the pictures, but to be honest they scare me death.  Not only are the portraits smaller than I am used to working on.   Its harder to get the detail than I am used too.  I am still at the stage where more room to blend and create detail works so much better for me.   But the other scary bit is one little "oops" not only messes up one picture, its messes up 2 and that is a lot of work to start over.   So it is taking me longer to accomplish this, but the owner is a good friend and I want her to be very proud of it and I don't want to disappoint her.  

We are currently working quite a bit of overtime at work so my free time is just not as abundant as I would like.   But at least its only temporary.   I will be back on night shift at the end of this month so I should be able to work on pictures a lot more.   Its so much easier to do them at night when the whole world is sleeping and you have to find a reason to stay awake til 6am ;o) 

Well I hope everyone is having a fantastic February!!

Thank you for your support!

Kelli

Vacation!

I am just starting a week of vacation with the only plan is to work on pictures.  I have several that need to be completed and I am planning on using this week to get caught up on them.  I can not wait!! :o)   Its been harder than I expected to work on pictures on day shift.   I just can not stay up late enough on my nights after work to accomplish anything. My days off are filled with chores and errands that need to be done.   I only have a month left on days then I will be back on night shift.   Its so much easier to work on pictures on that shift.  I do apologize for the wait.  But I really hope to get a lot accomplished this week!  Here is hoping that every one's 2011 is going well!

Kelli

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy and wonderful 2011!   I have a lot of plans for this year and a major part of it is drawing as much as possible.  I am even going to enter some art contests this year which I am reallly excited about!  I have never done anything like that so it should be quite an adventure.  :o)   I plan on getting fully back into drawing this week on my days off.  I just started day shift after several months of nights.  Feel a little bit like a walking zombie but I am slowly getting used to it.  I should be back to normal here in a few days and have my concentration skills back ;o) 

Kelli