My Sketchcrawl Adventure... and Win a FREE e-book!

My friend, author Mary Pax, is having another book launch!  

I'm super excited to be participating, since I enjoy her writing. It's a strange combination of urban fantasy/contemporary sci-fi/paranormal adventure/ and even steampunk. Weird is a good word for it! 

Mary has generously provided a FREE set of e-books (Books 1 & 2 of The Rifters series) to one of my lucky commenters here. I'll announce the winner on October 1st (last day to comment and be included in the drawing: Sept 30th).

The new series is called The Rifters, and Book 1 launched on Sept 8th. Here is the LINK to Mary's website, where you can read Chapter One of The Rifters; it also has links to Amazon and other sources. As of this writing, The Rifters e-book is FREE at Amazon, Smashword and others! Cool deal, yes?? 

I've read several stories by Mary Pax, and enjoyed every one. I always end up shaking my head, thinking "how in the world does she think this stuff up??!" 

I have a lot to share, so will be posting thumbnail pics from my sketchbook. Just click on them to enlarge... don't wanna crash anyones pc, with so many images to load, ha!

Without further ado, here is our "Book Launch Vacation":

(Spoiler alert: 

forget what the Settler Tourism Department says... 

there ARE weird happenings around Settler, Oregon!)

I'm one of the lucky ones. I live in Southern Oregon. The infamous town of Settler, Oregon is within a days driving for me, being up north from my town. Since my husband is a photographer, we drove up to the Caslow County Fair and Expo at the end of August. Jim wanted to take photos of the high desert country, and maybe Swit Lake if he had time before sundown. 

Me? I did a SketchCrawl.** That's where you take your sketchbook and painting/sketching paraphanalia and just hike out to... wherever. Last time we visited Settler, Francine at the Settler Mercantile let it slip that the rumors were TRUE about "otherworldly beasts" being spotted near Settler. 

We found out for ourselves this time! I had hoped to stumble on some Beasties to draw. Was thinking... "Wouldn't that be cool?? If I survive the encounter, that is! Mwa ha ha, sure wish they were for real."  Careful what you wish for!

                                 

          

Well, we DID make it home in one piece, and I am so excited to share images from our "vacation".

I really DID get to see some of the rumored "other worldly beasts". Honestly, I thought it was just "marketing hype" for the tourists, ya know?? But after Jim dropped me off so he and Joey (our Mini-schnauzer) could go exploring on their own, I took my time poking around. It was an overcast afternoon, so not too hot.

There were boulders to sit on and sketch, but it was almost dusk when the adventure REALLY started. That's when the beasties ventured out!! 

Enough jabbering... below are pics from my 5.5 x 8 inch sketchbook. Some were rough... I was trying to draw fast, the light was fading. So a few of the color touches were added from memory once we made it back home. But wow, it was amazing to see what really lives in Settler, Oregon. You've GOT to visit Settler for yourself. Honestly, if you love "weird", you'll have a blast!

You can click the pics to enlarge. I didn't caption these; they are in order, so you could read each journal entry if you'd like to know about the sketch following it.

And a few of the photos Jim took:

He thought this was funny...

Morning glow on a pansy...

And they were functional!!

Taken right before the sun came up...

He said he noticed a lot of strange things around Settler, this being one of them...

Yikes, Jim almost ran nose to nose with this guy...

He said he had a hard climb to get this view of Swit Lake, but it was worth it...

Even some of the plant life there is weird...

He stumbled upon this old house right at sunset...

A full moon!

I wonder if that full moon might explain some of the weirdness, including these strange lights he saw??

Well, what can I tell ya... I now know where Weird lives. 

Hoped you enjoyed the visuals from our vacation, and I know you will enjoy this new book series from Mary Pax. And don't forget to leave a comment by Sept 30th so I can put you into the drawing for a FREE set of e-books!

Happy painting - and reading,

Retta

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**The town of Settler, Oregon is a figment of author M Pax's     imagination, as is my account of our vacation, my Sketchcrawl, and my encounters with the Beasties. Oh yes, the sketches are real!! But they were drawn right here in my own safe little studio, with Joey barking and Vevie and Butterfly meowing to be petted or fed. They are the only carnivores around here, and they don't glow green. ;-)

Edited to add:  The drawing is now closed. Thanks for looking at my sketchbook... hope you enjoyed it.

Dusting Off the Ol' Sketchbook

Detroit was a fascinating place to explore for our Virtual Paintout  destination in August. Another place that caught my attention (in addition to THIS painting)   was an underpass, with arches and graffiti. Especially the grafitti. The word oxymoron comes to mind. :-D

Here is the original location, from Google Street View:

Vevie decided she was too much of a "star" to pose for a mere sketchbook painting, so she sat this one out. Hmmmph... she's not a spoiled kitty... oh no. Not at all...

Anyway, this one tickled me, so I couldn't pass it up. 

"Vandals for Peace"

8 Mile Road

Detroit, Michigan

6 x 8 sketchbook

Ink

Colored pencils

Watercolor pencils

Neocolor II sticks

Gouache

Happy painting,

Retta

The Birth of Timebird

My sister, Karen, is a writer. She wrangles her words over at KarenElizabethBrown, her writer's blog. 


Recently Karen joined a crazy fun challenge called the A to Z Challenge, where one must write a post for 26 days straight, using the corresponding letter of the alphabet as the base of the topic.

I was happy to be able to help out on "A" day by lending some images demonstrating the process by which a painting comes to life, and Karen used this as a great analogy for the writing process.

What intrigued me was a comment a reader left, describing the process as a "painting being born". Being born! I loved that... the idea of a "birth".

I don't know about other artists, but I suspect most of us feel very much that way... it's our "baby"!

So... I thought you might enjoy seeing another birth! I hope you enjoy the peek behind the curtain. :-) 

I don't have sketches from the very beginning, but you can see some of the process below, including my expensive pencil holder--the spam can! :-D

 (Can click any pic to enlarge)

Here's my set up with the Caran d'Ache Neocolor II's used plus some watercolor pencils, on black illustration board.

At one point, I ran it through photoshop, to check values, and adjusted as needed.

 At this stage, there is no water yet. Just the neocolor II's and WC pencils.

 Almost ready for water.

 Starting to carefully brush on water.

 More water, more neocolor II highlights and color adjustments.

 Final color tweaks and all done... Timebird is born!

Happy painting,

Retta

The Fire is Finished

It's done!

Last Wednesday I introduced Word Bubble #1 (HERE),  and shared the speed drawing video of me drawing it. Well, it's now finished and photographed. I didn't add the varnish yet, and am excited to see it after that, since varnish always makes the colors pop.

Here she be, with my motivational word Fire! My word was based on this quote:

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." --Albert Schweitzer

(can click to enlarge)

This was drawn on a small Aquabee Sketchpad... too small, as it turned out. Thanks to good ol' Dicky Blick I should be getting a nice new larger pad soon. :-)

Here's some WIP pics. 

Here's the original black and white:

I decided to go with my Caran d' Ache Neocolor II's (watersoluble artist crayons). Love those puppies! They are chunky, and force me to not fiddle around with minutiae. I started with the blue family:

Progress:

Got all caught up in the ArtNebulae, and forgot to take more pics. So this is when almost done:

And here, before varnish, finished:

In addition to the Neocolor II's, I used black medium and fine Pitt Artist pens, acrylic medium, and gloss acylic medium/varnish. 

Oh, and on the outer edges - though it doesn't show in the photo - I rubbed on a little interference blue Pearl Ex. They are powdered pigments by Jacquard, which gave the edging a pearlescent sheen that slightly changes color as you move the page. You can use them for almost anything, sealed by the acrylic medium. See them Here.  Too bad they don't show up in a photo... they are gorgeous. :-)

The texture around the outer edges was done with spattering from an old toothbrush. Just made the colors a little soupier and went at it. 

One tip: since the Neocolor II's are watersoluble, if you want it to stay put and not smudge or blend any more, just use a bit of medium instead of/or in addition to water when wetting them with a brush. Towards the end, when I was working on final details, I would scribble with the crayon onto my palette, then dip my brush into water and/or  acrylic medium, and use it that way. It was like using thin acrylic paint, and won't smear when dry, or be disturbed by subsequent layers.

A new video camera is on my wish list, so as soon as I get that, I'm hoping to do more Word Bubbles. It was a blast!

Happy painting,

Retta