It’s been a while since I’ve painted some still lifes. In college and for a while after, I almost exclusively painted still lifes. I enjoyed painting them, but didn’t have an audience for them at the time. I’m ready for another go though. My still life project was originally going to be a 30 in…
Author: Amber
10 Minute Challenge
For Christmas I received Carol Marine’s book Daily Painting and immediately read it cover to cover. I really enjoyed the book and fell in love with the idea of doing 10 minute challenges. The idea is to divide a canvas or paper into 6 to 8 small sections and paint the same subject in each…
2016 Year in Review
Happy holidays! 2016 has been a really exciting year for me. I started this blog in February, vacationed in Hawaii in the summer, saw Tool live in October (big moment for me), and grew a ton as an artist. This year hasn’t always been easy breeze though. It has been an extremely busy year…
A New Sketch & Thoughts on Caring for Brushes
The next one is on the easel. It needs some more work on the sketch, but it’s a good start. I’m actually really happy with the mouth and left eye. The right eye and the nose especially, need more work. This painting is going to be my first color portrait of a person. I…
Oil Painting Portrait – Part 7
Finished! I’m relieved that to have finally finished this painting. It nearly didn’t get finished this year. I got it about 98% done and got stuck. I just didn’t know what needed to be done. It took nearly a week before I could see that last little bit that would put it over the finish…
Selling Art
This week I posted a handful of paintings for sale in a local Facebook sales group as well as to my personal page. I’m proud to announce that I’ve sold a painting. While it isn’t my first sale, it is my first sale to someone other than my mother-in-law. The next big sales milestone…
Oil Painting Portrait – Part 6
It’s almost done! I finally made some really good progress on this painting and the finish is clearly in sight. A quick peruse through my photos revealed that I’ve been working on it off and on since January. It’s now December. I have taken months off from working on it at a time due to…
More Work on Jewel Beach
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is enjoying a good meal. This is by far my favorite holiday. It’s all friends, family, and food. I worked on this painting throughout the week and even a little today. I’ve been struggling with it, but I’m on track. I really like the water and the lower right portion…
Repainting Jewel Beach
This week was difficult. I planned to work on older paintings, but I just couldn’t get myself to start. I ended up not painting until last night despite sitting down to paint multiple times throughout the week. The painting above is the result. I’m not thrilled about it, but it’s actually better than it was….
“Dopey” Dog Portrait
I finished this surprise painting for my mother-in-law Vicki this week. She’s always been very supportive of my painting and is my only paying customer to date. With that in mind, I wanted to give her something really special for Christmas. Her favorite dog Dopey is getting older and blinder by the minute so…
Black Dog Paint Along – Part 2
Crystal and I have made some good progress on our paintings. We’ve actually gotten together more often than I expected and we might actually get our paintings finished soon. I think I finally figured out most of my problems with the dog, but now I need to fix the background. It was originally blue,…
My Sister’s Cat
Meet Lil Buddy, my sister’s cat. I painted this as a gift to my sister and her new husband for their birthdays. I wanted this to be a surprise so I had to scour Facebook accounts and texts for reference pictures. I found a gem my sister texted me a while ago of Lil…