Not a flower Julia Flower

I "made" this on FractalWorks, thanks to Andree for turning me on to it. Then I fiddled with it on Photoshop a little, including posterizing it a little. It is the 3D view of a portion of a Julia
fractal flower. FractalWorks is only available for Macs--and it is a real time sink because it is endlessly fascinating.

Bluebird of Happiness II

Bluebird of Happiness II, by Mary Stebbins Taill. I needed a bluebird
(for a birthday card--a raven wouldn't do), so I transformed the raven
into a bluebird by shortening its beak and tail and coloring it blue
and orange. I was happy with the results though I may not be done
with either of them yet.

INSTINCT: Raven Flight

Raven Flight, by Mary Stebbins Taitt. For Illustration Friday's current challenge, Instinct. Dedicated to Bernd Heinrich. I decided to do some more work on this, so here is the new version, above. Yesterday's version below.

I am reading his book, Mind of the Raven. He says ravens are very
intelligent and they do many things that are learned, inventive, creative. However, flying must still be an instinct for them.

This is a digital painting created on photoshop with my tablet and my tablet pen. I did not use any filters or "effects," but just "painted" it with the tablet pen. This is utterly brand new today. Click image to view larger. Also for creative Every Day (CED). I've been writing LOTS of poems.

My place at the dining room table at 3 AM

Today I made this digital painting from the sketch I drew last night when I was insomniac at 3 AM. It took me all day to paint it, by hand, not with filters, on my old computer using a MOUSE in PS7. (I did use liquify to bend the brushes on the left to "match" the bed in the water bottle on the right. I did not use either of my tablets or pens, because I felt really terrible and wanted to do it the old fashioned way, LOL! (slowly, slowly.)) For Creative every day and Every NIGHT!

2 revised paintings

The first one is by me from scratch (water color) and the second is from an exercise in a book also water color). I darkened the shadows in both and added the children playing in the first and yellow in the second. See the originals here. I may use the first one as my Christmas card for Christmas 2009 (or I may not, we'll see). For Creative Every Day's belated "Play" Theme.

sketch dump

I've been too busy to post my daily sketches, so here are a few of them. All at once, from one of my sketchbooks. They include a few exercises ("scales"). The last three were random sketches done in the car. The Biker Buddy ones are right after the Lake Wall collapsed and he had an ice pack on his injury. The girl in braids is another attempt at Sissy, the protagonist of some of my novels. Her neck is too wide! :-( You can click on any image to see it larger.

2 new water color paintings

I'm a student in water media, in my second 7-week class (ever). These are two new paintings I made. I am not sure if they are done. Each is teaching a particular technique. The barn scene is teaching to use the paper for whites. The crassula leaves are working with shadow, texture, and gradient. I hope someday to be able to put all the things I learn together as needed to make enjoyable paintings. I say enjoyable, because the important thing is that I enjoy it. (Otherwise, why bother?)

Last two in Andrea's ("Mini Galleries)

A gallery of ATCs and a gallery of Photos. I did an extra page spread
of photos to sahre with Andrea because there seemed to be plenty of
pages. And I know Andrea like photos.

The Raven Sketches (Three in Andrea's)

All made with pens from Andrea. Plus: colored pencil, gouache,
gouache dry brush.

Black Lily

Black Lily, by Mary Stebbins Taitt, for Phil Memmer on the receipt of
Lucifer, his new book of poems.