Color Me Here…

About a year ago, I decided I wanted to venture back into art, mainly just as a hobby or a way to create art for my house.  I started with my graphite pencils and illustrated a drawing of Lucy, my Golden Retriever.

(Artwork Copyright 2010 Lisa M. Mills – All Rights Reserved)

This rendering of Lucy depicts her on her favorite perch – the stairs.  She was unmoved that I was photographing her and moved even less that I illustrated her.  She’s a lazy girl.

That one drawing got me hooked all over again on art (you can see my story on the “About the Artist” page).  I then began to photograph my dogs, birds, critters in the yard – virtually anything I could draw.  I’m slow at my craft, but steady as I rebuild a portfolio.

Last spring, I discovered another artist named Alyona Nickelsen who has a book called “The Colored Pencil Painting Bible.”  Wow.  She is amazing.  I found out she offers an online school and I thought this would be a great way to hone my skills as an artist.  I took Part 1 in September and will be starting Part 2 in November.

Here’s a sample of my accomplishments in Part 1:

My husband suggested I was going “out of my gourd” while I was working on it as it was so intricate.  But I persevered and won the Class Challenge Project (this gourd) for Part 1 of the class. (Each class has a challenge project at the completion of the class, where students are encouraged to submit their work to compete against one another.)  This was rendered in sepia, plus black colored pencil and a colorless blender.

So, thanks for stopping by Color Me Here…I’m looking forward to the journey.

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