Slight Change of Direction - Wood and Lino Cuts

As usual, when I'm in Creative Mode, I don't do a lot of blog posting!  And I've been doing more carving so have been trying both wood and lino prints.

My favorites have been the cows and only test prints have been made of all the 'cuts'.  When I have them all the way I want, I'll do limited edition prints all printed by hand.

Here are a few of the ones I've test-printed so far:

I'm working on another Beltie as well as another Highland cow.  Some I tried were way above my pay grade but I'm gradually growing into more detailed work. 

All of the above are lino cuts but I do have a couple of wood cuts in the works.  Hope to finish and post them soon!

Wonder what it is about knives that is so attractive to me?  Mu Waaaa Haaa Haaa!

Definite Final

I took Sue's (Pencilpix blog) advice and added some distant "somethings" to the right side of the horizon line.  I figure it's a stand of trees or maybe a jumble of rock - I'm not sure what it is but I do think it helps the painting.

I hope so as I varnished it and we went to Michael's and Hobby Lobby today to look for frames.

We bought two frames, one at each store, and we both like both of them equally!  I joked and said that since the painting is varnished and not behind glass, we could easily exchange frames every 6 months so both of them could be used!

Not only did we find frames we liked, but both were on sale.  Of course, both stores regularly have "sales" on their frames but Michael's sale was 60% off, plus, our son had given me a gift card for there so the one frame only cost me a dollar and 12 cents.  Can't beat that!

I was also looking for some small (6") square frames but they didn't have any.  Or at least Michael's didn't have any - I forgot to look at Hobby Lobby!  Oh, well, guess that means another road trip!

In the meantime, I need a title for this and for the other cowboy (pastel on black shown below).  While the other cowboy won't be framed, I did enough to it to get a decent scan so I can offer prints at FAA.  I'll offer prints of both of these as soon as I can title them.

One of my BIL's suggested Campfire Thoughts for the cowboy on black and I've gotten quite a few suggestions for naming this painting but none really click.  Any ideas out there?

First Adult Portrait (of sorts!)

Those of you who know me or even read my blogs, know that I just don't paint human portraits!  I've done all kinds of pet portraits, of course, and one of our granddaughter as a baby and one of a toddler. 

Grown up adult humanoids are a whole 'nuther story!  However, I convinced my darling other half to dress in his western clothes so I could take some photographs to possibly use as painting references since we're going to participate in that art show in Colorado this summer.  It's supposed to be a show of Western art but this year it's open to all kinds of subjects.

Anyway, I wanted some western type art and that was the reason for the photo shoot.  My idea was to maybe use my husband leaning against the gate but paint him full length from enough distance to be able to blur his features.  In other words, I wouldn't have to paint a realistic portrait!

But I liked the photo with this close up of him and figured I could fake what few features are showing!  And I plan to fake the background and add a few head of cattle since we've long since sold all of ours.  So far it's going pretty well but there's still a ways to go with it.  BTW, this is gouache and 11 x 14 inches in size.

I'll keep you posted on the progress!