Good Evening, Gents!

I know everyone is still bummed about the elections. When I went to bed Tuesday night, I was in a red state. When I woke up, I was in a blue one. But I thought I'd share a reminder to pay attention to the small things. It was 80 here just a week ago & tonight, it'll be 32 (frosty). Leaves are changing color & falling. Because of all the rain we've gotten, there are some brilliant colors. The sun still rises & sets. The constellations are out & in season. There's a lot more going on than politics, government, society, social media, the internet, & etc. In fact, there's so much that isn't affected by all of that.

The Screech Owl is coming along, slowly, but surely. Oil pastels are so much easier to blend than colored pencils, but I have so much more control over colored pencil. The thing with backgrounds is that you want to create contrast (among other things). I'm trying to achieve that with a blue background intead of a heavily forested green. That might have worked, but if things aren't contrasting, they tend to blend together, making it hard to distinguish. Now the Screech Owl here would love to blend in, but I want him to stand out. A green background would blend with the tree. Blue contrasts with both. And the tree has the potential to blend with the owl, so I've muted it.

The blue background is made up of a dark blue sparingly applied, a medium blue heavily applied, & white to blend everything together & lighten it up. The tree is the same as the one I used in the last drawing, because my sister was really taken with it, so since this will be hers, I'm putting that in here too. The darker portions are a brown, tan, & olive all used sparingly, & a light grey to blend everything & mute or lighten it. The lighter portions are a russet & ochre used sparingly, & a tan & light grey. The tan & light grey in both portions will allow a smoother transition, so it's not stark. And again, the light grey's purpose is to mute the color so it doesn't blend with the owl.

I use circular motions to apply & blend oil pastels together, because I like how circular motions look as opposed to straight lines (while I LOVE hatching with colored pencils, I almost never do that with pastels). People seem to like the circular motions too. Also, it gives it kind of a surreal, impressionist like appearance. Really, it plays with your eyes. While you're looking at the subject, you may get the impression that the background is moving. With the blues, it gives the impression of clouds. With the tree, it gives the impression of bark. And with both, like the colored pencils, it can come up with some really amazing blends that are not intentional. Once again, I know what I'm doing & I am intentionally blending these colors to produce what I want, but there are circumstances that happen that I don't plan for, which makes it exciting & interesting, I think anyway.

This time, I'm using black pastel for some of the larger gashes & cracks in the bark, & black colored pencil for the smaller cracks. I'm really pleased with how this looks at the moment. The two mediums truly do work well together.

A hallmark of my artwork that will no doubt be appealing to your eyes, while frustrating as hell for me, is the lower right corner. His feathers & the blue background & there's a tiny space that's white at the moment. I haven't decided if I want to make that bark or part of the sky. It would certainly be easier to make it part of the sky, but the way that I am, it'll probably be bark. Like why? Why not tuck the tree behind the owl & make life easier for yourself? Because I enjoy the challenge. I like having bragging rights. And I thrive on possibly destroying the whole damn thing. I find it invigorating. And frustrating.

In other news, I went to check a location on Monday, which is my custom. It's right down the street from work, so I check it on my break. This Monday, the owner said someone came in & bought a whole bunch of things. All right, Monday, way to not be completely useless, that's what I'm talking about! The product line that was bought is one that I have a love/hate relationship with. Nobody buys for like 3 months at any location & I start thinking about not selling it any more, then BAM, someone comes in & buys like $100 of it, & I'm left thinking, okay, nevermind.

My calendars came in, so I'll put them in stores next week. I was able to buy in bulk, which saved me a huge amount. They didn't let me do that last year. Studio sales already have made up what I paid for, LOL! If the ones in stores all sell, that would be cherry.

There is a chance I finish this over the weekend, but I'm not going to kill myself to do it either. We'll see if I get caught up in it or if it just takes too long. Suffice it to say, the next one will probably be the completed piece.

As always, thanks for taking this journey with me.