drawing and painting everyday

5"x5" pastel on Canson Mi-Teintes (moonstone)

There is something to be said about drawing and painting everyday. After all, you don't get good at things unless you put yourself into it and commit. Many of my artist friends have committed to doing 30 paintings in 30 days to start off the year. One of my goals for 2016 is to improve on my art skills and although I did not commit to one of the groups, I thought I would push myself to draw and paint everyday. You have to get creative when you are looking for material to paint everyday. I took one reference photo that I had taken on a CT visit and used it three times. I can most likely do more with the photo , but I will just show you the three I have done so far. 

my reference photo 

It's been dreary and cold , so for my first painting, I wanted COLOR. I didn't want to paint how I was feeling

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9"x12" pastel on Uart 500

I changed the view of the photo and wanted to concentrate more on the sky and moved the horizon line down. A beautiful sky always makes me feel good. 

5"x7" pastel on moonstone Canson Mi-Teintes

For the 2nd version, I moved the horizon line up and focused more on the grass and wildflowers.

For the 3rd version (photo at the top) , I decided to zoom in and concentrate on a small section of the photo. I'm already thinking about the next version, possibly choosing a different color scheme……

I also have been drawing everyday. Here is one of my daily sketches.

I am primarily drawing with black pen, but who knows where else this daily drawing will lead me. It's a good place to just let go and see what I can do.