Untitled

16 x 20 Oil on canvas

© Diane Ridpath

Visions of Fairies

Visions of Fairies
12"x18"
Pastels, pan pastels, pastel pencil, colored pencil.

Wonderland

Colored Pencil w/ Pastel Background
9x12 Uart 600 Paper
Reference Photo: Unsplash.com 

Colored Pencil (Background: colored pencil over pastel base layer.)
9x12 Uart 500 paper

Reference Photo: Unleash.com

Tiger at Sedgwick County Zoo

16 x 20 Pastel Pencil and Pastels

(Polychromos, Luminance, & Prismacolor Pencils, plus
Rembrandt Pastels for bits of background)
UART 500 Sanded Paper

My own reference photo.
August 2018

Fond Memories

9 x 12 UART Sanded Paper
Pastel pencils and soft pastels
Reference photo with permission by Joji Alcantara, Flickr

Definition of Frustration
Dragging your sleeve through your finished drawing, not once, but twice. 

Tasting Snow

6" x 6" Watercolor
Arches Hot Press | Daniel Smith watercolors

Photo reference with permission by
Bonnie Sitter, Paint My Photo

Jeromey

Colored Pencil

(Polychromos, Prismacolor, Luminance, Verithin)

11x14 Stonehenge paper

This is my son Jeromey on his bike about a year ago. 

[Note: This photo is out of proportion. The actual drawing is longer that this. 

For some reason the photo looks almost square, making it look squatty.]

Finished project from Karen Hull's class

Colored Pencil Drawing
(Faber-Castell Polychromos, Prismacolor, and Luminance)
on Stonehenge paper

EDM Challenge Day 2 - "Lamp"

A day late with this one, but no way did I feel up to drawing yesterday. Here's Day 2 - "Lamp". I only noticed 'after' I painted it how out of whack the base is. Obviously I need to practice ellipticals. : } Oh well...that's what this book is about, right? Hopefully by the end I'll be whiz bang awesome! lol  (Same scanner problems)

Click on picture to view full-size image.

EDM Challenge Day 1 - "Shoe"

I decided to participate in the Every Day Matters daily challenge (as much as possible). It's really more like daily prompts than a challenge. EDM is a sketchbook drawing group on Facebook. It keeps the motivation going for me on days when I know I should draw because I need the practice, but don't know what to draw. Day 1 is "Shoe", so this is my shoe. The page is in my hardbound journal and it doesn't scan very well. It leaves shadows, so just ignore. :)

Click on the picture to view full-size.

First Colored Pencil Portrait

Prismacolor pencils on Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

I've done just a little work on it since taking this picture of it. I'll try to take the updated photo soon. 

Ashley and Lisa

9 x 12  - Graphite and charcoal pencil on Bristol paper.

Kyndall

Graphite pencil drawing on Strathmore Bristol paper. Photo reference - black and white photo..

Garrett - (soft pastel on Mi-Teintes paper)

My grandson Garrett—a few years younger than he is now. 

Watercolor Sunflower

I'm trying to teach myself watercolor. We don't have any classes in our area. This is from a lesson in a book. I had several problems so it's not very good, but I'm posting it anyway because I don't have anything else to post. :)  Maybe someday if I get better I'll have this to look back and say, "My how far you've come."

 

8x10

Laura's Sunset

This is done on black wet/dry sandpaper and I can't get the fluffy blending of the clouds like I'd like. I will try it again on pastel paper and then maybe again in oil.

Blaye Park in September

9 x 12 Pastel on Wallace paper

When I stayed at No. 16 Bed and Breakfast in Blaye, France, I had a view of this pretty little park that was across the street from my bedroom window. This is one part of the "U" shaped path that curves through the park. This is a very lovely, peaceful park. I sometimes took a book and sat on a bench to read. The teenagers gathered there during what I think was a 2-hr lunch period every day. They would get off their school bus (that looked like our city bus), wander the town or hang out in the park, then get back on the bus and return to school. They were not a rowdy group of kids. The park was still peaceful with them there.

Orange Trees

9.5 x 11 Pastel on Wallis sanded paper

Inside the Citadel (Blaye, France)

9.5 x 11 Pastel on black wet/dry sandpaper.
Blaye, France - September 2006

Dayle's Mountain

Pastel
9x11 Sandpaper

Sail Boat Regatta - Blaye, France

9 x 11, Pastel on wet/dry sandpaper

This is my seventh pastel. I took the source photo while standing on the bank of the estuary on a cloudy day in Blaye, France.

Gabrielle

8.5 x 11 Pastel on Mi Tientes paper

This portrait is "almost" finished—just a few more tweeks. Gabby is my 7-year old granddaughter. She insisted on lipstick and painted nails for the picture, but I was going to paint 'normal' lips anyway. Then I realized that this is really an integral part of Gabby's personality. Every time she comes to my house she wants to put on my lipstick and have her nails painted. She is a such girly girl—and yet she likes to collect critters (roly-polys, worms, snakes!)

Danielle

8.5 x 11 Pastel on Mi-Tentes paper

What an exercise in frustration! This was my third attempt at this portrait. I first tried painting it on black wet/dry sandpaper, but the black showed through to the front whenever I blended (on the cheeks, that's not a good thing). Then I tried Wallis sanded paper and had pretty much the same problem even though the backgrournd was gray. I had just about given up in frustration, vowing to go back to oils, but decided to give it one more try. Finally, this one was on creme Mi-Tentes paper. It looks much better in person. For some reason, this one did not photograph well. The shadow under her chin is really not so brown. Well, she likes it anyway, so I guess it's done. Three grandchildren down, two more to go. :)

Seward, Alaska

Seward, Alaska
9x11 Pastel

Cafe Roussi

10x15 Canson Mi-Tientes Paper

Sometimes when you're working from a photo, you have to take a little artistic license and adjust it a bit. This photo had a fairly large tree right in the middle of the picture that I felt was a little distracting. There were also several more chairs, pretty much tossed into each other like you might find when people are finished eating and leave their chairs about. I thought it pretty much looked like a jumbled mess, so I took a few of them out as well. Anyway, this is the finished result. My third pastel--I'm liking pastel a lot, but have yet to attempt a portrait.

Purple and Blue

Pastel, 9x11 Sandpaper

This is the reworked piece. I've added a bit of detail. It's 9x10 on sanded paper. The florals are fun to do because no two flowers look alike, so it's not as critical as portraits. Three things I've learned from this project: 1) If you're using a picture as your subject, make sure it's large enough, 2) Patience, patience, patience, and 3) Sometimes I overblend; it's okay to leave a little chalk on top. :) Hopefully, these little projects are great learning experiences.

Stargazer Lily

Stargazer Lily

After a bit of reworking. 10x13 on Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

Hunter

This is my grandson. He just turned 9.

He wanted his portrait done wearing
his new cowboy hat.

Justin

9x12 Oil on canvas (02/06)

© Leaning Tree
This is a copy of a Leaning Tree greeting card
done as a personal exercise.
16x20 Oil

Norman Rockwell copy
16 x 20 Oil on Canvas


18 x 24 Oil on Canvas
Painted years ago from a calendar.

Trapper

9 x 12 Pastel on Mi Tientes paper.

This is my first pastel. It was copied from an art instruction book on pastel. I did only this one pastel, then went back to oil painting for a few years before I gave pastels another try. I'm so glad I rediscovered pastels.

Lazy Days of Summer

16 x 20 Oil on Canvas

Source was an old black & white photo.

Jeromey

This is my son at age 18.

Vietnam Memorial

16 x 20 Oil on Canvas

Hi

This blog is just to post a sample of my artwork for anyone who cares to see it. It's still in progess. The artwork here is not displayed in any particular order—just posted as I get pictures scanned. I welcome comments.