The Lights of Downtown Newport . . .

I am excited that you are all loving these night shots! This photo was taken the same night I took the bridge photo. It is a view of downtown Newport. There is a nice park nestled along the ocean shore where I took both photos. The tallest building you see is a church. It is so very beautiful. I have many pictures of it.

It looks like a postcard scene to me. Although I have this same shot during the daytime it looks much more powerful at night. I love the reflection of the lights in this one too!

Yesterday I did some painting. Its a new landscape inspired by the beautiful fall weather we had here in NY. I will be sharing it soon!

Hope you had a lovely creative weekend!

Newport Bridge At Night

I am so glad you enjoyed my full moon photo. Thanks for all your great comments!

Today I thought I would share another night shot. This is the Newport Bridge up in Rhode Island. It is one of my favorite bridges. There is a lovely park where you can sit on a bench and just marvel at this view. My hubby and I were the only ones there that night and we set up the tripod. The weather was beautiful. It was the beginning of spring.

Luckily I had my tripod with me on that weekend trip. I also used the remote control so between that and the tripod I could ensure there would not be any shaking of the camera while the shutter was open.

Night shots have always been a challenge for me so I was very excited that I was able to get a clear picture. I especially love the wavy reflection in the water.

Full Moon Shining

Thank you for your sweet comments on yesterday's sketching challenge post! I am learning so much and already started on the new pose last nite!

Today I wanted to share this photo that took last winter. It was a full moon that night. I grabbed my tripod and camera setting it up on the front steps of our house. In the winter we have a nice view of the water. I don't use the tripod often but I knew that with a night shot the shutter was going to stay open longer and any tiny movement would cause the image to blur.

I wish I jumped into these moments more often. I must have been outside for an hour in the freezing cold but none of it mattered. I was completely immersed in capturing the image I wanted. I quickly got lost in the beauty of the moon shining on the water.

Stretching to Sketch Challenge Week Four!

Here is my Kelly sketch for the weekly challenge. This one was more challenging than I initially anticipated. I was hoping to improve over last week but the back view was alot harder for me. This one is done in graphite pencil as my others but I tried to use all three this time which did help with the shading. And I finally got a kneaded eraser! Wow, that makes it much easier. Now I don't have to sit with a lap full of shredded rubber from the regular one I was using. I erase alot!

I feel like I put too much pressure on myself to do better than the last one. I don't think I realize that with each sketch comes a different set of challenges depending on the view and body parts involved. There will be new things to learn with each one. I need to be kinder to myself!

As always you can jump in and join us anytime! Kelly will be posting the results tonite and then a new photo for this week will be posted tomorrow. Check out the original photo here at Kelly Berkey's blog!

Getting Back To The Landscape

This painting was inspired by a photo. It is acrylic on 9x12 canvas paper. I love using shades of orange and purple together in a painting. I have fun painting trees. I don't know what it is about them but I especially enjoy painting the leaves. And of course as always I want to rush and see the finished piece! I try to add the leaves before I finish the rest of the painting!

I would like to get back to painting more landscapes. I haven't done one in a while. There are just too many things dancing in my head. But sometimes I feel like I should just stick to one thing and master it. And yet I don't want to limit myself. There is so much to learn and I want to experience as much of it as I can!

Ever feel that way?

A Birthday Themed Bosco!

I took this photo last week for a custom etsy order. The request was for a pug photo card with a birthday theme. I didn't make any promises as my little guy hates to pose and hates clothes (especially hats) even more. My hubby helped me with the hat and held Bosco still.

This was the best one of the lot! I took the shot in color and then digitally altered it with an antique tone. He so doesn't look happy but is still darn cute! Then again I am biased since he is my furkid!

Hope you are all enjoying a lovely weekend! It finally feels like fall here in NY! YAY! Finally cool weather!

Graphite Tips . . . And A New Sketch

Thanks for all of your comments on my sketching challenge post! I am really having fun with it and learning so much. And having all of you to share it with makes it all the more wonderful!

So yesterday I didn't even get a post together. I had a stressful day. Most of it self created if any of you can relate! In an attempt to refocus myself I grabbed my sketchbook. I wasn't expecting her to look like this but I think she is the release of my angst!

I used graphite pencil as I have been using with all of my challenge sketches. And I just realized that I am not even paying attention to the numbers on the pencils! For my sketch yesterday I used the 2H pencil and then last nite picked up the 6B. As I started to my sketch I noticed it was so much darker and smudgy than the 2H. I feel pretty silly even sharing this.

For those of you that work with graphite . . . any tips on using the different grades? I liked the darker shade of 6B but felt like my sketch was getting "dirty" from how smudgy it was. And thought back to my challenge sketch and now I know why it was so light! I also have the HB. Do you use all three in one sketch depending on the level of shading you want?