Quick Sketches, charcoal and pastel.

When I haven't drawn anything or painted for a while, such as when I spent time at the Charlie Russell show....I like to get into the groove again by doing some sketching. These are some images I sketched out, maybe spending 10-20 minutes on each one. I don't try to make them perfect, I just play. It puts me in the mood to do something more serious!

The hands are fun. I start out by doing them. The Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain thing! Don't look at your hand as you draw it. Sit so you're facing away from your paper and draw your hand in different positions. They look so funny when you're done, but they look just like your hands! It's amazing. Each time I do this, I think what fat, arthritic hands I have! :) Oh well, they still work, that's all I care about.

Donna

Sled dog, Polebridge, MT, charcoal sketch

My dad gave me some reams of paper. He found lots of paper. So I'm doing some quick sketches to begin using it up!

My fire went out in the studio last night, and it got cold. My fingers were getting stiff as boards over there and my coffee was like ice in the cup. So I came back to the house, waiting for it to warm up over there! The pellet stove we put over there is working good but I turned it to the very lowest setting and it went out. I guess you can't do that with a pellet stove as they don't seem to like it. Why put that low setting on them if you can't burn them that way? :)

This is one of the sled dogs I photographed at Polebridge when we went to the sled dog races there. I've never seen so much intensity before! Those dogs are psycho to run. I hope I catch some of their personalities in the sketches and paintings I'll be doing.

I'm starting with a lot of sketches to get more familiar with the dogs and the shapes of them. They aren't like pet dogs in the fact they're so lean, and muscled. Also this intensity of expression they have....I'll draw them until I feel I'm getting somewhere with them.

If you've never been to Polebridge, Mt you need to find it. There's an old store there, been there since the 1800's. They bake bread and the store smells wonderful! The bread is out of this world.

Polebridge is North of Columbia Falls, up the North Fork of the Flathead River.
Donna