A dog and a bee

bumble bee and Pete the Beagle dog

color pencil on vellum

5" x 7"

Continuing on the bee theme, now the bumble bee has landed on Pete the Beagle dog. He was sleeping, and opens one eye to see this bee.   A friend of mine asked me to illustrate a story she wrote. This is for that story. It was pure coincidence that this story has a bumble bee and my previous drawing was a bumble bee. Must be the muse hard at work.   Anyway, I had great fun with this. The nose, especially. If you look at it up close, you can see the texture of it.  

color pencils are calling to me...

bumble bee

color pencil on Bristol vellum

4" x 4"

I wish I could figure out what makes my inner art-clock tick. I seem to go in cycles with my art-making. I learned years ago to stop fighting the cycle and embrace what comes. 

I've been on a tear with oil painting for a few months now. Really enjoying it. Then seemingly out of nowhere, the color pencils start to call my name. They make themselves known in my head and I can't make them go away. So I did this little drawing of a bumble bee to satisfy the color pencil urge. But instead of satisfying the desire, now I want to do a full blown drawing. 

What's an artist to do?  Dear Muse: at least will you let me understand you and your callings? 

under painting of class oil painting

oil on paper

9"x12"

I am taking an online oil painting class over at Craftsy. I am really enjoying it! The class I am taking is a class on painting sunsets. This is an underpainting for my homework. The class provided the reference picture.