My first ever portrait of my sweet Rosie. Used graphite on bristol smooth paper 9x12
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Very nice!!! Thank you so much for sharing.
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This is wonderful! Love it and welcome.
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Lovely artistic interpretation showing great empathy with your subject 
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Welcome to the Community Meme5. Youâve done and amazing job on the portrait. Youâve really captured the dogâs personality. I hope you keep sharing your work here.
Terri Robichon
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Thank you for your comment. I still have a lot to learn and try from the virtual instructor. I originally wanted to use soft pastels but it terrified me to do my pet portrait even if I paid attention to lessons watched! I still have a hard time choosing the right colors on my own. I must study color values more and hopefully do my daughterâs portrait in soft pastels soon.
Soft pastels are my absolute favorite, followed by graphite and everything pencil.
Hi Sonia - I have been using several of the media, and still struggle with many of them. Most end up turning out well, as long as Iâm patient and take the time they need. But there are also those that took 3 tries before I got them right, and some I just throw away (always learning something along the way). Itâs really all about enjoying the process and feeling good because you tried.
Terri Robichon
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So cute! 
Nice use of values and the background is also adorable! Welcome @Meme5 ! Jesus loves you!!!
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Oh, such a sweet face. We have a JackRat and we adopted her from a âno-killâ shelter. I got her just in time, because they were going to take her to the PetSmart and have an adoption day. They called her âMollyâ. Sheâd come to me, but I thought the name was way too bland.
I have drawn a picture of her in pastels (my favorite medium) and it turned out pretty good. Iâm proud of it.
Right now I am in a bit of a âlullâ and not in the mood for breaking out my supplies which are in a storate box right beside my chair. I KNOW where they are. My family does not understand why I feel this way. I went to art school and that ended up taking the pleasure away from me. I had had a private teacher on Saturday all through my HS years (5 of them). I loved going and he taught me SOOooo much. He and Matt & Ashley way of instruction. I just have not taken advantage of it. I know I need to before it âgoes awayâ again.
My teacher was a well-known portrait artist in Macon, GA. Now deceased. While he would not âteachâ his medium, I am pretty sure he isnât the only one to take 'plain old oridinare Crayola Color Crayons to do his work. Back in the mid-60âs he painted portraits for a living on the side beside his teaching. But, he would allow me and the boy that also took art from him (after our 3 hour lesson. We could stay all the rest of the day, if we wanted to and we could watch. But, when we started asking questions of âhow are you doing thatâ, why are you doing that, 'if you had that over the paper, is it because you âironâ it? That would âendâ his time working and he would tell us he had to go in the house to check on his Mama. Then weâd have to get home anyway we had to. My Mother would take me to the lessons (25 miles away) and then she would go shopping. Sometimes she had to walk around to the studio and other times Iâd be sitting on the curb.
He would not ever do anythiing on whatever we were doing, because if he did then the artpiece would be his. So he would draw a small sketch on my brown Kraft paper that wrapped around the board. I loved that.
I love watching what others post, it inspires me, but at the same time, I realize that I had put all my art supplies up until I was pregant with my first baby. I lost the baby due to complications in the 5th month. I had to take 3 rounds of chemo and coulld (or would not be) allowed to get pregnant for a solid year. Long time when you want something so bad. The 47 years ago, I had my first of 2 sons. The only boys in my family, my generation. My Mother used to say to others in my presence that she had 'wanted 6 boys,
but, stopped at 3 girls because they were twice as nice. The next story would be, âI wasnât supposed to get pregnant with my middle sister.â It did not make me feel that good about me, I know she was unaware of what that comment would mean to a child. But, my parents doted on me, especially my Daddy.
So much about me, what about you? Tell me a little about why you started drawing. Were you always drawing? Is it a âhobbyâ or did you take it up later in life? I drew my first picture when I was about 4 and came and showed it to my mother and daddy at a family reunion. My Dad and Mom came home and started looking for someone who would teach me. A woman âfinallyâ agree to let me come to her house and she would see how or whether I could be still long enough for her to teach me. I took lessons from her until she passed away when I was 10 or 11. I was hearbroken. They asked around and found the man and bought everything he had told them I would need to be in his class. I donât know how much it cost them, but I know it was a whole lot. Especially, if you compared it to todayâs prices.
My favorite mediums are pastels and oils. But, I love colored pencils, I just like how detailed you can get them. Whatâs your favorite medium?
Have a great âHump Dayâ (Camel Wednesday)
Lenora Andre
ArtistLittleNora.mitchell@gmail.com a/k/a lilnora
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well done and realistic portrait of your pet.
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Hello Ms Lenora,
Itâs so nice of you to share your story. My dog was about a year old when that picture was taken. Sadly, our Rosie died two years ago at 8 year old due to a severe complication of diabetes which we didnât know she had until she got very ill and didnât survive her stay at the veterinarian clinic. :((
I myself have diabetes which led to another condition called Small Fiber Neuropathy, which can make it difficult to perform basic daily living tasks.
Long story short. Sitting around led me to look for something useful to do that did not involve moving my body too much during flares. Then I started doodling, then doodling turned to drawing, and here I am, taking online lessons to draw and eventually paint!
I absolutely favor and LOVE soft pastels, pencils of any kind are also awesome to me. Iâm slowly but surely practicing while browsing around, taking notes from Mattâs lessons to later apply to my work, and loving every bit of it!
Thank you for your comment! I really got lost in the chest area with all the cream colored fur and shadows. Tried my best though! Hopefully I can get better at âseeingâ the shapes to render details a better.
Nailed it thatâs just plain Beautiful 
Iâve been on TVI for about 2 years, but so far, I have not taken advantage of the lessons. But, I do read and look at those things that are posted here. If I am lucky and keep up with time, I will watch the âSketchyâ videos and I enjoy seeing all that is done there. I was surprised when I was watching and saw Matt had critiqued a painting of mine. I think it was something like 305. Itâs a picture of a rearview mirror looking back. In oils. Gray and Ochre (mostly). I was proud of it, but I did not make the changes because I had painted it years ago. My youngest son took several of my paintings to college and never asked me. LOL!
He still has a couple of them but I wonât ask him to return them, because the only place we could put them, would be under the bed or out in my studio which is the dump zone for things my husband and oldest son, daughter-in-law and 3 of our 4 granddaughters. But, sometime this summer (or before or after) I am going out there and if I have one of my âcleaning fitsâ I will clear everything out and then put back all I want to keep. Then my husband will just have to look at what I donât want or am âthrowingâ out. The last time I went through a stack of something and threw out the things I âknewâ were not important, Louis just about had a stroke. I put everything in a box and put it on the footstool. I told him it was there for him to look through it. I think he started and realized that maybe I was right, so he put it in the âburn pileâ. Now every time he canât find somewhere âheâ thought had been on the counter, he asks what I did with the box. âI did not do anything, it was on the footstool and then it was gone.â Weâve been married 51 years this August. We are just about polar opposites in the things we do.
Right now, I am in the mood for doing that âinsideâ the house. My husband has been supposed to paint the inside (not sure it will happen in my lifetime. 
I tried to talk to our oldest son (who works with him) - painting houses. First excuse, âIâm tired,â Then, the biggy, âJennifer would get mad because I have been putting off the same thing at our house.â Thatâs true. Then I offered up the suggestion that all 4 of us stand in a corner and have our youngest granddaughter flip a coin and whoever wins, gets their house painted first. With the other having to wait. I thought that was only fair. Then the excuses start all over again. I even suggested that the 2nd house would be started in 2 weeks after the first one gets finished. I am STILL waiting.
Lenora