Happy New Years!

Well, the old year is drawing to a close. I am looking forward to a new start, and I hope everyone else is too. Unfortunately, I am realizing, yet again, that this painting is probably going to take longer than I thought. Maybe my teacher will settle for the end of the school year? I hope so, 'cause it's not going to be done when I thought it was. Okay, deep breath........... Thanks to everyone who has been supporting this blog, and here's wishing everyone a great year!

Sweet House

Some pictures of my gingerbread house this year. (Mom made the rock fence and added some of the piping decorations around the door, roof, and windows.) The best part; none of the house collapsed during construction! My favorite part is the stained glass windows.

Painting Marathon

Here we go! I have from now until about Jan. 15 to finish my giant painting. (Actually, I would prefer to take longer, but I promised my art teacher that I would have it done before the school art show.) My goal is to finish approximately one section (divided by the roots) every day for about 2 weeks. Then I'll have a few days for the finishing touches. Of course, this is in my happy fictional world where everything goes as planned. :) I have painted today for about 5 or so hours, and I plan to continue for at least 3 more, maybe even further than that. I am also trying not to think too hard about how long this is going to take. Wheeeeeee!

A Tale of Woe (and Triumph)

I learned a very important lesson last night. Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never underestimate the time it will take to finish a project. Especially when it's a painting. Especially when you are beginning on that painting at 4:00 in the afternoon. Let's just say that when I went to school today, getting up at 6:00 am, I was running on a highly inadequate 3 hours of sleep. I was on auto pilot the whole day. Luckily, it was the last day of a trimester, so we weren't doing much. But I finished the watercolor! And it felt so wonderful! (Sadly, with the end of the trimester comes the end of my painting classes for this year, so I actually have to buy art supplies myself now. ;) Getting rid of my oil palette was strangely sentimental. We have been through much together........ Can you tell I'm sleep deprived?)

Crazy Crunch Week: Part 2

I have now been painting since 9 o'clock this morning and it's five o'clock. I am beginning to realize that finishing my oil painting before Monday is a lost cause. I will most likely be able to finish my watercolor, though. I hope that my teacher is lenient, and realizes how much effort I have put into this. Luckily, even after the class ends, I will be able to keep the leftover paint that is in my palette right now. The only downside is I have to get rid of the colors that I have already mixed. Oh, well. My new goal is to finish it before my school's art show in January. That's a little more realistic!(Pictures show amount of progress in one entire day. The one on the left is the before picture. Yeah, I'm a pretty slow worker Can you spot the differences?)

Crazy Crunch Week

In just over three days, I have to finish three different paintings. One is the sheep shearing portrait from my previous post, along with another watercolor. And then I have a massive oil painting. The only hope I have of finishing it on time is to take it home on Friday, work on it until ten at night, get up early Saturday morning, work on it all day, and then maybe even on Sunday too. Crazy, crazy week! If I die, put on my tombstone that I died for the love of art. :)

Sneak Peek

Well, this is a special sneak peek of my current project in watercolor. You can't really tell in the unfinished picture, but the guy on the right is in the process of shearing a sheep. The apron of the woman on the left is giving me some trouble, but overall I think it's going fairly well. I have less than a week before it's due in my class, so that will be an adventure. I'll keep everyone posted!

Green Fatigue: A Popsicle Portrait

I am finally, finally, finally done with this picture! It took approximately 40 hours, and I'm sick of the color green. I hope you like it, though. I do love the finished product. My next project, not surprisingly, has virtually no green in it. What do you think I should call this picture? I'd appreciate some input. Thanks!

Painting

I have very mixed feelings for painting. In some ways, I almost hate it. That is, I hate the monotony of working on one section for an extended period of time. I love most the feeling of starting a new painting and putting the final touches on one. It's just the in-between stuff that gets to me! Isn't that how it is with any project?

Popsicle

This is a work in progress in my oil painting class. Story behind the picture: everyone was eating popsicles once upon a time in July,  and I noticed that they were really fun colors. So I went outside with the camera and made everyone pose. Great photos! The lips shall remain anonymous, thanks to a request from the sibling. The green part of the popsicle alone  took 2 hours. It's great fun!

Oil Miniature

This is a miniature oil painting we did for my class. I haven't gotten back my first painting from being graded yet, but I hope you will enjoy this one in the meantime. It was about 2 inches by 3 inches, and it was a lot of fun to paint. And by the way, the white thing near the back is a plastic bag, not cauliflower. (A lot of people are confusing the two.) :)

PrismaColor

This was done at the end of last school year, but it's still one of my favorites. This was actually my first piece that I ever did in a color medium. It's done with colored pencils on mat board, (used for framing pictures). My teacher likes using mat board because of the texture it offers. It lets you put down more layers of color without getting the surface too waxy. I entered this one in the county fair, along with "Our Journey's Through", and it won a director's choice.(Basically 4th Place) This meant it did not qualify for the state fair, but I still enjoy it. (This is an image directly from the internet, but it was meant as a study of colored pencil technique, and I am not using it for any personal profit.)

First Watercolor

So, this is my very first watercolor ever. The background was done using a wet-in-wet technique, and the rest was wet-on-dry. Some of the painting around the edges got cut out in the picture, but I hope you can get the general idea. Anyway, I hope that I can figure out the delicate science of watercolor this year. It should be an adventure!

State Fair

The State Fair was a lot of fun to go to. My family and I had a great time. This picture ended up winning Best of Show at the County Fair, and fourth place in the amateur fine arts division at the State Fair. It is titled "Our Journey's Through". I had entered art in the county fair for quite a few years in a row, but had not won anything for them, so this was really an amazing experience! A limited number of gallery quality prints are available for purchase for $50, plus shipping,  if anyone is interested.  :)

Welcome to Squiggles and Lines!

The purpose of this blog is to promote the fine art of Hannah H. That's Me! I am currently studying oil and watercolor in High School, and have completed courses in ceramics and drawing. I enjoy art because of the sense of creating something beautiful. Thanks for joining me on my art journey!