Tabitha's Challenge: 100 Flower Paintings #1 'Little Favorites' 5x7 oil on canvas board

A couple of months ago, I showed my daughter some paintings on another artist's blog, some in a series, like '100 plein air paintings' or '100 faces'.  She told me I should do something like that, to challenge myself, and suggested either flowers, or birds. 100 of anything sounds un-doable in my world. But I accepted her challenge. I decided that flowers would be easier, to start, but of course, I immediately made things complicated for myself  by picking out 'flower scenes', instead of one little flower in a vase, or something simple like that. So, the challenge began.  Here's the first one I did.

Cityscape 5"x7"

This is the October challenge on Karin Jurick's Different Strokes From Different Folks blog.  I wasn't thrilled with how this ended up for me.  I struggled with straight lines, shadows, and color.  It may look better framed.  But I did it, and I'm sure I learned from it - you always do, when you do something quite out of your comfort zone.

Self Portrait - 4" x 6" - October 2009

I've been wanting to do a self portrait for a while, so I decided to start small.  I drew this about 2 weeks ago, and got a mixed review from my family.  It didn't really look like me,..unless you squinted..and then, well, it did, just younger.  I figured I probably wouldn't paint it.  I took a picture of the drawing just in case it got lost, and then I could always refer back to it and know I tried a self-portrait once upon a time.  But there's something funny about drawing a face.  You keep looking at it, and it starts looking back. Then, after you've critiqued it to death in your mind, you figure it can't get much worse with paint on it, so you dive in.  It took me about 2 hours, after I mixed a bunch of paint.  Actually, I kind of like it, now!  It looks like me with an extreme makeover!  My husband asked me if that was the challenge:  paint yourself 20 years younger?  Ha, ha.  Yes. I think I may have stumbled onto something.  This could be the angle I've been looking for.  "Portraits done on commission: Looks just like you, only better!" or maybe "Perfect portraits of the perfect you!"  or better still "I'll paint you to look like you've always wished you looked!".  So when your spouse says 'Wow!  Now that's the girl I wish I could date!' you can tell him 'That's me, baby.... just keep squinting.'