Awhile back, I decided to stop  paper crafting for a bit and focus my attention on my portrait sketching. It  was always a desire to learn to draw but I never took the time, and I certainly am not lucky enough to have a natural artist ability. When I was living in Mykonos, I had an artist friend who truly was amazing and made a fortune as a sketch artist for the tourists there. He sketched me on several occasions and I was lucky enough to receive one of those sketches, which to this day about 25 years later (OMG did I just say that!!)it is hanging on my bedroom wall. Anyway, the point to the story is that he inspired me to want to draw.. trust me to say that I have no natural talent is putting it lightly LOL~ Well since my so called early retirement, I decided I was going to explore all my artistic desires. I started with a class in floral designs, then switched to folk painting with Donna Dewberry, then stated scrap booking and paper crafting which I still love..then got brave and started to try to sketch..it was horrible.. then I found Darryl Tank, and let me tell you this guy is one incredible artist, but more than that he is an  awesome teacher! I invested in a couple of his lessons and here I am .. I try to sketch daily for as long as I can sometimes hours... So   here are some of my sketches .. thought it would be fun to post some before Mr. Tank's 5 pencil method and after.....

As  you can see, I truly  had no idea what I was doing, LOL! So here are the afters:

I still have a very long way to go, but am loving the journey and loving the ability to bring joy to friends and loved ones with their portraits!  Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and share in my artistic journey!

I am so excited for this new issue of PaperHaus! It truly is a masterpiece, Frank and the gang just keep getting better and better ! Don't Miss it, it is breathtaking! And don't miss the Spring Fling taking place all month long at the PaperHaus Blog as there are some pretty amazing prizes to giveaway AND the blog hop has some wonderful giveaways too!  So go take a look and prepare to have your scrappy mind blown away!

http://issuu.com/thepaperhaus/docs/paperhaus_spring_2013r

Paperhaus Spring Fling

Paperhaus is doing it agian! Thats right another huge event with some awesome give aways! Mark  your calendars the blog hop will be from March 1st thru March 7th!! Hope to see ya there!

Paperhaus' Giant 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways!

Follow Your Dreams

I did this for the sketch challenge at Once Upon a Sketch this month. I have to say this is one of my favorites, that photo of my great neice McKenzie is just amazing!

Finally after several weeks of being sick, I felt good enough to  play with all my new toys. I got from the Paper Issues store :) 'Every thing but the flowers  is Prima, so yummy!Just a little somp'un somep'un to wake up ,my long slumbering mojo fairy, whom has taken up residence in someone eleses head the witch!

Reach for the Stars

This is for Creative Scrappers sketch #224, I just loved working on this sketch! The little girl is my now grown Goddaughter at our wedding years ago. I have such a love for this photo,  it is one of those rare moments that are just magical and I have yet to tire of scrapping it!!

The flower is made with white cardstock and my own crazy mist mix.   I also colored the title and stars with a mixture of my own colored mists, they are so much prettier irl!  Paper is Websters.