Author: virginiacmccoy

Queen Anne’s Lace

Sorta… LOL! I took a photo of some Queen Anne’s Lace in my trusty little vase while we were still in Ohio. As I was working on it with my soft pastels on velour paper, it morphed into a fantasy flower of some sort. Kinda moody and autumnal, I think. I am ready for fall. It is hot and it feels like I will be roasted to a turn every time I walk out the door from this glorious air-conditioning. Cooler weather cannot come too soon for me.

Every year, August lashes out in volcanic fury, rising with the din of morning traffic, its great metallic wings smashing against the ground, heating the air with ever-increasing intensity. — Henry Rollins

Portrait of Montana

This is a commission portrait for a client who is giving it to his friend who lives in Montana and has this dog named Montana. I enjoyed it, but not as much as my client is enjoying it. It is gratifying to have happy clients.

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read. — Groucho Marx

Green-eyed Kitty

I thought it was time to give equal time to kitties, so I had to try to do this green-eyed beauty. Sometime you just come across a photo that immediately mesmerizes you. That happened with this one. I could not do that beautiful animal justice, but I like the result anyway. I had the hardest time with it, though. I started on velour paper with pastel pencils. I was thinking that I would do the entire thing with the pencils. Nope. I kept fighting the paper, so I resorted to soft pastels and the color popped! Fun, fun, fun!

Cats are connoisseurs of comfort. — James Herriott

Spy Doggy

I wanted to do a picture of a dog and found this one. I thought he was so serious about his chosen profession of spying on the neighbors. LOL! This is pastels on Canson Mi-Teintes pastel paper, 11.5 x 15.5.

The dog is the perfect portrait subject. He doesn’t pose. He isn’t aware of the camera. — Patrick Demarchelier

Welsh Countryside

This is a scene of an old garden and pond in Wales. Pastels on sanded paper, 10.5 x 15.5. This picture feels a little autumnal, does it not? I am looking forward to the deep dark winter of Florida. Yep. I sure am…

Plants cry their gratitude for the sun in green joy. ~Terri Guillemets

A Walk in Frankfurt

The reference photo for this picture is of a beautiful walking trail along a river in Frankfurt, Germany. I did not take the photo. I didn’t even know where it was when I chose it. It was a nice surprise to find it was a place that I had been, even though I certainly do not remember this place. It is probably new since I have been there… It is pastels on sanded paper, 8×10.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive. — C. S. Lewis

Wee Sma’ Landscapes

Here are a couple of wee sma’ landscapes which I did in the wee sma’ hours of the morning. I could not sleep, so at 2:00 a.m. I found myself watching a pastel tutorial and decided to give it a try. These are 5×7. Much smaller than I like to do, but I had a couple of pieces of leftover paper to use up. The first one is just a grassy field and the second one is a live oak with spanish moss, a common enough scene here in the south.

My parents didn’t want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that’s the law. — Jerry Seinfeld

Mallard Drake

I was talking to my neighbor and he was reminiscing about duck hunting. I was inspired to do a drawing of a duck. I decided to use colored pencils, because of the detail, which I thought would be too difficult in pastels. I am not very experienced with serious use of colored pencils. It is a whole different ball game from graphite, charcoal, or pastels. But, I think I did okay.

The perils of duck hunting are great – especially for the duck. — Walter Cronkite