Charlie-Study 3

© Ellen Blonder

Charlie is one happy dog. I like this pose best so far because I'll be able to add things all around him easily and because he's looking right at you.

Charlie-Study 2

© Ellen Blonder

I didn't mean for months to go by without posting new art. Here's another pencil sketch of Charlie, I want to get a better feel for his face, shape and fur before I start in on an acrylic painting of him within a Hawaiian setting. He's all black, which makes drawing him both fun and challenging.

Dim Sum Cooking Demo

© Ellen Blonder

I haven't been posting because I've been prepping for a dim sum cooking demo I'm giving tomorrow at the City College of San Francisco, and signing books. Here's some of the art from the book, Dim Sum: The Art of Chinese Tea Lunch. I'm making two of the recipes in the picture, the potstickers and greens, and will also show ha gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai, and lotus-wrapped rice. We'll finish off the afternoon with almond cookies. See you there?

Kauai Plants Sketch

© Ellen Blonder

These sketches are of the plants in front of our parking space at the Kauai Hindu Monastery, where we went to wait out a possible tsunami after evacuating our coastal place. I drew as we listened to updates on our car radio about the waves approaching each island on their way here. We were lucky that all ended well.

Charlie-Study 1

© Ellen Blonder

Winnie Lu, a friend and realtor here on Kauai, asked me to paint a portrait of her dog Charlie. He's all black, with ears that have a tendency to flip inside out. He also has boundless energy at age 2, so I'll work from a series of photographs that Winnie and I both took. This is my first pencil study; I'm trying to get a feel for what handsome Charlie's all about.

Kauai Painting-Final Final

© Ellen Blonder

Well, never say a painting's final until you've slept on it. I woke up still dissatisfied with the way the top half wasn't melding with the bottom half of the painting. The sky is now much darker at the top, and I've worked on the clouds. Took all day to paint it in between the palm leaves, but it was worth it--now it really feels finished.

Kauai Painting-Final

©Ellen Blonder

It's a rainy day today. I'll look at this again in the morning light. I'll see if I can take better shots of it when the sun comes out, but I think I'm done.

Kauai Painting-Day 18

© Ellen Blonder

This detailed shot shows where I'm finally getting to the anthuriums in the foreground; I will continue to work on them for another day. Once that's done, I can finally start refining and adding details elsewhere. The lower right corner was the most unfinished part of the painting.

Kauai Painting-Day 15

© Ellen Blonder

One of my friends was having trouble visualizing how big this painting was, so here's a photo of me working on it. The top photo shows details of the last few days' progress. Now that I'm having to get layers of green not to turn into a confused muddle, I'm doing a lot of repainting, lightening or darkening.

Kauai Painting-Day 12

© Ellen Blonder

The foreground is roughed in, along with the "bones" of the ferns. I added a banana plant and a couple of distant palms and a plant along the far edge of the path.

Kauai Painting-Day 11

© Ellen Blonder
I couldn't sleep last night, thinking about how tight this painting was becoming. At 4 AM, I started chalking in overlapping foliage to the right and in the foreground.

Kauai Painting-Day 10

© Ellen Blonder

Now it's getting fun, adding details: shredded traveler tree leaves, small palm on left, vine crawling up the big palm, rough mountain details. There's still a lot to fill in.

Kauai Painting-Day 9

© Ellen Blonder

The traveler tree in the left background was interfering with the palm leaves, so I repainted them roughly, lower on the branches. I finished the trunk of the palm, and I'm starting to chalk in details for some of the other foliage. There's still a long way to go, but I feel like this is finally starting to take shape.

Kauai Painting-Day 8

© Ellen Blonder

Took a little time off to show a friend the island for the first time. It helped me see the beautiful flora here with a fresher eye.

Remembering Annabel

© Ellen Blonder

Remembering Annabel Low today, my aunt and co-writer. She would have been 60 today. On our book cover, that's her on the left and me on the right. I miss you, dear one.

Kauai Painting-Days 6 and 7

© Ellen Blonder

I've painted a traveler tree in the background and roughed in the bromeliad in the foreground, larger than before. Lots of issues to work out with the various greens.