Paintings and Pictures by Andrea J. Anderson: Acrylic paintings and Family photos

Blog-post Saturday is finally here! I have much to write about this week.

First of all, Sunday I went with my Grandma +Dixie Koch to a church that we were invited to for a book signing. They hosted an event just for us! My grandma sold and signed books, and I displayed some of my artwork. I sold this charcoal drawing as well (reference photo: Alice Loder Photography):

Right before the event, during the service, was when we had to speak in front of everyone there. I was beyond scared! I have many talents, one of them not being public speaking! Everything turned out all right though and the speech actually went well. I had a great time afterward talking to people and overall it was a wonderful time! And, the nacho tacos were delicious!

I've had a wonderful opportunity given to me! I have not shared this on facebook, but I have been chosen to illustrate a children's book! It's a book about cats. Although I haven't drawn cats since I was a kid, I practiced and these are just a couple rough sketches of what they will look like (created digitally):

This week I started working with a photographer who resides in the UK. She posted in an Equine Artists group on facebook that her photos can be used to create works of art under a few conditions. I will be doing a few more paintings and drawings from her wonderful photographs. Like her page on facebook!

On Wednesday I started following an artist named Elise Genest, who does lifesize acrylic paintings of horses. I fell in love with her style. You should like her page on facebook too! Here are a couple of her paintings:

I wanted to experiment with her style and how she does her backgrounds. So Wednesday on a whim I decided to paint this Pintabian (reference photo: Alice Loder Photography, UK):

I love just being free playing with the background. On this piece I also put in some paint that has little beads in it, so the ground the horse is running on is raised and has a sandy texture. I love how this turned out.

Yesterday I decided instead of doing homework, to do another painting (So that means I have to do my homework today! Ugh.). I used a free reference photo, by an equine photographer named Janina Suuronen. Again, I experimented with the background:

I think this one turned out even better than the one above! This painting took approximately 5 hours to complete and it was a little harder, because when the horse is closer, the detail increases. I think I have a new favorite medium!

After posting these two paintings on facebook, I got more likes on my page and more people interested in paintings. I wish I could do a painting every day, BUT college life is so demanding! But hey, I'm making time to do them anyway.

And now for photography, I reached 100 likes on my photography facebook page (www.facebook.com/AndreaPhotos) in just a few days! I have been busy editing the Hager family session and I thought I would share them: