Wilma

Watching Wilma grow up, I fell in love with her - the way she gently took treats rather than ripping my hand off, her beautiful tail feathers, her lovely face. Now, she has puppies of her own - her second litter, who I hope take after her. In October, I drew this picture of her, and finally decided to scan it, because, well... I hadn't yet.

See - this is the technique I used - adding highlights and lowlights first. She's kind of Technicolor, but it worked out well.

Here's the final Drawing. I took a picture of it, in front of our big window, so I had plenty of light. Isn't she pretty? The last one I drew of her, I'm not too fond of anymore (I've improved A LOT), so I had to draw another. This is based of a photo by Becky Oslund.

Merry Christmas!!!

Well... yeah. It's been a long time, and now that Christmas is over, I have some things to show you guys. These were Christmas presents for people who may have seen them early, so I kept them a secret...

This first one I drew for Kayla Dever (well, it was actually her mom who commisioned me...). It has her five lovely PAWS pups, all together. It was fun to do, and I was certain I would never finish it - that the dogs wouldn't fit. But, it all worked out in the end!

.... Yeah... this was a scanned version, and the paper was 14x17, so I had to piece it together. My scanner isn't that big...

Here it is, matted, on display at my school after my art teacher abducted it in October. Because it went on display, the football coach at my school, Coach Kohn, sought me out to do one for his son for Christmas. I'll try to upload a picture for you...

Here we are. This one is 22x28, and one of the ladies at my church, Gail Palpant, is an artist, and she got a good picture of it for me with her nice camera. The Coach gave me the pictures 3 weeks before Christmas, so I was scrambling to get this done.

Anyway, I'm looking to do another composite one, like these two, for a contest. I can't promise when you would get the image (probably sometime in the summer), but if you would like me to, and wouldn't mind waiting for it, I can do some of your dogs (or other animals)! Email me at: ljkrichbaum@comcast.net if you are interested.

Thanks for reading, and looking. I hope you enjoyed it!

Some art for school

Yeah. I know that it's been awhile. Forgive me. I've been busy with school and school related activities. ex - AP english... seems like I've been spending allllll of my free time reading lately. Any - thanks for looking, and enjoy!

I Painted a Pumpkin! It has Horton on it and other characters from Horton Hears a Who. The paint was chipping off before I finished though, and when I took it out to my car, it was raining, and it started dripping on me. Joy!

Also, I drew a Strawberry. There were specific instructions, but I learned a bit about colored pencil. (which, since I've done what seems to be hundred of colored pencil drawings may seem shocking... but it isn't. However, now I must know everything possible about colored pencils. haha. Just Kidding) anyway, doesn't it look yummy?

This is Grover. He is now a guide dog in Pennsylvania (I think...).

For this one, I used some of the colored pencil techniques I learned recently in Art class. Basically, we did layers - one color at a time, adding them one by one. In the middle, I was certain Grover would end up looking red and blue and purple. Mysteriously, he turned out pretty normal colored. I can't say that he looks that much different than what other drawings I've done where I haven't used that exact technique though...

Also, I wanted a wintry scene, though the picture I used wasn't wintry at all. So I improvised. To be honest, there is a part of me that thinks that maybe I shouldn't have. But I still kind of like how it turned out.

Ok - I won't hold you up reading this forever. But thanks for reading it so far. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed it.

In memory of Ike

This is Ike. He spent a solid 11 years working for Erica Stark as a service dog. Today he breathed his last. Keep Erica in your prayers.

The loss of any dog can be difficult. But when you have a service dog, the bond that is shared between the dog and the person is greater than you can imagine. Service dogs do the work of pets, but much more. Not only do they live with this person, but they also go EVERYWHERE with them. They give love and happiness - as well as support and help and independence. Service dogs don't just greet their owner with a cheerful face - they open doors, and pick up remote controls and phones and even dimes with one. They live a life of co-dependence with their owner.

Ike has a successor - in fact, he has been in retirement for the past year. But regardless of how well a job Cooley is able to do (which is amazing), Ike can't be replaced. The bond between Erica and Cooley will continue to grow, but Ike will be missed by them and the others that met him.

Ike lived a full life. 13 1/2 years worth of doing what he was born and raised to do. He was a great dog, and left behind great memories.

Keep Erica in your prayers.

Ok, it may seem like I'm not doing anything right now, since I haven't posted anything in a while... but I am! I promise. School has started though, so life's gotten a little hectic.

In my Art class, I've drawn some things - a strawberry, and a few different versions of a pepper. (one was with watercolor pencils - a first for me... so it isn't exactly amazing...) I can post them for you to see it you want. I have a dog that I hope to start tonight though.

Also, I should have more time on my hands this week - no school Thursday or Friday! I don't know how much homework I'll get though. I'm staying on top of that though.

I'll see you all soon, and there is something I'm just dieing to tell you about, but it will have to wait...

How to Order

Ok, here we go. I know I don't really have people lined up for custom orders at this point, but if you ever have the urge.... This is how you go about it. It's pretty simple.

Basically, just email me at
LJKrichbaum@comcast.net
(Leah Krichbaum)

We'll talk price from there, depending mostly on the size of what you want done. I'll send it to the address you specify, and you'll send a check to me. I'll email you a scan of the picture before sending it to you, so that you know what to expect.

Some of my previous work

These drawings have all been done since the beginning of March. I'll show you a couple for each month, so that you can see my improvement. If you want to see the bigger, more detailed versions, you can click on the picture, and it will pop up.

March -

April -

May -

June -

July -

August -

Just a glimpse of how this blog came about...

I looked at the picture on my screen, amazed by what I saw. There she is - my gorgeous girl, painted with a mix of browns, yellows, and various other colors, looking up at me with those adorable trusting eyes. This was my girl - my dog, or as close as I'd ever had to one. There was a painting of Demi, the dog I hadn't seen for over five months, since I'd turned her in to Paws With A Cause to be trained to be a service dog.

This painting was done in March, by the artist Kimberly Santini. She paints a dog each day, and this week had been devoted to dogs involved with Paws. That week, I saw paintings of a few other dogs I had met, and they inspired me.

I took my hand up at drawing. The first one wasn't great, (in fact, now I look back and can't imagine doing one so badly ever again... oh how those eyes cause me to despair!) but still, people encouraged me. I continued to draw, improving as the months went along. Summer arrived, and I now had a break from school - time to devote to practicing drawing and building up a better portfolio.

My practice victims were all dogs either in training to be service dogs or service dogs for Paws With A Cause. Having spent a year raising one of their pups and meeting others who raised them had caused me to fall in love with those dogs. They were 'viciously' studied and drawn, and my skill with a pencil, and ability to see with my right brain and accurately draw increased.

Also - and the most amazing thing of all - is that the people who either raised these dogs or owned the service dogs were willing to pay me for my "practice sketches". This only gave me all the more reason to keep trying - though I could see the imperfections, and easily discouraged myself. But no matter how bad I thought the drawing was, these people were amazed. Soon, I was getting some requests for private commisions.

Over the next few days, I will show some of my more recent work. I won't claim to be awe-inspiring, but I can see how much I've improved over these last few months. If you want to request a private commision of an animal you would like drawn, I'll also tell you how to go about that too. I may also throw in a few blogs updating you on various other passions in my life, since my URL is oneteenspassions, but I promise that mostly this is going to have to do with my art.

Thanks for reading - I know it was rather long. I'm looking forward to adding more posts and keeping you updated. I hope that you enjoy my art and my blog!