Ari Cat is in my lap purring right now as I type over his furry back. Cooler weather means snuggly cats!

Visit www.Explore-Oil-Pastels-With-Robert-Sloan.com for a growing site with articles, product reviews, techniques and tips for a medium I'm really into. Over 88 pages of information, how-to articles, book and product reviews.

I love this stamp. And then I got another one!
I won the Landscape Category!

ETSY shop
eBay auctions (current) or search on Robs Art at eBay.

COMMISSIONS: -- I have two large commissions in progress, so I am booked solid except for ACEO commissions at $20 each plus cost of shipping.

Dick Blick Art Materials
is my favorite art supply company, with unbelievably good customer service and the best online prices. Use this link when you shop and I'll get a small commission that costs you nothing. I am a proud Affiliate of Blick Art Materials. I think I've spent on average about half retail for the immense stockpile of supplies that I play with over the years. So use my link to shop and you'll help support my habit.

My most recent favorite colored pencil piece, inspired by an exercise in Masterful Color by Arlene Steinberg.

Recently I joined , check out the club! Also check out , which I founded.

Wow. I haven't blogged here since I moved. OW... been very busy. There was the unpacking, that took months. There's been a lot of other stuff going on. I've been doing art and posting it mostly on my LiveJournal at robertsloan2 on LJ but a lot of it last summer has been loose sketching, not ACEOs, not stuff for sale, working on improving my sketching style and trying plein air a few times.

I set a high goal this year for Nanowrimo, to beat my best. My best year was 2004 when I did two 80,000 word novels, both of which came out well.

This year I've finished Magic in the Streets at 82,964 words. I've started Medicine Show and have nearly 15,000 words in it already. Total count is 92,000 and some change.

The first novel is cat fantasy. Magecats in New Orleans battle an evil spirit with the aid of their human familiars. The cats gain more humanlike intelligence and ideas. The humans gain cat magic and subtle acculturation to the felines.

The second involves Malcolm Evans, the vampire hero of Raven Dance, when he's just a new vampire in 1860. He seeks out Kartchottee, a Tlingit shaman, on the advice of his Spiritualist mother's ghost, who agrees to teach him. I thought this might be a vampire Western but there's hints they may go to England or the South for the Civil War or who knows where. I have no idea what happens next in this novel.

Except that in three chapters they're already sticking their necks out and getting on some interesting trouble. Tricksters, the pair of them.

I'm having fun with it.

Other good news, my website broke even on its renewal thanks to folks using my affiliate links and the lovely big traffic it gets. So if you've ever had any interest in oil pastels and haven't yet, check out my cool oil pastels website. I'm very proud and will be adding more pages when I'm done with Novel Season.

I bought new supplies but haven't reviewed them yet. Caran d'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble artist crayons aren't technically oil pastels. But they sure behave like the best oil pastels -- creamy, opaque, blendable, wonderful colors and handling especially when I want to use them on dark paper.

I had a set of these back when I lived in New Orleans and didn't really know how to use them well at the time, but did face painting with them and the set paid for itself several times over on that. I missed them horribly as soon as I started getting into oil pastels and now I've got the big 84 color set that I drooled at all the time back then -- and it's even better than I remembered.

Enjoy! And come to Nanowrimo site or SFFmuse if you're writing this year. My novels will go up in the beta reading forums on December 1st on SFFmuse, so you can only read them if you join. I will probably be doing lots of crits on other members' posted works too in order to get critique. We're currently doing a membership drive and trying to get the site livelier. New posts are appearing on the forums, so check it out if you used to be active and thought the site went inactive.

It's not any more, we're doing a lot with it and may be adding a blog feature like Hobgoblin's when the tech admins finish getting it sorted out.

Photography Conditions to Draw, Photomanip, Collage:
Link back to my original Deviation in your Artist Comment, credit me and send me a note so that I can come see, feature and maybe favorite your work. I like seeing how people use my photos. No other restrictions, except not claiming you took the photo.

My eHow articles, oldest at top. Please note me if you try the exercises, I love seeing how people use them!
How to Draw a Still Life with Colored Conte Crayons
How to Draw Celtic Knotwork
How to Draw and Shade Spheres
How to Draw Crosshatching and Hatching
How to Buy and Store Colored Pencils
How to Preserve and Store Framed Portraits
How to Paint Watercolors En Plein Air
How to Draw a Satin Ribbon
How to Draw with Oil Pastels
How to Get Cat Urine Odors Out of Carpets
How to Be More Socially Active
How to Draw a Rose Easily
How to Draw a Butterfly in Soft Pastels
How to Draw a Siamese Cat Portrait in colored Conte crayons
How to Draw a Skull
How to Understand Color Theory and Pigments
How to Draw a Land Hermit Crab in Derwent Drawing Pencils
How to Draw a Pumpkin with Derwent Inktense pencils
How to Draw Original Fantasy Maps for your Fiction
How to Draw a Halo for Religious Art
How to Draw with Brush Pens
How to Draw Oak Bark (For ~Peachfuzz!)
How to Adapt to Mobility Limits
How to Draw Foliage with Chiaroscuro
How to Paint a Mountain Scene in Watercolor
How to Shade with Colored Pencils (requested by *Mattsma)
How to Choose a Cat by Personality
How to Draw a Pansy in Colored Pencils
How to Draw Smooth Tonal Layers in Colored Pencils
How to Draw a Clear Glass in Conte Crayon
How to Draw an ACEO or ATC Easy!
How to Draw a Geranium in Colored Pencils (Hi ~Peachfuzz!)
How to Draw an Eye in Conte Crayon
How to Draw a Human Mouth in Conte Crayon
How to Draw Light Colored Hair
How to Draw a Nose
How to Dominate a Cat
How to Draw the Ear
How to Draw a Bird's Wing
How to Draw a Strawberry in Derwent Inktense
How to Draw a Lily in Derwent Inktense
How to Draw a Sunflower in Pen and Watercolor
How to Draw Water in Black and White
How to Draw the New Year Baby
How to Draw Martin Luther King, Jr.
How to Sell ACEO Art Online
How to Draw Medieval Things
How to Draw a Medieval Rose
How to Draw Father Time for New Year's Decorations
How to Draw Snowy Pines in Colored Pencils
How to Draw Medieval Hinges (for ~Kayara)
How to Draw a Bald Eagle Head and Shoulders"
How to Draw from Negative Space
How to Date a Smoker
How to Dye Clothing Very Bright Colors
How to Write a Love Letter to a Goth
How to Draw with Good Composition
How to Draw Rocks
How to Draw Clasped Hands
How to Draw the Human Neck
How to Draw a Heart Shape
How to Draw a Pinup Girl
How to Share your Writing and Get Support
How to Teach an Art Workshop
How to Draw Realistic Flower Petals in Watercolor Pencil and Pen
How to Prepare for Technical Writing Tests and Interviews
How to Draw a Newborn Kitten
How to Draw a Cat's Nose
How to Quick Draw Animals"
How to Draw a Cat's Eye
How to Create Fog in a Landscape Painting
How to Find Bargain Weekend Activities
How to Plan a Great Family Weekend
How to Preserve Your Artwork
How to Draw Sycamore Bark
How to Draw a Sycamore Tree
How to Enjoy Living Within Your Budget
How to Draw a Black Cat in Soft Pastels with Limited Palette.
How to Choose the Right Oil Pastels and Supports
How to Draw a Holiday Wreath in Oil Pastels
How to Draw Brass Jingle Bells in Oil Pastels
How to Cast a Freedom Spell
How to Cut a Six Sided Paper or Foil Snowflake
How to Draw Santa Claus in Oil Pastels
How to Have a Merry, Frugal Christmas
How to Draw a Christmas Kitten in Oil Pastels
How to Make Celtic Line Art
How to Make Sensible New Year's Resolutions
How to Start a Watercolor Journal
How to Improve Your Watercolor Painting