Leaves, Sort of

Above is my one of my latest works in progress. It looks complicated but is really very easy to do. I am sorry I don't have more in-process photos to post for this as I suppose some of my readers might have enjoyed seeing how I got to this point.

I was thinking about Zentangles and how you start them with a "string" (a simple line or shape). Then I recalled an exercise from I think my Color and Design class a couple of years ago. But I am sure I learned to do this much longer ago then that, it is sort of a standard exercise that has been around for a long time.

Take a simple shape, in my case I drew the stylized leaf below. Sort of based on the shape of some oak leaves I have been drawing in my nature journal.

I then used tracing paper to copy the shape and to transfer the image to an 8 inch square of Stonehenge paper. I marked 1 inch borders on the Stonehenge but when I was tracing the leaf I sometimes placed it so part of the leaf would be outside those lines.

I traced the leaf five six times, rotating and flipping the design so that the leaves overlapped each other and some of the edges of my paper. The idea is to break up the white space into smaller sections. I then used one of my technical pens to trace the outlines of all of the leaves. I am now in the process of adding fills to some of the sections. When I finish with the fills I will add color, not sure right now if it will be watercolor or colored pencil. Most likely it will be colored pencil as Stonehenge isn't really a watercolor paper, though I understand it will take some water. Come back later this week and I will hopefully have a progress update.

Below is one of my latest journal pages:

Last Friday after 3 1/2 days of rain and clouds, the sun finally came back out and I was able to take the camera off to one of my haunts for a walk. In this case it was Blue Hills Reservation, first Trailside Museum then Houghton's Pond. The mushrooms I saw and photographed growing in a clump at the base of a tree in the Great Blue Hill area. I really like these shapes and have plans to do at least one larger work with them, but am saving it for another post.

The man and dog I saw at Houghton's Pond. He was tossing a tennis ball into the water for the dog to fetch. I think the dog was having a wonderful time.

Last but not least is last nights figure drawing:

I am not happy with the face, I drew it over at least 3 times and just couldn't seem to make it work for me. Part of the problem was the head tilt, complicated by the angle, just not in the groove last night I guess. The one thing I am happy about is that she is lying on/in the couch, not floating above it.

We did have a fairly good turn out last night, three other women and one of our regular males, so it was a good evening otherwise.

That is it for today. I will probably be doing an extra update this week, as I have a couple more Journal pages and my mushroom project to post. In the meantime comments are always welcome.