Ides of March

Today is the Ides of March. Poor Julius Caesar was told to beware them and ignored the advice, making it the one Ides that has gone down in history as a date to remember. Of course I am not sure it would be so memorable without the line from Shakespeare's play "Beware the Ides of March". For some reason that phrase seems to resonate with the public, so that even today it will be tweeted thousands of times by people who may have never read the play or know who Julius Caesar was. For the record I have read the play and since I studied Latin in High School actually read some of Julius Caesar's writings.

I suppose it is appropriate that this weeks drawing is of a male model. We have so few of them that it is a noteworthy event, never mind that I actually did the drawing on the 14th.  I fear I didn't do him justice, he is a very attractive young man. I am sure he doesn't consider himself that young, but he is only in his early 20's so to  me he is young. The pose was sitting and I admit that I arranged myself to avoid drawing the crotch. That knee in this view was well positioned as far as I was concerned. My personal preference is to not do crotches, either female or male. I know there are other artists who actually prefer that type of pose, not me. That is not to say that if the pose demands it I wouldn't draw it, I would/will/have. I just prefer not to if I have the choice.

Some parts of this drawing I like, and other parts I am not so sure of. Typical I suppose, that said it was fun to draw a male torso instead of a womans, much easier since he wasn't bulked up with muscle.

Otherwise I have been continuing my pen and ink work on the hot press water color paper. Below is my latest effort.

I was looking at Zentangles in a Flicker group I belong to and saw one based on a solid shape that I really liked. I decided to try my own version and the above is the result. I call it Zen Shell #1, since to me the shape ended up looking like a shell. I added color using Cretacolor watercolor pencils. Lightly penciling in the color then using a wet brush to activate and blend the colors. I think the result is kind of fun and am going to try another with more specific shell shapes.

That is it for today, I am still waiting for my House ATC's. I am becoming afraid that they have gotten lost on their way from CA, or perhaps they were delivered to the wrong address. I will be unhappy if they don't show up, but there isn't much I can do about it, ah well, at least my cards arrived in that direction. Per usual comments or questions are welcome.