Figure Drawing and more EDM

Last nights figure drawing. I was fairly satisfied with it last night, but today is another story. Oh well, there is always next week. Actually next week should be interesting. Scott is off to school for 8 weeks so one of the models is going to run the Monday night sessions the same as last summer. Just occurred to me that I have now been attending these Monday night sessions for a year. I am not sure I am seeing much improvement lately, but I do know that I am faster with my drawings, and feel I have more confidence. No longer am I afraid to draw the human form, dressed or undressed. So I have to say the effort has been worth it.

The model last night while lovely in a pose with great lines was a bit difficult to draw, she was twitchy. She kept moving her hand or her foot or..., and tended to keep her eyes closed. So there are parts of this drawing that are unfinished or are my guesses, and I know I don't have the face quite right, which is why my satisfaction level has dropped with this drawing.

Below are my more of the Every Day in May challenge drawings.

Drawing 128 was to show an interior of a room through a doorway from another room. The room is my bedroom from my kitchen. Done with graphite and fairly quickly as drawing rooms is not my favorite thing to do. For 129 we had to draw people doing something, I used the top left photograph below as reference and drew a man and his wife fishing. Well, he is fishing and she is sitting and enjoying the breeze and the view. The last drawing above, 130, is of school supplies. I dragged out a couple of notebooks left from the classes I was taking last year, added a pencil and eraser and did a quick sketch.

One more day to draw. I will post that one on the blog when I do the next update. In the meantime below are 4 photographs that I have made since the last blog update. Need I say that actually I have made over 100 photographs but am subjecting you to four. I try to be selective with the photos I show on the Bog as I know they can get boring.

The top left photo was made at the Cape Cod Canal last Friday. I drove down to the Cape on Friday and because of the traffic I stopped at the rest stop along the canal for a bit. I used this photograph for the EDM challenge drawing and also feel it gives you a good idea of what the canal is like.

The photograph in the upper right was made on the Cape at the MA. Audubon Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary. It is a view of the Sandy Neck lighthouse across Barnstable Harbor.

The photograph just underneath of the Rhododendron was also made at Long Pasture.

The last photograph in the bottom left was made at Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday afternoon. The building is a informational structure with a large window that looks out on a bird feeding station. Yesterday I saw a couple of wild turkeys, goldfinch and I think a Cardinal feeding. Further out  in the fields I could see and hear Bobolinks. The males were in their spring black and white plumage. Sorry no photographs of birds, I need a telephoto lens for that. The Canon is good but not that good. I have posted additional photographs from each location to my Facebook fan page and to my flickr account for anyone interested.

That is it for today. Hope everyone here in the States had a good Memorial day weekend. Per usual comments and questions are welcome.

More Every Day in May Drawings

About the only drawing I have managed this week has been for the Every Day in May challenge. I managed to get behind, not terribly, but badly enough that I had to spend a fair amount of time catching up. I did the rocks in the above grouping before the slump and then the next three all in the same evening. Because I was trying to catch up those three drawings are just done with pencil.

The worst one of the group is the flashlight in the upper right corner. I was using a reference photo and wasn't very interested in the subject so I just got it done. The rocks on the other hand I am quite pleased with, they were stones I picked up on a beach out in California, and yes that top rock is really that redish/purple color.

The coin is an old one that my grandfather acquired in France, my mother had set in the ring so it could be hung on a chain and gave it to my Aunt. My Aunt gave it to me, and I need to decide who I should pass it on to. The ring at the top needs repair as it is very worn, but the coin is still in beautiful condition.

What can I say about the phone, it was sitting there and I had to draw something shaded. Since just about everything I draw is shaded I did something simple.

For the next grouping, I was still trying to catch up when I drew the bell. This is also from a reference photograph, but I enjoyed the challenge of drawing a bell so spent more time with it. I rather like how it came out.

For the 24th our challenge was to draw something yellow. I was going to eat the banana and draw something else, but decided that the banana would really make the best subject so put off the eating until after I got it drawn. As you can see it was getting a bit ripe.

For the 25th our challenge was to draw a bird. I have had several reference photographs of goldfinch laying around for months. I was going to draw an ATC picturing one and then never got around to it. So the decision to use it for that challenge subject was easy. I enjoy the challenge of drawing birds, not sure I have this one quite right, but it isn't bad. The background could be better but I had one more drawing to do and so rushed the background a bit.

My last image is for the 26th (yesterday) and the one that caught me up is of a sponge. This is a new one, but of the type I use for dishes. Not a "real" sponge I know, but what I had on hand. Actually I think it came out rather well. I think it looks like the sponge I was drawing, which isn't quite as easy as it might seem at first glance. Todays challenge is to draw a skyscape, and I need to go check reference photos for that one.

If you wish to see larger images of any of my drawings please visit my flickr stream, link to the right. If you are curious about what the rest of the artists are drawing click here.

I wanted to share just a couple of my photographs that I have made in the past week or so. Above is an unknown butterfly. If anyone can identify it please leave me a comment. So far I haven't had any luck figuring it out via the internet. Photo was made in Massasoit State Park, East Taunton, MA. last week.

This week I visited a new park for me, Ames Newell State Park, it is a small park with a lake for fishing and boating, I made several photographs that I like that I have posted to my flickr stream. I thought I would share this photograph of a Pink Lady Slipper. I still don't have a photograph of one that I really like, but this one isn't bad.

The flowers are so low to the ground and with that overhanging leaf/petal it is hard to get a good view of the bloom. They are a protected flower so even if they weren't in a State park I would never pick one. I will just have to keep trying to make what I feel is a really good photograph, if not this year then hopefully next.

That is it for today. Hope everyone here in the States has a great Memorial Day weekend. Drive safely if you travel. Remember that comments and questions are always welcome.

Art Festival recap

Sunday was Massasoit Community College's 3rd annual Arts Festival. It is just a one day event from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and while they have some craft vendors who have tables and sell their work the main focus of the event is the art shows. The have 3 separate shows for 3 different groups. The first and probably the largest is the juried show for the High School art students. This year they had 5 local High Schools participating. Sorry, I didn't get any photos of the students work, but take it from me some of them are quite good. The next group show is for the Massasoit Students who are participating in the various art programs the school is running. Here the quality of the work was very good. Again I didn't make any photographs of that exhibit. Above and below are pictures of the hired tent where the Open Juried art was displayed.

I just wanted to give you a view inside the tent, so I didn't focus on any one work. I only had one drawing accepted but I did receive a Honorable Mention for it so I guess I did OK. Still it would have been nice to have won a higher award. I have to admit it was unlikely, my drawing was too small, though it probably took me just as long to do as some of the other larger works on display. That said I don't think I am willing to change how I work for one small show.

Part of the Festival events was the auctioning off of the Birdhouses made by the Faculty. Below is a photograph of Scott in his regalia doing his best patter to encourage the buyers. Behind him on the table was one of the silent raffle baskets. I didn't get to the show early enough to check out either the bird houses or the baskets but from what I saw later all were very nice.

By the time I arrived Scott had already started the auction. I did get to see a few of the birdhouse while they were being auctioned off. Some were very fun, though a lot were pottery and I don't think very practical for birds, still they would look pretty as inside decor. Some were certainly conversation pieces.

I also arrived too late to see the steamroller printing of the giant print. The theme this year was "26 Views of the Blue Hills" Below is a photograph of one of the finished prints. Not sure how I feel about the blue ink, but I like most of the block images. I think it was nicely done. Oh the bottom panel is for the Copperhead snakes that were known to den and live in one section of the Blue Hills. Not a part I usually walk near so I don't worry too much about them.

At least they lucked out with the weather, though it was cloudy most of the day with only a few seconds of sunlight they didn't really get any rain. All in all I think the event went well and I believe will be held again next year.

Below is my drawing from last night. At one point during the evening I really didn't feel that it was coming together well. I semi like the end result. She doesn't really look like the model, but I guess that is OK, no reason really why she should.  It was a fairly quiet session, only 4 of us besides Scott.

Enough for today. I need to go make more art. I think the gloomy weather we have been having has put me off and am trying hard to get motivated. Part of my search for motivation has me checking out various blogs. I found one that I really enjoy a lot it is called Sketching in Nature and content is provided by several preselected artists from different countries. Anyone can contribute to their flickr group as long as the content is appropriate but the blog is moderated.

Enough for today, per usual comments and/or questions are welcome.

Tracing Paper, the artists friend

Above is a mandala I am semi working on. I started it a while ago, and have been working on it in fits and starts. One hold up is I haven't been able to decide on  the colors I want to use. Once I manage to do that I should make better progress. OK enough chat, the reason I am showing this unfinished work is because I can use it to demonstrate one use of Tracing paper. Before I took classes at my local community college I had no love for tracing paper, now it is a must have in my supply cabinet. It occurred to me that there may be others who are like I was, working on my own without training, who might find this information useful.

Why tracing paper you ask. First tracing paper is relatively inexpensive, 2nd you can see through it, and that is the part that makes it so useful. When an artist is working on a complex design it should really be worked up on inexpensive paper. Then when the drawing is finished you can transfer the main elements of the design to more expensive paper. Using inexpensive paper allows you to erase and start over without leaving marks that could ruin the final work on your expensive paper. There are other design decisions that are easier to make if you create the work first on inexpensive paper, like leaving out elements or cropping others to tighten the design. Of course working this way means you have to have a way to copy the design, tracing paper is one way there are others.

For my graphic design classes we always started new projects by working designs up on tracing paper. If you  have a  basic design you can trace those elements through the tracing paper and then work on variations. This is much faster then trying to draw everything over from scratch, and you can't just work on one drawing because you need to compare the various designs to see which works best.

But the way I most often use tracing paper now is to copy design elements from one location to another within a drawing. Take the drawing below. I developed a design to use in the corner and I need to repeat it in 3 other locations. I could draw the pattern free hand in each corner, but that will take me a while and may not be as accurate as I would like.

So the fastest, easiest way to copy the design is to use tracing paper. First I use a soft lead (2B) pencil to trace over the pattern onto the tracing paper. I include some locating marks.

For this pattern I don't care if I use a mirror image but with some designs you don't want to reverse them (text for instance). For those patterns that you don't want to reverse use a harder lead pencil for the original tracing (2H), flip the tracing paper over and go over the lines on the reversed side using a soft lead pencil (2B)

Next step is to move the tracing paper into position on your work, see photo below. Then using a hard lead pencil trace your drawn lines.

Once the lines are traced move the tracing paper away and you should see a faint image of your pattern on the artwork. If necessary you can darken or fill in lines with a pencil, but I usually get enough information that it isn't necessary. See the photo below showing the faint image in the corner.

In this case I copied the design 3 times flipping the tracing paper over after each trace, so 2 of my patterns are mirror images of the original design. If you need to make more copies or if you don't want a mirror image and don't want to spend the time tracing on the back of your tracing paper you can use carbon paper between your drawing and the tracing paper to transfer the design. The disadvantage of using carbon paper is that you can't see any markers drawn on your drawing sheet, but it is a faster way to transfer a complex image. For some type of work carbon paper leaves too dark an impression, in that case it can be lightened using a kneaded eraser. Just patting the lines with the eraser should be enough to lift off some carbon and lighten the lines. 

This isn't my usual style of post so I hope some of you find this information useful. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them. My next post will probably be photographs from tomorrows Art Fair.

News and EDM drawing

I wanted to share the drawing I made yesterday for the Every Day in May Challenge. The challenge for the day was to draw some hair. So I decided early on that I would draw a person. Ah but who, that was the question.

I needed to go out yesterday afternoon to pick up the 2 drawings that were not accepted into the Massasoit Art Fair show. The third drawing I submitted was accepted and actually has received an Honorable Mention. Go figure, all I can think is that the other two were just too small for what they wanted in the show. The one accepted I put into a larger frame, and well it is the probably the best work of the three so I can't complain. Can't complain anyway, this is a juried show and you just never know what the judge is thinking when he/she selects the works of art. Oh, if any of my readers live in the Greater Boston area the Art Fair is this coming Sunday at the Massasoit Canton Campus from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

Back to my drawing for the day. On my way back from the Canton Campus I stopped in Fields Park to make some photographs and to walk. Luckily for me it had stopped raining though it was a bit foggy, still I was able to photograph some geese, the lake, some fishermen and a mother and daughter. Below is the photo I used as reference. Needless to say for the drawing I cropped the photo, even the reference photo below is cropped from the original.  Love the goose and mother interaction, though I am pretty sure that all the goose was looking for was something to eat. This location on the lake is where a lot of people come to feed the birds. Should I admit that the photo was basically a happy accident? Well not quite I did make the decision to make it in the first place and I decided to use it when I was reviewing the photographs when I got home.

One last photograph for today.

I actually made this photograph last Thursday, the penultimate day of sunshine before the gloom set it. Look closely and you will see the white butterfly nestled in among the white blossoms. I love photographing butterflies, not an easy subject so when I manage a good one I want to show it off.

That is it for today. I need to go create some art. Comments and questions are always welcome, and if you want to see the rest of my drawings for the Every Day in May you can click on the link to either my flickr site or the EDM flickr group.

May 16th Figure Drawing and a Zentangle

Above is last nights drawing. Scott pulled a chair and an ottoman together to make something similar to a chase lounge so our model could lay prone on it. She was then lit with some very dramatic lighting. I was almost the only one who chose to draw her from this view. Most of the gathered artists chose a more frontal view opposite to my position. I suppose I could have moved, but actually I sort of enjoyed drawing this pose. It certainly was a challenge. Not sure I  have her face correct. She had a tendency to turn her head even more to the side so that my view was less rather than more of her face. Not to mention that I don't usually draw faces where I see more of the underside of the chin than of the front of the face. Still overall I am happy with this drawing and how it came out.

Below is a pen and ink drawing that I finished coloring yesterday.

Another of my take on Zentanles. This one I started with just one meandering line, which I then proceeded to pretty much ignore after I had reached a certain point with the drawing. After I was done with the inking I decided to experiment with my Inktense and watercolor pencils and add color. I call this Dragonfly Fantasy, because of the 3 dragonflies drawn on the right side of the image. My goal was to work on blending colors together. I used frisket to mask various areas while I painted the background, and then for some areas I went in after removing the frisket and added color. Not sure how I feel about this piece. I like some of it, but other parts underwhelm me. Guess I will just have to try again and see what happens.

My final image for today is a close up photograph of a columbine blossom.

Isn't it lovely. I really love the colors in this photograph which I made last week at Stony Brook, a MA. Audubon site. They have a garden area around the site's center and a wild columbine was madly blooming away in it. Since from our weather forecast I am not going to be able to get out to make more photographs until at least Sunday I will just have to enjoy this one. I have posted other photographs I made at Stony Brook on my Facebook fan page for anyone interested. Hope your weather isn't as damp or as chilly as mine is here in the Northeast. Signing off for today, per usual comments are always welcome.

EDM, tulips and owls

The above drawing of a field of tulips is something that I finished last week but didn't upload. I thought I would post it today. It is OK, but I am not sure I really like it, there is not enough contrast between the tulips and the blue background, but I didn't like the white. I just realized that my real problem with this piece is that there isn't a good focal point to pull the viewer into the drawing. Ah well, I will keep in mind that we often learn more from our mistakes then by what works the first time around. It does make a pretty piece of wall paper even it isn't good art.  

I was going to post this on Friday, but have had on-going computer problems since last Sunday so just didn't seem to have the time to fit in a blog update. The problems have not been entirely resolved, I need to order a substitute part for a fan that is no longer made, this will probably get interesting, meaning difficult, but will try to at least get in my 2 weekly posts next week.

I even got behind on my daily drawings for the Every Day in May Challenge (see link to flickr group in the side panel). But last night while my computer was updating some programs I managed to get caught up, so here are 5 more daily drawings.

The candle was for May 10th when we had to draw something with flames. I used colored pencils for the candle and the small table that it is sitting on. The 11th challenge was to draw a bowl, I drew a square plastic bowl that I had purchased from Target a couple of years ago, again I used colored pencils. The broccoli was drawn for the 12th when we had to draw something fresh. Friday the 13th's challenge was to draw a fence. My fence is mostly from my imagination, but is based on a pond at the Blue Hill's Reservation animal exhibit area. In the winter there are usually ducks and geese that can be fed using duck food you can purchase from a dispenser that looks like a gum ball machine. I used my Inktense and watercolor pencils for this one. The last image is a colored pencil drawing of a crudely carved stone lion. The phrase for the 14th was to "draw something ugly you love and keep for sentimental reasons." I am not sure I love this, but I do keep it for sentimental reasons, it was my Aunts. She purchased it in Africa while she was there working for the Baptist mission. Or it is even possible that it was a gift to her from someone there, I am not sure, I didn't receive this until after her death so I don't really know the story behind it.

My last image for today is of the ATC's I received in exchange for my owls in the Milliande Art Community for Women ATC Owl swap.
 

I only created 3 cards, but our swap Hostess, Rachel Thomas, sent each of us a card that she had drawn.

I have one last comment for today, actually it is a link for those who don't have enough art in their lives. The Metropolitan Museum of NYC is posting a daily image. I heard about this link on the Quilt Art list and though I would pass it on. That is it for today, please feel free to comment or ask questions about anything I post to the blog.

Tulips, photos, and drawings

Above is the finished Mothers Day Tulips drawing/painting. I finished the watercolor on this yesterday, after several days of hesitation on my part. Thinking about what I want to do, getting up the nerve, not sure why I sometimes delay finishing these drawings. Still whatever the reason it is now done and I have to admit I am quite pleased with this one. The scanner has made the reds more pink but otherwise colors are fairly accurate. Getting the colors just the way I wanted them took hours, and I don't see how I could have spent less time on the painting. When I have an underlying pen and ink drawing color has to be carefully applied so I can't use a really large brush with gesture. Maybe someday I will try that, though while I think I am improving my watercolor techniques not sure I am ready for that step.

 

I mentioned my latest drawing project last Friday and posted a couple of images. So far so good, meaning I have been keeping up with the drawings. I still have to do today's but thought I would post a composite image of the last 4 days. If you want to see the drawings by themselves and also see what the others in the group are doing feel free to visit the flickr group that has all the postings. 

Above is my figure drawing from last nights session. I rather like it, except I should have placed it on the paper 2 inches to the right. When I realized I had the placement wrong I was at a point where I didn't want to start over so decided that if I had to cut off a foot so be it. Otherwise it was a good evening, and in a way a funny one. Usually most of the artists who attend these sessions are male, but last night there were 3 other women besides me, and only 2 other men, so of the 7 of us there there were 4 women and 3 men, not counting the model. Who know why, and things can flip again next week so that we go back to the more usual group of more men then women. 

Last group of images for today are from a photo session last Friday afternoon. Good thing I went then because the weather has been mostly cloudy/rainy since and I haven't been out making any new photographs. 

All three of the above photos were taken in Massasoit State Park in East Taunton, MA, and all show signs of our advancing spring. This was my first visit to the park, and it took me a bit of wandering around lost before I finally found the entrance. There are some signs but they (per usual in New England) are only slightly helpful. However, it was worth the wasted gas to finally find the park, and now that I semi know where it is, hope to go back.

Enough for today. Per usual comments or questions are welcome.

May Drawing a Day and Zentangles

I seem to be more productive this week. Above is the Zentangle I was working on last week finished. I also have both tulip drawings inked and ready to have watercolor added. Below is the Zentangle finished but prior to my adding the color. Color does emphasize certain design elements. I am not sure which one I prefer, but of course it is too late to go back to the plain black and white image. The yellow was actually done with my Inktense pencil, not watercolor. The watercolor yellows seem pale when applied, and I wanted this yellow to stand out.

Other than working on the tulip drawings I have also been doing some quick sketches. These are for a project I stumbled upon while reading various blogs. I know I have mentioned that I subscribe to several Art related newsletters. The one I have been receiving the longest is ArtBiz published by Alyson Stanfield she often has suggestions about how to get your art noticed. Some of her suggestions aren't applicable to me, yet. But others I can implement. One is comment on others blogs. Well I realized that I don't read a lot of Art Blogs, obviously I can't comment if I don't read, so in the past week I have been trying to discover blogs that I like to read and can potentially comment on. I am not going to comment unless I have something to say so I need to find blogs that I feel connected to.

You would think it would be easy to find Art Blogs, but I found you can't just Google them. Well I did find something, but it was sort of a dead end, so I decided to start with a "art" Blog I already follow, the Sketchbook Challenge. On Monday this week artist Ann Hyde was profiled and a link to her blog was provided.

Ann paints watercolors and on her blog shows in-process photographs of how she moves from the starting sketch to the finished painting. Since I am trying to learn how to paint with watercolor I immediately bookmarked her blog so I can continue to follow it. But I also noticed a link to a flickr group call EDM Every Day in May.  After reading her May 1st post about the project of making a drawing a day based on the word that has been assigned then posting it to the flickr group, I though why not, and joined the group. So below are my first two drawings.

 
The subject for May 4th was Salt and Pepper, so I did a quick pencil sketch of my salt and pepper shakers.

Yesterdays subject was scissors, and for this one I drew a pair of my small utility scissors. I use these all the time for threads, fabric trimming, and sometimes paper trimming. The original sketch was done with graphite pencil and then I added color using my colored pencils. Another fairly quick drawing. I think all my weekly session drawings are paying off in ways I hadn't anticipated. I have drawn scissors before, and the last time it took me much longer to create an accurate drawing.

I need to play catch up as I missed several days, but I do want to keep up now that I have started, and I want to keep these as quick drawings, not masterpieces but studies. Check out the flickr group to see what has been done by the other members of the group. The overall quality of the art is much higher than what is in the Sketchbook Challenge so enjoy.

Enough for today. As always comments are welcome, and I am open to suggestions of blogs I should check out.

Paper Resists

The theme for the month of May on the Sketchbook Challenge Blog is "Can't resist This". The post that announced the theme discussed using various resists on paper with inks or paints. I thought it would be fun to play with  resists and since I had a couple of the resists she mentioned on hand I went for it. Above is the finished drawing. But below is the page in the second phase - drawing done, resists applied and the watercolor background finished.

The original drawing was done using pencil for the letters and a Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen with the brush tip for the cat. I used Frisket on the letters, and rubber cement brushed over the cat as my resists. The image below shows all the tools (well other than the paint) that I used on this drawing. Note the blue holder closest to the Frisket sitting on top of the rubber block, this tool is the applicator for the frisket, the end showing is the narrow end, but there is a wider tip for use when you need to cover more area. The material used for the tool tips is non-porous so it is easy to remove any excess frisket, once it has dried. The rubber block is what I used to lift the dried Frisket from my drawing, it also works to lift dried rubber cement. I purchased my supplies at my local Art Supply store. I have never seen either Frisket or the tools at A.C. Moore or Michaels so if you aren't near a good Art Supply shop I would guess that you would have to order it on-line.

The advantage of using frisket, esp. with watercolor is that it allows for a smooth application of a background wash with a large brush. After removing the frisket the artist can go back with smaller brushes to use different colors for what ever is in the foreground. I first used frisket in my Illustration class, and tend to forget that I have it. I keep thinking that I should really haul it out and use it when I am doing some of my recent pen and ink/watercolor drawings but when I am doing the painting I forget about it. Hmm maybe I should leave it out on the table where I keep my brushes to remind me to use it.

Yesterday was Monday, Studio Session day, so below is another of my weekly nudes. New model last night, and a whole crowd of new artists attending the session. Wonder how many will come back.

There has been a lot of recent chat on the Quilt Art list about blogs, and what makes a good blog. So many dislike light print on a black background that I though I would change my blog layout. That said, personally I prefer the look of art work or photographs against a dark background. But I have ended up writing more text then I originally intended so I though I would change it and see what happens. The other point of discussion has been blog give aways. I have never entered one so I don't have feelings about them one way or another. I wouldn't read a blog for a give away and I don't have anything to give away. Well, I suppose I could give away one or two or maybe even more of my nude drawings. I am not going to hold my breath to see if anyone is interested though.

Enough for today, per usual comments are always welcome.

May Day

I don't usually do a Monday Blog update, but yesterday was May 1st and I was out making photographs to document the progress spring is making here in the Northeast. So I thought I would share a few. All were made in different sections of the Blue Hills Reservation area. The above is just trees, but I love the colors and shapes of the leafing trees against a blue sky.

A photograph of the area outside the Food Pavilion at Houghton's Pond.

I photographed this Magnolia a week ago when the blooms were just buds, yesterday it was in full bloom. You can see some of the petals have been damaged by our recent rain storm. I think the pink/white is so beautiful against the blue sky. The young tree is in the picnic area at Houghton's Pond, Blue Hill's, Milton, MA.

A last image, an unknown type bush blooming against the backdrop of Hougton's Pond, Blue Hills, Milton, MA. Other than cropping these photos they have not been altered in any manner.  Comments welcome, tomorrow's post will be back to my art.