What can you do with a doodle?

Fold in Space

Make a colored pencil drawing such as the one above.

I would have reversed the order of these first two drawings except that the colored pencil one is prettier so I wanted it to show up first. A problem with blogs is that the first image is the one that will be used as a reference image for a post. Because of that I prefer to post the best/most colorful images first. It does take away the ability to unveil a drawing but there it is.

Anyway the above drawing started out as a pencil doodle. The doodle turned into the drawing below. I liked the shapes so decided to transfer the basic drawing to better paper and add color. The paper is 8 x 8 inch Stonehenge, a paper that many color pencil artists seem to love. I have to use a bit more of it I think before I decide if I like it or not. It does require that the color pencils be layered in light layers until you finally reach the coverage you want, but otherwise it does take pencil well. I have been playing with it using some of my ink pens and will let you know how I like it for ink some other day. Pencils used were my Derwent's, Artists, Studio and some of the Signatures.

Below is last nights figure drawing:

Not sure about this one. It did turn out a bit better then I thought it would at the first break but I think the legs aren't quite as well drawn as they could have been. Her body doesn't look like it is actually sitting on the bench. Maybe if I had taken the darks a bit darker. Oh well there is always next week when I can try again.

Last week here in MA we had absolutely beautiful summer weather, temps into the low 80's most days with sunny sky's and no rain. The rain arrived this weekend, which on the whole is a good thing as after a week without we need it. I visited another MA State Park last week. This one is in the next town over to me, Easton, MA. I didn't even know this park existed until a few weeks ago. It is called Borderland and was the home of an artist and her family. After the artist's death the Estate was purchased by the State and made into a park.

Below are some photos:

Upper left are some riders enjoying a canter on the lawn in front of the main Estate house.  Middle left is a view of one of the 3 ponds on the Estate. Bottom left is a photo of the old farm house (now empty) that is also on the grounds. They keep the old pastures mowed so they won't return to forest. The top right photo is of some wildflowers blooming along the fence bordering one of the pastures. I needed another photo for my contact sheet so added the lower right of a Goldfinch eating thistle seeds, made in Field Park, Brockton. Goldfinch do love thistle seeds so this time of year is a real feast for them when the thistles are blooming and going to seed.

I was over in Marshfield yesterday at the MA Audubon sanctuaries and manged to photograph these 3 butterflies.

The top two photographs are of skippers, though I don't know their exact names. The upper left really shows how the wings are formed. The bottom photo is of a Monarch, and is the best photograph I have made this year of a Monarch. The background is not good (the roadway at North River) and the angle even worse, but it is in focus.