Mushroom Progress, Journal, and a Figure

Thought you might like to see the work in progress on the mushrooms. I have added a violet/purple for the shadows. Some of the shadows have had brown or yellow overlaid on the purple, which actually grays the purple and darkens it. Amazing how just a bit of a darker color to indicate shadows can really give the illusion of depth. I am pleased with how this is working so far, but need to do more foreground and background work. I also added a bit more color to some of the mushroom tops

Below find a Journal Page from my visit to Wompatuck State Park in Hingham, MA.

I visited this park for the first time last week. According to the history of the park they have up on a placard it is a fairly young park. Only created in the 1970's when the land was purchased from the Military who had used the site for munitions. The park has lots of camping sites off numerous small roads. Not sure I will be going back any time soon, as it is mostly wooded with fairly young trees, not my favorite walking grounds. Oh, it was named for an Indian Chief who deeded most of the lands that are now in Hingham and other south shore communities to the English Settlers in 1665.

The drawings above are of a couple of leaves, top one is an American Beech. The woods in the park are full of these smooth gray barked trees. The second leaf is a Sassafras leaf, a semi common tree in the woods here in MA. The tree I picked this leaf from was growing beside a roadway. On the bushes underneath it I spied a couple of interesting insects. One was rather large and green, I believe it was a False Katydid. I did make photographs, but they really don't show the insect well so I won't inflict them on you. For the other check out the photo at the bottom of this post.

The last sketch is of the building that covers the faucets for Mt. Blue Spring, a covered spring of fresh water that is safe to drink. The water is free to visitors. Open springs in MA are not safe to drink from, unless the water is boiled.

Below is last nights figure drawing.

I am much happier with how last nights drawing session went. The pose was a bit tricky but I rather like the finished piece. We didn't have a very large group last night, but that is OK with me, I enjoyed the session anyway.

Below is my photograph for today:

A beetle of some sort, I really liked the colors which are what first caught my eye. I have no clue what it is or even might be. There are so many types of beetles that my casual search wasn't able to come up with a name for this one.

That is it for today. Comments are welcome.