A mixture of images

A couple of sketches to start today's update. Above is another Every Day Matters drawing. This one is for number 218: Draw a Knife. It shows one of my heavy kitchen knives that I purchased way back when I set up housekeeping for myself in my early 20's. I splurged a bit and purchased good knives. Obviously a good investment as I still have them and use them, though I admit that I haven't used this one all that much.

The sketchbook challenge for January is Doodles and oddly enough I have had a hard time with it. Finally I managed the above drawing of some tulips in a vase. Color was done with my Pitt pens. Not sure this is really a doodle but it will have to do. I certainly didn't spend a lot of time on it.

Below is my figure drawing from last night:

I know it looks blue, that is because I made the photograph outside in the shade and when I lighten the image in Photoshop the shadow turned blue. I tried to adjust it a bit and ended up with this. Oh well you can  see the original drawing and since I am not working in color I decided to not sweat the color shift.

The drawing turned out better than I expected it would at the one hour point. We tend to take breaks about every hour so the model can get out of pose and recover a bit before resuming. Gives us artists a chance to take a break and evaluate the work in progress so necessary corrections can be made. Not going to tell you what all I corrected but the end result is something I am fairly happy with.

Below is my Journal page from yesterday's visit to Daniel Webster:

We had snow here last week and over the weekend. our first snow falls for the new year. Not all that much actually fell about 4 or 5 inches, maybe a total of 6 inches in some areas around me. The paths at Daniel Webster were mostly still covered in snow and I slipped and slid my way through the sanctuary yesterday afternoon. All the sliding was because it really warmed up yesterday - into the 40's and the snow was melting underfoot.

The drawings in the journal are prints I saw in the snow. The top prints are a Canada Goose. And yes they really do have a pigeon toed walk. The middle is probably a deer and the bottom I am not sure of, I think either a fox or a raccoon. It was too large and not quite the right shape to be a squirrel or chipmunk.

Next a couple of snow photos to share.

The image above is actually from Borderland State Park in Easton and made last Friday. I went out to the park to walk and make some photos, leaving the Journal at home. I knew it was a bit too cold for me to want to make notes. Just as well, walking took most of my energy and attention, any extra I had I used making a few photographs. The image above shows the shadows of tree trunks across the snow marked by a passing deer. The other marks in the snow were caused by snow falling out of the trees.

Above is a photo I made yesterday at Daniel Webster. It shows seed pods against the snow at the edge of the man made pond. I believe these are the seed pods for the mallows that were blooming last fall.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are welcome.