Updates, Finished Goslings, and a Figure

I promised an update on the stipple work I started last week. Above is a scan of where I was this morning. Background is starting to fill in though there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. I have done very little on the flowers themselves so far. I need to get the background still darker so that there is a strong contrast with the "white" flowers.

Not sure how many hours I have into this, eight to ten I think, but it may be more. The overall background stipple seemed to take forever, though of course it didn't.

I am not featuring the above drawing of two Goslings as the final version is so similar to what I showed last week, but I thought readers might be interested in seeing it. I am sure there are sections I could  have spent more time on, but over all I am satisfied with this drawing and it was time to move on. It is a picture, not just of the two young birds but of the whole landscape I found them in.

The rabbit is coming along, I have started working on the background and the body, may post an update next week.

Above is Monday nights figure drawing. We went with a truly different pose this week with the model on her front instead of her back or sitting. It was kind of fun, though the face was a bit tricky and I am not sure I have it foreshortened correctly. Her left hand also leaves a bit to be desired, though again that was a bit of a tricky pose, initially she had made a fist and that would have been easier to draw. Oh well the challenge is good for me, even though I have made a lot of progress drawing the figure, there are still some poses I struggle with.

Our fall foliage is almost gone. I made this photograph on Monday on a visit to Ames Nowell State Park. The maple leaves have pretty much fallen leaving only oaks and beeches as the source of color. This view of the dock into the lake at the park show some White Pine, Oaks and maybe a birch in their fall colors.

The above close up of some Beech leaves gives you an idea of the color variation on one tree.

It was a lovely day for a walk, sunny with a breeze and temps into the low 60's. I expect that by next Tuesday the trees will be pretty much stripped of their leaves by at least one storm. Hopefully the Hurricane (Sandy) won't give us a direct hit, but we can use the rain so I don't want it to miss us entirely.  The weather forecasters seem to be changing their predictions every few hours so I will just have to wait and see what happens.

In the meantime that is it for today, hope everyone has a good weekend, and last but not least comments are always welcome.