Signs of Spring

Here it is the first week of April, so far our weather has been fairly kind to us, sunny day's with some overnight showers, and daytime temps in the 40's/50's. With the longer hours of daylight and sun I have been trying to get out and do more walking. I am not in very good shape after spending most of the past couple of months indoors so even the shortish walks I have been making leave me feeling a bit stiff the next day, esp in the knees.

I haven't yet made it over to Daniel Webster, with snow on the ground I didn't feel like wading through the paths over there but on Monday I did get over to Ames Nowell for a walk. Above is a sketch I made of one of the islands in the lake. Not wonderful, but at least it is something to get me started drawing outside again. Done with ink in my small sketchbook.

From over a week ago here are some sample drawings I made at a short pose session I attended that week. I am not thrilled with any of these drawings. I feel like I was having an off night. Oh well, that is why I attended the sessions, doesn't matter if I am on or off, just need to do the work. Anyway the above drawings were done in ink from 5 minute poses.

 The two drawings above were made with pencil from 15 minute poses. Our model had pulled her back and was feeling some pain so to give her a bit of a break the poses were longer and not too stressful for her. Longer poses meant she didn't have to take as many.

Above is my long pose drawing from this past Monday night's session. It is OK, but I am not totally thrilled with it, I much prefer the last long pose drawing I made to this one. Ah well there is always next week.

As signs of spring I want to show two photographs I have made this week. Above are a couple of blooming crocus, the nights are still fairly cold so they may be a bit frost nipped.

Photographed on the same walk a couple of pussy willows growing along the lake shore. Still not a lot of other green but I did notice a few trees where their buds are swelling. YEAH, just hope we don't get any more snow this year, I have had quite enough of snow for this winter.

That is it for today. Not a lot of art, but I have been working on a stipple piece so may have that for my next update. In the meantime comments are always welcome.