Bookmark, Still Life, Figure and more snow

Just a short update today. I have been working on the above bookmark design for a while. I started it before Christmas but somehow after a quick start it just didn't jell for me and I had other things to keep me busy. Anyway in the after Christmas blahs I decided that I either needed to get it done or bit the bullet, toss it, and start something new. I decided to just finish it and see what would happen.

I finished the pen work last night and added watercolor this morning using some of my watercolor pencils and a damp brush. I like the colors but the ink work doesn't totally work for me. Still after it is dry I will start to finish it off as a bookmark.

After a trip to the grocery store the other day I came home with 2 apples and an orange. I thought the 3 would make a reasonable still life so pulled a bowel out of the cabinet and made an arrangement with them for a quick drawing. I feel it is important that I manage to draw from life a few times a week, meaning I need to observe for real what I am drawing, not just working from imagination and/or photographs. Observation skills need to be nurtured even if the results are pretty ordinary.

Done with graphite (2B pencil) in one of my new sketchbooks. The orange is already history as I was worried it was getting a bit soft, made a nice evening snack. Two apples don't quite a still life subject make so it looks like I need another trip to the grocery store.

A week ago Monday was December 30 and I attended the long pose session for that week since there wasn't going to be a short pose session New Years Eve. Above is the drawing I made that evening.

Not sure how I feel about it, Some areas I like and other areas I am not happy with. It has been several months since I attended a long pose session so for the most part I feel I didn't do that badly. Think I need to mix up long pose vs short poses a bit more this year and see if I can get my groove back.

I am closing with a photograph I made last week after our snow storm. The wind had blown this pattern in the snow with a bare spot in the upper left and gradually deepening snow radiating out in rings. I have no clue why the wind would have swirled just there but it does make an interesting image.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.