I have been taking a bit of a break from art, well the creating part, drawing, painting and pen and ink. Finishing the Chipmunk last week was a bit intense and I needed to sit back a bit and recharge.
It wasn't a total break I spent a fair amount of time reviewing photographs for future drawings, reading discussions on the WetCanvas Watercolor forum and reading a book. I am reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards, so even if I haven't been creating much art I have been thinking about it.
I am finding the book interesting though for me not all that instructive, have to say that I think it is probably an excellent book for someone who thinks they can't draw. Course one would have to do the exercises, reading how to draw doesn't teach anyone how to actually do it unless they step up and draw.
Anyway in the middle of the week I worked on a couple of quick still life drawings, but just couldn't seem to find the motivation to work on my watercolor paintings or to start a new graphite drawing.
Today for the first time since I finished the chipmunk I was able to motivate myself to put pencil to paper for more than a few minutes. The above drawing is one result. I am thinking about making this a more finished drawing but wanted to spend a bit of time doing a fairly quick study of it to see how it would work.
From a photograph I made last summer at Ames Nowell State Park in Abington, MA. I made a series of photographs of this woman and her dog, this is the one (slightly modified) that I liked best. Though there is another with the dog jumping off the end of the dock that I have thought about using. Now I have to decide if I want to do a more finished version but I think the composition works even though the dog is watching someone out of view. Actually I am thinking about doing a pen and ink version of this, but have to think on that a bit longer as there are some tricky bits that I am not sure if I could get to work in pen and ink.
Above is the pen and ink still life that I managed to work on mid week, an apple, a pear, an orange in a wooden salad bowl. Obviously I didn't spend very long on this. I was going to do a more finished graphite drawing of the same set up, but it never really happened. At this point the pear has been eaten so I don't think I will ever finish the pencil drawing of this subject.
Another still life, for this one I pulled a small bake bean pot out of the cupboard along with a small single serving pottery casserole dish and a wooden spoon. Not sure how accurate this drawing is, the surface I put the objects on was at a bit of a slant and I have to think it didn't make my objects easier to draw.
I am thinking about doing some photographs with these, at the very least I will probably use them for drawing subjects again maybe I will add some onions and dried beans to the mix.
As a close this photograph of a couple of sparrows sitting in a bush. The building behind is a small church. The sparrows love taking cover in the evergreen bushes in front of the church and the hedge around the building across the street, so there is almost always a small flock of birds resting here. Even if I don't see them I can hear them twittering away.
That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.
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