Well I have finished the letter A of my Alphabet and it is above. A is for Aster and Alpaca, I used a dip pen on laid paper. I don't remember if this is a hand made paper or not, it was in my stash of papers and I know I purchased it years and years ago when I was collecting various papers to try.
The Alpaca is a bit wonky but it has the smirk that they sometimes can have so it will do. The feet were tricky and I am not entirely happy with them, but again they will just have to do.
I have started on B, and have the letter sketched below:
The animal for B will be a beaver and I have some reference photos that I will use to generate the simple drawing. I think the flower will be the balloon flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, I see and photograph many of these in local gardens. Mostly I see the blue variety and they have a pretty open blossom. A much more simple flower than the Aster, and another flower that I have a number of reference photographs for.
Right now the above is just a sketch, but I rather like this and am intending to develop it into a finished drawing. It will need color and at this point I haven't decided if color will be colored pencils or watercolor. I will be using some pen work which ever way I go with the color. The figure is from my imagination, though I have a feeling she is based either on something I have seen, or drawings/doodles I used to make. She somewhat reminds me of the flower people I was drawing a few years back.
The bird is based on a reference photograph of a sparrow that I made, but I don't think the bird in the finished work will be so drab in coloring. Haven't decided what colors the bird should be but I don't think it will be brown. The mushroom is based on some of my mushroom photographs, though I didn't use a specific one. I also still have to work out what the background will be, though I think I will keep it fairly simple, the tentative title is "Sing".
I have been working on the Mandala, started the next ring out from the roses, though I am not entirely sure I have finished with the rose segments. The flowers in this ring are pansy's, and I think I know how I want to color them, just have to get started on it.
In the meantime I spent some time last night starting to sketch in the final ring. These lines will make the whole look like a giant flower, though I don't yet know what flower will go into the larger areas under the arcs. I don't think I will use more rose buds, doesn't feel quite right so will be thinking about this as I work on the pansy's.
The photograph above is of some American Holly with drupes (berries). The drupes don't usually turn red quite so early, but it has been a relatively dry summer and the nights are starting to cool so the bush (this particular plant is only bush sized) may be stressed and getting ahead of itself.
The American Holly is an interesting plant as it produces either male or female flowers, not both. For the female to produce drupes there needs to be a male Holly somewhere in the area. Birds will eat the drupes which will stay on the Holly through winter, though they are said to be poisonous to humans.
This species is native to North America, and prefers acidic soils.
That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.
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