More Toys, a plant and a Nature Journal Page

OK I admit I just couldn't resist drawing the elephant with polka-dots. This time its' company is some more blocks and a cloth doll with red hair. The dolls expression isn't quite what it was supposed to be, my pen slipped a bit while I was drawing her mouth. Ah well, it didn't bother me enough to correct it. Toys are sitting on a slight wonky shelf.

The polka-dots on the gray elephant are purple and pink, seemed appropriate. Drawn with pencil in the sketchbook, then inked and color pencil was added. Fun to do, everyone needs some play time, right?

Eventually if I get around to it, the above drawing will actually become a watercolor. This is another attempt at participating in the WetCanvas Watercolor forum April project. Thought you might like to see the photograph the drawing is based on, as I have a feeling it doesn't make a lot of sense without color.

About a week or so ago I photographed this plant outside the library. Apparently it started putting out some new growth a bit earlier than it should have as it got hit by our frozen temps which damaged some of the new leaves. That said I think some of these leaves are from last summer. Anyway a far more colorful image than the rose hip and stem I had selected previously.

Believe it or not I spent far more time on this drawing than I expected to. Had to keep making corrections and it still isn't quite right. I have realized I have gotten a lot better and faster at drawing birds and other animals than I am at drawing plant shapes other than flowers. A bit disconcerting, and a way to dampen the ego.

Inked another of my catch up Nature Journal Pages, the one above is from a visit on December 5, 2012 to Daniel Webster. Thankfully this is the last of the 2012 pages that I needed to do.

Top images are a Hawk I saw flying and hunting for dinner, and the tree stump in the Panne with two rather largish turtles hauled out to sun bathe. I was surprised to see the turtles as by December they really should be dug into the mud and hibernating. Though per my notes the day was relative mild for December. Note that the water level is still very high. The final drawing is of some Canada Geese dining on the one of the grassy areas at Daniel Webster.

Done mostly with one of my dip pens, but I did add a few lines with one of the technical pens after I erased the under drawing and realized some areas needed a bit more.

As a last image, proof that spring is finally arriving here in the Northeast US. Crocus blooming in the yard of my apt. building. Made this photo a couple of days ago, the blooms are mostly gone now, and as we are expecting rain I doubt any will be left to photograph by tomorrow.

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

More Pen and Ink work with some Figures

Another image from the WetCanvas Pen and Ink forum monthly challenge, this time an elephant. I drew this first with pencil before adding ink. I just don't trust myself to draw animals directly with pen. Animals and people look so strange if you get the proportions wrong. Even with the underlying pencil drawing am only semi pleased with how this came out.

I have been using pen for my short pose figure drawings, so one of these days I may attempt an animal with just pen, though I would rather tackle and animal that I have drawn before. What can I say, elephants are not my usual subject.

These gourds are a created arrangement made from some photographs I have showing various gourds. One or two from one photograph and another from a separate one. I have played around with gourd images before, and I will probably do so again, they have such interesting shapes and colors.

Finally the weather cooperated and I made it out to a Tuesday night short pose drawing session, male model this week. Since he had spent part of his day doing short poses for student animators his short poses that evening were very active and dynamic. Top image are some of my two minute pose drawings.

The middle section are a few of the 5 minute poses. The last drawing is one of the 10 minute poses he did for us. In the others he was sitting and more pretzel shaped. Not easy poses to draw so that they translate visually.

I originally thought the 10 minute pose was a bit confusing visually so added some pen work to it when I got home. I am thinking now that might have been a mistake. There is also some pen work on one of the 5 minute poses, but that seems to work a bit better.

The different tone to the paper is because I finished one pad and started using a different one about half way through the evening, usually I continue using the same Mfg. but this week I change to a different one. Interesting how differently they look in the photographs, visually they are both white papers. I have been using flash for these photographs, and I think one paper is more reflective than the other.

The final photograph this week is one I made yesterday while I was out for a walk. The cat was taking advantage of the sunny/warmer day to pose in front of this tree and soak up the sun. The white on the ground behind the cat is actually a bit of snow left over from a storm we had one morning this week. We didn't get a lot (probably about an inch) but until yesterday it has been cold so it stuck around in shady spots. Not sure what species the tree is, but I love the way the cat's fur seems to pick up the colors/texture of the tree trunk.

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