Sketchbook Project Spreads 5 & 6

Well I have two more spreads finished for the Sketchbook Project, and am back to where I was last week, not sure of what to do next. Oh my, this is going to get interesting I can tell, I only have 33 more spreads to finish before I have to send the book back in January. Obviously I am open to suggestions both now and in the future.

I like the chicks above, but the egg shells should have had a bit more brown in them, oh well done is done, and the actual drawing does look a bit more brown then the scan does, and while I know I can play with the results in Photoshop I decided it worked OK the way it is so I left it. I downloaded and used a bunch of reference photos to create this little drawing. Chicks came from one, eggs another, and the straw from a 3rd, so the final drawing doesn't look like any of my photos. I had fun creating the text on the left, and by using different colors I managed to separate the words. My challenge is to link the description words visually, in this case not to hard, sort of like building a cross word puzzle, but I get to work with a limited number of words.  Sometimes the text isn't quite so easy to layout as in my next spread.

Next image is Spread 6 for the book: Fish in A bowl

I did think about using 3 fish, but the bowl is a bit too small for three fish, and yes I know it isn't a real bowl so if I had really wanted 3 fish I could have put them in, but I think that in the above image the plant acts almost as a third fish. Course I don't see how that poor leaping goldfish could make it back in the bowl, so my image isn't all that realistic when you get right down to it. Again I downloaded reference images and combine different elements to come up with the above drawing. It was fun to do. The text for this one was a bit tricky and I am not sure it totally works, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time with it so just went with the first idea that I felt actually worked. Again I am trying to use color to separate the words visually.

OK I think I am done with this project for this week, now I need to go think about making a Challenge quilt. The FFFC for July is work with a tree design. I love trees so this should be somewhat fun, though we are supposed to use unusual materials, and I am not sure how I will translate that part of the challenge.

Don't forget if you have any theme suggestions let me know, course other comments are also welcome.

Drawings, Life and other

The image I am starting with today is a drawing I actually made a few weeks ago, it is of a fish tank that I had when I was a child. I have been writing down stories about events from when I was a young, and one of the stories is about the family cat and how he would get into everything, literally. He used to go fishing in my fish tank, jumping from the floor to the top of tank and perching there on 3 paws so he could fish. He was so funny when he did this because he hated getting wet, so after every swipe into the water after a fish he would shake the wet paw to dry it off. I don't believe he ever caught a fish, but he loved to try. Needless to say I still need to add the cat on the top of the fish tank in the above image. I will be using tracing paper for the cat drawing and then combining the 2 either by scanning or by taking a photograph. Making a composite illustration for the booklet I intend to put together of these stories. But before I do that I can see I need to make some corrections, the left side of the tank needs some work as the perspective is a bit off.

What else I have been working on is a Quilt I started for the FFFC group before Christmas. I am making progress and hope to have it done before Friday when the new challenge comes out. When I finish it I will post it here.

Last night being Monday I went out the weekly life drawing session. Last night we had that rare treat of a male model. Believe it or not, it is much easier to get women to model in the nude then it is to get men to do so. According to some of the other artists at the session, men will talk a lot about it, but when asked to "drop trow" and do it they back off. A pity as it is really fun to draw men. There are differences other than the obvious ones that make it a challenge. Our model last night was very good, and was really able to hold the pose for us. First is my pencil drawing that I started out the session with:

I had issues with hands and feet last night, still not sure that they are correct. About the middle of the 2nd posing session, I decided that it was time to switch from graphite pencil to colored pencil. The lighting being used last night created strong shadows which I wanted to capture, so I decided to use a darker paper instead of the light color I used last week. The darker paper allowed me to use light colored pencils to highlight the lit areas. Some of the lights were colored, which is why I added various colors to the skin tones. This week I think I prefer the colored pencil drawing out of the two. The model was leaning into the wall behind him and I hope the drawings give you that feeling.

That is it for this post. I need to get back to my quilting. Until next time, remember comments are welcome if you should be so inclined.