Kitten, grasses and a Pecks Skipper

The above kitten was supposed to have been done in pen and ink as it is done from one of the August Challenge images in the WetCanvas pen and ink forum. But once I started drawing this little one I quickly realized that taking a month off from drawing was not the best way to maintain my drawing skills. I knew that really, but I now I really know it. Took me much longer to draw this little guy than I expected and I think there are still some issues. Still it looks like a kitten so I have accomplished that much.

I may still do this in Pen and Ink now that I have the basic outline and know where the shading needs to go, but I am in no rush.

The above are pen and ink drawings of various grass seed heads. For several years now I have been fascinated by the various grasses I see growing, and how they bloom and go to seed at so many different times and with so many different looks.

In the spring some grasses seem to wake up and rush to bloom and go to seed, others wait until mid-summer, and others wait until fall. No wonder there are so many seed eating birds, summer offers a banquet of seeds starting semi early in spring and going through fall.

I don't have any reference books on grasses so I don't have species names for these. I may check the library the next time I am there to see what I can find, or I may try looking on-line, in any case the 3 different seed heads are from 3 different grasses that I collected on my walk to the Library the other day and rendered directly in pen and ink. Not Botanical drawings by any means but they do give the overall feel of what I was drawing.

This is a quick graphite drawing of a stem of Smartweed, the booms are actually little white flowers, while the blossoms are pink/red,  they give the tips a reddish look. Not sure which exact member of the grouping of smartweeds the above is (there are over 46), I found it growing as a weed along the sidewalk. They usually like moist soil so I am surprised this one is surviving our dry summer.

An update on the Mandala. Note that the background color in the ring out from the square is subject to change, I just wanted to lay in a light color that I can work with. When I first started working with colored pencil I tended to use each color as a color, but now I tend to work in layers using different colors layered on top of each other to come up with a final color. I think the colors are probably richer and more visually interesting because of this change.

Finally a butterfly photograph, the above is a Peck's Skipper dining on a clover flower. I found this little guy in an open lot area that has gone to weeds. Thankfully they don't have it fenced so I can roam at will through the small area looking for insects. Fortunately for me this guy was so busy feeding that I was able to make several photographs, I think this is the best shot.

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

Gourds, more gourds and a flower

Back a couple of weeks ago I made a pen and ink sketch of 3 gourds from various reference photographs. That drawing reminded me how fun it can be to draw gourds and their odd shapes and bright colors. So I visited the WetCanvas photo reference library and downloaded several more photographs of gourds. Using one of those references I created the above colored pencil drawing.

I first drew the gourds in pencil, then outlined them in ink and finally added color using multiple brands of colored pencils. I didn't spend a huge amount of time on it. I am still working on my Chipmunk drawing, so am saving time spent working in detail for that. Still I am not displeased with how this came out. The bowl is a bit wonky but I think I managed to give some feeling of depth and roundness to both it and some of the gourds. Drawing was done in my sketchbook.

While I was drawing the gourds in the bowl I thought it might be fun to make a bookmark using various gourd shapes so drew the above image. The three gourds were taken from different reference images so their position is my composition.

Bookmarks can be tricky to design as the are long and narrow, and I find I prefer the image to be vertical, after all that is how the bookmark will be viewed when in use. Gourds which can be long and narrow seem to be a perfect subject.

Done first with pen and ink I then added colored pencil to the image. Of course it still needs a bit of work before it is a finished bookmark, but so far I rather like it. To be honest I like this one better than the last couple I drew with the heart motif.

The above image is slightly misleading as this is actually a small watercolor ATC (Artist Trading Card). Pretty simple, and fairly quick to draw and paint. I used my watercolor pencils for color on this one, just applying enough water to active the color.

I am currently reading a book on Watercolor painting, Painting in Watercolor by Kate Gwynn. It is part of the Artists Handbook series and was published in 1982 so it is old. Still watercolor techniques and methods haven't changed much from then to now. I think there are now more watercolor pencils than there were back then, but otherwise paints, papers and brushes are pretty much the same. Book is from the library, and the only one I saw on that particular visit.

I have also been spending a lot of time in the WetCanvas watercolor forums, reading threads that have to do with selecting colors for a pallet, various papers to use, and other technical aspects of watercolor painting. The end result is I have watercolor painting a bit on the brain, didn't feel like working on the other piece I have in the works so did this little guy.

It is in a way killing two birds with one stone as the Sketchbook Challenge blog theme for February is Windows. So here is a little watercolor of a plant sitting in a window. loosely based on one of my cyclamens (I have 2, one red, one pink) that are sitting in my northern exposure bedroom window.

I am thinking about painting some more Watercolor ATC's, they are small so quick to paint, but also allow some practice with watercolor.

I made this photograph last week prior to our latest snow storm, and on a day when we had some sun. These are just grasses in an open lot, but I rather like the color/value contrasts, with the browns of the grasses against the white of the snow and then there are the shadows, a cool/warm color pallet if I ever saw one.

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

Happy New Year and Updates

First I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2012, may it be a year of good health, friends and events.

Above is a sketch I made yesterday while waiting for it to be time for me to leave my Sisters for the airport. It is a Western Tarsier from a photograph in the November issue of National Geographic. I love the Canon ads in National Geographic and have often used them as reference for practice drawings. The little guy looks like he was smiling at the camera, I know not likely but it is cute.

Last week my sister and I visited a couple of Chicago's excellent Museums. The image below is from the Chicago Art Institute.

The images are of three quilts that were on exhibit in the the recently renovated Fiber/Textile area. Last year they had tapestries, this year the space was devoted to early american textiles. The Textiles were mostly woven bedspreads but the exhibit did include a few of the Museum's early American (prior to 1840) quilts. All three quilts in my image were beautifully quilted. I love the non standard borders on the Blazing Star quilt, and the half block edging on the blue and white quilt. Isn't it too bad that we can't ask the maker why she used half blocks for both the top and left side prior to adding the border of flying geese I don't know many modern quilters who would do that.

The exhibit also included a beautiful white on white quilt that had trapunto done in some of the quilting designs. The three quilts I photographed were the ones I liked best. The actual photos aren't wonderful, the gallery has fairly low lighting and I didn't use a flash so the images aren't as crisp as I would have preferred.  The exhibit also included some hat veils and worked samplers, most beautiful and all interesting to see.

We also took a day to visit the Chicago Natural History Museum.

The museum this year had a special exhibit on Whales that was most interesting. Photographs were not allowed in the special exhibit so you will just have to take my word for it. We also visited the Egyptian exhibit but to be honest I was feeling a bit claustrophobic by then so we didn't stay long. The museum was extremely crowded, which made it difficult to spend much time viewing items on display. I sort of wished we had been able to visit before Christmas but that wasn't possible.

The above photo shows Sue, the museum's famous Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton.

Below is a Nature Journal page from my visit to Daniel Webster the day before I left for Chicago.

Daniel Webster as a former farm has lots of open grassy areas. The sketches this week are the seed heads of three different grasses. The middle grass grows in a somewhat marshy area and is fairly tall, over 3 feet. The other two were growing in more typical farm land areas and are shorter.

The day of my visit was chilly, we had had a cold weekend so there was ice edging the ponds and even at the edges of the River. The photograph below shows the river lined with trees and some ice.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome, and I hope to get back to my regular update schedule now that I am back home from vacation.