Found Shoes

Oops, the found shoes project took far longer to finish than I expected, but it is now done.

Above is the inked version of the shoes just prior to my starting work with the colored pencils. I moved the child's sandal in the upper left to be a bit more in the corner and made some corrections to the laces (which still aren't quite right, but I don't care). I used my 0 sized technical pen to draw the outline. As a reminder the size is 8 x 8 inches on Strathmore's new Colored Pencil paper.

Above is the finished colored pencil drawing. I used various Derwents (Artist, Signature, Colorsoft, Studio) pencils with usually an over lay or final layer of Faber Castel Polychromos. Colors were mostly my pick though some were inspired by the actual shoe colors. I had the most fun with the high heel, which is in the original photo black. Isn't it more fun my way? I have actually seen sneakers that were almost this color of green, though the ones in my photo weren't.

I rather carefully tried to use each color in more than one place, repetition is after all one element of design. I didn't want to color the background so instead came up with this idea of something like slats. I did use a ruler to draw the lines and to get the spacing a consistent 1/4 inch. But I did not use the straight edge to actually draw the lines, so they do wobble a bit, which I think is more in keeping with the style of the rest of the drawing. The black was inked using my 1 technical pen (.5)

Actually I am rather pleased with how this came out. I like the bright colors, and like how the background works. There are some things I might have done differently, but overall I am not displeased. Oh yes, the paper, I rather liked using it for colored pencils. It has some tooth so will take 4 or more layers of pencil, but it also feels like a firmer surface than what Stonehenge paper has. Stonehenge seems to feel soft to me and tends to "absorb" color meaning you have to add more layers than you might think you need originally, with the Strathmore paper the color stays on top. Now I have to think up another project.

The above is a very sketchy drawing of a vase with flowers and was made at a friends on Thanksgiving Day. I was invited for dinner and after the feast I sat around listening to the chatter and drawing various objects. As I said very sketchy but I still rather like it.

Photographs from my local park today. I haven't been going very far afield lately for my walks. In fact most of my walking is between my home and the library. Since the days are getting shorter there is less daylight available for photographs. Ah well, Christmas isn't that far off, along with the winter solstice after which the days will start getting longer again.

Above is one of this years Signets stretching it's wings. The birder group I belong to on facebook won't let us post invasive bird photos, I totally understand, but still rather like this photo of this young swan. They are usually graceful looking birds.

Above is one of the ponds in the park. This is a section of the park that I don't usually visit or photograph, but I rather like the photo with the cat tails in front and the mostly bare trees in the distance. A very typical November day.

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

Final Images from Inktober

I don't like to post so many drawings/images at once, but it is now November and #inktober is over so I want to be finished blogging about the challenge.

I feel I did well, I actually managed 31 drawings within the 31 days. Now I have to take a deep breath and think about what I want to do next. Not sure, though I did pick up a new sketchbook over the weekend that is a Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journal which I think I will be using. Should be good for pen and ink and some light watercolor washes. Well it will be better than the Strathmore sketchbook that I was using for the #inktober challenge. The Journals were on sale at my local A.C. Moore and I just couldn't resist.

Back to the drawings, expanding from just single cats or dogs I made the above drawing for the 27th of Oct. I used a reference photo I made a few years ago. The bird is a Blue Jay, and I don't think it was happy to find the squirrel in its feeder. This is a photo I have been saving to use for a more finished work. This drawing isn't quite as finished as I would like (had to be done in one day for one thing) but it is a good study for something larger. Pens used were a mixture of my Copic Multiliners and my Rapdiograph technical pens.

From another of my personal reference photographs. A swan with arched neck and an almost perfect reflection. I used Copic Multiliners for this one the .03 for the swan and the .5 for its shadow. I made an error with the placement of the swan on the page and didn't have room for the complete shadow, rather than spend time redrawing the swan I just went with it. I may also redo this one someday, there are other errors, though you may not notice them.

This is from a photograph that was one of the January 2015 Pen and Ink Wetcanvas Forum challenge images. I didn't draw them at the time, and by the 29th of October I was looking for something that would be relative quick and easy to draw, so I used it. I used my Rapidograph 0 pen for this one, and tried to limit the amount of outlining that I did, using the shading lines to create the outline of the gourds.

For the 30th I did a quick revisit of a leaf and seed pod. We have lots of Catalpa's in my city, in fact they are something of a problem I think for some people, growing where they aren't wanted. Again I wanted something not too complex. I added some watercolor to this one, and am not really happy with how it looks, splotchy on the leaf. Would have been better if I had been able to pre-wet the paper but the sketchbook I was using wouldn't have been happy with that technique. Otherwise a mixture of Copic and Rapidograph pens, and a dip pen for the outline of the leaf, seed pods and seed.

Since I started the month with just a black and white drawing of my elf helper, I decided to end the month with another image of him, with the addition of a jack-o-lantern, after all the 31st was Halloween night. Maybe he went trick or treating after posing for this.

Not the best drawing, but by the 31st I just wanted this done with. Pens used were my standard mix, Copic Multiners and Rapidographs.

As a final photograph another scene of fall foliage, the last for this year I promise, mostly because we had a storm last week and the trees were pretty much stripped of leaves so they aren't there to be photographed. Well maybe there are still a few trees with some leaves so perhaps there might be one or two more, but I am fairly sure there won't be any more photos with trees with green leaves in them. This was made in my local park along with the photos I showed last week. Yesterday was mostly cloudy so not a good day for photographs.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome and appreciated. Oh I had issues with the uploader today so the image size isn't as large as I usually post - sorry.

Drawings, challenges and a nature Journal

After a break of a couple of a week or so I have finally finished another of the WetCanvas Pen and Ink forum's challenge photos. This one was actually for May, I have downloaded the June photos I might want to tackle but so far haven't done one. I had gotten it started over a week ago but put off finishing it when I was faced with putting in the fence and not being in the mood to tackle it.

Not totally thrilled with how this turned out, I didn't get the value of the trees in the mid distance correct so they don't stand out from the distant mountains. Ah well there are parts I like, I like the cabin, and I think the fence works. I maybe should have brought the photo into photo shop and then changed it to grey scale, I might have done better with those mid values. Maybe next time I will. Done on Stonehenge paper with a Prismacolor Fine line Marker (005).

The squirrel is just one of my animal drawings done because I need the practice. I have been drawing only birds or plants it seems lately so felt it was time for an animal, and I had a fairly good photo of this squirrel to work from. Done with graphite pencil in my sketchbook, and I didn't labor over it all that long.

My Nature Journal spread from Monday's visit to Daniel Webster. It was raining for most of this visit so I didn't get much further than the two blinds. There wasn't a lot of wild life to observe either. I think I only saw one Canada Goose, a most unusual occurrence, as there are usually groups of around 20 or so someplace either on the ponds or dining on grass, but not Monday. There were goose feathers on the paths. I think the geese are molting, as it was just scattered feathers here and there. But they were the large flight ones which I don't normally see.

The top image is the journal is the flower head of some Field Garlic, I say flower head though it has no visible flowers, just those strange green tendrils and purplish bulblets. There was a lot of this growing along the side of the path on the way to the North blind. Wouldn't have been good in the hay, at least not in hay meant for cows since it can flavor the cows milk. Probably wouldn't be noticeable today since Milk processing is done on such a large scale, but I can remember it happening occasionally when I was a kid.

The lower drawing is a couple of those feathers that I saw on the path.

I have two photos to share today:

A photo of a rock in the man-made pond, you can just see the top of it, but not much more. Last week I think it was totally underwater so despite the rain we have been having the water level was down a bit on Monday. But note how green everything is. Love this bright green of early June.

The swan photo above I made in my local city park. For some reason this swan doesn't have a mate and was by itself on one of the lower ponds. I just like its pose, and the lighting with the perfect shadow. That whitish area toward the upper left is just reflected cloud.

That is it for today per usual comments are welcome.

Life Drawings & Other

I will do the "other" images first then show off a couple of the life drawings I did last night. Above is a photo of the page spread in my Resume Booklet. The book I used for the photograph was one of my mock up pieces, so there are mistakes (which you aren't seeing) and I used different paper for the final version. But this image shows how the pages were laid out, though the final version does have the page numbers moved toward the center about a 1/4 of an inch, putting them in line with the red vertical rule. You can see where I made the holes for the thread in the Coptic Binding, though this isn't the center spread so you don't really see the thread itself.

Next Image for you is a photograph I took in the local park the other day. They have swans on the lake, I thought they had all mated pairs but I only saw this one on Monday so now I am not sure. Photo has been cropped but otherwise is as shot.

I think I have mentioned before that the Drawing Instructor at Massasoit has a studio fairly near me where he has life drawing sessions with models. I finally got my act together and went to the Tuesday night session last night. It was fun, though I am a bit rusty drawing a live model and a lot of the drawings I did aren't very good. Still I think I will be doing this again. It gets me out and about, and I get to practice my drawing, all good things. I  have 3 drawings for you, they all have their faults, we were doing short poses - starting with 2 minutes and going to 5 minutes so all I was trying to do was capture the energy in the pose and have body parts in the correct place and size relationships.

Our Model last night is a Belly Dancer so she is slender and very fit, which actually makes her a bit harder to draw. I think these are all 5 minutes poses done after I had warmed up a bit and before I got too exhausted.

On another front I have actually been doing some sewing, making a potholder. Right now I am thinking about doing a blog post on how I put the potholder together so that will probably be my next post, sometime later this week.

For now that is is. As always comments are welcome.