Drawings and Pen Exercises

Well that resolution didn't last very long. What I am writing about it the resolution to make a graphite drawing a day for 30 days. I managed 4 days then got sidetracked. Oops. Here are the last 2 drawings I did manage to do. One of my bottles of Acrylic Ink, in one of my small sketchbooks with various graphite pencils, I think HB, 2B, and maybe a 2H, but I can't really remember at this point.

Above is a piece of Ginger Root. I use a slice of fresh ginger to flavor my evening pot of green tea so I usually have some of this on hand. Again in my sketchbook with about the same range of pencils.

The day following this I got more involved with doing the exercises from the Dodson book Keys to Drawing with Imagination and let the graphite drawings slide.

Above is a sheet I put together of some of the exercises I have been doing. The top left was my attempt at what Dodson calls a tangle, lines are supposed to overlap, run over and behind. I found this type of "doodle" to be quite tricky to do. I certainly can't do them mindlessly. Maybe with a lot more practice I could, but since I don't entirely see the point of putting myself through that struggle I think I will just let that type of doodle slide.

The Upper Right page was me attempting Geometric doodles, much more my thing, and more like doodles I have done in the past.

The lower left sheet was done using what Dodson called a wave, I just enclosed it and repeated in in a spiral instead of across the page. Another type of doodle that I am more used to doing. I like drawing organic type shapes.

The last sheet in the lower right hand corner was from a different exercise, using Building blocks to make shapes. I didn't do a lot of these, though perhaps I should have done more, but again I felt comfortable working in this manner.  I have more exercises done but I will save them for the next blog update. Instead I wanted to write above my latest trip to visit Boston's MFA.

Last week we finally had another sunny day (we have had lots of clouds and some rain the past 2 weeks) so I made the trip into Boston on Wed. My goal was to visit the Museum of Fine Arts to take in the new exhibits and to wander around Boston with the Camera. The wander around Boston part was successful though there weren't as many trees/plants in bloom as I had hoped. Still it was just the end of March and there isn't usually much blooming at this point. Then on to the MFA.

At the MFA I was able (because I am a Member) to do a preview viewing of the new MegaCities Asia exhibit. Artists represented are all from one of the huge Asian Megacities. Many of the works were created with "found" objects. One made up of bags sort of melted together, another was old doors and windows, another bamboo and rope, another of molded and painted migratory birds. The one thing they all have in common is they are large. One area was given over to moving sculptures (made by the same artist) that cycle between movement and staying still, when they move they make noise so when all of them are moving it can get fairly noisy, sort of like a city depending on time of day.

While I was visiting the exhibit a couple arrived with stools with I think the intent to sketch one of the artworks, I thought it might be fun to sketch them with the artwork just beyond. Which is what you see in the above drawing. Below from a different angle is the construct that he/I was drawing. The "sculpture" is made up of purchased everyday objects, brooms, bags of food, an umbrella, cans of soda. The one thing they have in common is that they are predominantly green. I didn't even try to detail the sculpture in my drawing, I would have been drawing for hours, so all you see is a suggestion of some of the objects along with a rear view of a fellow artist. The pair didn't stay very long so I have a feeling they found the subject a bit overwhelming.

This is a view of the same sculpture I attempted to sketch in the above drawing, but from a different angle. Just wanted to give you a better idea of a very visually confusing structure.

There are several other new exhibits at the museum but I will wait to write about those after my next visit, which should be soon.

The red fabric flower above is also part of the Megacities Asia exhibit. There is an air blower at the base that inflates and then allows the petals to relax a bit when it stops blowing. The on/off cycle of air makes the flower seem to breath, add some wind and you get quite a bit of movement. This sculpture is placed on the lawn outside the museum. Sure hope no one attempts to mess with it.

Since it was still March when I visited Boston most of the blooming flowers I saw were in planters or window boxes. This box contained mostly white tulips with one pink one to liven up the mix. I am sure the pink was an accident but I enjoyed seeing it. White tulips lit by the sun. Happy Spring to everyone in the Northern Hemisphere.

That is it for today. As I understand it the MegaCities exhibit is on Tour and Boston is just one of the stops on the Tour, it will be here until July 17, but I am not sure where it goes next, or even if it really is on tour my MFA Preview Magazine really doesn't say. In the meantime all comments are welcome.

Graphite Drawings and some Pen Exercises

I think I have too many projects in the works at one time. LOL, the 3 main drawings for this update are from a challenge that I have taken up from the WetCanvas Drawing forum. Draw something every day from life with pencil for 30 days. So far I am managing, mostly by doing relatively simple drawings.

Why you may wonder am I doing this, well for my 6 x 6 inch ink and colored pencil works I decided I wanted to do a squirrel, I have a great reference photo and I have drawn squirrels before, some better than others so I thought this would be relatively easy, wrong, I have struggled with this drawing, which is finally I think good enough to ink. But my struggles just made me aware that I haven't been drawing enough, drawing from observation is a skill that needs to be maintained and to maintain it I have to draw so... a daily challenge is a good thing.

For day one, three whole green beans. I like having fresh green beans with my dinner so it wasn't hard to select 3 to save to draw. In my smaller sketch book with a couple of pencils, 2H and 2B, I believe.

These are seed pods that I brought home from a visit to Boston. The tree grows on the Northeastern University campus and isn't a native tree, but right now I can't recall what species it is. Again in my sketchbook with 2H, and I think the B or HB leads.

Another dried seed pod, this one from a Milk Weed plant that I picked last fall and brought home, my sketchbook again, with 2H and I think the HB and B pencils.

I don't spend very long on any of these drawings, somewhere between 15 minutes and a half hour, I think. How long I spend isn't relevant, the point is to make a drawing as accurately as I can from observation, not just shape but shading and shadows to make the drawing come alive.

And now for something completely different. These are  3 exercises that I drew in pen as part of my reading and study of Bert Dodson's book Keys to Drawing with Imagination. This very simple starting exercise called for drawing a line that meandered around ending with a closed shape and then filling the resulting shape with various fills. I have done so much of this type of work that I only drew 3 samples. I am currently working on exercise #2 and finding that one a bit trickier to do so will do the full number, 6 to 12. Starting in the upper left, a, to the right is b and the bottom is c. As you can see they got more complex as I relaxed into the project.

The purpose of this study is to see if I can pull myself a bit more away from realistic drawing so stay tuned, Right now that is something that I am not very comfortable doing so I am not sure how long this experiment will last.

I realized after I posted the colored pencil version of this Iris to the blog that I never posted the just the inked version, so here it is. Pretty simplistic after the ducklings, but just as I like the colored pencil version I also like this plain inked version.

We had rain showers on St. Patrick's day, and the rain showers brought a rainbow. The sun was starting to set so the photo looks pinker than I recall it seeming (you just don't know what a camera will pick up color wise) I didn't go looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow, but it was fun to see. The maple tree in the photo is starting to bud. Wish it luck as we are supposed to get some snow in the next couple of days.

That is it for today, hopefully for my next update I will have the inked squirrel to show off, in the meantime comments are welcome.

Butterflies and doodles

Because I prefer to not kill or capture butterflies but only photograph them, I realize that often I can only identify what I see in the field when I am home and reviewing photographs. I fear birds are the same for me, unless I have previously identified the bird and recognize it. But butterflies are even harder to field ID than birds are, so many are really very small and fly so quickly that the small indicators that are often used to identify them can be hard to see.

The butterfly that I drew in pen and ink above is an exception, this large black and yellow butterfly is very recognizable as a Tiger Swallowtail. The drawing was made from a reference photograph I made a couple of years ago. I don't usually try to draw the butterflies I photograph, but I really loved this photo so made an exception. For this drawing I used only my technical pens with no pencil drawing, so things may not be entirely accurate, but I think you can still recognize this beauty if you see one in the garden.

I have been spending a lot of time outside making photographs and not inside doing serious drawing so my next two images are just more of my pen "exercises" and really nothing more than doodles. Still I have fun exploring shapes, textures and fills when working on these. They are done because I need to use the pens and not let them sit, but that doesn't mean I can't have fun with them.

Both were done in one of my smaller sketchbooks using the 5 technical pens that I keep filled. For the one above I made the doodle on top first, them it seemed to me to be some kind of hat, so I drew the face in afterward. A bit of whimsy that I don't often post to the blog.

Speaking of butterflies that can only be identified when I review photographs the one above is of that type. This is an Eastern Pine Elfin, and is about 1 inch in size so the photograph shows it larger than it really is. You have to be very aware of what is flying around you to see and photograph one of these little guys. I am getting better at "seeing" the small ones though it has taken me a while to get to this point. This one was photographed on one of the paths at Borderland State Park in Easton, MA last week. They are actually considered fairly common though I had never photographed one before. Aren't its markings beautiful, while not as colorful as the Tiger Swallowtail I think it is just as pretty.

I don't usually post two close up photographs in the same update, but I really love this photo of a blooming wood anemone that I made at Daniel Webster on Sunday. The oak wood stand in the sanctuary had many pockets of these lovely spring wild flowers. White flowers can be hard to capture in a photograph, I feel this one is particularly good.

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

Repeat Patterns, Playing with Pen and Ink

Some of the trees around me are starting to change color and loosing some of their leaves. We have had a fairly dry summer and I expect the trees are stressed so dropping leaves early would help them conserve energy and water. Anyway, I picked up one of these yellowing leaves on one of my walks to the Library. I believe the leaf is from a Eastern Cottonwood tree. I recognized the shape as being one I remember from my childhood in Illinois. There was a tree I and my friends spent a summer climbing, as I recall we were playing ship at sea, and the tree stood in for not only the ship but one of the masts, anyway it had the same type of leaves so must have been a cottonwood. 

I used the leaf I picked up as the basis of the above pen and ink work, tracing around the leaf with a technical pen 5 times and then using various fills to create tone and texture. Done in one of my sketchbooks. 

I seem to be into repeat patterns this week, I suppose not a total surprise since I have been working on the Mandala and that requires repeated patterns. The problem is how to get variety within the repeats. For the work above I sort of wish I had varied the size of the leaf, but I only picked up the one so with what I had at hand (no scanner) I had to work with it alone. 

Last week I made a trip into Boston and stopped at one of the Dick Blick Stores, I was looking for more colored pencils but they didn't have the mfg. I was looking for in open stock so I purchased some different items instead, like replacement pen tips for 2 of my technical pens. The above is a doodle I created when I was making sure the new tips were working properly. Not sure what to call it, and you can see what you want in it. Oh, the tips are working fine and I am having fun playing with them. See the two drawings below.

More doodles with my new tips. These I scanned and pulled into Photoshop for some additional work/play yesterday. The resulting image is below.

Above is my Photoshop creation. It might work for wallpaper or fabric, though I think the background needs more work. Originally it was just plain blue, but I felt that was too boring so I added the green squiggles. Still a bit on the boring side so I may do some more playing around with it and add another darker color to the mix.

I have often thought it might be fun to design fabric, not that anyone would ever ask me to do so. Still it was sort of interesting to play around in Photoshop to see what I still remembered of how to create documents from scanned images.

Last image for today is an update on the Mandala. The final ring has some inking, I finished the pansies and added some toning to that rings background. Now I have to decide what the flowers will be for the final ring. I think it needs some punch/color so we will see.

As a final photograph today, some poppies I found growing just outside the fence in someone's garden. Aren't they a pretty red. They are much smaller then the orange perennials that bloom in spring, but still recognizable as poppies.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are welcome.

Revisit to a Pen and Ink Still Life, and some doodles

For some of you the above image is going to look familiar, that is because it was the lead image in my Blog posting of Aug. 7th. Unfortunately when I made my last blog update I made an administrative error and deleted the Aug. 7th posting.  I put a check mark in the wrong spot and oops a whole posting is gone into cyber history. This is the first time in all my years of blogging that I have done such a thing and I hope I will never do it again or at least not for as many more years I suppose once in 5 years isn't too terrible.

Anyway the still life was done in pen and ink from one of the August challenge images in the WetCanvas Pen and Ink forum. It is pretty sketchy, but I rather like it anyway.

The rest of the images today are more or less doodles, none are very finished drawings, this cat is probably the most finished and as you can see it isn't very. Still I think I captured that wary look this cat was giving me as I made its photograph.

My next door neighbor puts out food for the neighborhood strays and this is one of the ones who comes to dine. It is actually a very pretty kitty that must have some Angora in its background because it has very long fur, it is mostly white with some tan streaks. I hope at some point to do a more finished drawing of this cat.

Above is just a doodle, done directly with pen and then colored with some of my few colored markers, didn't want to use colored pencil on this so used the markers. Using them just reminded me that I really don't find markers a satisfactory tool.

And again just a doodle, though this one I colored with colored pencil. I was watching an older Craft in America while drawing this and I think I was inspired by the subject, Holiday, which is episode XI in the series.

Still working on the Mandala, the roses are supposed to be peach colored, I think it is working, now I just have to decide how to modify the background color for these segments. The color they currently are isn't quite working for me.

I have two photographs today, I am not sure what the above flower is, it is spiky and has purple flowers. I managed to capture this bumble bee while it was visiting one. I just like the colors and the shapes.

Above is a curiosity that I wanted to share. This is one of the benches that are located outside of the library, there are 3 of these arranged in a circular stoned area. I think there is suppose to be a fountain or sculpture in the middle, but so far that space is empty. I routinely make use of one of these benches on my trips to the Library. We are not allowed to have drinks in the library (there is a water fountain though) so when I am walking to the library I pause here to have a drink prior to entering. I keep the bottle in my bag while in the Library so no one hassles me.

Anyway at some point this afternoon someone applied blue chalk to the to the top of one of the benches, just one, the other two were still just stone. I found it curious, and have no clue why someone would do something like that, but decided that it would make an interesting photograph, I don't expect that it will last very long but in the meantime I have it documented.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome and I will try to not delete any more blog updates I promise.

August, Time to Catch Up

Where did July go? Not sure, just know it is gone. It wasn't a very productive month for me art wise. Just couldn't seem to get into gear and work on drawings or paintings. About the only thing I was doing art wise was photography, flowers mostly but also per usual any thing that caught my eye. I won't overwhelm the bog with photos but some of the ones I liked best I posted to my Facebook page, there is link and a button to "like" at the end of my blog post, you can head over there if you are curious.

Anyway when I finally started working on something I chose to start with this mandala. I have obviously been working on the center. I had chosen colors prior to my summer break so it was an easy reintroduction to my art. Not much to say about it, except that so far I am happy with how it is working.

Next two images are just doodles that I did with my technical pen in a sketchbook. For the above I didn't have much in mind when I started, just started making marks and let the image develop as it wanted. Those are supposed to be pine cones on a branch. Well one sort of works, not so sure about the one in the background. As for the flowers maybe zinnia's as I have had zinnia's on the brain (seeing them in gardens) lately.

Again just doodles, I had seen a bicyclist that morning dragging the rubber of his back tire, he was riding on just the metal rim. A not very wise thing to do as if he damaged the rim he will have to replace the whole wheel not just the rubber tire. Oh well not my problem but it was a bit of a strange sight.

The bottom drawing just developed into a building set among some trees. Not really planned but I sort of like the way it turned out.

Now for just a couple out of the many photos I have made this past month. Actually I made the one above yesterday. I was visiting a park that has an area set aside for plantings but so far the city hasn't done much with it so it is overgrown with "weeds". There happen to be a lot of milkweed plants in among the other stuff, I was examining all of the milkweeds for caterpillars (monarch butterflies) and though I didn't find any of those I did find this land snail. The day was rainy so you are seeing water droplets on the milkweed seed pod behind the snail.

I did see a Monarch Butterfly this past week, which is why I was looking for caterpillars. It has been almost 2 years since I last saw one, as I never did see a Monarch last summer. I did know they are in the State though because I belong to a Facebook group for Butterflies in Eastern MA, and had seen a photograph. The Monarch I saw wasn't so obliging as to let me make a photo of it, still I was thrilled to see those familiar orange and black wings.

This photograph of pink Hydrangea flowers was made last month. Most of the Hydrangea bushes around me have blue or white flowers. Our soil tends to be acidic which causes the blue color, but this bush is an exception and has pink flowers. It happens to be in the same yard as a bush which had mostly blue flowers with the exception of one pink bunch. Most unusual. But I rather like this photo of the pink with the bright green leaves.

That is it for today. Hopefully now that I am back drawing again the next blog post won't be so long in coming. Per usual comments are welcome.

Another ATC and Chipmunk finished

Again I have a slightly misleading image as my first one today. This is another ATC (Artist Trading Card) so the image on your screen is probably larger than the actual card. ATC's are 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size. This one was done on Canson's 140lb Watercolor paper cut to size.

This is from another of the WetCanvas pen and ink monthly challenge reference photographs. I did this first as a pen and ink drawing, but I really love the colors so decided that it would be fun to make an ATC painting of it. Combination of watercolor pencils and pan watercolors, though I did sketch it out in graphite and then outlined the basic elements with pen and ink prior to painting.

This drawing is really 8 x 7 inches, so in reality much larger than the ATC. Not sure if it is totally done, but I think so, at this point any changes are going to be subtle. I spent several hours yesterday, looking and making slight changes until I felt I  had done all I could/should. Work at that point was mostly adjusting values in some of the shadow areas.

I use a ruby beholder to check values in my drawing against the reference photograph. It is a technique used by quilters to check fabric values as the red nullifies all other colors and all you see is value. I find it a useful tool when making my animal drawings. It is way too easy to think you have graphite in the drawing the same value as the reference, but really don't, only the relationships are correct, but darkest dark needs to be still darker.

The drawing which I am calling On The Fence, is from a photograph I made last summer at the Trailside Museum in Milton MA. People were feeding the ducks and the resident chipmunk population had arrived to get their share. This little guy posed on the lowest fence rail long enough for me to snap its photograph.

Done entirely with graphite, various hardness starting with a 7H and working up to a 2B, but most was done with the 2H, HB and B grades. Base is Stonehenge paper. This is a redraw though the first time I drew him it was a fairly quick drawing in one of my sketchbooks.

Between the watercolor ATC and the chipmunk drawing I haven't had a lot of time to work on other projects, but I did spend part of an evening doodling in my sketchbook, thought you might like to see the kind of things I doodle. Mostly plants/flowers but there is one snail in there, not sure where he came from. Sometimes these doodles become a larger project, so I don't feel that I am wasting my time doing them.

I made this photograph the other day out of one of my windows. For some reason a bit of snow had stayed on the railing and created this icicle. I made several photographs of it, but find I like this one with sunlight on it the best. Needless to say it is long gone. We have been in a warming trend for the past several days, (well at least during the day) and have had at least an inch of rain so the icicle is history.

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