Figure Drawing and more EDM

Last nights figure drawing. I was fairly satisfied with it last night, but today is another story. Oh well, there is always next week. Actually next week should be interesting. Scott is off to school for 8 weeks so one of the models is going to run the Monday night sessions the same as last summer. Just occurred to me that I have now been attending these Monday night sessions for a year. I am not sure I am seeing much improvement lately, but I do know that I am faster with my drawings, and feel I have more confidence. No longer am I afraid to draw the human form, dressed or undressed. So I have to say the effort has been worth it.

The model last night while lovely in a pose with great lines was a bit difficult to draw, she was twitchy. She kept moving her hand or her foot or..., and tended to keep her eyes closed. So there are parts of this drawing that are unfinished or are my guesses, and I know I don't have the face quite right, which is why my satisfaction level has dropped with this drawing.

Below are my more of the Every Day in May challenge drawings.

Drawing 128 was to show an interior of a room through a doorway from another room. The room is my bedroom from my kitchen. Done with graphite and fairly quickly as drawing rooms is not my favorite thing to do. For 129 we had to draw people doing something, I used the top left photograph below as reference and drew a man and his wife fishing. Well, he is fishing and she is sitting and enjoying the breeze and the view. The last drawing above, 130, is of school supplies. I dragged out a couple of notebooks left from the classes I was taking last year, added a pencil and eraser and did a quick sketch.

One more day to draw. I will post that one on the blog when I do the next update. In the meantime below are 4 photographs that I have made since the last blog update. Need I say that actually I have made over 100 photographs but am subjecting you to four. I try to be selective with the photos I show on the Bog as I know they can get boring.

The top left photo was made at the Cape Cod Canal last Friday. I drove down to the Cape on Friday and because of the traffic I stopped at the rest stop along the canal for a bit. I used this photograph for the EDM challenge drawing and also feel it gives you a good idea of what the canal is like.

The photograph in the upper right was made on the Cape at the MA. Audubon Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary. It is a view of the Sandy Neck lighthouse across Barnstable Harbor.

The photograph just underneath of the Rhododendron was also made at Long Pasture.

The last photograph in the bottom left was made at Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary yesterday afternoon. The building is a informational structure with a large window that looks out on a bird feeding station. Yesterday I saw a couple of wild turkeys, goldfinch and I think a Cardinal feeding. Further out  in the fields I could see and hear Bobolinks. The males were in their spring black and white plumage. Sorry no photographs of birds, I need a telephoto lens for that. The Canon is good but not that good. I have posted additional photographs from each location to my Facebook fan page and to my flickr account for anyone interested.

That is it for today. Hope everyone here in the States had a good Memorial day weekend. Per usual comments and questions are welcome.

More Every Day in May Drawings

About the only drawing I have managed this week has been for the Every Day in May challenge. I managed to get behind, not terribly, but badly enough that I had to spend a fair amount of time catching up. I did the rocks in the above grouping before the slump and then the next three all in the same evening. Because I was trying to catch up those three drawings are just done with pencil.

The worst one of the group is the flashlight in the upper right corner. I was using a reference photo and wasn't very interested in the subject so I just got it done. The rocks on the other hand I am quite pleased with, they were stones I picked up on a beach out in California, and yes that top rock is really that redish/purple color.

The coin is an old one that my grandfather acquired in France, my mother had set in the ring so it could be hung on a chain and gave it to my Aunt. My Aunt gave it to me, and I need to decide who I should pass it on to. The ring at the top needs repair as it is very worn, but the coin is still in beautiful condition.

What can I say about the phone, it was sitting there and I had to draw something shaded. Since just about everything I draw is shaded I did something simple.

For the next grouping, I was still trying to catch up when I drew the bell. This is also from a reference photograph, but I enjoyed the challenge of drawing a bell so spent more time with it. I rather like how it came out.

For the 24th our challenge was to draw something yellow. I was going to eat the banana and draw something else, but decided that the banana would really make the best subject so put off the eating until after I got it drawn. As you can see it was getting a bit ripe.

For the 25th our challenge was to draw a bird. I have had several reference photographs of goldfinch laying around for months. I was going to draw an ATC picturing one and then never got around to it. So the decision to use it for that challenge subject was easy. I enjoy the challenge of drawing birds, not sure I have this one quite right, but it isn't bad. The background could be better but I had one more drawing to do and so rushed the background a bit.

My last image is for the 26th (yesterday) and the one that caught me up is of a sponge. This is a new one, but of the type I use for dishes. Not a "real" sponge I know, but what I had on hand. Actually I think it came out rather well. I think it looks like the sponge I was drawing, which isn't quite as easy as it might seem at first glance. Todays challenge is to draw a skyscape, and I need to go check reference photos for that one.

If you wish to see larger images of any of my drawings please visit my flickr stream, link to the right. If you are curious about what the rest of the artists are drawing click here.

I wanted to share just a couple of my photographs that I have made in the past week or so. Above is an unknown butterfly. If anyone can identify it please leave me a comment. So far I haven't had any luck figuring it out via the internet. Photo was made in Massasoit State Park, East Taunton, MA. last week.

This week I visited a new park for me, Ames Newell State Park, it is a small park with a lake for fishing and boating, I made several photographs that I like that I have posted to my flickr stream. I thought I would share this photograph of a Pink Lady Slipper. I still don't have a photograph of one that I really like, but this one isn't bad.

The flowers are so low to the ground and with that overhanging leaf/petal it is hard to get a good view of the bloom. They are a protected flower so even if they weren't in a State park I would never pick one. I will just have to keep trying to make what I feel is a really good photograph, if not this year then hopefully next.

That is it for today. Hope everyone here in the States has a great Memorial Day weekend. Drive safely if you travel. Remember that comments and questions are always welcome.

Art Festival recap

Sunday was Massasoit Community College's 3rd annual Arts Festival. It is just a one day event from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and while they have some craft vendors who have tables and sell their work the main focus of the event is the art shows. The have 3 separate shows for 3 different groups. The first and probably the largest is the juried show for the High School art students. This year they had 5 local High Schools participating. Sorry, I didn't get any photos of the students work, but take it from me some of them are quite good. The next group show is for the Massasoit Students who are participating in the various art programs the school is running. Here the quality of the work was very good. Again I didn't make any photographs of that exhibit. Above and below are pictures of the hired tent where the Open Juried art was displayed.

I just wanted to give you a view inside the tent, so I didn't focus on any one work. I only had one drawing accepted but I did receive a Honorable Mention for it so I guess I did OK. Still it would have been nice to have won a higher award. I have to admit it was unlikely, my drawing was too small, though it probably took me just as long to do as some of the other larger works on display. That said I don't think I am willing to change how I work for one small show.

Part of the Festival events was the auctioning off of the Birdhouses made by the Faculty. Below is a photograph of Scott in his regalia doing his best patter to encourage the buyers. Behind him on the table was one of the silent raffle baskets. I didn't get to the show early enough to check out either the bird houses or the baskets but from what I saw later all were very nice.

By the time I arrived Scott had already started the auction. I did get to see a few of the birdhouse while they were being auctioned off. Some were very fun, though a lot were pottery and I don't think very practical for birds, still they would look pretty as inside decor. Some were certainly conversation pieces.

I also arrived too late to see the steamroller printing of the giant print. The theme this year was "26 Views of the Blue Hills" Below is a photograph of one of the finished prints. Not sure how I feel about the blue ink, but I like most of the block images. I think it was nicely done. Oh the bottom panel is for the Copperhead snakes that were known to den and live in one section of the Blue Hills. Not a part I usually walk near so I don't worry too much about them.

At least they lucked out with the weather, though it was cloudy most of the day with only a few seconds of sunlight they didn't really get any rain. All in all I think the event went well and I believe will be held again next year.

Below is my drawing from last night. At one point during the evening I really didn't feel that it was coming together well. I semi like the end result. She doesn't really look like the model, but I guess that is OK, no reason really why she should.  It was a fairly quiet session, only 4 of us besides Scott.

Enough for today. I need to go make more art. I think the gloomy weather we have been having has put me off and am trying hard to get motivated. Part of my search for motivation has me checking out various blogs. I found one that I really enjoy a lot it is called Sketching in Nature and content is provided by several preselected artists from different countries. Anyone can contribute to their flickr group as long as the content is appropriate but the blog is moderated.

Enough for today, per usual comments and/or questions are welcome.