Been a busy few months and only now trying to catch up with my blog posts of drawings I've managed to accomplish.
My sister in law's granddaughter, Sophia - couldn't pass up drawing this expression. This little angel is a year old.
To help Madison and I get back into our sketching, we set a challenge for this month using one of our favorite Switch games as incentive.
The challenge was to sketch one of our favorite babies; a mon that to us was unique in shape and detail; and a landscape scene that grabbed our attention while playing.
Madison's Results:
A lot has been going on the last few months but I have still managed to get some artwork done...two of which were therapeutic in nature.
Have also been busy with completing several diamond art kits and playing with Legos.
Personal Challenge...to illustrate the first things that come to mind living in Florida that differs from living up north and that I have seen/experienced:
Birthday gift - recording the growth of lily buds that were in the arrangement Travis sent to me:
From a section of one of my diamond art kits. Madison loves bees and I thought of her as I did this:
Learning a new technique called Dispersion and as a therapeutic means to unload some emotional/mental turmoil I've chosen not to bog me down:
I actually considered working the Inktober challenge this year as I've done it a few times in the past. First day of October rolled around and I jumped right in with remnants of yard debris from the storm that grazed us. After working a few illustrations, that desire fizzled quickly. Instead of motivating me, I felt this dark cloud form dreading the thought of 30 more days. No thanks.
After working what initially started out as pen and ink for Inktober, I chose to work with one of the mediums I enjoy more.
It's been a busy last two months. We've had both granddaughters come to visit (two individual trips), which has been amazing for us here in Florida. We love when the family comes to visit but having this one on one time with each granddaughter has been very special for them as well as us. A treasured time I doubt any of us will forget!
Even with that said, I did manage to get some drawing in...
This is taking pencil sketches and adding color using Photoshop Elements and the color blending mode. I like adding color to my pencil drawings while maintaining the original pencil work. I then print off on quality art paper to either add to my sketchbooks or as ATCs for use in magnets or albums.
My eldest granddaughter decided to go in with me working a challenge through the month and we agreed on sketching bees. So far I have worked four different types in four different mediums.
This has not only been fun but very educational as well....even at my age :-)
Tonight I was in the mood to start my theme also using graphite. Instead of a mechanical pencil, I chose to grab a regular 4B drawing pencil after a friend of mine shared his pencil sketches with me earlier in the day. One of the things I love more about a regular pencil is being able to use the side of the lead. The two big drawbacks, however, is the smudging using a softer grade pencil and the fact the lead wears down requiring sharpening.
Monthly theme for June is "My diet" sketching/painting a minimum of three to six items that might fit the theme. Not to mistaken "dieting" but instead foods I am eating at this point.....good or bad. I'm TRYING to get back to eating healthier foods as I've been on a very long binge of eating comfort foods causing some health issues I'd rather not be dealing with. It's difficult when one can't sleep and all those extra hours of being awake results in my wanting to eat....normally sweets or high carb foods such as bread and other highly processed foods.
One of the dishes I like to eat that is actually healthy is Kale...minus the bacon we use for flavoring. Although it's actually not too bad with the number of slices used in the size pot of Kale we make. We like making what some might consider a soup.
A very simple recipe using a bunch (as packaged at the store) of Kale, three to four slices of bacon, onion, and jalapeno pepper (just to add a slight kick but not too much heat) sautéed in the pan and then simmered together in about three to four cups of water. I could sit and just drink the broth.
With this latest batch, I decided to add grilled diced chicken giving the "soup" some extra protein and body. Next time we want to try using chicken broth instead of just water for extra flavoring to see which way we like best. We may also add spinach which we've done in the past and really liked.
9 x 12" Alpha sketchbook using Mars Lumograph 4B pencil.
It's been a couple of weeks since I've done any sketching. Instead I have been taking a little break I evidently needed until the desire hit to pick up my sketchbook.
Terry had brought in a premature grapefruit he had to pull as it was putting too much stress on a limb causing fear it might snap from the weight. We were supposed to remove ALL fruit this year allowing the energy to go into the tree itself. He pulled all but about 12. As I was sitting here looking at this particular one, I had the itch to sketch it...showing the size relative to my hand.
Alpha sketchbook with mechanical pencil and .7 lead.
When we moved into the house we first rented and then purchased, we cut down all but about 6 feet of trunk of a scraggly looking magnolia we didn't think was doing well. Our plan was to place a bird house on top hoping to attract Blue Birds. We never got around to building the bird house and the next thing we knew, we had new growth growing from this trunk to include side branches. Here a few years later we have a nicely shaped magnolia tree.
The type we have is an evergreen variety (Southern Magnolia??) that is showy with dark green leaves on the front or top surface and a gold/bronze color underneath. The leaves are large and waxy.
We noticed the last two years the tree had actually produced a few flowers only because we saw the seed pods. We kept missing the flowers themselves. This year I was determined to see them and starting around mid April, I started locating a few flower buds. At first I could only find three but have since noticed several others...mainly up higher.
At first it was hard to distinguish between leaf buds and flower buds but didn't take long to notice the difference. The flower buds are fuller at the base looking like a bulb compared to the leaf buds.
Over the weekend we saw our first flower open in a cup shape. Come evening I noticed the flower closed up. Next morning I found the flower was wide open spilling stamens that would catch on the cup shaped petals. By evening, the petals were turning a Burnt Sienna like color of brown. My understanding is that the flower life is basically two full days before turning brown and petals finally dropping leaving a cone shape that continues to develop into seed pods.
As of yesterday we had two fully opened flowers - both at the point of petals turning brown. There is one bud that is getting close to opening and have found several others at the point in this first sketch.
First two using sketchbook with Fabriano Hotpress paper. TWSBI 580ALR (F) w/#41 Brown ink. QoR and DS watercolors.
