November and December 2025 Sketches, Studies, and Drawings

It's been awhile and I decided to do a little sketching in a new sketchbook gifted to me by Aarti.  Being so used to doing this on the ipad, I kept wanting to hit the undo button from time to time that doesn't exist.....lol.

And back to sketching and drawing on the ipad:

Inspiration from Birthday Flowers

I've been on a roll with drawing after the flowers the guys sent me for my birthday.  Although I've worked on a few other things besides flowers (not shown in this post), it was those arrangements that inspired and motivated me.

The last drawing in this post is a banana plant that has come back up in our back yard.

 

Roses for my Birthday

This year, I received two beautiful bouquets of flowers for my birthday.  A great incentive for me to draw.  To start out, I decided to focus on the roses in one of the flower arrangements.

Although I'm calling this basically finished, there are various things I could improve on.  One being the lighting.  Unfortunately, I work with what I have with the normal lighting in my house without "staging" for lighting effects.  Not showing here, I am still playing with backgrounds of different methods and colors.  

As I was working on this, I considered adding other flowers as fillers around the roses (like what are in the arrangements) but chose not to.  

Last count on number of layers is 55 but that also includes screenshots of the stages for sharing the steps like this as well as multiple layers for each component with base colors, lights, and darks, etc.  Anymore, I also add layers for notes so I can remember just what I did throughout.  Before I would keep notes on paper and then misplace them.  When I was blogging on a regular basis, I would use my blog describing everything to remind me but then this year I haven't been real on top of things.

OK, Where Did the Time Go?

This year has flown by and I can't believe how little I've done this year with regards to drawing (or painting as some might call it).  Basically, I have been extremely lax (or lazy) not only in producing anything art related but keeping up with my blog.  Maybe, I just needed a long "recharge" period.  The jury is still out on that one.

My only blog post so far for 2025 was made in July and that was catching up sharing results to date without much in the way of information to go along with what I had done.  And here I am again doing the same thing trying to catch up.

I'm finally getting back out and involved with my art so hopefully I will do better in the coming months.

This is from a plant poke gifted to me completed towards the end of July.

In August, I decided to step outside my comfort zone and play with various brushes I have that I wouldn't normally think about using.  I found I enjoyed the challenge and liked some of the results I achieved.

The method used to work these brushes is as follows.  The one thing I failed to mention on the sheet was the fact the color applied was using the Color blend mode over the value sketch layers.

Another example using the Selection tool and then filling in color with a brush.

A Switch game the family has been playing for weeks is Fantasy Life: The Girl Who Steals Time.   We've been playing multiplayer and my son's character he customized is one of my favorites.  It fits him......haha.  And since this drawing, two more family members have started playing, so now there are six of us.  

My latest has been playing with two new brushes that came out in the Procreate 5.4 update.

A little demo I put together for my granddaughter showing how I'm using the Selection tool for adding color.  No presketch.

Outside of the little bit of drawing done this year, I have worked on creating two printed digital journals.  One for last year's accomplishments and then I created one with my favorite subjects which consist of my miniature bear collection and other plush toys (to include dog toys).

Once I finish printing, I plan to spiral bind these together.

And this brings me up to date.

Flower Drawings

After a bit of a break or what I refer to as a recharge period, I  worked these flower sketches.  I've been in the mood to work my drawings in black and white and then go back adding color.

This first one was originally sketched in my Alpha sketchbook using a mechanical pencil.  From there I uploaded to my iPad and ended up with the following by using the pencil sketch and blending out using the Gouache brush tool.

Using the same flower arrangement, I then worked this next drawing adding a little artificial bird I have perched on one of the branches.  

We've been seeing more bees IN the house here lately.  Both mud daubers and these little wasps.  In fact in the kitchen you can hear buzzing from the back wall.  Terry believes they must have a nest just under the edge of the roof (I believe what's called a soffit but not sure on that).

I decided to work some sketches I could use to add to other drawings.

And most recent is another of our Hibiscus that is in the back yard.  

Playing with backgrounds.  Not sure which I like better....the green or the blue.

 

Native Hibiscus

This is from one of our native hibiscus trees in the back yard.  I loved this stage the flower was in as it was opening up. 

This one took 31 layers to complete.  I was playing with different brushes to get a watercolor effect.

Brushes/Techniques used:

Drag and drop base colors (flower and leaves)

MWC Water Wash #8 brush for texture

MWC Splatter Wash #8 brush for texture

Darks using Gouache brush tool and blending with layer set on multiply to maintain texture

Lights using Gouache brush and blending

Bee and branch using Gouache brush set at lowest size setting

 

Pink Flowers

This flower illustration was using different brush tools for some texture.  The one thing I love about Procreate is the fact there are still techniques to learn.  I love being able to play without having to start something completely over again.

Steps Involved

1 - Line Drawing

2 - Base Colors using line drawing as a reference and working on layer below.  Color added by dragging and dropping a flat color.  Also used the eraser and the MWC Light Wash #7 brush tool tapping for some texture.

3 - Removing (unticking) the Line Layer.

4 - Adding middle tone color to flowers using the Soft Airbrush brush tool.

5 - Adding middle tone color to the leaves using the Soft Airbrush brush tool.

6 - Darks on flowers and adding centers.  Still using the Soft Airbrush brush tool.

7 - Darks on Leaves and adding cast shadow.  Soft airbrush brush tool.

8 - Finishing touches which include a layer with white to line some of the edges of the flowers; layer of blue over a few leaves; layer of gold on a couple leaves; and a layer using white and the MWC Splatter Wash #2 brush tool for added texture over flowers and leaves.  Also adjusted the color saturation of the top two smaller leaves as they looked too gray.

9 - After thinking I was finished, I decided to make a couple of changes.  I added a touch of blue to a few of the flowers for some variation and darkened areas on the leaves.