Now I have a complete set of portraits of my eldest son and his family.
This one was quite the challenge due to facial hair. At one point I felt a bit overwhelmed tempting me to give up but I chose not to do that. After various trial and error attempts, I finally found a way to depict the facial hair and hair stubble I was happy with.
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.
While Morgan was staying with us, we played using Procreate. There is so much to learn using that app and I was sharing a few things I have learned.
She wanted to try working on my Ipad because of the screen protector that has a paper like finish where it doesn't feel like the apple pencil is too slick to control. And as an exercise, she worked on drawing a nose practicing how to shade to form it. She did an excellent job with both!!!
I love the fact my two granddaughters love to draw as it is yet another thing the three of us have in common we can work on together and share....even with the distance between us.
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...
Darlene (sister-in-law) shared with me one of her latest adventures in Diamond Painting. Because Terry likes to work pictures out of beads, she thought he might be interested in this. He was intrigued and decided to get a couple of kits.
After watching his "painting" develop, I thought I would give it a try as well and ordered a kit. His two kits consists of round beads or diamonds or whatever they are called and mine ended up being the square ones.
This is the first one Terry completed:
Last night I was lucky to sleep an hour so rather than tossing and turning, I got up and started drawing.
Lani (Alani) - turned a year old as of May 29th. One of the sweetest dogs we've ever had and she's a Momma's girl.
She's considered a Teddy Bear (Shih Tzu and Bichon Frise) with a rare genetic issue in this breed mix and for a small dog....hip dysplasia. Her hips click as she walks/runs but so far it doesn't seem to bother her in the least. Our vet said she could go a lifetime as she is now or we may be facing one of two surgeries, which we hope we don't have to put her through. I guess time will tell.
This to me captures her overall demeanor.......a happy, playful, and loving little bundle of joy!
So far this is what I've done as I go through course material and play with the various new brushes and techniques covered.
I'm going back to previous drawing/illustrations I've created and seeing what I can do to give them a little artistic uplift. The course also covers rules I tend to avoid like the plague like composition (why I prefer illustrating and journaling) but it's good to face them now and then.............I suppose...ha ha. I did need something different as I was feeling rather stuck. This offers a new challenge that may keep me busy for awhile practicing and experimenting, which I should do more of.
Course I'm taking:
Introducing the Procreate Watercolor Masterclass by Nathan Brown through DesignCut.
Brush Pack also purchased:
Master Watercolor Brushes Ultimate Edition by Nathan Brown also through DesignCut.
There are videos on Youtube under both the instructor's name and DesignCut for additional information.
At present, I am taking a new Procreate digital watercolor course and playing with some of what I'm learning from it. The course is by Nathan Brown through DesignCuts.com.
Taking a previous digital pencil drawing done back in February, I've worked it two different ways.
Original drawing:
Experiment #1: Blending part of the bird into the background forcing the eyes to go to the head and adding just a touch of color to part if the bird only. I'm not real crazy about this one but was fun to play and experiment a bit.
Earlier this year we had to remove a large Camphor tree we had growing in the backyard. It provided a lot of shade which helped block the south-western sun from higher temperatures in the sunroom and kitchen. Unfortunately, the roots of this tree and a Magnolia in the back have caused damage to our septic drain field so we had to have both taken down.
The one major drawback to the Camphor tree was the leaves that would come down with storms as well as the berries being toxic to humans and pets. Lani was notorious for mouthing or picking up everything from stones to mulch, which made us nervous every time we took her out back. Now we have Sadie and like Lani, wants to pick everything up.
We do miss the shade though as well as lower electric bills.
I worked this illustration first in my sketchbook. Then worked it on the Ipad without blending and with blending just for the practice and variation.
Still going through photos taken throughout the years for incentive and as reference material. These are from outside living room window here in Florida.
BJD 2B pencil
Going back to 2011 and 2012 when we lived in WV, I decided to draw from some of my photos taken while living out away from towns or subdivisions. The one thing we miss is all the wildlife we enjoyed watching day to day.
Not feeling like messing with color, I chose to work all of these with the 2B pencil brush tool.
All using Ipad to draw on, these are my latest drawings.
With the mushrooms, I wanted to use a different technique than I normally do, which is using the smudge tool to blend. Instead I chose to use the eraser tool set with the same brush tool as I'm using to lay down color.
The other thing I've been concentrating on are values so my drawings are done in black and white. Then if I want to add color, I can do so using the layer blending color mode. The concept came to me from Steven Reddy's method where he paints using ink for his values first and then goes over with watercolor.
With the prayer plant, I used the 2B pencil brush tool but used the Smudge tool and Gouache brush tool for blending.
Years ago our neighbor, Thomas, gave us a piece of his Desert Rose. Although he passed a couple years ago, he lives on in his gift to us. With the beautiful weather, it's in full bloom. This is as of yesterday's date.
Worked while Neal and Travis closed on their first home. Was my way of keeping busy as I waited to hear how things went for them.
Days later, my flowers are still going strong to include the roses. Here are two more drawings I've completed.
Each worked differently. The lily was worked off the value drawing and then adding color layer with layer blending mode. The rose was worked without a value layer using brush tools to color on separate layers for each component.
