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Lemon….

SANY0065Lemon

Prismacolor on Bristol

     This week was spent  thinking about small exercises that I could do in colored pencil.  I wanted to pick small projects that would take about 15-30 minutes.  I knew for certain that did not want to draw fruits and veggies and I sure as heck did not want to draw another APPLE.  But there I was all week collecting ref. material for fruits and veggies.  I hate to admit it, but they are the best to start with, I guess.  They have simple shapes  and different depths and variations of one or two colors.  so why fight it.

I’m not to happy this this lemon, it just about glows in the dark!  I used a color pallet from one of my c.p. books.   I guess you can’t believe everything you read. For now,  I am putting the books away and I’m going to wing it.    I really shouldn’t be using them anyway.  I hope I have something better to show next time.  As for today, it ends on a sour note….My nuclear lemon.

Mom in Graffiti…

mom

EDM #  67 Draw something Mom

Colored pencil on card stock

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”  -Washington Irving

 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms!     And a special Mother’s Day wish to my mom and Mrs. Ottaway.   We Love You!

Carol and David

VSD-April (in color)

vsd-april-color

Rhododendron Bud

Derwent Coloursoft colored pencil on Bristol Smooth

    I like the graphite version better, but either way I should have included a background.   Also, I need to work on my heavy hand.  I use too much pressure and I hold on to my pencil for dear life….not a good thing for building layers of color.   This is from VSD-April and the picture was taken by Jeanette Jobson.

VSD-April

 

vsd-april1Rhododendron Bud

Graphite on Bond

      Virtual Sketch Date is a blog that posts a picture once a month and those who want draw the posted reference in any medium they choose.  This drawing is from a picture taken by Jeanette Jobson.   Don’t be surprised if you see this in future.  I think I’ll want to do this in color later on.

This image goes well with the warm and sunny weather we have been having.  I love it.  You can open the windows and smell cut grass and grills stokin’ from around the neighborhood.  There is nothing like it in the world.  It reminds me of going to my grandma’s house in North Carolina.  All I’m missing is the smell of Pine-Sol.

My new drawing table

drawing-table

    We went to see an art friend of mine and she gave me this big drawing table.  She likes to paint in her bedroom or in the kitchen so she had no use for it.  But I sure did and made David load it in the trunk before she came to her senses, and laying on my beloved 2nd hand table is a commission of a dog that I have been working on.  Yep, you heard right.  It’s my very first commissioned piece.  SCARY stuff.  It’s difficult, because the  ref. photo is from a cell phone, so I kinda have to make up the details as I go along.  If the dog came from one breed, I could study other dogs of that breed.  But she/he ‘s mixed and her/his  parents were mixed and so on and so on….  So I have no idea.    The dog had passed away, so the cell picture is it. The owner of this dog is very sweet and easy to work with. So it isn’t as scary as it could be.  I’ll post, after she gets the drawing. 

Vicki has been making color palettes derived from photos.  It would be really handy for mixing colors in painting.  She also showed me how to link so I thought it was only fair that she was my first.  Also, while you are at it, browse her blog, it’s full of all kinds of neat stuff!

A Cockatoo in Color

bird-cp1Colored Pencil on Bristol Vellum

Photo by Lady Carol

     This is a little bit of a cheat.   I completed this before I did the other drawing.   I don’t like this version very much.  I changed the branch and added  feet to my graphite drawing.  I wanted to play with color, but vellum is not very kind to colored pencil.  I think the paper is just too grainy.  But there it is. 

     We  have been really busy working on redoing Alana’s bedroom.  We didn’t get started until Saturday afternoon, but I managed to paint the ceiling, walls and trim, and throw in painting the same in the closet…all painted  by 6:00 Sunday night.  David put in a ceiling fan, stained the trim and is putting in 2 replacement windows and 2 doors.  The room is really pretty.  The ceiling is white, and the walls are lilac (ish) with cream trim.   I am a little disappointed that we didn’t get the room done.  David had to go out of town again for the week and we still have to put up the doors put in a window and put up the molding.   It is nice to know that if we start a little earlier we could probably get a room done in a weekend.  

A Cockatoo..

bird-graphite

Cockatoo

Graphite on Bristol Smooth

Photo by Lady Carol

     This is the drawing I was speaking of in my last post.  I really don’t know my birds, so I think it’s a cockatoo.   I haven’t been drawing that much.  I really don’t know why, except that I just don’t feel like it.  I think forcing myself to draw or paint is counter productive, because it usually ends up in the trash.  But, fortunately for me these moods don’t last long. 

     Alana is out for spring break.  We have been hanging out, sleeping late, and doing as little as we can get by with.  But playtime is soon coming to an end.  We are dejunking her bedroom. Most normal people usually “spring clean” but her room is too bad.   But it has to be done, so we can paint her room over the weekend.   And just so ya know, painting a room is nothing like painting a picture.  The only excitment to painting a room is after it’s done. 

Slide Show

I have new drawings, but I can’t post them right now. I had to get a new computer and I have been trying to reload some programs and feel my way around. This computer is  different from my little Gateway notebook. I have a program now that will make a music slide show. After I found that reloading fell by the waist side, and I spent all morning making slide shows from my pictures. I made a good one from last summer with the kids swimming in the pool (I’ll post if I get permission from their Mom). Then, I made one of the animals that I have drawn so far. I couldn’t upload it to my blog because I don’t have the upgraded version. So I tried to do the same thing on One True Media, uploaded the code to vodpod then to wordpress. There has to be an easier way, but not being computer savvy…It was the best I could do.  So many gadgets so little time.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Animal Drawings On Parade at One True…“, posted with vodpod

 

 

Storm

storm

Graphite on Bristol Smooth

EDM# 36 Draw in Public

     I usually draw or read while Alana has soccer practice, but I sit far enough away that no one can see what I’m doing.  So Saturday I pulled my chair up with everyone else pulled out my supplies and began to work on this drawing.  Everything was fine at first, then questions started.   What are you doing?  Why are you drawing that?  Are you an artist? And then they were silently watching me .   I got very nervous,  and my face was getting hot and my ears starting to burn.  I knew they were turning red .  So with my embarrassment meter on high alert, I made an excuse to put my art supplies back in my bag.   I don’t know if I was bothered by the questions or that fact that so much attention was focused on what I was doing.   Very thought provoking…

     Now about the dog.  Her name is Storm and she is my friend’s pit bull.  She is a very sweet natured dog.  I know there is a stigma attached to this breed, but this dog loves children and is constantly socialized.  To tell you the truth I couldn’t pick a pit bull out of a line up, and I certainly would not have guessed that Storm was a pit bull. 

Tonkinese Kitten

tonkenese-kittenGraphite on Bristol Smooth

Photo taken by Crias

     This is my first attempt at drawing a cat.  The Tonkinese breed is a crossbreed of Siamese and Burmese.  And that’s all I know on that subject.    I think it’s kinda cute, but it definitely doesn’t do the photo justice.   I was surprised how difficult and how different it was from drawing dogs.  It doesn’t help that I choose difficult poses to capture.