The prompt for today was noisy. Cicada in dry brush, brush pen and micron pen with some green ink that didn’t scan well. Hoping to keep up with each day, that will be the challenge!
I am also working on a face in ink wash and some colored ink, but didn’t finish that today.
#Inktober makes October way better. I have been down in the dumps lately which has made drawing a struggle. Inktober is a good push for me to get back into the swing of looking forward to a drawing. Here is day one! Not too terribly happy with the drawing, but I did it and that is what matters. I don’t usually do ink wash but though I would give that a try…I will consider ink washes for the next few sketches as well. #inktober2016 has some prompts as well…so I decided to use todays prompt to choose the subject matter. Today’s prompt was FAST.
9″ x 12″ Charcoal on Paper
Charcoal is something I haven’t used since college. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed working with it, as I really don’t like pastels…maybe the simplicity of black and white is more comfortable for me. I am trying to keep myself occupied because my very best friend, my Big dog is not doing very well. Drawing keeps the mind occupied. Grateful for #sktchy for some nice resources.
This was done in my Strathmore toned paper journal. Magic marker under painting for some subtle color. #sketchbox art supplies that were delivered this month.
Well, the 20 minutes a day did NOT work out. Bad choice in terms of timing I guess. I was hoping to keep up with my portraits, but I just couldn’t make it happen.
I have been behind on my art projects. Summer at work is always busy, hoping that the fall will open up a little more time for me. I do have a new project in process, I am thinking of focusing a lot of my art on ocean themes. I love working on the fish, mermaids and beach scenes. It might help me to narrow some subject matters down and try to be disciplined. However, I am going to continue working on faces, because I am really enjoying that.
So for two weeks I am going to try my best to stick with the #20MinutesADay challenge. I am on day TWO! So far so good. I decided to work on portraits as I am still trying to get better at that. 20 minutes seems to be just the right amount of time, not to little, but not too much! I am hopeful that I can keep it up.
Maybe I will develop a good habit!
I must be easily influenced! One of my friends mentioned interest in Horseshoe Crabs and off I went to work on Horseshoe crabs. Never would I have thought to do a painting of this particular sea creature. But, it was super fun! And, I learned a little bit about them too. I am going to do a series of 3. One more to do. I actually love their shape and design. These lent themselves to the encaustic medium as a finish…and the addition of white broken shells. Both of them are done on cradled birch panel, using a combination of oil bar, watercolor and casein, encaustic and the found natural shells. Lots of fun! I just have to decide the color scheme for the last one!
I have been drawing, just not posting. Fourth of July holiday was our week vacation time. Lots of camping and sailing…and I always have good intentions to do some sketching, but it is still difficult for me to settle down. We seem to spend a lot of time moving our gear in and out of the boat and then off to another island!
Luckily we spent two days at Little Hens so I spent a little time doing some landscape drawing (which I really never do). Once I got back home and unpacked it was back to #sktchy and faces. I am also working on some fish studies for larger paintings. The Right Whale seemed a good choice.
One and a half days left on vaca and then back to work.
Along with doing quick simple faces I want to be able to do a more finished drawing. This started with leftovers (I hate to waste paint!) I had painted a blue(ish) ground on my strathmore toned paper…then had some left over acrylic paint that I decided to squash on there. Over that I decided to paint some watercolor…which looked interesting…kind of like a stain. I thought, well, this might be a good surface for graphite.
I am not sure about it. The graphite went down smoothly. But, I felt like I couldn’t get the darks as dark as I wanted. Maybe I just needed to control the ground more in areas. I think that the effect is interesting though, will try again!
I have been trying to finish this one up for a couple of weeks. Fish drawings for my husband! I was doing a lot of birds and he said, how about some fish! So, this is for my husband John.
Our plow guy takes out our house marker (or mailbox if up) every year. Another one bit the dust this past winter. Here is our new sign, found wood on the beach, painted in acrylic–atlantic salmon seemed a good choice for a coastal Maine house. We’ll see how long it lasts!
Still working on my faces. Work in progress today–taking more time than I normally do.
I am finding the great thing about #sktchy is not just the endless photo resources, but learning how other artists are using their photo resource. So many folks do such a great job of really just being inspired by a photo–you can tell that they used the image, but they really used their imagination to create something entirely different! This is something I want to learn how to do!
This is the first time I felt like I deviated a bit from the original image. The resource photo of the girl was great, and somehow she reminded me of a gypsy girl! And, I felt like she need to be looking out of a window with shutters. So….I am happy with this re-interpretation of the image. It’s not a perfect likeness and I have changed her hair and the surroundings. I am going to try and do more work using my imagination!
Art Projects 