I have been doing spirographs in EVERYTHING! Time to maybe take a break. They don’t work everywhere. Now that I am getting the hang of them (the spirographs) I need to be more judicious with their use. I tried to do another Cala Lily, but it feel short of my expectations, so I moved on to Darwin’s Orchid. I love the shape of this orchid. Memories of Kauai and the botanical garden.
Well, I was able to do 13 or 14 paintings of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge. I knew it would be near impossible to get one done everyday. But, I still feel good about it–the challenge kept me motivated and I did more work than I would have done if the challenge hadn’t been there for me.
I had a very nice time in Kauai and captured (by photo) a lot of flowers for future inspiration. I am going to stick with the spirographs for a little while. I like them peeking though the background into the foreground. And, I like the yellow! I think sticking with yellow as well as the spirograph give the work some consistency. The addition of the yellow ochre warms things up a bit, I like that. I am going to concentrate on the flowers for a little while.
Sketchbook Skool is back in session. I am having some difficulty keeping up. I still need to work on two homework assignments: A little illustrated accordion style book about myself and an infographic! Traveling always makes a class difficult–but in addition to that the week we returned home my father in-law passed away. A very sad time for our family.
Plumeria are not only beautiful, they smell delicious. The simple shapes are deceivingly difficult to capture. I love the smallest little veins in the petals that go in all directions defining the petal. The variation in these flowers is so nice. A simple shape that says Aloha.
I was going to do the hibiscus, but somehow the plumeria called me away.
I just realized that yesterdays painting was really a departure! I added color to the main image! Today I have returned to just graphite over my background. It’s whale watching season here in Hawaii. It’s wonderful to watch them breaching from the shore. I am hopeful that we will do a boat ride and get a little closer to them.
Botanical gardens are next.
It’s easy to get distracted when you are in Hawaii. Not as much drawing and painting going on, but lots of sight seeing and enjoying the weather. I have decided not to be too hard on myself and just take it easy…so we will see how many more of these little paintings I get done.
Morning walks have been great, there is beauty everywhere you look. The Bird of Paradise flowers and in full bloom, nice to see. Still working on my hibiscus!
Hawaiian Dove. These are the sweetest birds, and they make the sweetest sounds. No matter which island you are on in Hawaii these sounds greet you in the morning (and if you are in Kauai as I am, they compete somewhat with the Roosters).
Not really happy with the results, but I am trying not to be too hard on myself as I am still on east coast mainland time. It’s 6:40 pm in Kauai, but at home it would be 11:40pm!
Hibiscus for tomorrow!
Pitt pen and water-soluble crayon
So hard not to break the rules sometimes! I love, love, love the ink only drawing. But, sometimes it is just impossible for me not to add a little color. This Koel bird was a prime example. I drew this from a black and white only image from the Animals, Mammals, Bird, Fish, Insects etc. book I have been using. I decided to look the bird up to just learn some more about it, and the images I found show the bird with brilliant red eyes and a green toned beak. The sketch was begging for the color.
I loved this little Jack Russell Terrier that was running around on the lava stone at the beach on The Big Island of Hawaii. i took several photos of him. I think I might do a couple more sketches of him.
Pitt Pen Medium Point
Behind again on my sketches, two more to do today.
Graphite in journal: value warm-up
This is my warm up value sketch for #sbsseeing homework with Cathy Johnson. What a great exercise. This simple project really worked for me. It’s not that the sketch is great, it’s that all the sudden I stopped drawing shapes and started drawing tone. Exactly what I needed! I am terrified of the next part of this project, value in color! That will take even more concentration, and will involve some color mixing that will be good for me too.
More snow coming tomorrow! It just keeps coming.
Art Projects 