A Little Further Behind Than I Thought

Oh my, I didn't realize that I hadn't even posted the rest of the February sketches yet.

I had some fun in February with the Olympics by doing some quick sketches from the televised games and then refining with ink and watercolor afterwards.

I was using some Holbein watercolors in a pan set that I acquired on Ebay a couple of months ago.

Here is a close up of the second in the series, the first was in an earlier post.

The sketches were done on the 9th of February but the watercolor was added on the 14th.

Here is the last one to be painted so far. These were fun to do and also challenging at the same time.

This is one of the first sketches that hasn't been painted yet, just pencil and ink so far.

I like the composition on this one so I'm hoping to find some time to paint it soon.

I started following along with the free Strathmore online art workshops in March. The first one is Back to Basics so I have been doing some pencil sketches. Here is the link
http://www.strathmoreartist.com/artist-studio/groups/workshop-1-2014/forum/

This one is lead by Earnest Ward and he has many helpful videos and also supplemental material on his blog.

I started working with one of my favorite old shells which is actually a horn shell that can be blown.

The emphasis here was on line and contour but I ended up with a little shading.

A close up of the second attempt ...

and the third.

These are all drawn with HB graphite and mechanical pencils and an Ebony Pencil.

Next we were concentrating on shading and drawing ellipses.  I decided to choose something smoother so I could try some of the shading ideas with the same tools as before.

A little handmade pot gifted to me by a friend.

I spent a little time collecting things from the yard with interesting lines and details, then did some more pencil drawings of a Black Walnut and a Honeysuckle Root ( it could be a Trumpet Vine Root but I think Honeysuckle).

 Back to the shell collection. This one just begged for some color so I added some colored pencil to the graphite drawing.

I'm also working on a new cartoon for a tapestry and it should be ready to take some photos soon.

Still Sketching Around

Catching up with the sketching today. This is the last sketch in the old Moleskine journal. I like the new Stillman and Birn but I miss things about the Moleskine. The search for perfection is elusive!


We has just had another ice storm on top of the snow and this is the scene from my front door. Cold!






First sketch in the new Stillman and Birn journal. Josh was home helping with the new studio and I sketched him on Christmas day with his new iPhone.

Fountain pen and watercolor.

Just after the first of the year a little sketch of Mack,Chloe and Laddie. We were trying out the new fire pit that Josh had brought us.

Colored pencils.








A soft little sketch of Purrlie cat in colored pencil.










Mack had to go for some out patient surgery in January and I waited in the room for him so this is a little sketch of the room at the VA hospital in Muskogee.

Carbon fountain pen and watercolor.

A second sketch while waiting for Mack to return. The chair wasn't quite comfortable enough to fall asleep so I pulled up a second chair and drew my foot?

Sharpie refillable pen and watercolor.

One cold evening dreaming by the fire.

Ink and watercolor.

Another self portrait, this one in ink and watercolor on another very cold night.

It was so cold this night that I decided to sketch in bed and here is a sketch of my bedroom view.

Carbon fountain pen.

The next day I added some watercolor.

Lately I have been making  sketches of Olympic scenes from TV in grey colored pencil and ink and then adding watercolor as I have time. This is the first I have painted but there are several more sketches waiting for some color. This has been a challenging project.

A Few More Quick Sketches

A Few more quick sketches from the end of the Moleskine sketchbook. I can tell I haven't been drawing daily but trying to get back in practice. I have a brand new sketchbook waiting for the New Year although I may have to start it a little early, haha. This year I have a new Stillman and Birn Zeta series to try and a handbook from Global Arts. I'm hoping that the quality of the paper in the new ones will be better.

I can never have enough sheep it seems.

Mechanical pencil, colored pencil and fountain pen

A little sketch of Purlie cat while sitting on my lap.


Colored pencil

I made a few cards with this one on the cover this year.





Fountain Pen and colored pencil

A smaller version of this one is on the inside of the cards.






Pilot fountain pens

I did a little playing around with the shell drawing on a computer.


Computer fun on a colored pencil and ink drawing

Here is one of Mack and Laddie. Mack has done some wall pairing in the studio this week and I am doing a lot of weaving on the Mango Hunters.



Carbon fountain pen, tomboy marker and watercolor

Taking a stab at a self portrait, soon to be one year older. Yikes!




Mechanical pencil, B lead

Christmas Cactus

Sketched a Christmas Cactus last night. They are all beginning to come out just in time for the holiday.

Recent Sketches

Here are a few recent sketches taken from the sketchbook. I have been so busy lately with the tapestry blog that I haven't posted here in a while but the sketching habit is still strong.

This is a quick little sketch of Purlie cat and Laddie done with a Rotring Art pen and some Pilot fountain pens.

My running shoe, also with the Rotring.

Here is one of Mack with his iPad. He is a good stand in for Santa this time of year. it was done with a new Japanese desk fountain pen with carbon ink.


















A little sketch of a new Lamy Rollerball done with the Rotring and some Derwent colored pencils.

 Here is a sketch of Mack and Josh putting up walls in the new studio we have been working on and another of Josh taking a well earned break.  This was drawn with an oil based pencil with some colored pencil accents and the one of Mack and Josh is with the super fine carbon ink fountain pen.

A little pine cone study with the same carbon ink pen.

This most the most recent sketch, a study of a small shell.

I am trying to get back in shape for some location sketching!

Laddie on Brushes

A little sketch of Laddie done on Brushes a few days ago. I am thinking of doing some cropping and using this for a small four inch tapestry. I think his intensity is captured pretty well here and he is so darn cute.

Here is the second Brushes painting on the iPad.  I was trying to learn how to use the layers so I started with peach tint layer then imported a photo of one of my drawings for the second layer and started painting.  Finally I added a third layer to deepen some of the colors.  I may get the hang of this after many more experiments and it occurs to me that I could use it to design Tapestry cartoons and even knitting projects.