Lately, it seems like Tuesdays have been my day to post sketchbook drawings. I didn't mean for an entire week to pass since my last post, but here we are at Tuesday again. So here are more sketchbook pages from my watercolor Moleskine that I did while we were at the beach a couple of weeks ago now. With traveling, visitors, birthdays and parties, and a little design work keeping me very busy, October has just flown by. I am now actually looking forward to November and the peaceful return of a routine to my days.
I filled one spread in my watercolor Moleskine by recording a little slice of the ocean and sky colors for each day we were at Edisto Beach. I had such a great view from my spot at the dining table in our rental cottage that I couldn't let it go to waste.
I also couldn't help thinking of this song, especially on our rainy Wednesday, when the fishing boats disappeared on the horizon.
And when we returned from our trip I was greeted by Abner! I had the good fortune of winning Abner in a drawing over on Diahn's blog, and he's gorgeous! I really couldn't believe this was a print, it is so beautifully done on such quality paper. A wonderful surprise to come home to after our stay at the beach. Now that we are back in our mountains life is crazy busy around here. I have a design project that needs finishing and we have guests coming for the weekend. If you could see the state of my house right now you would wonder why I am even sitting here typing this with so much that needs doing. At least I have Abner to keep me smiling! Thanks Diahn!
For further proof that I need way more practice with watercolor, this is my contribution for October's Monthly Sketch Project. But what better way to practice than with these online challenges. Makes it more fun and gives me that extra bit of motivation to keep trying. This was done in my watercolor Moleskine. The photo reference was mine, a view of Grandfather Mountain from Price Lake.
Yesterday was such a brilliant autumn day that after Kiddo's PE class we took off on a photo safari. The foliage in our mountains has suddenly turned into a kaleidoscope of hues and we didn't want to let it go unnoticed. I don't often post a work-in-progress but just to prove I have something in the works here is another apple drawing in progress, inspired by Jeanette Jobson's apple challenge. It is unlikely that I will finish it by the deadline so I thought I'd post it as a work-in-progress. This way you can see how my scribbles will eventually become the finished drawing. I hope to work on it some more over the next few days, if I'm not out soaking in these beautiful autumn days.
it's as good a day as any to post a couple of recent works from my sketchbooks. I couldn't resist picking up a few pears from the grocery, they always remind me of fall. Because it takes me so long to finish my drawings in colored pencil I took lots of photos of pear groupings to possibly use later for still life compositions. But I also couldn't resist doing a quick watercolor sketch of pears while I was at it.
We spent Sunday afternoon in the park at Valle Crucis and I tried doing some quick watercolors while there too. These I sketched in brown colored pencil first and then used watercolor over top. The pears were painted directly without any drawing first. Both were done in my watercolor Moleskine journal.
Here it is October already. Turn around once and it will be the winter holidays and then the new year before we know it. This is a view from the most southern tip of Hatteras Island, near where the ferry takes you to Ocracoke. I worked on this from an old photo of mine. This area is probably filled up with over sized beach houses and souvenir shops by now.
I didn't mean to take so long before posting again. Time flies by so fast these days. Thank you to all who commented on my last post. I really appreciate all of your supportive comments!
This is another of my mixed media studies using washed Neocolor II crayons and then dry colored pencil on top. The view is of Sims Pond, from one of our Parkway excursions last month. Doing these studies makes me want to paint. Just paint. And draw. I have lots of ideas lately, lots of works in my head that I wish didn't take so long to actually do.
This is my drawing in response to Jeanette Jobson'sapple challenge. I really enjoyed doing this still life and may try doing more sometime soon. I worked a little differently in terms of how I used color to show the form of the apples and was pleased with the result.
With my background in painting I was taught to create neutrals with complements to get the color to recede. And with my colored pencil landscape drawings I will typically use complementary colors to create depth and liven shadows. I recently read in the July/August issue of Artist's Magazine an article about the artist Colin Berry and his technique for creating his luminous still life paintings. In the article he explained why he doesn't follow that rule and instead uses neutrals directly. I was intrigued by his explanation and gave it a try here with my apples. It's a way of working with color, particularly when doing a still life, that I definitely want to explore further.
As we step into Autumn I try to hold on to the summer sun just a little longer. This art card is from an image of the sunrise through the sea oats on the South Carolina coast of Edisto Island, my favorite place to catch the sun.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
Lately, it seems like Tuesdays have been my day to post sketchbook drawings. I didn't mean for an entire week to pass since my last post, but here we are at Tuesday again. So here are more sketchbook pages from my watercolor Moleskine that I did while we were at the beach a couple of weeks ago now.
With traveling, visitors, birthdays and parties, and a little design work keeping me very busy, October has just flown by. I am now actually looking forward to November and the peaceful return of a routine to my days.
