Water colour pencil....

Martina at Let's Make Art challenged us to get a hold of a water colour pencil and give the tutorial by Bob Davies a try. Well I tried, it didn't go well, that's it at the bottom of the page. Then I went on to play. I tried the cat from this weeks challenge on Ds. I added some Prisma CP to the cat, to see what that would look like.

Do your trials end up looking like this, a mish mash of this and that. Or do you always end up with the perfect little trial drawing, all tidy and pleasant?

Tripod....

The star of our virtual sketch is Jeanette's cat Tripod. I have seen Tripod sketched many a time by Jeanette so it was fun to give him a try myself.
My contour sketch was done completely by eye and my final drawing was done by getting a couple of key spots first.

Here are all the drawings, you have to go check them out. It is great fun to see all the different styles.

Jeanne Grant
Rose Welty , and Teresa of NC
Jennifer
Gayle
Jeanette
Katherine
Stacy
Belinda

Sketching....

Just a fast sketch for the challenge over at DS. I am the host this week and this is my Husbands hand. I think I picked some good pictures for everyone to work on. Lot's of light and shadows.

I got my self in on a virtual sketch with Jeanette, Rose, Jeanne, Stacy, Belinda, Jennifer, Katherine, Gayle and Teresa. Jeanette has sent us all a photo to sketch or draw. I got started today, with a contour drawing. Not sure what I will do but for now I have a feel for my subject. The drawings will be posted on May 18th.

Sad Puppy....

This weeks challenge at DS included this sad little girl. She belongs to Jeanne Grant, this weeks host. I haven't done her justice, but after 4 tries I am calling her done. Good or bad, I do like the look of a continuous line drawing.

Spring Swimmers....

My 9yr old son and his friends agreed to stay still for a couple minutes at a time while they were swimming this weekend. They even did a couple of poses for me. The water was 60F so they weren't doing much swimming just egging each other on to jump in the pool.
I darkened the lines with a black pencil so you could see them.

First Challenge at the New Let's Make Art.....

Joanie is running the challenge for the first part of May. With her pictures she also included a portrait by Rembrandt of his father. She challenged us to try to copy it. I decide to go for that one with a quick sketch.

Self portrait.....

Jeanette, over at Illustrated Life, set up a portrait challenge with a twist , over at Drawspace. This is my line drawing for it. I know I'm scarier looking than you all thought I would be.LOL The twist was that it should not be the average view of yourself. I think I fulfilled that! I did cheat a bit, I posterized the picture I was working from. My inspiration level has been low so I wanted to just jump in and get going. This was still about an hours worth of work.

Challenge host????

Well maybe not. This is a quick sketch of her baby picture. She posted the picture as part of her challenge at Drawspace.

Doodling...

I am a born doodler! While art is very new to me, doodling has been with me for a lifetime. I am the person sitting in a meeting or class and my pen is going none stop. When I doodle, I listen better, I come away with a full understanding of what went on. When I just sit and listen, my mind takes over and I hear nothing of the person talking. Back in my grade school days, when teachers wouldn't let you doodle, I would start my homework while they talked. I have been to meetings now, where the lecturer will hand out blank paper and pens. It is a known fact that some people need to be busy in order to listen.
My doodles of the past were flat flowers, geometric designs and just pencil on paper or more preferably pen. Now my doodles include eyes and mouths, lines for shading, tones and values and a whole lot of.... just pencil on paper. You would laugh to see me doodle, it tends to be in the semi dark while watching a movie. I have been keeping a pad of paper and pencil next to my chair. I have been told by a certain someone to practice, practice, practice. Having paper and pencil handy will certainly help that.
Do you doodle? Do you fill the paper, or is each page a separate drawing?

Best pals....

Continuous line drawing that I did for a drawing challenge at Let's Make Art. The dog looks so guilty for snuggling with the cat.

Baby girl....

This is a preliminary sketch. I am thinking of doing her in coloured pencil on drafting film. This little sweetie has just turned two.

Lenore....

I am hosting the Weekly Drawing Challenge at Drawspace this week. One of the pictures that I put up was Lenore. Lenore is a wonderful friend who is a retired teacher/librarian. This pose says a lot about Lenore, I think of it as her listening pose. Whenever Lenore sits and listens to the kids (which is often) she gives them all of her attention. The kids never have any doubt that they have her attention and that she is fascinated by what they have to say.

Baby girl...

Quick sketch for challenge at Let's Make Art.

Sketching...

Why am I filling up my blog with these horrible sketches? Well these are my 5-15 minute portrait sketches. They are done either while my subject is sitting still for a couple of minutes or from a photo. Why are they horrible, because my eye and hand are not trained to "see" and "draw". Your mind has a habit of saying hey that is an eye draw it like this. Never mind that every eye is different. I am hoping that if I keep this up, sooner or later I will be able to sit down and draw someone recognizable.
Like this one of Alex. No great drawing, yet one of the other kids said "hey that's Alex". Then went on to tease about the blank stare.
Who knows maybe during this practicing I'll also learn to make nice looking quick sketches.

Little Girl....

A quick sketch for the weekly drawing challenge at Drawspace.

Little boy...

My cousin is trying to adopt this little boy. We met him at the family reunion this past summer. He seemed to be a smart little guy. Which is a good thing if he is going to keep up with his brother to be. Another smart guy who seems to be running a mile a minute. It's a good thing my cousin is young the two of them are about the same age!

September....

This summer we didn't join anything. We went to some family reunions and we spent our time around the backyard....And we tossed the calender!
Well the easy life is done. September brings school, scouting, robotics and the dreaded schedule. Several years ago I had to finally give in and start keeping a calender. With four kids, there was just no way around it. It is quite the task to explain to your son, who thinks the world revolves around him, that he needs to use the calender too. Yes , he can go babysit on Saturday, but I need to know this is happening . Nothing worse than thinking you have a built in babysitter and then finding him gone. Or his potential employers thinking they have a confirmed babysitter and finding him gone for a family weekend.
Ah summer, we'll be thinking about you.

Mom....

We stopped at my Mom's house for coffee after church today. That turned into her cooking breakfast for all of us. It made for a pleasant afternoon.
While she was cooking I tried to draw her. It was beyond horrible! So I decided I had to try again from a photo this evening. The second one joined the first in the scrap heap. This third one, while by no means great does look like her, at least the way I think of her. Young and vibrant, full of life.
I wonder how much your vision of the person you are drawing gets in the way of how they look now. Something like your mind sees this person in front of you aging and changing. Your heart sees the person you love. Stuck in some space warp of the mind forever unchanging.

Aunt Genny....

Playing an instrument at the family reunion.

Ben at the computer....

Computer usage has been restricted to half an hour each. The kids are not impressed, but it is time to get on a school year schedule. The middle one is Alex waiting his turn.