March 22

I don't think this one is even close to the real thing.  However, most friends seem to like it.  I pretty much kept drawing little frilly bits on the lamp, rather than trying to copy exactly what I saw.  

I guess I still don't have the patience to put the details down on paper.  

March 21

This one looked much more simple than it was.  

I think there's a likeness, but it's not great.

March 20

I did not get this one quite right.  

I should go back one day to do this one over.  I like it much more than the sketch turned out.  

March 19: Laguna Gloria Vacation Sketching Class

So I missed most of the class -- very busy (and surprising) weekend!  

Anyway, I made it for Sunday afternoon's class, and we had some time to walk around the villa and the grounds to find stuff to sketch.  This was probably my favorite statue and sketch.  

(I added a bird to my sketch that I saw bathing for about 3 seconds.)

March 18

Again, misplanning had me cut some of his height off.  

And my version may just be a tad cuter, but still a good likeness!

March 17

Quick sketch.  

But where there once would not have been any likeness whatsoever, there is definitely a likeness!!!  I'm totally getting better.  Or at least more comfortable with just going for it.  But either is good.  

March 16: Getting more comfortable with turtles

I think I do this pretty often... 

I don't plan right, and then end up needing to cut something out of the drawing...

March 15: I'll never catch up!

I'm so far behind, that I'm okay with never catching up.  I'm behind with both posting and sketching/painting.  But I'll post what I've got.  Because no matter how far behind I get, I'm going to keep practicing when I have the time and energy!!!

Did this one at school during a testing break.  

Brush pens, looking at this photo...

March 14

I like how this one turned out.  On the last one, I noticed that some of the 'wet' had dried up before I was able to begin to apply color.  So I specifically wet parts of this paper little bit at a time, then painted on it, then wet more paper, added more water, and so on.  I think the colors blended quite well.  I especially like how I did not wet the paper inside the ankh, so the water did not bleed into the ankh.  Though it looks like there's a patch of color right at the bottom of the ankh, there is not, that was the light from my computer or something.  

So, I like this one and the last one, both.  I probably need to do a little more playing around, maybe use one color inside the ankh and continue using more colors around?  Or vice versa.  

I should also start knitting stuffs for my beautiful nieces.  

March 13

So, after being disappointed by my "background" paintings from yesterday, I realized that possibly what I'm looking for might be achieved through 'wet on wet' painting?

I should have taken a picture before I drew the ankh on there, but I like this background much better.  Yes, the wet on wet worked out nicely.  I drew the ankh with metallic sharpies, which I think adds a nice effect.  

March 12

I basically played with watercolors today.  My idea is to watercolor backgrounds using colors as assigned to the wheel of the year.

This was my first.  I used watercolor crayons, and the yellow and white seemed very promising, but I don't like how the rest of the colors turned out.  Maybe I should have applied a lot more water?  Or maybe it didn't get watered-down enough because I was using gessoed paper?  

I tried again with my traveling (pan?) watercolor set, the Winsor & Newton set that I did the palette for not too long ago.  This one is better, I certainly like the designs better, but I want the colors to bleed more, the edges to blend more...  I realize I planted a space in between most edges, because I didn't want to dirty the water and get bland edges, much like between the red and the blue in the previous painting.  Maybe I can go in with this water on a brush and see what happens to my edges?...

March 11: Life Drawing Meet Up Group at AVAA

I was quite intimidated to join today's group.  While it's an open meetup group and anyone can go, I thought for sure they'd look at my stuff and tell me that I need to take some more art classes before I come back...  Luckily, that didn't happen.

We started out a little late, so I'm guessing the short poses were cut short.  That said, they started with several 1-minute poses...

I started out with my soft pastels, just trying to see the lines and forms.  What shapes are there?...  I think a couple of them flow quite nicely, and this may be a good way to get my drawings started.  Then I switched to charcoal pencils so that I could start drawing in specific body parts and more shadows.

The colors here are rubbed off from from adjacent pages.  I went ahead and used adjacent pages for the short poses, the "warm up."

Then they went to 3-minute poses.  

Then, there was an hour-long pose.  I did my best to work as long as I could, which was only 1/2 hour, but you have to build up to the long poses, and I'm just not ready yet...

My finished long pose painting.  I think I need to work on the boobs, much flatter looking in the painting than in real life.  But not bad overall, considering I haven't done any life drawing for years.  

And no one told me to take more classes.  They were very nice and inviting.  A couple of people came and had a look during the breaks, but no one said anything, good or bad.  I did talk with one other person there; we traded information about favorite stores for art supplies.  I need to check out the Co-op!  Anyway, she was really nice, and had only good things to say about the group:  very inviting, everyone's there to practice, so everything's okay...  And at the end, I did not feel like an outsider, nor an unwanted-beginner.  It was very welcoming.  Definitely a group that I would visit again, given the time off!  

March 10: the Zoo!

En plein air, as they say...

Amy and Pearce came down for a trip to the zoo.  While we planned on meeting there at opening time, she was running late (as usual)...  And then she went to the wrong zoo, so we had even more time.  This first one was done before she got there.  I even had time to color it in.  The second was done quickly, after they got there.  (Thank goodness I didn't have time to color it in! -- I think it would have been hard!)

The Lioness.  She was gorgeous!  I used watercolor pencils to color it in.  Kev was impressed - he said he saw it come alive from when I had just used the pen to when I had finished.  :-)  I'm getting better.  At least a little.  

Anyway, I'm scared to put water to it, scared it will end up looking more horrible.  But how will I learn to use watercolor if I don't just use it?!  Maybe I'll put water to it tomorrow...

Galapagos tortoise.  I know his left front foot looks funky.  But it looked funky IRL too!  That's why it was so hard to sketch it!  I think I did draw its ear too low, though.  And probably should have put a few more wrinkles on its back foot, it looks too clean.  

March 9

Kevin didn't get it.  I just wanted to play with the shape of the building.  I want to alter shapes, play with them a little more often...

March 8: Watercolor Demo at Jerry's

I like this one.  He told us to draw a stick-man, but he brought those anatomy dolls out to use as a model, and this is what mine ended up looking like.  Dad thinks it looks like him...  I'd love to draw something a little more...  a little more...  a little more 'thought out,' but appearing to be just as whimsical?...  or something like that...  form my nieces.  I need to paint something for my nieces to go home with this summer.  

March 7

Playing with watercolors, shapes, glitter, and glue...

March 6

Peacock.  With brush markers.  Their legs really do look that off-set when they're all perked up like that!  

March 5

I'm not sure what kind of bird it is, but it was from a picture I took at Moody Gardens Rainforest in December, when we went to Dickens on the Strand.  

I drew it with a brush pen, then filled it in with india ink.  It was fun to do.  I may have to look up my stork pictures from Florida and see how I do.  -- Crap!  I just realized that the bird also had a bracelet on its right leg, and I didn't paint it on there, and it wasn't a conscious choice, but an oversight..  Oh, well!...

March 4

Two turtles sunbathing by some very green water.  I was using faber cast ell brush pens, the basic 6 color set, and I bought a brown yesterday at Jerry's, so now I have 7 brush pens, 8 with the black.  I need some more.  I think they're rather cool, and I should play with them more.  Good line practice, I think.  

Oh, the picture was from the internet.  Someone was sharing some pictures on reddit, and I loved this one, so I copied it so that I could paint it.  I really should try to keep a little collection of stuff I find on the internet that I might want to give a go one day...

March 3

With Cretacolor pastel pencils.  This was fun.  I did a little outlining and minimal shading as well.  Originally, I'd made the arms too long, their still not quite right, but you can see where I erased the ends of their hands.  Anyway, it was fun.


Now that I have all the different versions, created with different media, I think I like the watercolor the best (March 1).  I might try to make another one with some better shading and mixing of colors...  I still think the pastel pencils was the most fun, though.

March 2

With Prismacolor Nupastels; I used the box of 12 and try to mix colors, but didn't really work, as I couldn't make the brown light enough.  It was still fun, though!

March 1

My watercolor Fozzy.  First drawn in pencil, and it's on gessoed paper, so the pencil marks showed up much more than I wanted them to.  I made a smear on the right ear; I was trying to erase extra pencil marks and went to swipe the eraser leftovers away, but the ear was still wet...  Another lesson learned!

He definitely looks flat.  Probably because I didn't really do any shading.  And while some of the bear is shaded darker/lighter than the rest of the bear, it was not on purpose.  

February 28: My Watercolor Palette

My traveling color palette.  The colors on the inside, toward the center line are as full and pure and I could get them.  The colors on the outside are washed down.  

I've seen artists paint their color palettes in their journals.  And it just seems to be a good idea so that you can know what your colors can do, what they'll look like when they're down on paper and they dry.  

These are the paints.  As you can see, I had already used two of them, for that watercolor workshop I took in Januaryish.  I like how they look when they dry, so I really want to play with them more.  They're bright and uplifting colors that make me want to paint cute things for my neices.

February 27

Fozzy Bear.  My favorite muppet and stuffed animal.  I asked for him for Christmas, but I thought his name was "Fuzzy" and sent my dad on a wild goose chase.  That effort keeps him with me.  I couldn't let him go with my other childhood toys.  Anyway, here he is in oil pastels.  There's a big pink smudge on the face from coloring up to his lips and bringing some of the oil pastel over onto the face.  Note to self:  remember to clean of pastels with a paper towel if/when I don't want to blend colors.

February 26

1st round.  Shapes, with watercolor pencils.  

Added shading and reflections...  Still need to play with it a bit.  

(The white splotches are from the flash reflecting on the water.)

And this is what it looks like after it dries.

I definitely need to play with layering the colors and blending a little bit better, but I think I am liking playing with the watercolor pencils.

Note that this was smooth paper in my sketchbook.  At other times, I'll draw on gessoed paper, and you can see the tooth.  For example, the fish from February 24 is gessoed.  You can definitely see the pigment from the pencils getting caught in between the teeth on the paper.  

February 25

Actor from tv.  Paused it to draw it.  Kinda looks like him.  I need to play with washing for shading effects...

February 24

I love the fish that my mom bought for my nieces that I got to keep because it was way too big to take home on the plane!  It's fun to draw.  I've drawn it with pastels in the past.  This time I used watercolor pencils.  

February 23

I drew this owl with watercolor pencils.  I liked how it looked, so decided not to water it down.  It's at a weird angle because it was actually on a show on tv.  I paused it to paint it - an exercise out of a book, One Drawing a Day by Veronica Lawlor.  I want to do some more exercises, just gotta wait for the weather to get nice.  

February 22

One of my students.  His face should have been a little rounder, his neck a little wider.  Otherwise, not bad.  I could have also done more shading on the face, which I didn't do, which looks awkward because I shaded his neck and his jacket...

February 21

It was on my desk.