This is an assignment from a Carla Sonheim class. This was my first one of this project and I have some postcards cut to do more when I am sitting by the TV. I am actually trying to get OUT of the studio more, believe it or not. This assignment is all random and you really don’t plan it, you just go with it and use what ever you have on hand.
I started to play with drawing bulldogs but this little guy happened instead. The whole drawing was “accidental.” Sometimes the pencil has a mind of its own.
Our screech owls are back and the palm tree they used last January fell over during the summer. It was dead for a while but we didn’t remove it because the owls were using it.
John made the owls an nesting box and put it in a safer tree for them. Now we wait to see if they use it. We called the wildlife folks to ask where the best spot was and this is what they suggested. Keeping fingers crossed. I can hear them outside right now.
PS…it is “winter” in Florida right now and this tree loses it leaves every year. They don’t change color, they just fall off.
This was drawn from life and is in that same 5×5 homemade toned paper sketchbook that I have used the past few days. I picked up this hyacinth at the local market. With all the beautiful flowers and plants that grow in my part of Florida, these do not and hyacinths have always been a favorite of mine. So for a short time, I will have this pretty pink (eventually) hyacinth growing in the house…
I have been limiting my sketches in this book to 25 min. These are raw and are untouched by any digital process but could be used at a later time for something.
Enjoy this taste of Spring
Here’s another sketch of an item I usually don’t consider high on my list of subject matter to draw or paint. Sketched with an opaque watercolor and ink on toned Stonehenge paper in my homemade sketchbook. The sketch hasn’t been retouched digitally…..yet.
Parsley.
Parsley is one of the herbs that I have growing in pots on my lanai. We tried planting it in a garden in the yard, but it seems that we have super slugs down here that can obliterate a plant over night. HA! They can’t get in the screen house though, and now that the screech owls are back for another nesting season, the slugs are high on the gourmet snack list. Poetic justice. Good birdies!
How do I know that the screech owls are back? The snitches. The feathered blue tattle tales with the big mouths. Aka Blue Jays. Nothing is safe from the preying eyes of these feathered informants. One of the screech owls was sleeping in one of our palms and the Blue Vigilantes raised quite a ruckus which of course alerted the Red Squad, aka Cardinals, along with a few mockingbirds. They let up a bit when I went out there to walk the perimeter of the yard, found the poor abused owl and when I went back in the house, they flew away and let him sleep. I could hear his mate trilling gently from another tree. I guess the fact that I didn’t react sent the birds off to harass the other raptors in the neighborhood (and we have plenty.)
A little while later, another hit squad showed up, the Palm Warblers, aka ELVES WITH ATTITUDE. I could hear them while I was cooking, And they were doing everything BUT warbling. They were just about taunting him, hopping from branch to branch almost like they were playing “chicken”. Hootie had moved and was hiding his face in a different palm, trying to catch some Zzzz’s. If he had a pillow it would have been pulled over his head. I thought the Tiny Hit Squad had some nerve because they would have been an entree for the owls. I promised Hootie that we would build him an owl box this week to replace their palm that fell down from rot.
I noticed that the lizard population seems to be slightly dented. I haven’t seen as many hanging out on the screens but now that the owls are back, I realized the herd is being culled. It’s nice to hear the owls at night. They trill, then look at you like, “I didn’t do it and if I did I wouldn’t admit it.” They hang out in our yard and poach whatever moves. They like the frogs, too. Last year a slug did get in the screen house on one evening, and I tossed it in the air towards the nest. It got snapped outta the air before it hit the ground! That’ll learn the slugs! I was impressed.
This whole post about owls from a sprig of parsley…..
Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2021.
I am not going to rehash 2020. It had some good points where we got to spend time with our daughter and Cleo. But it had bad points, too. Who knew we were going to lose Cleo so young. We lost some family, friends (not to the pandemic) and other fur babies. I am glad 2020 is over.
Here is how Cleo would have celebrated the new year.
ANNNNDDDD we’re in the homestretch!
Day 21 is ‘present’ and fortunately for me I had a bunch of this little guys all cut out and ready to go for another project so I popped them on the scanner and “VOILA”, Day 21 is done!
A little over a week ago I posted the pug sketch. Here is another sketch done with watercolor. I am basically auditioning various media to see which one works the best. I have an acrylic one started, on my desk. So far the watercolor version is winning but we’ll see tomorrow if I feel the same way about it.
I zonked out early yesterday and I forgot to post. I was working on some sketches yesterday that I don’t want to share yet, but I thought of a new themed sketchbook that I will probably start after I finish my Christmas cards.
Another task that I tackled yesterday, in my bullet journal, was my Thanksgiving shopping list. I have tried regular planners for years, but I have had the most success with bullet journaling. The nice thing about a non formatted planner like bullet journaling is that I can track things like Thanksgiving shopping lists from previous years. It takes the guess work out of holiday planning and has been a valuable tool for me. It also reminds me of what worked and what didn’t.
You can find out more about Bullet Journaling here:
Today I finished up my week long daily doodles and I also tried out a new sketchbook to see what media it will handle.
The daily doodles are in a Strathmore 400 series softcover Drawing sketchbook. I love this whole line of journal type sketchbooks. The paper is awesome and you can get different weights for various media, they open flat and I like the 7.75 x 9.75 size. It’s perfect for my dailies.
This was done in a new sketchbook that I haven’t tried yet, but I have two of them. This is the first page and I tried watercolor and ink. It’s a square format and I love square sketchbooks but I am not sure how I feel about this one yet. More to come on this sketchbook….
Since I committed to doing a post a day for ART EVERY DAY MONTH, I am posting this, although much of today was doing research and sketches for a map I am working on and there is nothing sexy about a page full of lists. I won’t bore you with that. Plus, you’ll see the results soon enough. I did learn some exciting things about my subject, though.
Although I did do my morning routine and those sketches, I decided not to post those.
Instead, I am posting the color sketches of “Madison,” who owns my friend JoEllen.
For Madison’s portrait, I did several different sketches, which is why I make sure I do a pencil sketch first (like the one you saw of Rebel yesterday) and then make photocopies on cardstock so I can do these color sketches like you see here. The larger sketch was a Tombow marker warmup for me to play with the shapes and colors and get a feel for what paint I might want to use and getting to “know” Madison. I wasn’t quite going for accuracy, I was testing color relationships, carving shadows and just having fun. You can see where I put color swatches on the side. Then I did the small color sketches. One is ink and watercolor and the other is acrylic. The final that you saw the other day was a blend of mediums. You can see how each medium feels different. There is a lot of work that goes into doing a portrait like this. I might try a whimsical Madison sometime in the near future.
Thanks to JoEllen and Madison for the lovely portrait opportunity,
