Daffodils - part two

5x8.5, handbook journal, prismacolor pencils

A single daff this time and with a little bit better results. I found the shading the most difficult to achieve accurately but didn't want to do too much blending as this sketchbook doesn't have the surface for it. Moving on...

Illustration Friday - Snap

sketch journal, 5x8.5

My simple offering for "snap" in my new hand*book journal - can't wait to fill it up.

Have a great weekend, get out there and enjoy that Spring weather!

EDM #111 - draw a bowl

5x8, prismacolor pencils on white Bienfang drawing paper

A bowl, upside down and metallic - with reflections everywhere. I love a challenge, did I mention that before?!!

I decided on a loose, sketchy interpretation for this and it went fairly quick - for me. I started to draw this from life and then I snapped a digital (that would be me just behind my daughter in the sketch with my camera) . She said there was no way she could hold her hands on the bowl longer than 15 minutes - no matter how cool her reflection looked!!! =)

Overall, great fun with this one!

Time: approx. 1-1/2 hours

Illustration Friday - Total

"Out of the Bowl" - 9x12, colored pencil on Strathmore light blue paper

At first I thought total was a tough one because all that came to my mind was math for some reason or maybe it's because I've been super busy with stationery orders these past few weeks and keep thinking how much I've been typing "the total on your order is...."

Anyway, here's my offering and I decided to post this as a work in progress as it's more interesting that way (well not really but I got a late start on it yesterday and most likely won't get to finish it this weekend!). Most of the main work is done but needs some refining and of course the base needs to be completed.

There's also some total trivia to go with this: What is the TOTAL number of gumballs in this piece? (hint: remember to add in the ones you can't see at the bottom of the bowl). Will post the finished piece early next week so come back and check it out, you can see how close you came on the gumballs too =)

P.S. - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

EDIT: March 21, 2007

Although I didn't finish this piece yet, here's the update on How Many GUMBALLS? One person came very, very close on it - it was none other than Tony LaRocca whose guess was better than bad at 22 as there are 23 TOTAL gumballs in this piece. Thanks for playing along everyone!

Illustration Friday - Wired

"Wired Basket" 5x8, colored pencils on white strathmore paper

This piece for "Wired" was inspired by a photograph (except for the spool of yarn that I had in front of me!) that I seen a fews weeks ago on the blog of a wonderful artist, great girl and new online friend, Susan Tuttle at The Purple Studio

She was sharing her thrifty finds of a wired basket and some vintage items which I adored but all I could think of when I saw this pic was, "Wow! I wanna draw that!!"

Thanks so much for the inspiration Susan and I hope this makes up for my lack of entries at Artwords these past few weeks!

EDM #33 - draw an eye

pastels & colored pencils on strathmore natural white paper

Draw an eye (my eye) and sans makeup as i wanted a fresh look plus it helped to see all the details and coloring better. Point taken from my drawing class that just finished was to take up a full page when sketching so this is fairly large for an eye sketch as it's about the whole page of a 9x12 sheet! More practice is needed as some parts of this could be better and it doesn't have the realism look that I prefer but I'm developing my techniques steadily. I'm at the 3 month mark of daily drawing now so as they say - onwards and upwards!

Illustration Friday - Hide

colored pencil & pastels on paper

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1 -- Ready or not you must be caught!"

A couple ideas came to mind when I seen this week's IF theme word Hide, but what stood out the most to me was the game of Hide and Seek the popular childhood tag game. I also found out that it is a professional game with tournaments in many countries (who knew?!)

Let your inner child out and play a game this weekend with your kids or grandkids - weather permitting or.... play it in the snow if you've had the *pleasure* of March's in like a lion wrath recently like us here =)

Shown below is the original line drawing for this illo (my sweet daughter was my model - again - and actually no one stays in one spot for too long around my place anymore, especially when they see me with sketchbook in hand!!)

Illustration Friday - Communication

9x12 - prismacolor pencils on smooth 100lb bristol

There were a lot of ways to go with this because there are lots of ways to communicate. =)

However, I went with the obvious (or not) form of communication - through art. As artists we strive to get our messages, thoughts, feelings, opinions, whatever - out into the world via our medium of choice. And if you're a parent as well, you're also communicating to your child/ren how important art is - in your life and others by sharing your work with them, making art together or taking them to exhibits, galleries or museums. (Also I think that Americans for the Arts commercial "Art - ask for more" sends a very cool message to kids and parents)

Still-life sketch - "oranges in red netting" (cont'd)

Continuing on with my sketch to show how it finished up. The netting took the longest to work in and although I could have added in shading for it as well, I decided to leave it as is for now. Quick mention: it really helped to have my red pencil super sharp at all times when doing the netting - electric pencil sharpeners are the only way to go!

Step 3 - netting almost complete and shading started....
















Step 4 - finished piece: netting completed, shadows deepened, highlights brightened

Still-life sketch - "oranges in red netting"

I've seen a few artists post works in progress and always find their process interesting, plus I think it's very cool to see something "come to life". Therefore I thought I would share a current sketch step by step (well mostly, I regret that I didn't scan the initial graphite sketch and/or the process of shading of at least one of the oranges, next time...)

This is a fairly simple still-life but it has a lot of detail...

Step 1 - shows the oranges completed and a faint outline sketch of the netting that two of them are wrapped in
















Step 2 - you can see how I've started the netting and am working my way across...
















After I finish the netting, I'll work on the shading and with some tweaking, it's done! Will post the final steps and of course the finished piece, so check back if you want to see how it all comes together....