Digby Redux ~ value drawing

Value drawing

Posterized version #2

Posterized version #1

And not a good value drawing, I might add. I half traced, half sketched his outline onto tracing paper. At the time I didn't plan to add much more to it. However, I started fooling around with a grade B graphite pencil and one thing lead to another. I loved this reference photo. A white cat backlit by the sun. Very dramatic. I wanted to get the values sorted out but tracing paper is not a good substrate for this mission. A large amount of graphite will almost fall off it and certainly wipes off at the slightest touch. I found as much on my hands as on the paper. I did wind up putting the original image into GIMP, greyscaled it and posterized it to get a better idea.

I never tire of including Digby in my artwork. He was a wonderful subject to photograph and wonderful companion to me for many years. In my reference photo he is waiting 'patiently' for me to open the door and let him outside. I can see his patience is wearing thin by the upward flick of the tip of his tail. Gosh, I miss him.    

Drawing Tip ~ Flip it!

If you work from photographs and struggle with certain subjects, here's a tip that may help. For example...I'm not the best at free handing people, especially faces. I usually resort to tracing or if a perfect likeness is called for, I will use a grid. Several years ago I spent a great deal of time on Wetcanvas.com in the Drawing & Sketching forum and participated in the weekly drawing challenges. The reference one week was a photo of a little boy and girl having a big hug with each other. Loved the photo but it scared me to death. It was not only people but children and the faces were at very odd angles. I flipped the image upside down in my photo editor and worked from that. Flipping reduced the subjects to nothing more than various shapes and lines that made no obvious sense to eye. Then I proceeded to simply draw what I saw. When completed, I flipped my drawing over and surprise! It looked a great deal like the photo. Why couldn't I have drawn this with the image right side up? Probably fear and an untrained eye my brain didn't trust. I wish I could remember who suggested this to me because I would love to credit them. Give it a go. You might surprise yourself, too. 

Sketching Crows

We've had an abundance of crows in the park this year and I enjoy watching them interact. All the posturing that goes on and some seem to be holding conversations with each other. Intimate conversations. Backs hunched, heads close together...I can almost imagine them whispering secrets

only crows can share. They are such smart birds. I wonder if they gossip. One would think so watching them. I've spent time sketching these crows while I sat on my sofa and watched them out my front windows. I thought I'd share a few. They might find their way into a painting or two. Who knows.

                                                                               

Sea Turtle 2 ~ complete

Once again, I can't seem to adjust the colors so you can see the turquoise without screwing up the other hues. It still appears too blue. Try to imagine the water the same color as the sample swatch I posted prior and there you'll have it. It's also really hard to recreate a painting in watercolor. I thought it might be interesting to see how I've advanced since the first version was painted but watercolor still has a mind of it's own it seems. There were many happy 'accidents' that occurred the first time around that were simply not gonna happen again. Ever try to recreate a happy accident? Forget about it.