glass of vino

A friend of mine has told me to draw a glass of wine. I assumed she meant to do it in colour. Either way, I finally did it tonight - again, draw anything!! I have a quite a large set of markers from a rendering course I took back in February of this year. I rarely use them. It's great having a blender! I hadn't used one before the course.

odd items

I really got a reminder that I can literally draw anything. My sister is working on drawings for NaNoDrawMo. I didn't know about it soon enough or I may have tried to do the 50 drawings in a month. Granted, I think I'm doing enough with drawing everyday for a year! Can you believe I'll be at day 80 at the end of this month! Awesome!

So here are a couple odds & ends. My eraser (that I really don't use - I have a better one!) and my spice rack which I did left handed (eraser was right hand).

Whew, caught up on posts! Now to draw tonight. I did work on Mr. Wonderful a bit but I think I need to draw something else. All I did was darken him & add shading since my initial drawing was way too light.

Ah... Mr Wonderful!

I received this toy as a gift from a girl friend & have always found it amusing. Mr Wonderful says great things to be wonderful. All you have to do is press his belly. One example is: "The ball game really isn't that important. I'd rather spend time with you!". Makes me giggle. I think he has about 4 things he says.

Here he is in all his glory!

and here is my drawing of this magnificent fellow:

cracks me up!

it's cold in 'dem dar hills...

As mentioned, it was down right COLD out last week. The final day of the cold snap it was to warm up more than 10˚C. When I took these shots, it was easily still -25˚C with a wind! It was early enough to get the sun in the shot at a low angle. Always fun to get the star effect for the sun!
This was taken near Edworthy Park NW off Memorial Drive. Love the 'mist' off the river - shows how cold it really was. I wanted to take these earlier but by the time I could get my camera, it was too late in the day sadly.



This is taken from Crescent Heights in Calgary. My hands were freezing!



The top photo is darker than it actually was outside. I still like the effect of the lighting.

play w light

As I mentioned, I had a photography assignment & last weekend was quite chilly out. The last photo I had to take was of a pattern or line taken from above. I made my own pattern. I played with light quite a bit before I finally got this one. I submitted it & was told it was a perfect photo! Nice work!!



I really like the play of colours here. I had a cobalt blue glass behind the votive holder.

I drew the votive holder the next evening.

chilly day

This week has been a chilly one here in Calgary. Amazing the contrast to last weekend when we were hiking!
Today it was -16C when I was out in search of a subject or two for my photography course I'm taking. I drove one place near the river but was uninspired by the fact that it is a cloudy day & so I promptly drove back home. I decided to do a wander around the park across the road to see if anything jumped at me.
There is (due to the cold) an abandoned playground with swings, jungle gym & slide. There was a bit of colour so took a few shots (not really submitting them though...)

Here is one I did submit - needed line & texture in foreground. This shot more or less covers both - the wood post is textured & the fence itself creates a line.

Last night I actually pulled out paint. This is what I ended up with. It looks better in person. It's a garden of poppies. I took the photo this way so I could potentially use a shot for my photo class. Still unsure of my other 2 submissions at this point.

guitar

I do not own a guitar & I was at a friend's place last night & of course, hadn't drawn yet. Long day! I decided to go left handed since it had been awhile. This is a very quick drawing & I'm okay with that.

plants

I have drawn this plant on my coffee table many times but I have not used water colour before. The colours turned out fairly well. The leaves on the shamrock (I think that's what type of plant it is) have a purple undertone. The other plant in this pot is a Christmas cactus which has never bloomed sadly.

This other plant I have (no idea what type it is) has these really large leaves & I have not drawn it before. Fun to use colour pencil but the darned things keep breaking when I sharpen them! I used 2 days to do this one...

not quite a contour dwg

I wanted to do a contour drawing of this but I ended up lifting my pen (only a few times).

I didn't add a background due to the type of dwg. It's good practice to keep my eye and hand in co-ordination.

hiking on November 14!

It may seem crazy that we actually hiked on November 14 but we did. It was an awesome day!



This was taken on the way out - along side Barrier Lake. I have so many photos of the mountains, it was a nice to take a photo of something else while on a hike. I like the lines of the trees & the blue of the lake behind.

abstract rock

Here again is my rock face. I saw it last night & thought of drawing it with colour in the shadows. I like the colours I used although the actual shadow didn't turn out right even though it is the correct shape & location. I think it's the brown - needs to be darker.
Either way, it's an abstract so it doesn't really matter!



Each matching colour (I.E. all the violet) is roughly on the same plane as one another - so the same tone of lighting when I was looking at it. I think I'm going to try this with acrylics too. I love how chiseled this rock is.

brush

Since I generally struggle with what to draw, I just draw whatever is in front of me. I was reading on how to do draw hair and thought I'd start with my drafting brush. You use this to brush things off your drawing (yes, no one uses an eraser!) & not smudge it.

The brush hairs look pretty good. I will try to draw hair too but this is a good start.

same day

The same evening I did the model below, I did these images. I copied the nose from a book (it was also a drawing) & just drew the two mouth images more to try the 'suggestion' of the lower lip. It does look better. The nose looks pretty close to the one I copied even though it looks odd. Not sure who's nose it is so I don't care!

compare

I did this quick sketch of the model I drew the other day. This gives better proportions. Now, you may ask how I managed to do this & yet the other's proportion is a wee bit off? Well, I kinda, sorta traced the outline. I say kinda because I couldn't really see through the paper but held the paper over the image & lifted & drew, lifted & drew...

She looks a bit more glamorous here. Oh, and younger!

switch hands

Since I haven't drawn with my left hand for awhile, I felt it was time. It allows me to really 'look' at what I'm drawing (most of the time). I took an advertisement photo & drew the model's face. I did map it out & I feel it turned out pretty well all around (especially considering it was done left handed!). I did quickly turn them both upside down (the ad & my drawing) once I thought I was done with it & fixed the chin, neck & nose with my right hand. I didn't bother with anything else - the eyes are a bit off & so is the mouth but all around, it looks quite good. I need to practice hair - blond, brunette, red head, short hair, not sure what to do so it's not the "just jumped out of the shower" look...

foreshortening

As I mentioned before, I have a few books from the library on drawing. Finding things to draw for me poses to be a bit challenging at times so I take ideas or projects from these books. This one book  has you use your hand to practice foreshortening which is challenging in itself. I used my small sketchbook so I ran out of room for my thumb. I used two days to do this drawing & it does look a bit better than when I put it down the first night. I will (without question) do this again. I need the practice in this area. I know to look for shapes & do not try to draw a 'hand' but my brain tells me otherwise most of the time - hence the need for practice.

few more pics

Cuz I don't have anything else to do, I'm taking an online photography course. I'll fit that in with the drawing & spanish lessons! (:

Either way, I was out this past weekend taking lots of photos. Here are a few more that I really like. I'm not sure which will be submitted for my photography class. Give me some votes between the farm house & these. I really like the ammonite fossil for colour.

missed

I realized after I posted the photos on Saturday that I missed a couple drawings from last week. I started the leaves on Thursday & finished them last night. The other of the buildings downtown Calgary was done on Friday when I went sketching with my sister & friend. I added the water colour to this ink drawing to add some life to it. Helped for sure but I still don't love it. I need to quit when I'm ahead sometimes.

old farm house

I was out EARLY this morning in hopes to see a similar sky to the one from yesterday; sadly, it wasn't anything like yesterday. Why did I not just go get my camera???

Anyway, I was heading out to a client's house to take photos of it before the renovation starts. I knew there was some basic shots I needed & then I really started to LOOK. There is so much old, rusted, pealing stuff going on here that I was inside the house for well over an hour & I'll be going back when I have cleared off a full CF card (silly me)!

I used my 100 mm macro & extension tubes (for some but not all).

My fav...

crystal?

I have this crystal dolphin & really don't know how to draw crystal since all you really see are the objects in the background totally distorted. Well, it looks like colours & shapes - being that you can't make out what it is as you do when looking though a glass.

I found this tough & I did take two days to draw it. The first day was the basic shape & size & yesterday I finished the details & shaded it in. I realized this morning that I didn't add it's shadow. I'm okay with that. I could always add it later...

two day dwg

I started this drawing Monday night. I didn't finish it but had the layout done & part of the shading at the bottom. I finished this last night & I love it. I think two day drawings are better than trying to do some fast dwg just to complete a dwg every single day.

I'm not sure I've done something so realistic in a long time. (: