minor changes

Since I was constantly comparing to the photograph I took, I kept seeing things that were off. So I added more hair & fixed the mouth so she has that slight curve up to the corner of her mouth & darkened a few things & that's that. Done. Yay!!

What else can I say? Now to frame it & give it to the parents. (:

am I done?

Why is it that I can't decide if I'm done this or not?? I wanted to show my sister but she was busy last night & I'm busy tonight. It can wait for the weekend to show her but if I am done, I want to frame it NOW! (: I think it's done unless she has any tips for the hair.

I really enjoyed doing this drawing. It has taken quite some time to get to this point. Doing it in colour took almost as long as the initial line drawing. I was completely addicted to working on it yesterday & barely got any work done. Terrible. C'est la vie.

I hope they like it! ...and I hope I'm done. If not, you'll see another post.

progression

So the mouth is off. I noticed it this morning & have since fixed it. I scanned the image below before I fixed anything today. I'll quit working on it soon so I can contact my sister to see if I can connect with her to show her the actual drawing & get some input on how to do the background (also before I put the hair in since it goes into the background). I'd love to be complete tomorrow so I can have it framed right away.

The paper is not white so that's why this does not read white.

in colour

I finally began the baby drawing in colour. I debated for a few days as to whether I would actually give it a go with colour. I didn't want the face to be too yellow this time so I am taking my sister's suggestion & opening the image in Photoshop™ to get colours with the dropper tool. It certainly helps but I only have so many colours in my pallet to choose from. So far, it's going well.

I am no where near complete but wanted to post where I stopped tonight. I am blending with a blending stump which can make things look blurry. I'll fix it by adding darker tones later. I want to get the face & other hand at the stage where the right hand is currently.

lions & tigers...no bears

Saturday I went to the zoo with a girlfriend of mine who is there almost weekly with her job - she is a nanny. I was invited through a realtor I am dealing with & I asked her to join me. I was thinking it would be nice for her to go without having to pay attention to children the entire time she's there. We had a great time!
First things first. Tiger. He was up & pacing around. Now, I'm not one to go to the zoo just due to the animals not being in their natural habitat but I will admit, seeing a Tiger that close & who is just so beautiful, was fantastic. It's not as though I've never seen a Tiger before. I just didn't have my 70-200 f/2.8 L series IS II lens back then (that's a mouthful). Amazing what a quality lens will take photos of - yes, I did have something to do with it too. (:

Here are some other shots: some of the birds you often see at a zoo & then there's butterflies!! The butterflies were tough to capture! I used my 100mm f/2.8 IS macro lens for the butterfly shots.

Atlas butterfly - huge!

backgrounds

I seriously have no idea what to do for backgrounds. I am so focused on the main subject that the background seems insignificant but it SO is not. Grrr...
I have been told to look at other artists & see what they do. I guess I should do that more. Basically, the backgrounds are typically pretty basic if it's a lone subject - from what it seems. I better sort it out before I start on the baby portrait.

I went sketching with my sister again today. The morning was to be the nicest weather-wise & it was (well, so far anyway). At around noon, the storm clouds started rolling in. I was done & packing up by then anyway - thankfully!

We went to Reader Gardens to draw flowers. I was in the mood for flowers & it was my turn to pick location. The mosquitos really bothered my sister yet I don't think I have a single bite! Awesome.

I set myself up near some tulips. I considered drawing irises but they were too little & I didn't think that they would turn out as well as something larger considering I planned to use either soft pastels or oil pastels. In the end, I used oil pastels.
Some progress shots (the drawing I started with turned out too dark to really see well).

This is the final piece. Not sure why I chose yellow as a background but I did. There was lots of green behind the tulips but that would have made them a bit lost, I thought. These tulips were not side by side like this shows. I wanted two together & these were the best to draw.

This is an image from my S95 camera taken at the gardens. I did scan it in but that image turned out too bright. Weird.

fabrication

I was out tonight & got home wanting to use colour. I thought of practicing for the baby portrait I have yet to start in colour but that seemed too daunting since I've had a headache for most of the day. *sigh* It's basically gone now but I'm tired.
As I was walking up the stairs in my condo, I looked at my sister's photo she gave me for a Christmas gift. I haven't hung it up yet so it sits on the floor in my hallway. Not sure where it's home is yet. In any case, it inspired me to do something more abstract. I had my soft pastels in my hand and just took my 8.5x11 sketchbook out & started to create something. It was very relaxing to just draw without drawing from life or a photograph.

It almost looks like I'm looking in an aquarium. Soft colours with a hint of the stronger redish tone. I like how this turned out. I even sprayed it with a workable fixative to ensure it doesn't smudge against the other page in the sketchbook.

in reserve

When I bought the last bouquet of flowers a few weeks ago, the gerbera daisies keeled over quite quickly so as mentioned, I cut them off & put them in martini glasses. This worked perfectly, I must add.
That day, I set up a small table with a white sheet to give me a neutral backdrop and took photos of it. I took quite a few but really liked this image - I used my flash to get the reflection on the sheet.

Of course, it is not as white as the sheet is but is anything really white?

Today, I was reading an email I get from PPSOP on photography tips & there was an image showing that I liked. The email did not speak of this technique specifically but I thought I'd try it myself anyway - not really knowing much about Photoshop™. What I did is clearly not what this other person did but it was fun just the same.

I do have a CS5 book so I'll have to look up how to use masking properly. My sister has told me but I don't remember anymore. Plus, I may Google how to do this technique better. It's almost as though you have a white paper & you use say water on a paintbrush to paint out the photograph. It looked pretty cool when I saw it. Now to learn how to do it.

a gift

I was in a course all weekend so my time to work on something creative was limited. I did start this drawing on Thursday & continued to work on it all weekend as well as last night. It isn't even close to complete yet. I was planning to wait until I was further along before I posted but it has been 5 days & it is at a stage where you can see what I'm up to.

This is drawn from a photograph I took last week & this drawing will be a gift to the parents once it's complete. I planned to add colour but I am afraid I'll wreck it! I sent it to my sister to critique since it's tough sometimes to look at your own work. I am happy with it so far. I even turned it upside down which certainly helps me.

I'm hoping the parents of this baby do not view my blog regularly so they don't see this right now. If they do though, it's totally great. But for those of you who know them, I'll ask you to not encourage them to look. Stumbling over it by accident is different. (: She has her parents in town so I'm thinking she'll be busy.

This is graphite in my 11x14 sketchbook. The scan was too light so I darkened it in Photoshop™ which is why there are odd tones in the corners.

people

Today I took a few photos. Nothing crazy just a few of my girlfriend's new born & a few of me. I have an idea for the new born shots & for now I'll leave it at that. As to the photos of me, I was asked to submit some 'today' shots of myself for the modelling agency I am associated with since they submitted me for a gig. Wouldn't that be great to get?!
The images of me are not the best but they actually asked for a couple taken with a camera phone so this will do. I am only showing one of me.

I adjusted the size (cropped out some of the top part of the image) and adjusted the white balance slightly. Looks better but not ideal. Head shots are supposed to have shoulders in them. Tough taking photos of yourself when you can't see what's through the camera! I do have a remote but still...

And this is just adorable. She is only 2 weeks old. I rarely take shots of people so that's why these are noted & posted.

crab apple tree

There is a gorgeous tree outside the balcony of my condo. I think it's a crab (jeez, I first wrote crap!) apple tree (I should know for certain). It's blooming now & it is quite red over all. The green is certainly there but the red is really what is seen right now. Our blooming trees are so late this year. Lilac trees in Vulcan last weekend were in full bloom & they've really just begun in Calgary. What is this global warming I've heard so much about? It's NOT here, that's for sure.

I love how the side walk turned out. The tree is pretty good too. I may give it another go with pastels. It may be easier! Letting watercolours dry... I have trouble with that.

mums

I still have the bouquet of flowers I bought 2 Fridays ago. The mums & daisies seem to last the longest. The gerberas have since been removed, cut & placed in martini glasses as vases. The gerberas really look great that way. They drooped after only a few days & since the stem was the issue, cutting them off proved to be the ideal solution. The head of the gerbera fits perfectly in a martini glass too.

I chose to draw one of the spider mums in the bouquet last night. Well, I started drawing it & changed to watercolour alone since I planned to use watercolour anyway & drawing it first ended up being a bit daunting. The spider mum is quite pretty. There are 3 of them in the bouquet. I wonder how they end up with purple tips though.

I added the daisy & the other flower (not sure what it is) to give more to the painting. The mum turned out better than I thought it would initially. I wasn't sure how to portray white so I used a shade of grey.

sparrow

I was at a friend's cabin overnight Friday & Saturday. It is near Vulcan, AB.

Vulcan, funny little town. They have totally milked the whole Vulcan thing from Star Trek. It's funny. My friend & I went into town to grab some misc items & wandered around a bit since I'd never been before.

I was trying to avoid the cars in front of this building.
Then we were 'window' shopping. These totally cracked me up.

We were done wandering around the 'city centre' in likely 10 minutes, if that. I did have to stop to have my photo taken beside Spock.

Again, funny! OH, I did end up with a pair of Spock ears before we left. Couldn't resist.

Here is the drawing I did as well. This was done FAST cuz it was incredibly windy on Saturday. Due to the wind, it was chilly out. There is a baby sparrow in this feeder. He/she poked its head out quite a few times on Saturday but mostly on Sunday since the wind was gone.

This is an image I took today as I was patiently waiting for the mother & father of the baby sparrow to feed it. Every time I walked to get closer with my camera, they took off. I only brought my S95 & not my 7D. Next time, 7D with 70-200 lens.

You can see the male sparrow in the tree to the left.

domes

My sister & I went sketching on Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful day in Calgary. Sunny; warm.

She had a suggestion to draw the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Assumption in NE Calgary. (I didn't know the name of the church until she looked up the address.) It has these copper domes on the top & it is a beautiful church (for Calgary).
As we were sketching, she used a box to layout how large the drawing will be - more or less. Basically, the bulk of the subject would be within the box & add from there. This way, you don't draw too large. Brilliant really. This is not the first time I've been told this by her & I actually tried it & it certainly helps! Keeps you within the page you're using.

Here is an image for reference:

This turned out well. I was having some trouble with perspective for some reason but fixed it. Domes are not easy and I was happy to practice.

blending

I decided that blending the hair would help & it does, no question. I have these blending stumps & have used them for graphite, conté & charcoal but never oil pastels. It certainly softens & the tooth of the paper isn't so obvious.
Also, I added yellow to my face, fixed my nose, mouth, shape of the right side of my cheek & added a bit to the shirt I'm wearing. So all that's really left is background if I chose to do it.

The photo again for reference

Where I finished off yesterday

Where I am at now (again this is scanned so the full sheet is not shown)

Definitely better than yesterday although I do look as though I am in the sunshine! (The nose in particular is much better.)
Let's see how it goes from here (unless I leave it alone).

in progress?

I wonder if this is the last time I draw this.
I had fun doing this today. I fixed the sketch earlier this afternoon and added colour tonight. I have trouble with backgrounds when I am drawing a central image and how do you colour blond hair??

Here is the image again for reference:

My drawing up to now:

I realize now that I need more yellow in my face. Maybe I'll keep on it for another day or so. My face it too pink/red. I need to fix a few areas too, now that I look at it again...

I scanned this in so the entire sheet isn't shown but the background is basically non-existant.

in case I wreck it

I took a photo of the drawing I did last night of a photo of me which a girlfriend of mine took of me in Scotland in 2007. I keep drawing this for some reason. I suppose I like the image.

I realize this is an odd shot but it is what it is. I didn't want to set up my camera with a tripod. In hind site, I should have scanned it.

Here is the actual image:

it's up to me

I bought another bouquet of flowers yesterday. There just aren't enough flowers near my place plus I like having them in my house. This bouquet has great colours in it - fuschia, purple, blue (yes, blue), green, & pink which are all offset by white. Nice.
Drawing this last night, I knew I would want to colour it but I figured I'd wait until today so I can post both stages. I will say that this drawing is off - I seem to say that a lot! I should just take my time & draw what I see. You'd think after this long I would have learned by now. Nope. I'm always in a hurry it seems.

I have since coloured the above line drawing with watercolour pencils, watercolour wash & added white pencil crayon for the highlights as well as the underside of the petals. I meshed these two days together into one post due to a conversation I had today which really firmed up (in my mind) what I said earlier today in this post. I rush through drawings/paintings. There is no need for that. When I started this creative journey I never said I was going to do a sketch/photo per day but that's how it's more or less turning out. I think that's what my friends (or whomever I tell about it) interpreted from what I said I was doing which is: doing something creative everyday for a year. That does not equal a completed sketch/drawing/photo everyday. It means being creative everyday. So if that means I take a week to do a really good drawing/painting/photo gig, so be it.

I don't have much time left with this personal project. It's time to slow down & really enjoy what I am doing & not do it out of any sort of obligation.

My sister said to me quite sometime ago that they're my rules. I don't know that I ever had rules persay but I did have an idea in my head when I started doing this. It was/is supposed to be fun not a chore first & foremost. I wanted to get back to my creativity (not work related) and just see where I end up after 365 days. Well, I'm at 268 & I finally get it.
Nance, do what you want.

do over

Last week I drew this fan & I didn't do a great job so I thought I'd give it another go. This time, it's much better. I actually allowed for the foreshortening.

This is one of the fans I purchased in Mexico. I may keep both of them. I can't decide which I could part with anyway.

100 left

Here it is; 265 of 365. Amazing. I have a 100 days left. Let's see how it goes from here!

is it here?

So I ask myself, is spring here? Finally? Not sure. One minute it's sunny & somewhat warm out & the next I am contemplating socks & long sleeves. *sigh*

I drew this today for yesterday. I was WAY too tired to do much of anything yesterday after only 5.5 hours sleep & driving home from Edmonton plus working, plus my seminar, plus, plus, plus...
Totally totally worth it! U2 rocked (literally).

the chuck

Why is Edmonton called the chuck? I was told once that it was because there are so many Ukranian people living there. Not sure if that is accurate...

In any case, I was in Edmonton to see the U2 concert Wednesday night. Wow! A truly amazing show. I'd see them again in a heart beat. Totally worth the 6 hours of driving in 24 hours. Thankfully, I have friends to stay with for the overnight. Otherwise, my girlfriend & I would have been sleeping in Bennie (my car). There's no way we would have found a hotel room at such sort notice.
We had a couple of glasses of vino at my girlfriend's house (where we stayed) then we found out she was going to the concert too so her hubby drove us both there & picked us up too. How fantastic is that?!? (:

no-one took this photo

fun from my angle

the stage

Bono near the end of the concert. Fantastic!