Day two hundred and seventy: Costa Rica photos are a great source of subject matter. I looked at several in my travel stash before I selected one of an osprey launching from a bare branch. A very lucky snap of the shutter! As I studied each candidate (a landscape, a great heron, a mangrove swallow) […]
Also tagged bird, pastel, pencilDay two hundred and sixty-five: My struggles with the clouds in yesterday’s pastel sketch, inspired me to try a close up of some of them. As I hoped, by zooming in I was able to more thoughtfully and carefully explore layering and blending the colors. I claim progress, not perfection, yet I am pleased to […]
Also tagged pastel, skyDay two hundred and fifty-seven: An extraordinarily long day left me with little time (or brain power) to sketch a composition, but I wanted to continue exploring watercolor. Playing with the layers of color necessary to emulate pine trees seemed like a good thing to practice. These firs were created by dabbing deep, dark greens […]
Also tagged watercolorDay two hundred and thirty-five: Scanning through photos to find a subject for today’s drawing, I came across one I took a couple of years ago while observing lava flowing into the ocean at nightfall in Hawaii. Although it’s a different natural phenomena, the lava reminded me of the earthquake tremor we felt at the […]
Also tagged landscape, oilDay two hundred and thirty-three: I think the moon is half full right now, and waning, although you wouldn’t know it this evening due to storm clouds and rain. The half-moon in this sketch is based on a snapshot I took around New Year’s, 2004. I believe it was waxing at the time. Good night, […]
Also tagged moon, oilDay two hundred and twenty-four: Just as I sat down for lunch today on the patio at work, an extraordinary and wonderful thing happened: a praying mantis landed on my back and crawled up onto my shoulder. You should have seen the face of my friend, Samantha, when it happened! Next it flew about and […]
Also tagged animal, insect, oilDay two hundred and seventeen: After several days of black and white pencil sketches, when I pondered what I should draw today, the first thing that came to mind was COLOR. Then I remembered what I have been calling my favorite beach in the world: the stretch of sand between Carate and the Corcovado National […]
Also tagged landscape, oil, pastel, waterDay one hundred and seventy-four: I’m not sure why I decided to paint an egg standing on end this evening. Perhaps because I thought it would be easy to shape and shade. With a little extra space in the lower left, I added the feather. The background evolved because I wanted the egg to sit […]
Also tagged bird, oil, still lifeDay one hundred and seventy-three: When I sat down to draw this evening an image of Icarus was on the TV. Instead of a winged figure, I decided to keep it simple and sketch a single feather. I see long tail and wing feathers from my birds all the time, so I tried to draw […]
Also tagged pencil, still lifeDay one hundred and sixty-eight: Driving home this evening, the night sky was flickering with lightning. As I pulled onto my street, big, heavy drops of rain began to splash on the windshield. Tired, and with little time to spare, this quick sketch is an attempt to capture the essence of a flash of lightning […]
Also tagged nocturne, oil