November 17, 2011

    This is a drawing of a jar of olives. The top gave me trouble, and since I made the mistake of going in dark with it from the beginning (what was I thinking? this is my nemesis the cylindrical shape!) the erasures show...

May 22, 2011

    I named this jpg image "deformed jar", which just about says it all. I was visiting with my daughter and picked up this odd little jar, but it was Too difficult a shape to tackle as tired as I was, and I didn't manage to convey the shape at all. It had a round lid and neck but six sided shoulders and foot, and a sort of rounded six sided body. 
    I might try to fix this a little... but right now I'm so tired I can barely post this. I surely won't post all my missing ones tonight yet - I'm just nodding off. 

March 10, 2011

     This is a blue glass cruet with glass stopper. The line down the left side and the shadows on the paper behind it are because I'm having to get used to a new software. Perhaps when I learn to do this better I'll replace the image with one scanned more tidily.
     I used Prismacolor pencils, and would have liked to have had a smoother paper, but you can zoom and see that I laid down so much pigment it should bloom like a candle (am I mixing my metaphors if I mean "bloom" as in wax?) to crush down the pores. I enjoy using either a light touch or a heavy one with colored pencils... it was fun simply to do one with Color!

Jan. 30, 2011

    This is a sketch of the centerpiece from a wedding my daughter and I attended. My daughter, one of the bridesmaids, brought this centerpiece home. I think this is a cyclamen; one of the few types of flowers I have never tried to grow... I drew the petals as I saw them, but I found their form to be excessively confusing; clasping and curled back downward upon themselves. Good practice, I suppose!

Jan. 18, 2011

     Today a friend of mine had surgery on her right eye... a second surgery to improve the outcome of a prior surgery which has forced her to keep her right eye closed since the first of the year. Despite that, she has been doing the sketch a day too! 
     Around the 17th or so, she commented that sketching with one eye closed had helped her see her values better. Intrigued, I announced that "in solidarity" with her condition, celebration of her resolve, (and out of curiosity about the effects) I was going to do my next sketch with my right eye shut. I had to tape it shut with duct tape (not so ouch as you would think), and here is the sketch, done on the 18th... posted on the day of the second surgery.
     I did not notice a difference with how I perceived values (but the human mind adapts and she may have been getting different effects after a few weeks of monocular vision) but I did notice that the edges of things acquired a strange, almost shimmery but subtle effect as though back-lit with a peculiar kind of light. I believe it was from my mind dealing with the edge information being singular as opposed to being averaged from two eyes. For me, the real difference came in my ability to see what I was putting on the paper. I felt uncertain about placing my pencil quite where I wanted it. Unassisted, my single eye did not want to refocus between jar and sketch pad quickly and I had some trouble with bleariness as well.
     Here's hoping she's back to working and enjoying life with both eyes soon!