December 26, 2011

    Flipping through an earlier sketch book, checking for missed pages, I found this camellia sketch I had intended to color in with water colors as an experiment. I'd tried this earlier after spraying the graphite with fixative and the whole thing resisted the water color, so I had intended to try it without fixative, but never got around to it. I don't often use water colors, and when I do it's without a graphite sketch or with only a light outline so I was surprised to discover they were so opaque... covering all the graphite shading. On the other hand, they didn't seem to pick up the graphite and become muddied by it. Of course, since this isn't water color paper, it is buckled and you can see the shadows that causes. I could press most of these out if I were to need to do so... 

June 15, 2011

    Camellias in a jar. This actually took me about 30 minutes and that's pretty much with the pencil moving relatively rapidly the whole time. It actually takes a great deal of time just to lay down the graphite, never mind being careful about it. I expect to finish this tomorrow, but that's long enough for one night when it's getting late, I'm tired, and it's been a pretty frustrating day... 
    Not to mention that by this evening I really felt like I'd done my sketch worth even if it was pooled somewhere in the pine needles:  Much earlier in the day I set up to work on my pond painting - water jar, brushes, paint squeezed, easel and canvas - and had done maybe 20 minutes of work when suddenly it started to Rain. I do mean Rain as if someone opened the chute on a water tower. It had been overcast for the past hour, but no thunder, no initial sprinkle, just Whoosh. I grabbed everything and ran for the house, but when I got inside I discovered almost all of the paint I'd just laid down had been washed off! I guess Everyone's a critic... 
    

March 17, 2011

    I was tired and thought I wouldn't have the energy to finish the turtle sketch tonight so I started a sketch of some twigs of the camellia that has begun to bloom next to my front door. I didn't stand there, though; I cut some stems and brought them in to put in a vase. I was just going to do a simple contour but didn't end up going that way, so again I'm going to post an incomplete sketch because I have to get up early and have a moderately long drive...