Paper and Threads

Only 8 more days in the online 100 Day Project (https://thegreatdiscontent.com/100days), and although I draw other things from my imagination for this Challenge", Axel is my favorite subject.  His character developed during a "drawing with a child" homework assignment in Jonathan Twingley's week of Sketchbook Skool, and I've surprised myself that I am enjoying this pure fantasy drawing so much.  There are days when I feel as if my imagination is totally empty and then I start thinking about Axel and a drawing emerges.  Here are the most recent 4.  My oldest son's 3 boys are spending the night with us this weekend, and I think Zach and I should begin to create Axel's story, since it was Zach who did the drawing I combined with mine when Axel first appeared. 

Where Did That Man Go?

Can She Be My Friend? 

A Taste of Coffee:  What Does It Taste Like?

Makes a Good Slide!

Posted by Shirley at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am back to figure drawing and my last two models represent the extremes in body type.

Rebecca, a model at Battery Park outdoor drawing, is extremely thin and has very long arms and legs.  Tangerine, the model at Society of Illustrators, is massively obese.  I've drawn both of them before, but rarely so close together.

There are two 5 minute poses and a 20 minute pose of Rebecca and a 10 and 20 minute pose of Tangerine.  I sketched them with a General Sketch and Wash pencil and shading was done with my waterbrush and clear water.

Posted by Shirley at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

We returned home yesterday from a very busy wedding weekend in Texas, and I only filled one page in my Summer Sketchbook.  Our friend Kathy is a wonderful gardener, and what I wanted to remember most from our visit with her is the variety of her calle lilies.

Posted by Shirley at 3:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

When our friends are visiting us, and we are taking early morning beach walks, we see and find such interesting things.  We usually see skeletal parts of skates, and various fish skulls.  There are lots of empty helmet crab shells, and skate egg sacs.  This year we even saw one whelk egg case!  But this year we also found a bird skull!  My friend Jeff loves to do the research and using a bird skull identification site, he determined that it was from a "shearwater" bird that lives on the East coast.  I sketched dorsal, ventral, and lateral views, adding it to my painting of a feather that was different than all of the gull feathers lying on the beach.

At the end of our walk, 8 of us had coffee on the beach and Jeff's wife Sara and I sketched more scenes from the beach.  We had two pairs of birds right above us and next to us, and they definitely did not like the competition and squawked at each other the whole time.  The gulls love sitting there watching everyone eat.  The black birds (crows or grackles?) were newcomers.

Deliberate Practice:  I take pictures of the surf so I can practice with masking fluid when I'm home. 

Posted by Shirley at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

We just returned from our Family Weekend at the Beach.  One of our children lives in DC and as a group we have increasing difficulty finding a summer weekend that everyone can be together.  Our oldest grandchildren are leaving for 7 weeks in summer camp this week and just about when they return, our DC grandchildren will be going back to school.

I invited my alien AXEL to join us too. 

I only did one sketchbook page while we were there.  The activity level was way too high to concentrate, but now that I'm home I'll work from a few photos I took.

On one of our beach walks we saw an area roped off as a tern nesting area.  We are used to seeing this for piping plovers.  I wasn't sure that I could recognize a tern, but it wasn't long before a tern and 3 babies were spotted ahead of us on the sand.

The hardest part of our summer weekend, and holidays when we are together, is to get a photo of all 8 grandchildren.  It was starting to rain, and I quickly got them lined up and took several photos.  Here they are - ages 2-11!   

Posted by Shirley at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)