Here's my EDM challenge for this week. I bombed on last weeks but now I am back in the running! This isn't my mail box, it is a rendition of a picture I took of a mail box that I liked. Mine is plain black and set in concrete!

I don't usually post pictures onto this blog, but I can't even begin to paint my Brugmansia (Angel Trumpet), but I wanted to show it to you. I also love the color of the Morning Glory, so thought I would show you that too. I will get on with painting or drawing something later.

I added some color to this, I do like it, especially the dragonfly. I increased the saturation in photo shop so you could see the color better. Glad to hear your opinions.

This is just a quick sketch to keep me drawing. I was wishing that I had used colored inks after I finished. I don't think the whole thing would look good colored, anyway that wasn't what I thought I was after, but just colored lines and dots would have been interesting. Maybe I will try that soon.

This is a lazy drawing. I had the day off today, just couldn't get myself to want to get involved in anything (slept a lot today) I think it is my way of dealing with job stress, as I usually only take quick power naps, if anything, during the day.

Anyway, I was looking around for objects with different textures to draw. The first object is a rock I picked up at the ocean a number of years ago. There are lots of these types of rocks around the beaches in central and northern California. They appear to be formed of a type of sandstone and have pits, holes and craters all through them. This one, has several full clam shells stuck inside the holes. I have often wondered how the shells got in there as the hole is obviously too small for it to fit into. If any of you have any info on this, I would be really interested to know about it. The feather is a simple feather, picked up on a hike I took yesterday in the woods close to the coast. That hike left ideas for foggy images and ways to draw and paint that, I just didn't have the concentration to attempt that today.

I added color this morning. It just changes it, reminds me of the difference in b&w photo vs. colored photos. I do love these pigmented inks though!

I drew this from a photo that I took this morning. As with every other medium, you can over work pen and ink. Things looked fine until I decide that it needed a little more shadowing at the center top of the flower, I just over did it (wha-a-a)! I still really like it, I just wanted PERFECT.

I may try adding an ink wash, to it tomorrow.

Here it is finished. One of the problems with using a drawing, to do a drawing, is that there is the tendency to just follow lines, that's what happened to the shadows. If I had been looking at it in real life, or from my own photo, I think I would have caught that the shadow lines were at two different angles (well, I did catch it but with ink, there is no erasing!). The only beef I have with the whole thing, is with the shadows.

Since I like it so well when you all show the stages of your work, I thought I would show you how these pen and ink drawing start out. This is the beginning of another practice work sketch that I am working on. Again, this isn't a drawing from one of my pictures or from any thing of mine, it is a practice work sketch from Frank Lohan's book, Pen and Ink Techniques. I have drawin the out line sketch and will fill it in either tonight or tomorrow. When I am done, I will post the finished work (maybe even some where along the way).

I have been pretty busy the last few days, I have drawn but just not much to post. I have one drawing that I did that was inspired by a passage in a book, I can't find the passage and the picture doesn't make a lot of sense with out it. If I figure out a good way to paraphrase what the passage was or find the passage, I will post the drawing.

I love these Scabiosa, if I remember right, it really isn't a "Butterfly Blue" it is a larger flowered hybrid, seems like the name was 'Fairy' something. I am sure it is in a packed gardening journal somewhere. If any of you know the name, feel free to let me know.

I was sitting out on the back patio with my Grandmother this morning and thought I would try to paint her. I didn't want to mess around with her eyes too much as I was afraid I would ruin the rest of the painting, so she came out looking a little like a raccoon. None the less, years from now, when she is no longer with me, I will look at this painting and remember a sunny June morning sitting with her. Such is the gift of art.

On a lighter note, I wondered how many of you have these kinds of sketches in your sketch book. It was a very fast drawing of a street with cars, houses and lamp posts shining light into the fog. I was trying to catch and idea before it escaped me. As I thumb through my sketch books, I find these quick ideas, lightly sketched, a reminder of something I want to work up later.

This is another drawing that I did using one of my black and white photos as a guide. I adjusted the contrast to try to more accurately reflect the actual drawing but it blew out some of the subtler tones. I thought if I posted the photo you all would be better able to give feed back. I got the "moss" a little dark next to the stick and almost lost that one side. Lohan talks about that in his book saying that sometimes the artist has to create tonal ranges where there are none. All in all I'm pleased and it was great practice

Today the day slipped by and suddenly it is 8:00 and I haven't drawn anything! I need to get up at 3:30 in the morning for work, so in desperation, I drew what was in front of me. Bridget (my dog) has had this ring for well over a year, amazing considering toys are usually chewed to pieces within a month of getting them. It took getting a second dog for the games of tug of war to get serious enough to crack the ring. For the last week it was held together by a side seam which made for an interesting pull game. Tonight they pulled it completely apart.

More practice work. This one I had some problems with, it was just all the way around more involved. However, I suppose if I only tackle the easy lessons then I will never learn to do the harder drawings.

I love hydrangea's. This one grow quietly beside my back door in a half wine barrel. In the early summer it is a riot of color. Last year I forgot to give it extra acid to turn it blue and with our alkaline soils and water it will naturally turn very light pink. I put the acid on in March, I think, and instead of all of the blooms being blue, some were blue some were lavender and some were pink. It looked incredible. This year I forgot completely, so I have very soft lavender and soft pink blooms.

This was my first attempt at rendering the really deep tones in an eggplant. I am fairly pleased with the graduation of blueish purple and reddish purple tones. My only real dissatisfaction with it is the back ground color, I picked this from the triad, and wish instead that I had used the ocher tone instead. The highlights came out okay, nothing to stand up and shout for joy about. It is also the first time I have tried to do highlights on a very dark subject.

This is my fear: standing at the edge of a cliff, up very high above a valley. I do ladders fine, I climb mountains fine, but I can't "stand" at the edge of a drop off, I have to sit on my behind to look over! I hope my perspective is good enough you can tell what it is. Don't know why I keep working at these tough perspectives, guess I am just determined to learn!

I drew this late last night when I couldn't sleep. I pinched a nerve in my back yesterday morning while drying my feet (maybe towels should have a warning on them : not for use on lower extremities, may cause sever back injury!). I have figured out that pain and concentrated drawing do not go together!

I thought I would try adding a little color and see what I thought, I like it. The combination of the two is nice. Again this is part of a black and white image I took several years ago, the other glove is holding an apple, I just could not relax enough to draw both. I have found that working from black and white images helps to clarify the tonal ranges for pen and ink and I don't feel like I am trying to recreate the picture, like I do when I paint using a colored picture.

Sometimes blogger really stinks!!! I threw my back out this morning (first day with this brand new- to me - company). It keeps going into excruciating spasms when I change from sitting to standing positions. Anyway, I had a hard time concentrating enough to draw, but draw, I did! Now, for what ever reason, blogger won't connect to the server. So you have to wait until tomorrow to view it :>(

I am getting a little better with the paints, not so afraid to blend colors or come back in and build up tone. I have a LONG way to go but I am having a blast along the way!

This is a little fence area that divides the main back yard for the patio. It is a tight little span of about 12 feet, but one of my favorite areas. The tree hanging over the fence is my Angel Trumpet (Brugsmansia). When it blooms it has 8" white trumpet flowers that hang down and in the evening they smell amazing!!!

Those vines growing up the Italian Cypress are my morning glories, they are incredible when they start blooming in the summer!

This is recreated off of a black and white photo that I took a couple of years ago. I think the listing effect I get, is due to crossing my feet while I am drawing... Anyway, I didn't realize what a complicated drawing this was going to be until I got into the middle of it. I still quit before it was fully finished but overall I am pleased with it. I used some of the techniques that I am trying to learn and that is what moves me forward in the whole learning process. I think I will do some things with color over the next few days, I miss it...

Humm, not sure what that smudge of blue is, looks kind of cool though!

Working with pen and ink is an interesting mental process, I have to remember to leave fore grounds white if I have darker backgrounds etc. I have to put some forethought into each line and visualize the finished piece before I even start. I like it none the less.

These are just a couple of quick things I have done to keep myself drawing and painting. The fish was my first try at wet in wet painting. I kind of like the way it came out. The sharpener is just a daily drawing.