Drawing #77 - Tennyson in Bloom

In class this week I quickly sketched the basics of a few daffodils in a vase on another sheet of colored paper, this time a nearly neutral but textured one. Then I used pieces of an old, falling apart copy of Tennyson's The Princess in the flower places. Shiny bits of a pinkish paper are accents (and the devil to photograph) on them. Then other papers for leaves and negative space and colored pencil for more interest. It wound up far too delicate for heavy black lines to be added so my teacher said I should stop with it as is. See what you think about this very different result.

 

So far I've worked on three class projects that all began with drawing from plants brought for our work. I've also completed two pieces that are all my own idea but that had been left unfinished. Here's what the three from class look like together. Amazingly different but all based on real plant life.

Drawing #76 - Joyous

I added acrylic paints and acrylic ink to the collage I began in class. Only a very little else was needed, some finer lines and a little colored pencil. The deep paper color was probably the driving force but also the plant shape that was the underlying drawing. It is a happy little piece to me. The paper is 11" x 8 1/2".

Drawing #75: Robins Tell Leaves

This is my first class project in a mixed media art class I'm taking at our senior center. Some of us began with drawing from plants provided by our teacher. I used one with lots of leaves and no flowers. From a preliminary drawing I went into my usual interpretive mode making it mostly about the shapes. I've done a lot of collage on it along with colored pencil and my various ink lines and designs. It is probably finished at this point unless I think of any changes or additions later. My photo of the drawing has the paper color rather darker than it really is but the colors and design look pretty close. (And click on the image to see it larger.)

 

In today's class when I reached this point with the first drawing, The teacher interested me in using some colored papers for my background. I chose a deep color and did a light drawing of another interesting plant. Then I got the collage started. Below is my beginning phase. Next I want to use some acrylic paints before starting the defining black ink lines. Then I can evaluate and work on my fine line designs. I'm very interested to see how this goes with a deep color background. It is just a small sheet but the drawing above is a bit larger than my usual these days of 9" x 12".

Drawing #74: Force of Water

Last September our trip to Oklahoma brought many views of patterns in the mud created by copious rainfall. I did a very preliminary drawing of the ideas the patterns gave me but only followed up with it recently. It is a softer, lighter drawing using colored pencil and watercolor rather than bold acrylic paints. The drawing is about 9" x 12".

Drawing #73: Bask

I started this drawing a long time ago in summertime but could never get back to it until now. The warm colors and metallic accents relate so well to warmth. Don't forget to click on the image to see a larger image.