FF Ala Victor Perard

As a kid the only art book we had was by Victor Perard--"How to Draw." I paged through it again and again. I never realized he affected me by his examples. With no attempt to imitate, or even remembering his style, this sketch turned out to look al lot like his drawings.

FF Sky Pieces

This challenge really opened my eyes to finding things to draw. Interesting sky pieces reveal heretofore unnoticed subjects. I was parked at the side of a strip mall. Nothing to draw but a blank wall--but, ah, there, a small hill with an interesting sky piece. I divided it into three, but the trees and fence could be a fourth, their own "black piece."

KEEPING AT IT CHALLENGE "Sky Pieces"

This is an idea I got from David Millard, "The Joy of Watercolor." He talks about the "sky piece," an interesting shape of the sky as it is outlined by buildings, hills, trees, or anything else. Sometimes he'll leave out a mountain, just to have a better sky piece with the building roofs. That's a liberating idea, not having to show everything.

He also refers to the "land mass" as everything that's not the sky piece. In the land mass you can have earth lines, earth pieces, sea pieces. I would add road pieces, field pieces, sidewalk and lawn pieces, etc.

He says, "Notice how the edge of one object forms the boundary of another--try to be aware of this as you draw." Below this post are a few samples of Millard's that show this whole boundary and pieces notion. Millard recommends, "Always be on the lookout for good shapes." Thinking in terms of pieces helps that.

Being aware and on the lookout, until "Sky Piece Saturday." Let's make that December 19th.

PS DY Jump back in! We miss you! And your five minute accrual is lagging.

Millard's "Sky Pieces"

FF December Drawings

Bottom: My first concerted effort to include people.
2nd & 3rd up: Wood V.A. Hospital, Milwaukee
4th up: Froederdt Barley Elevators, Milwaukee; guessed a good deal of the foreground--see below.
Top: The passenger-side option after a semi came and blocked our view of the Barley Elevators. What caught my eye was the yellow-gold wedges where light hit the stacked lumber. While I painted the sun came out and ignited the white plastic. After the paint was dry I erased my usual "perimeter lines" around the distant foliage.

FF Black Patterns

The top picture was my hard-fought "Quit before you're done" effort. I wanted to paint the background to silhouette the pumpkins, and add much more color to the pumpkins and gourds. I had the blacks much darker, but they overwhelmed the rest and I had to lighten them. I was going for the Japanese Woodblock Print effect.

Turkey Day Blacks

Underporch, Undercar, and Underbush!

Aaaand, back

An urbanism, architechture, leaves!, sedumn joys, and chara's apt. All with the excellent sharpie pen. I like that it can keep up with a fast stroke. Alack, some of my strokes are too fast.

KEEPING AT IT: Finding Black Patterns

"Preserve your whites," but "Let the blacks lead the eye."

Let's look for black patterns. They are everywhere, though some need rearranging for a good picture. But that's what we are doing, making pictures, not taking photos. For now Let's keep the blacks fairly small.

Here's a sample of what I'm trying to get at. This is a motel room desk. The blacks, from left to right are: a one cup coffee maker, lids on two KT coffee cups, lid and shadow on a thermos, and connecting them all, a dark plastic brochure holder. The actual black pattern is on the picture below this.

Black Patterns

CONSIDERATIONS

It's nearly one year since we started doing this. Has your "five minutes a day," or whatever time you made for it, made a difference? In your voice? Emotional confidence? Habitual practice?

I intend to finish the year. Do we want to go on?

2B & WC

November Sky
Morning Fence
Doug's Andirons

FF Leaves 2

None of these occur here in the North.

FF Leaves 1

In GA we found grandchildren throwing piles of oak leaves. After the rains many of those leaves were flattened and silhouetted on the sidewalks. That's when I noticed that I had never seen the likes of them anywhere here up north. To remember the different shapes I started giving them names. Finally I began looking them up and discovering the real names. Much fun.

KEEPING AT IT CHALLENGE "Photosynthesis Engines"

I'm off to A & B. Talk about X-zoned!

For a continuing challenge let's try a leaf--before they are all gone. A leaf, one of those marvels of Creation. Draw one, paint one, new and just off the tree, or old--"crisped and seer." Black & white, or splashed with color--paint, colored pencil, Crayolas. Do one leaf more than once. "Repeats." Take time to have a good look at one of God's most marvelous things, unstudied oft because he makes them available to us by the tens of thousands per glance. If you are still working on orange, incorporate it. Let's go a couple weeks, Till "Engine Saturday, November 7.

Octo Orange 3

Bottom: Same porch, less ghost, plus flag.
Middle: Orange sky-piece. It's good to have an interesting sky-piece. Even if you don't have one. Make one.
Top: Orange-range; Burnt Sienna and Cerulean Blue

FF Octo Orange: Porch Ghost & Pumpkin

KEEPING AT IT CHALLENGE "A Bit of Orange - 2"

Such short notice--let's keep going orange. Mayhap the Missing Reader will give it a shot--and stuff.

FF October Orange

Orange seems a hard color for the scanner. Even after I Gimped them, they aren't quit right.

The magical charm of watercolor is hard to replicate. Giglee can do it. A good aquarelle does have that stained glass quality with light bouncing off the white paper up through the layers. Can't seem to capture that on screen.

The peach is evidence of my problem. I keep going back to fiddle with it. Lost my original pure washes, especially in the shadow.

not my orange post yet

The shed and the turtle were done on tour - in Nebraska. Otherwise, some pexmiramentation with pencil and watercolor shading. Thanks for the watercolors, Dad!