sketches, now with foliage

summer is good. less detail, i think, with all the green about. or am i just learning to exclude that high-frequency noise?

FF Mirado 2

Was in the car with my book but forgot my regular drawing pencil--a Twist Erase mechanical pencil with .09 2B lead. All I found in the car was an old Black Mirado 2. I rejected it, but since it was all I had--

Drew two pix with it. The one in the rear-view mirror attracted me because of that wonderful lop-sided house with the door askew to the gable.

The top picture was an interruption, but done with the Twist Erase. It is becoming apparent that the tools mean much. And become the determiner of a "voice."

FF Pastel Pencils

Don't like 'em.

GLEANINGS ON THE WAY

"Tone value is the commonest problem in drawing." Norman Battershill Draw Trees

roofs? was it roofs?

cause i got one. and a tree. gee look, i left some white spots, an accomplishment!

LINKS - 1 "Artist's Tool Kit"

New feature: web links of value and interest. Here's one for art teachers. It demonstrates artistic principles and then shows them used in actual art works. I love the cat and negative space.

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/explore.cfm

Add your own links.

FF Roofs & Gables

The bottom one was an attempt to draw a Victorian roof. But a tree blocked enough of the view that I couldn't get it right. So I drew the tree instead. And the neat two-height fence.

Two was breakfast at Kwik Trip. Instead of my favorite Kwik Trip drawing-house, I spotted this old beater garage in the back. Loved it. Never got out of the car to look at what that peek-a-boo gable might be.

The next up is a fourth drawing after three not fit for public eyes.

Top pic: Same parking lot space at the bank as the last one, different view. This is part of the Elroy Fire Department building. The shed is a bit of a museum with an old horse-drawn hose carrier.

the alley, a post, and some fun

sorry that i haven't posted in ages, and sorry that my first post back isn't up to the new standard that you two have set...excellent work guys. It's becoming our own private, top-notch, art gallery.

themeless

I have some things and some other stuff . . . all squarely themeless . . . except for being within view of my car!

FF Dogwood Studies

Gleaned from three years of notebooks.

KEEPING AT IT CHALLENGE "Roofs & Gables"

Whoever will, let's find some interesting roofs and gables. Confluences, if possible. Watch the perspective if the buildings aren't square to each other! See you on "Roofs & Gables Saturday," May 9.

T's: Dogwoods

The top two pix were from last week while in Atlanta. The bottom two from last year, one in fall, the the other with the white flowers in spring. The Dogwood tree is an indigenous tree in most of the country east of the Mississippi except Illinois and Wisconsin. It's the hallmark tree of the city of Atlanta. It's a small umbrella-like tree with large, striking white flowers in early April. The flowers are cruciform with sienna "nail holes" in the ends of the petals.

The series of drawings started with the 2nd from the bottom. It was fall. I just drew the view from Josh's deck. I got fascinated with that small tree with the red leaves. I found out it was a Dogwood. Then in spring I drew it again in full flower. That's when I realised that the wooden carved flowers with the burned circles in their tips that we had seen in the craft places in Berea, KY, were Dogwood flowers. Sorry I didn't buy one.

This spring we got in on just the end of the flowering. We were delighted to discover Dogwoods growing on our new property in Georgia, among them the more rare Pink Dogwood.