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!

KEEPING AT IT CHALLENGE "A Bit of Orange"

At the bank I looked past the orange twinkle lights and pumpkins in the window to the orange tree across the street. Orange truly is the color of October. Here's the challenge. Add "a bit of orange."

Zow! Color! Scary stuff! I'm not ready. I'm not good enough at black and white yet.

So let's try this: Not a full color picture, just a black and white sketch, pen or pencil--but with some orange on it somewhere. A pumpkin, a traffic light, anything big or small, just so something is orange. Use a colored pencil, Crayola crayon, felt tip pen, watercolor.

'Till "October Orange Saturday."

FF Sticking With Ink & WC

Although I'm not much pleased with the results, I find the combo addicting. I can see why so many on Urban Sketchers use it. Mayhap I'll fill a few sketchbooks and see what happens.

I have a kid's Crayola set with artist grade watercolors squeezed into the emptied pans. I use one brush, a diagonal flat, and a plastic honey jar for water. And lots of paper towels or Kleenex. I draw on site and paint on desk. From my color notes. Before I erase them they do make make the whole business look like a paint by numbers thing.

The bottom picture is a Kwik Trip garbage dumpster, plus a few other things. I'm calling it "La Crescent Schwedlers." That's what caught my eye, those turning Schwedler Maples. Went to La Crescent for apples. All the pick-your-own places are gone. Big thousand tree farms now. Minneapolis owed. When we talked about Greening Apples and going up those pointed ladders to get our own, the "Overseer" of the orchard looked at us as if we had steppped through a history book. No one has grown Greenings for decades. Not enough market. Not enough bakers of pies.

The top pic is a Victorian building in New Lisbon. Didn't have time to indicate a town. Worthy of a more careful drawing.