Try this technique

I was just doodling with Autumn, trying to copy the Thomas on her shirt, and I stumbled on this technique (which im sure has been used in the art world for millennia, but its new to me!).  I had a light colored marker initially, with which I drew the entire scene, but it was ugly and terribly out of proportion.  But I had that feeling that it was "close".  So I went over it with a dark marker, adjusting lines where necessary.  The light marker fades into the background and becomes texture.  Voila, much improved, without starting from scratch.  I wonder if anyone has attempted a "three" marker technique?

Drawing on the Right Side-prelims

Since I did these drawings, I completed a few of the other exercises. I had to draw the face vase, and copy and line drawing upside down without turning it around to make sense of the picture. That is as far as I got before I had to return the book to the library and pay a hefty fee for being overdue...BUT...i now have the book in e-format on my nook. So I plan on working at it still. Puppets making is going slower than I expected. ( i haven't even started)

It was a blue day

Washes

Practicing our washes!

Drawing on the Right Side

I'm starting to read this book. It' taking me forever, because I need the time to sit down and do some drawing. Usually it requires more than 5 mins. BUt here two of my "preliminary drawings." I had to draw a chair, and a face. The face had to be looking at someone or looking in the mirror. It couldn't be from a photo. I have the drawings...but I've got to get them into the right file format.

FF WEEDS - Bamboo

Yes, Bamboo is a weed here. Like crabgrass, only worse--12 feet tall and a web of roots that Bucyrus Erie can hardly move. But I like it. Mine are in containers. I got them when Josh was weeding his property edge. Our neighbor has some that have nearly black stems. The Atlanta Zoo used to come to gather some for the pandas. I shall have to go to ask for a few shoots. I like painting Bamboo. So did Wu Chen. He wrote a book on it 700 years ago.

The colored pic is watercolor. It takes four coats to get black.

FF ABSTRACT STAINED GLASS

Couldn't get the yellow-orange right, so I did a PC fill bucket. That looked good enough so I filled the two cropped versions. You can conpare the computer colors of the top two to the paint on the bottom one (but the yellow-orange is a fill. I still like paint, the feel, the smell, the texture of brush strokes--an actual, physical touch with the artist.