Went well today. Only 134 days left til I have blogged daily for a year. Starting to sound doable.

Materials used Neocolor II Caran d’Ache and #140 Fabriano Artistico

Today was life drawing at USA Aiken and the lovely Elena was our model.

She’s been thru quite a few stages. This is where she is now though thinking of lightening her right eye. I think it’s still a little dark.

Here’s how she looked after the first twenty minute break. That lemon yellow caran d’ache had been calling my name and saying use me use me!!!

TIP I take pics while I am working on it so I can see how it looks from a distance. You can really see your mistakes when you do this. And they are handy for a WIP work in progress blog post!!👍

My friend Ruth said she didn’t like the yellow and could I make her peachier. Ruth is usually right so I did. I also needed to lighten the shadows on her face which was making her look too old.

I lifted the shadows with a good stuff hogbristle oil paint brush and blotted off with a bounty towel. That#140 Fabriano Artistico is tough paper. Always amazes how you can wipe off the Fabriano.

I also had to narrow her right shoulder and lift both of them up a bit on either side of her neck. I love that hogbristle brush. It lets you do the lifting of color a smidge at a time.

Thanks for looking.

Saturday is life modeling day. Our model was the lovely Erica.

I drew Erica with my Neocolor caran d’ache watercolor crayons. No pencil was used on this drawing. Just the crayons.

I tried to draw her with a limited pallete of peach, yellow ochre, burnt Sienna, burnt umber and a chocolate brown. I did add in white before I finished and a touch of a bright rose pink.

I used a fine misting spray bottle to release the colors. I also used my waterbrush for this as well as to blend some colors.

I think the dark on the right side of her mouth needs to be wiped off. How do I do that?

I lift color with an old Grumbacher hog bristle brush or with a damp wadded or folded bounty paper towel. Always am amazed by what you can wipe off Fabriano paper.

Thanks for looking!!

My friends will tell you that I rarely do just one of anything. I always do multiples. So far eight pages of those sea gulls. No idea how many pages of wild birds that visit my feeders on the back porch.

I usually start by drawing the outline of the birds starting at the head and chest. Then the shape of the body and add details last.

I was getting tired of the cerulean backgrounds so as my kids at school would say I changed it up to a green background. I made the green with manganese blue and cad yellow light.

Otherwise the birds are done the same as yesterday’s. I just didn’t have time to color these yesterday.

The background on this one is Quin Sienna a very orangey color.
This was my fav page til I realized that one of the birds might need some more body aka belly on him. I do love the look f the Quin Sienna with the greys. My favorite background.

First I drew them with a grey Tombow marker as I watched them out the window. Sometimes I had to give them several turns at the feeder to get them almost right. I didn’t use the bird books or Google images at all on this page.

I should have used a darker Tombow because you am an hardly see this one after I colored the birds with the caran d’arches crayons. The crayons are a lot of fun.

The lettering was done with my Pentel brush pen. I do love that pen. I also did a lot of the birds legs with this one.

A lot of the smaller birds were done when they were sitting on the porch rail waiting their turn. The red house finches are very bossy and try to run off the other finches. I also wrote some of their behaviors down. The little wren would land on the wind chime and watch a bit then zoom in and out.

The chickens were on a netflixs show I had been watching so I added them to the drawing.
Thanks for looking.

My friend Marilyn Tomeo told me that Browns Feed and Seed has chickens and a turkey. On my way home yesterday I stopped by and drew those chickens. It wasn’t long before they ran off. Perhaps they were shy or I scared them!? As long as I stayed in my car they were happily running around and eating. Once I got out I had to follow them around. They climbed under fences and behind some of the accumulation at Browns.

So rather than chase chickens – I already had three pages of chickens. I decided to draw the store. It was fascinating with everything from signage that would make the American Pickers sigh with happiness to an old horse harness, the remains of a ghost and my favorite – an alligator concrete bench. The bench is because there’s an alligator in the pond next to the store. I will have to go back and look for him to draw but not while it’s cold. He’s hiding.

The more I drew the more I saw just like Tommy Kane says. I do wish I had either painted the fluffy clouds in the sky and or the pines behind it but I love the way it turned out.

Colors used. Burnt Sienna, burnt umber, cerulean, Quin red, cad yellow light, ultramarine blue, manganese blue
Greys were made by mixing the blues and the Browns.

These were adorable chickens. The brown one had on pantaloons. I am assuming they were both hens but I have no idea!! They both kept giving me profiles. Maybe that’s why chickens frequently appear that way? Colors used. Quin Sienna, burnt umber, cerulean, cad yellow light, ultramarine blue

Backgrounds are cerulean. Shadows cerulean and burnt Sienna.

Yellow dog came out to wag its tail and beg a pet. Too bad I didn’t have a treat for her. Poor old thing only had one eye. Maybe she got in fight with the alligator In the nearby pond.