A handful of sketches...

Not very much to report today, just plugging away on my little project. Nothing yet from the book this week, but I'm feeling the next one from there will be sometime next week. Here are a few sketches:

Tuesday... a girl

Wednesday... another girl

Thursday... a small flower

Illustration Friday's theme Propagate & additional sketchs

Friday's sketch is above, it is also my entry for Illustration Friday's theme propagate. I was so excited when I saw that in theme in my inbox, after all, I love to paint flowers and flowers are a plant's means to propagate. I was hoping to try to paint one specifically for this, but another project has come up, so here is my little sketch. Below are my additional sketches.

Saturday... a tulip

Sunday... a girl

Monday... a floral water lily

Another painting of sweet pea flowers & some sketches

This painting is an 8"x10" acrylic on canvas original painting of some sweet pea flower blooms. The blossoms are shades of purple and burgundy, two colors I really love.

In terms of sketching, yesterday I revisited the page of studies by Leonardo Da Vinci and did a few more sketches based on his studies. Of course I feel like Salieri when sketching from such a master, that my most considered lines are nothing next to his most casual attempts, but it was still fun to do. I also learned a bit about drawing profiles just from looking at his. This is by no means the whole page... He has many sections where the profiles are overlapped, like the one I'd done last week with the new one. Also he has overlays; the girl in the middle was covered by the girl at the right, but I could see her a little bit. I thought her lips were about the most beautiful I have seen in ink so I made a small attempt at rendering what I could see. As I said, there are many more images on his sheet, but I think I've done as much from that page as I intend to right now.

Tuesday... a girl

Wednesday... a girl

Thursday... after part of a page of Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and child and other studies"

Thursday... also after part of a page of Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and child and other studies"

Happy New Year!

Well, Chinese New Year's celebrations began the same day this year as Valentine's day. This year it's the year of the Tiger. I have to admit I didn't do any sketches or paintings to celebrate either holiday, but I did sketch. My first sketch is out of the book. It's one of many sketches on a sketchbook page of Leonardo da Vinci. There were quite a few others on there and I mean to try my hand at a few more; but for now, that's what I sketched.

Friday... after one part of a page of Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna and child and other studies"

Saturday... a daffodil flower

Sunday... an anthurium floral

Monday... a girl

A warning about lily leaves for cats and some sketches

Edit: Actually it turns out that it can be deadly for the cat to come into contact with any part of the plant. Here is an article about it.

I love lilies and I love cats, but if I had a cat, I would have to forgo indoor lilies. Apparently lily leaves are very toxic to cats. Someone gave a friend some lilies and she noticed her cat was nibbling on them. She looked it up on the internet and rushed her cat to the vet. The cat is okay, quite a lot of money later, but if she hadn't taken the cat in as quickly as she did, it might have been fatal. Apparently lily leaves cut down their kidney functions or liver functions (I can't remember which) and nothing seems to be wrong with the cat until it's too late to do anything about it. I had no idea this was a risk.

Anyway, this week's sketches are one short, I lost track of time on Sunday, and I've yet to do anything from the book, but maybe tonight.

Saturday... a daffodil

Sunday... nothing at all, tra, la, la
Monday... a girl

Tuesday... a girl

Wednesday... a tulip

Thursday... a bird

Drawings that I'm drawn to and other sketches

I really love calla lilies; no matter what the color, I think they're beautiful flowers. This week I sketched a couple of them. I missed my Thursday sketching, my head ached; but I'm throwing in some feet that I sketched for the sketchstorm topic on Friday. Also, I've decided to read through "Drawing Lessons From the Great Masters" by Robert Beverly Hale and sketch the drawings that I'm drawn to as I go. My second Friday sketch was my second from this book, the first was the cropped nude from last week.

Monday... a calla lily

Tuesday... a girl with a hat

Wednesday... a calla lily

Thursday... nothing but the pounding of my head

Friday... feet

Friday... after Honore Daumier's "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza"

Sweet pea blossoms painting and some sketches

Above is a small 5"x7" pink sweet pea flower bloom painting that I finished on Friday. It is, as yet, untitled. Below are some sketches. I did have to crop one of my master studies in this post and one in last week's post as nudity on blogspot might make my blog a mature site, and since I mainly paint florals and clothed fantasy it doesn't seem worth the risk. When I need to do this, I'll just write (cropped). The sketches really are for my practice mainly, I'm posting them here to try and keep myself honest and consistent.

Tuesday... I believe the flower I based this on is called a cosmo

Wednesday... Orchid floral

Thursday... after Annibale Carracci's "Standing figure of a nude woman" (cropped)

Friday... after Degas' "Dancer at the barre"

Saturday... a girl

Sunday... Columbine flower bud