Wisteria - EDM #26 - Draw Anything You Like

Journaling:

Poppy wanted some wisteria clippings to plant in his yard. I thought he was crazy. That stuff is invasive like kudzu.

Oh well, it's his yard.

These are his clippings rooting in a vase.

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Process notes:
I picked this little scene to draw because of all the reflective surfaces. Once upon a time I would have shied away from something so challenging, but lately I seem to seek out tough draws just to see what I can make of them. Willingness to suck, that's what it is. I like it.

Spring is Here!

Journaling:

Spring is here and my garden is coming to life. Small signs of rebirth are good for my soul.

Hosta - Have gone from purple nubs to pale green spears. Plant marker made from mini-blind slats.

Dianthus - Mother-in-law calls them 'pinks.' These bloom in the heat, cold, wet, dry, sun or shade; and bloom from frost to frost.

Loropetalum - Blooms long spears filled with delicate spidery magenta flowers. The foliage is a deep purple.

Creeping Phlox - Fluffy mounds of tiny delicate flowers. My great-grandma had this in her garden. They are actually a soft pink color. I got carried away with the magenta paint.

Sweetheart Supreme Azalea - Six bushes, all on the verge of blooming. One more warm sunny day and they should be glorious. Keeping fingers crossed that we don't have another cold snap.

I wish all my sketches were as light and airy as the azalea one. I tend to overwork. :(

Nekkid Dirt

Journaling:

Today was gloriously warm & sunny, so Hubby & I worked in the front yard all day.

I cleaned out the flower beds and he raked up the last of the leaves. Now we have a bunch of nekkid dirt that makes me uneasy, but there's lots of work to do before we can mulch. I have a glorious garden planned in my head, lots of changes to make, cowpoo to till, and trips to the nursery.

Hope springs eternal in the heart of a gardener that *this* year will be better than the last, and *next* year will be even better than that.

Garden Analysis: I think the male Mexican fern made it through the winter. It still has a frond of green on it. Found little purple nubs where the hosta are poking up. Lost all the mums except for two; can't say that I'm too disappointed.

Gave up on half the dianthus and pulled them up. They were scraggly looking last year. The rest will get moved to the canna bed as a border. No periwinkles in the canna bed this year I've decided. I'm tired of them even though they are great performers.

The main part of the garden (the middle bulge) is in the deep shade until 11:00 am, then get scorched by full sun until 1:00 pm, then goes back into deep shade again. It's a little too sunny for shade-loving plants, and not sunny enough for sun-loving plants.

Every year I go to the nursery hoping there will be some new, colorful shade-loving plants. Every year I am disappointed. I'm so tired of impatiens and begonias but they're the only plants that seem to like it in there.

Sigh. I need some miracle plants.

You Can Draw! - Class #1

Started out with an overview of materials: pencils, erasers, blending stumps. I had a blending stump and threw it out not six months ago thinking I would never need it. Made one after class out of a rolled up bit of drawing paper. Sanded and softened the tip with an emery board. Yes, I'm a tightwad.

Tips and tricks:

-Cut slits in a white block eraser leaving thin ridges to pull out highlights in hair. Cool!

-Don't blow on a drawing to remove eraser crumbles. Turn it vertically and tap it instead. Blowing leaves moisture on the surface and can mess up a drawing.

On to values, white to black and how to apply them to what you see. Excellent!

Next was shading on curved objects to make them appear curved, and shadows on the table surface so things wouldn't look like they're floating. Clipping right along.

The first thing we drew was a coffee box thingy that happened to be sitting in the room.



As with every box-like thing I try to draw, it turned into the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Slanted decidedly to the right. Tried to fix it but didn't quite get it all plumb. I was sitting in the very back of the room fighting with my new glasses. Couldn't quite see what the coffeecup part of the label was supposed to be so all I could do was draw the dark shapes I could see.

A show and tell when we were all finished. He held up each person's drawing and pointed out all the good stuff on it. He concluded every one with, "That's a good drawing right there."

Next he drug in a plant from the hallway. Yes! Something with major fudge-factorability. Nobody is gonna know what the stalks and leaves really look like so freeform time on the foliage.

I was drawing away and the teacher stood behind me and watched. For some reason that gave me the heebie-jeebies. Because I couldn't see my drawing with the new bifocals, I just looked at the plant and drew what amounted to a blind contour. He watched me doing this for a while and said, "So how long have you been drawing?" Arrggh. Busted.

Told him I had never had a drawing class, that this was the first. (eyebrow cocks in disbelief) But I study and read a lot....

He loaned me a book he had brought for show-n-tell, The Artist's Complete Guide to Drawing the Head, by William L. Maughan. He said he had a whole library of art books at his house and I was welcome to borrow all that I wanted. Woot! Tightwad's Nirvana.

Realized on the way home that my brain is geared for speed sketching...quick, imprecise, capturing only the essence of a moment. I've tried very, very hard to break myself of the need to draw all the little nit-picky details. To sit and draw them now was proving difficult. Skerritttt! Zzzzzztt! Major synapse disconnect.
I have much to learn.

And lastly, apropos of nothing, the song "Sylvia's Mother" has been stuck in my head for the last three days.

And the operator says "40 cents more for the next 3 minutes"
Ple-ease Mrs. Avery, I just gotta talk to her
I'll only keep her a while
Please Mrs. Avery, I just wanna tell 'er goodbye

Nana's Prayer Lily

Journaling:

I've been at Nana's house eleven days now and have largely forgotten what my husband and kitties look like. That's a Good Thing actually. I needed an extended break from my everyday life.

Nana has worked me like a dawg these two weeks and fed me only junk food and take-out. I'm craving green things and salad. Can't wait to get home to my own cooking.

We finished all her home improvement projects and she is very happy about that. We still need to work on the garage but that will have to wait for warmer weather.

Haven't drawn much since I've been here and was having withdrawal symptoms so I drew what was in front of me - Nana's Prayer Lily on the kitchen table.

I'll be heading home tomorrow if it doesn't snow again.

I did make it home on Thursday, and arrived to find a pile of bills, screaming hungry cats, and an overflowing litter box. Sigh. I remember now why I volunteered to help Nana with all her projects.