cool sketching

Loads of my art projects over the past many months have occupied hours when I would be trying to stay warm or dry from the weather elements. This past little while I got lost in art work during the high heat hours of the day to keep cool.   That means staying inside sketching while savouring sangria.  I worked at using a variety of media and also including tutorials and free hand.  Each of the four I included below were rendered for a purpose.

For this cupcake I followed a tutorial first using a graphite pencil to lay the look, then layer upon layer upon layer of coloured pencils to bring it to life.  That was the plan for this project, to make the cupcake look real enough that I would want to sink my teeth into it.  When I looked at the finished piece and my mouth watered, I knew I accomplished what I set out to do.   Success!

This view of Bow Lake, Crowfoot Mountain and a meadow full of Paintbrush wildflowers was done free hand.  For a reference, I used a few photos that I took while at this location last week.  What I wanted to accomplish with this watercolour painting was to show depth and perspective.  By making the Paintbrush wildflowers large and detailed at the front and the trees small and dark at the back, I see distance between them.  Success!

My reference was a tutorial to sketch this cat with graphite pencils.  The reason I picked this image and tutorial was to improve at showing expression and invoking a feeling.   It takes many small fine details to accomplish that from the upturns on the ends of the mouth, to the white sections of the eyes, to the darker sweeping whiskers.  I sense this cat is telling me "please can I have more"!  Success 

This free hand watercolour painting was rendered from a few photos I took while kayaking a few weeks ago.  I was in my friends kayak which is a packraft and I loved it!  This scene was a challenge to set up and took loads of time drawing and erasing, drawing, erasing then drawing again. Finally I came up with something that worked for me.  When it came time to lay the paint, it no longer felt like a challenge and turned to a joy-filled few hours.  My hope with this was to express being lost in a special moment.  When I called this project complete, stood it up and stepped back, I got goosebumps all over again remembering how special it was to be so close to the loon Mom and her two babies.  Success!