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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Photo of the Day, Drawing in Life, and more WC Attempts

First of all let me say I loved all the comments on the frog's teeth. I love it when a photo can generate such conversation. Today's photo is of a very young hummingbird on what I think might be his visit to our hummingbird feeder:

Isn't he a little fatty?

Yesterday I spent much of the day with a dear friend in Ann Arbor sketching outdoors and at Borders Book Store. I don't know that my sketching has improved at all, but I didn't feel quite so awkward while trying to sketch my surroundings. Here is what I saw and drew:

I started with a pencil, but found I was using the eraser too much so switched to pen.

Last weekend, I tried to make a WC of a early morning scene that I captured in a photo, but really messed it up and then overworked it all to pieces. It has been sitting on my work table for days waiting for me to decide what I was to do with it. I decided to take a leaf from Cheap Joe Miller's book and get a small mat and try to find some part of the awful painting that might not be all that bad in isolation.

So here is the painting in all it's awfulness:






And here are two isolated parts (both from the same portion of the original, but in different orientations):






Today I am hoping to make a small watercolor that I will like much better and I will share it with you tomorrow.

But first I will finish my second mug of coffee, eat a banana and hit the treadmill. Then the rest of the day is mine to do as I please. I do hear some hollering from the dust in the living room and the crumbs on the kitchen floor, but will try to block them out until I get some art done.

xoxo

7 comments:

  1. I love you and cheap joe's ideas! I like the portrait portion... do you?

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  2. I love the swirls of color in sthe sky -- they give the painting a sense of movement. I don't know why you don't like this one. That wide expanse of space in your landscape is so "Michigan". Your colors works beautifully together.

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  3. I agree, it's a great painting! But I also love what you did with the mat. And I think both orientations work well. What if you repeated those isolated scenes with different color schemes? Just a thought :-)

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  4. I like Ann's suggestion, and I agree with Swallowcliff in that I like the portrait one best. The sky is especially expressive and interesting.

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  5. Cropping out the parts of a painting that you feel don't quite work is a time-honored way to treat them. I like the portrait orientation the best, and I think the sky is quite nice! hugs, nancy

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  6. fat birds are the cutest ever! =) Love the shot and the sketches

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  7. Wonderful job on cropping your painting! And I love that you drew in public again. Regarding the frog, I'm amazed those are real teeth! They kind of remind me of something Tim Burton would draw on one of his characters!

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