Mushroom from My Mind

Practice makes perfect, so they say.  I'm not so sure that's true with art, since in a sense art is never really perfect, there is always some room for improvement.  So lets just say practice makes better.

So anyway, yesterday I had an off day, I spent most of time updating information on various websites and such, and didn't make time to do art in the morning.  I told myself it was okay because I was going to go to an artist league meeting and would start a new painting there.  Then a friend dropped by unexpectedly and stayed and talked for a long time, and soon it was too late for the meeting.

Still, I wanted to at least do a quick sketch, I started sketching my tea kettle, but wasn't really inspired by that so I stopped before I got finished with it.

I decided that it was a good day to do a pencil sketch from my imagination instead of drawing from life, but I didn't have much time left, I had only a few minutes before it was time to leave with the family for church.

So I ended up doing this quick sketch of a mushroom, or is it a toadstool, or a fairy hut?  Well, mine was pretty plain looking, just a basic sketch, no dots on it, no colors, no frogs sitting on it or butterflies hovering nearby, but it was still a little touch of practice on a day when I would otherwise have not exercised my artistic muscle at all. So here is today's sketch, more of just a little doodle.

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Every Day in May, May 10

Today's challenge was to draw something creepy.  Being the die-hard Whovian that I am... this is what I came up with!

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Every Day in May, Day 9

Today's EDiM challenge was simple.  Draw a lock.
Since it was simple, I decided to keep it that way and drew a very simple lock in a very dimple medium (graphite).

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Every Day in May Days Four through Eight

Well, I fell way, way, behind in the Every Day in May Challenge, so tonight I made it all up in one night.

Here are the sketches:

May 4th

May 5th

May 6th

May 7th

May 8th

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Homeschool Co-op Parent Room Sketches

Today was homeschool co-op for my kids, and in my down time before my first TA assignment, and in my down time after my last Teaching assignment, I sketched things I saw around me. A pedestal in the chapel area, a fire sprinkler, my pencil sharpener, and other items.  Later at home I continued sketching.  A lamp, my shoe, my hand...

Anyway, I've been wanting to draw from life more, and today I got in lots of sketches, all from real objects in front of me. Some of the objects had very straight lines, and I could have benefited from a straightedge or ruler, but all were just done free hand.
Here are today's sketches:

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Some Eagle Studies

Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I want to really do some studies on Eagles, so I've been sketching them and making observations about their proportions and such. Here are the first of my sketches. I will probably sketch something else in the empty corner of the paper.

 

Here is my sketch book page with notes about my observations, I think the eagle at the top right looks better, and I think my notes about the eye and beak explain why, however, the heads are at slightly different angles and that could also be the main reason. Or maybe the one on the right is just a more handsome bird. If you can't read the notes, just click on the picture, you should be able to see a larger version. If its still too small to read, this might help: Basically they are just observations about the proportions. from the end of the beak the base is about the same distance as from the base of the beak to the eye. Then from the end of the beak to the pupil, about the same as from the pupil to the back of the head at eye level. I also noted that the beak opening lines up with the front of the eye, and that I didn't do that on the sketch to the left, which is whey the eagle on the left looks like he has too big a mouth.
Below I noted that the eagle from shoulder to where his tail begins, is about the length of three head-and-neck lengths.