Another Barn

I absolutely love drawing old barns! This one was sketched first in 2b pencil then detailed in pen and ink. I fell in love with the original 1943 lithograph "Barns at Glen Gardner" by artist, Wanda Gag when I was looking through some books on Barns and decided to include it as one of my art studies on old barns. It took me approximately 5 hours to complete. I'm beginning to love working with pen and ink and it is sooooo much easier than I thought it would be! I just may try doing another on larger paper so that I can frame it. The Pen and Ink Techniques book says that a pen and ink sketch looks better framed if the picture doesn't go all the way to the edge of the paper. Thanks to the EDM group for inspiring me to start drawing again! I hadn't picked up the pen to draw in 2 years until I found them. THANKS to everyone for the inspiration you have given me with all your wonderful art!!

Newest Sketch!

This is how I spent my lunch hour today! I guess it wasn't so bad that I didn't have the car today (DH's car wouldn't start and he had to take me to work) because if I did, I wouldn't have attempted drawing this! It has its flaws but in all, I am very pleased with it as I have never tried people in pen and ink. I do know that I need to save my pennies and buy some artist grade watercolors. I used a brush and watercolor pencils, applying the wash with the brush instead of direct pencil to paper. It is amazing how engrossed I can become when drawing...the hour flew by.....didn't touch my apple or take one sip of my Pepsi that turned warm as I sketched!

Pen and Ink studies of barns

Being the "country girl" that I am, barns are one of the few buildings that I love to draw. My problem is that after I spend so much time in drawing in pen and ink, I am afraid to try watercolors on them for fear of ruining the drawing! I definitely need more work on drawing trees and the leaves. I overworked the 1st drawing to the point of ruining the values of the picture as a whole.

I love drawing in pen and ink and enjoy it even more than graphite. All three of these were drawn without the pencil sketch first and even though there are blantant errors, I really don't mind them! These were practice sketches I did from the book "Pen and Ink Techniques" by Frank Lohan. My next barn sketch I want to try from a photo. There aren't many barns here that have this much character and I would feel funny (and a bit unsafe) sitting along the side of a country road sketching all by myself!

Catnapping

Having worked lots of overtime in the past week, getting up at 3:30am each morning, I frequently find my DH dozing on the couch in the evenings. He is usually in bed by 8pm when he has to get up early, but last night he found that there was a Sopranos marathon on TV, and he was quickly hooked! He managed to doze off a couple of times while he was watching it! This sketch was done very roughly in graphite pencil before he turned over (probably in less than 1 minute!) then I added the details later. He looks alot younger in the picture because I didn't add all his "character lines"! ;) It's pretty close to his likeness though.

More birds

Here are some birds I drew a couple of years ago when I was on an ATC kick.

EDM 125 - Draw a bird

Ah now, here is a subject that is near and dear to my heart! I am a lover of nature and all birds....yes, even those pesky blackbirds that empty the birdfeeder in a matter of minutes! The cardinals are always the most welcome to my feeder and add a splash of color to the dull browns and blacks of the cowbirds, sparrows, doves, and blackbirds.

EDM Challenge - Yellow

This is a cast iron mechanical bank that is in our collection of banks. It is one of my favorites. You put the coin in the dog's mouth, press a button on the side of the base and a spring makes the dog jump "through the hoop" and the coin goes into the slot at the top of the barrel. It is one of the very few things in this house that is yellow! Our colors are mainly burgundy, forest green and cream.