Laurelines

My last tree

I liked how this tree shows the changing of the seasons, with its still-bare old branches, its dangling gum balls and the tender green of  new growth at its base. I liked how the trunk is swaddled in ivy. So much going on---splots, swaths, arcs, curves, dashes and dots.

Ink and watercolor. Please scroll down to see the whole image.

It took me a while to get in the flow of trees, but I got there. You can see all 31 trees, from oldest to newest, in the  2006 Trees Photo Album at left. Saturday I start a new topic. See you then.

Figure drawings, once again

I was lucky enough to join a figure drawing group last night that seems very congenial. The studio is wonderfully peaceful, tucked away at the end of a charming country road, warmed by a wood stove, bedecked with children's papier mache art. We drew Regina, a fabulously pregnant model, while listening to Berlioz.  

(Scroll down to see full image.) There should be one full head length between the bottom of the chin and the middle of the breast. Because Regina is pregnant, the breasts are extended, so midbreast is lower. I drew her head a bit too small, too. Next time I'll be extra careful with her proportions.

New growth

Sometimes I feel like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, except I apparently have way more than one alter ego. Here is a drawing I made today of the new growth on some trees in my yard.  Compare it to the weeping cherry sketch just below. And then to the rear view trees below that. Do you or do you not detect the hand of one artist in these?

Sticking to one theme for a month allows/forces me to do all sorts of variations on a theme, with all sorts of mediums, but is SO much stylistic variation a good thing, a bad thing, or the sign of dissociative personality disorder?  These are the things my selves and I like to talk about when it's just us, at home. Join in the conversation, if you'd like.

Weeping cherry

Despite the fact that it was Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington this past weekend (the festival ends April 9), there were precious few cherry blossoms to be seen. There was precious little outdoor sketching to be done, either, because it was quite chilly and windy. However,  after seeing a fantasic exhibit of Hokusai drawings and paintings at the Sackler Gallery, I was inspired to eke out a sketch of a white weeping Fuji cherry.

Drawn with Kaimei brush pen and watercolor. Please scroll down to see complete image.

This is  number 29 of what will be 31 tree sketches for March. Onward!

Here I am, eking away in the chill and gray day. Still, we had  a wonderful time with our daughter C.

Rear view trees

Just a little sketch by way of telling you that I'll be on the road tomorrow, back Monday afternoon. I will be sketching, among other things, and may be able to post while I'm gone. It's cherry blossom time where I'm going and though that's not the reason for the trip, it couldn't hurt.

Potted trees or potted me?

Two things happen.  Near the end of the themed month, I start to think of new ways to approach my topic and I start to lose my wits.  Last month, food month, I drew dog and cat snacks and assorted barely edible things at this point in the process.  Today, I set out to draw a tree in a pot. I went to a formal garden. I drew for a longish time, though I was cold and hungry. I packed up my stuff. I looked at my drawing.  Not a tree was in it. Not one. Some sort of shrub, yes. Tree, no.  There was nothing for it but to find some real potted trees and draw them. I did.

  Small, multi-trunked tree ( cough, cough) in pot.

Please scroll down to see full image.

Three trees, two of them potted.

Rainy day trees

Please scroll down to see complete images.

Mother Nature has her little ways.  We've had no winter here to speak of and yet, with the arrival of spring, temperatures have plummeted, rain and sleet have set in.

I, in my warm house, have had fun today playing around with all sorts of drawing mediums: Caran Dache watercolor crayons, Cretacolor Aqua Monoliths, Derwent watersoluble graphite pencils for the colored drawing and Kaimei brush pen for the skylight scene.

Windfall

Things that were formerly attached to trees.

Trees from bedroom window

Right now the only green you see in the view from our bedroom is evergreen, but in a few days, or a few minutes, there'll be a world of green in those treetops.

Here's a drawing from a similar vantage point, made the day after Christmas. Interesting to compare.

Nest

I have been, and I've asked my husband to be, on the lookout for a bird's nest in a small tree, so I could get a fairly close look at it. He found this one in a redbud in a small courtyard this morning. Tomorrow I go back and draw the whole tree. It has the most exalted shape. You'll see.