The Word 4

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.


Galatians 5:22-23

Pen & Ink 3 - Birds 2

Wanting to get a little more practice in with the different pen strokes used in the pen & ink drawings I decided to practice by creating a drawing of my own.  Lines, dots and squiggles over and over.  Here is the result.


Pen & Ink Drawing

My Favorites - Lone Tree

A couple of years ago some friends of ours, John and Ruth, were volunteering the winter months at Bull Creek Wildlife Management here in Florida.  We went to visit with them and as we were viewing all the sites I captured a shot of this barren tree.  It was a rather gray day so I have taken the privilege of enhancing it a little for better viewing.


Lone Tree

The Word 3

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

My Favorites - Natures Lace

On another early morning adventure out to Black Point Bird Refuge I came across this dew covered web.  Normally I don't like to be around anything that has to do with spiders but this was so beautiful it deserved to be captured.


Natures Lace

Just Black & White 12 - St. Augustine Porch

I have avoided this posting for a while but have decided that postponing it will not change the outcome in any way.  I am starting a new category and in doing so I hope it will motivate me to get on the ball and do something about it.  What am I babbling about?  Unfinished works!!  I know I’m probably not the only one that has them but it goes against the grain of my personality.  I just hope this category doesn’t surpass the completed works at some point.

This drawing was started shortly after I finished the drawing of Gary and Grace so it gives you an idea of how old it is.  It’s not like I haven’t worked on it in all that time.  I get it out every now and then and work on it, I just don’t keep with it long enough to finish it before I’m back working on watercolors. 

The picture I’m working from was taken in the town of Saint Augustine on the coast of Florida at the Old St. Augustine Village Museum.   St. Augustine is known as the oldest city in the United States.  For more information about St. Augustine click here. This picture is a shot of the front porch of the house in the village.


St. Augustine Porch

Here is my unfinished drawing.

The Word 2

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.


1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Pen & Ink 2 - Birds 1

Having had a taste of working with pen and ink I decided to try a few on my own.  The following drawings were pictures I saw and thought they were so adorable I had to draw them.


Pen & Ink Drawing - Bird

Pen & Ink Drawing - Baby Bird

My Favorites - Jelly Anyone

Two years ago Gary and I took a trip to Atlanta Georgia to visit the King Tut exhibit, the Taracotta Warriors, the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and the Atlanta Aquarium.  We had such a great time absorbing all the beauty of nature and history.  Here is one of the pictures I took at the Aquarium.


Jelly Anyone

Pen & Ink 1 - Covered Wagon

As we were moving along in the class and finally getting the hang of doing a real drawing Louise decided to switch gears on us.  She introduced us to a new form of drawing using pen and ink.  I was amazed at its beauty and a little scared at the same time to try this form of drawing.  The scary part was the fact that ink is permanent and cannot be erased to correct any mistakes. She started us out making a chart of all the different dots, lines and squiggles and how to use them to achieve your desired outcome.  Here is the chart I made which was a copy of one she handed out in class.  


Pen & Ink Chart

It was amazing how many students did not want to do this form of drawing.  Many found it monotonous and boring.   Being a rather detailed person myself I found it very relaxing to sit and do dot after dot after dot and add a line or squiggle every now and then.  We were each given a picture that Louise wanted all of us to do in pen and ink.  Here is the sheet she handed out.

Pen & Ink Handout

Here is my completed drawing.

The Word 1

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not parish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

My Favorites - Hope

Back in 2004 Gary and I moved to Florida just in time to experience what it's like to go through several hurricanes.  During one it was suggested that we evacuate and being new to all this we took that advice.  We ended up in Savanna Georgia for three days and I took this shot while down on the river walk.  The buildings looked so bleak and then I noticed the flag which represents HOPE.  All was well when we returned home.


Hope

Just Black & White 11 - Value Chart

Before I could do a real portrait of real people Louise had a few more areas of instruction to cover.  The first was getting to know your pencils and using them correctly.  I started the class with ten graphite pencils and eventually added to that for a total of sixteen, ranging from 8B (soft) to 8H (hard) with B, HB, & F in between.  To become familiar with each pencil we made a value chart.  We started by filling in a small area of about ½ inch by 1½ inches by running a specific pencil back and forth making lines very close together.  Using the same pencil we then repeated this procedure on the same set of lines twice, moving down one third of the space each time.  Each third of the finished area would then have a different shade showing us how layering our work would change the value. 


Value Chart

Next we learned how to make a cartoon (line drawing) of the picture or person we wanted to draw.  For my first picture I chose a photo that I took of my husband Gary holding our granddaughter Grace.  She was only a few months old at the time and I was very fortunate to click the shutter at just the right moment and capture a priceless expression on their faces.

Gary & Grace

Since an enlargement would be necessary we were taught the grid method of doing this. Step one was to print a copy of the picture and place a small (1/4 inch) clear plastic grid over it. 

Small Grid on Picture

We would then place a piece of tracing paper over another larger (1/2 to 1 inch) grid that would give us the finished dimension or size desired.  Then working square by square draw the small picture onto the larger sized tracing paper using the line drawing method.

Grid Enlargement

Once this is done you have a cartoon which you then transfer over to your drawing paper.  One method is placing your cartoon over a piece of graphite paper which then is placed over your drawing paper and trace the cartoon lightly to leave an outline of your picture on the drawing paper.  The method Louise taught us was to flip the cartoon over and use a 2b (very soft) pencil to redraw your cartoon on the back of the sheet.  Before doing this we would sign and date the correct side for future reference.  When this step was finished you would place the cartoon directly on the drawing paper and trace the cartoon lightly to leave a graphite imprint that you would work from.  After all this was complete you could start your drawing.

Completed Cartoon

Here is my finished drawing using all of the procedures above.

Just Black & White 10 - Misc 5

With many of the basics behind us Louise went on to teach us how to do portraits.  As you have seen in prior posts I had already dabbled in portraits but now would get instruction from someone who really knew what she was talking about.  The first thing we learned was facial proportions, click here.  I was amazed since I didn't realize there was so much preciseness to it.  Here are the notes and drawings from that class.


Head Porportions - view 1

Head Porportions - view 2

Much to our surprise the first portrait she had us do was a self portrait.  The trick here was we had to do it from memory and we could not use a mirror.  It was interesting to see the results of each student and how we viewed ourselves.  Also the drawing was not very detailed, more like the line drawings we learned in the beginning.

Self Portrait from Memory

I went on that week and completed two additional drawings both from the Lee Ames book.  The first one was done correct except for the forehead which was slanted to the back more severe than the original but, I decided to leave it that way as a reminder to get my proportions correct in the future.

DWLA

DWLA