New Year's Eve

Waiting for the festivities to begin, I finished side 1 of my accordion book...

Happy New Year, everyone and thank you for your support of my drawing journey.

May 2014 bring you all joy, laughter, friendship, and love!

Oh, Christmas Tree

I always avoid drawing the Christmas tree because it seems so huge and sparkly and full of detail--generally overwhelming. This year, I decided to go for it. 

Here's one of the poinsettias that still has a lot of petals. 

Both of these are in my Christmas themed sketchbook. I want to thank Linda http://pieceofcakesketches.blogspot.com, for the inspiration.

Christmas

On the day after Christmas, Boxing Day in some countries, I wanted to leave out all the clutter and mess to remember the pleasure we had.

Then, taking an idea from another sketcher, I decided to collect some of the memories in a sketchbook. I used the Sennelier accordion book from the Urban Sketching Symposium.  Next month, I'm going to take an online lettering class, so I've started adding some text. This way, I can see the before and after results.

I want to remember some things for next Christmas, so some of those notes are in there, too...

and I want to be sure to thank friends for gifts we've been given...

There's a lot to remember about this Christmas, but here's a start.

A Sketching Gift

 It was such a pleasure to be out with the Urban Sketchers of Portland today... such a lovely group of people who inspire me, challenge me, and encourage me.   It was a gift to spend the day in friendship, sketching,  laughing, talking, and sharing.

Chocolate Temptation

I  know this hot chocolate is delicious because it's from a wonderful restaurant in NYC and because I had a sample at Sur la Table yesterday. I bought this intending to give it as a gift, but it is very, very tempting to crack it open.

Bowls: Two Round Ones and One Squarish One

Hats

Footwear

Today's ellipse:

Funny how after I'm finished, then I can see the mistakes. (The back of the mouth of the cup is too wide and crooked.) I could blame it on the potter, but that wouldn't be fair, because it's really quite perfectly formed.

Juicy Tangerines

Cup, Candle, Tangerine

No measuring today.

Geeking out on Perspective

Having noticed that the cylindrical shapes that I draw seem to be too rounded, especially at the base,  I decided to do some serious perspective study today to figure out what actually is happening when a circle is drawn in perspective. I decided to draw some glassware that I could see through, and the wine and cocktail glasses fit the bill: red, white, champagne flute, a martini glass, and a rectangular bottle for contrast. When I got down a tray for carrying them all upstairs to my desk, I noticed a dishtowel with a grid of squares. Perfect!

I decided to simplify things by using one-point perspective. I set up a grid on my paper, complete with horizon line, vanishing point,  and stationary point (at least two times as far away as the outer limit of the sketch from the vp) so that I could determine the depth of the square grid. Then I started drawing the bases of the glasses on the grid. I still need some work here, but now I know what to study next. 

I just eyeballed the tops of the glasses and their curves. That will be study for another day.

After all this thinking and staring at empty glasses, I felt the urge for a little reward. Cheers!

p.s. If anyone has suggestions for simply drawing glasses that look accurate, I'm eager to know them!

Practicing Scales

Today I practiced making ellipses by drawing them on the faces of cubes  drawn in various positions. Those are the shadows that are coming through the paper in this sketch.  Drawing ellipses is kind of like practicing scales. Hopefully, it will pay off one day.

Here's a color version...

By the way, if you go to Paris, be sure to bring back a periwinkle ceramic yogurt cup. The yogurt is delicious and you and your friends will find many uses for the resulting cup.

Ellipses or Foreshortened Circles

I thought I'd work on ellipses this month--or more precisely, "foreshortened circles".

This was an early attempt this evening...

but then we went out to hear some local jazz, so I doodled various things at The Blue Monk...

and eventually got back to ellipses....