Toronto Zoo

We took a trip to the Toronto Zoo yesterday to see the Panda exhibit. It's been 12 years since we've been there. My oldest son wasn't even 3 the last time. It was an amazing day. My youngest took a lot of the photos (so I have a whole album going up on my facebook page of "Animal Butts"...he thought this was hilarious.) I did however get to use the camera before it ran out of batteries...lol.

Close Up... the Python (never need to see one of these again...shudders)

The first set of pics is my oldest son. I took a picture of him in the same place as 12 years ago. The second set is of Charles the gorgeous Silverback Gorilla that made me feel something so tranquil deep inside the first time I saw him. He's now 41 years old (apparently he could live into his 50's) but he looked a little tired this time around. He still does something to my heart though.

LOVE

Lots of Love today....

One of my biggest Loves with one of his biggest Loves....

Wordless Wednesdays- Brotherly Love

I just love how he looks right into his brother's eyes when they are talking. I also love how they can be totally in the moment without needing to think about it. I'm still working on that...lol.  (And yes, my kids live in the water as soon as the warm weather hits)

I came across this photo on Pinterest completely by fluke this morning but it made me laugh so much. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have put it out to the universe that I want to find more joy and I think the universe decided to share a little chuckle with me....

("joy" photo credit: http://pinterest.com/pin/554716879072939433/ )

...searching

Lots of self reflection going on this summer. Unfortunately not much time to do it.  I think I've realized that I want to feel more "joy". I'm trying to consciously stay in the moment and look for joy within me and around me.

Anyway, today it came out as this drawing. It's totally not my comfort style but I find when I'm looking at other blogs, I'm drawn to the colours and whimsy. I can't do that with the portrait style that I usually draw. So maybe it's time for something new. These pencil crayons aren't of the highest quality and I find they don't blend well. I only have a nice set of skin-tone colours so I had to raid my kids left over school art supplies for the colours I wanted. The pink I wanted for the word Joy wasn't what I found but there is a limey-green in here that I am loving.

Happy Sunday Sketches!

Wordless Wednesday- Even the strongest forces have moments of calm

I've been spending a lot of one on one time with my Force of Nature, since his older brother is doing summer camps. While I can see him maturing so much as he gets older, it still surprises me when I take a photo of him (like this one) and it makes me feel calm and tranquil. I <3 this little monkey so much.

Live without Boundaries

I was out shopping today and saw this t-shirt on display with a picture of a road travelling off in the distance and the logo "live without boundaries." I had already paid for my purchase but I had to go back and find the shirt. I loved the colours and honestly the first thing that came to my mind was that it was perfect for my youngest son.  He's 7 and he is mighty. I call him my Force of Nature. There are times he can drive me to absolute exasperation and other times, he's the sweetest and most gentle little person you could meet. I use to say I wish he'd out grow the parts of his personality that wouldn't seem socially ok but then I realized he is resilient, strong and will stand up for himself. Yes sometimes it's still frustrating but I don't want him to change. Oddly enough, no one outside our immediately family has ever really experienced these particular personality traits (thankfully) and his teachers always say they can't see the child I've told them a story about in him at all...lol.

SO, obviously I bought him the shirt...even though it's going to hang on him like a dress. I also decided I wanted to try and draw it, in colour. Unfortunately, the picture is too big for my scanner and apparently my camera sucks. There are actually some lovely blues, greens and purples here, I swear ;) Still, happy I tried it cause it's a picture that I will associate with good feelings. Also, underneath this pic is another I drew a couple years ago of my little Force of Nature, when he was looking up at me from the pool. He was 3 or 4 when I took the photo that I drew from.

Happy Sunday Sketches.

Colour

I love looking at all the beautiful colours in many of the art blogs I follow. I want to work with colour but I just can't seem to get the same detail and shadowing as I can with graphite. That being said I've only tried 2 things with colour... Both with coloured pencils. I have however just purchased some watercolours...eek. On my bucket list this summer I'm planning to work with a couple of different mediums. Fingers crossed that I do it. Anyway, this is my start....

Since I do a lot of faces I figured I'd try a face part in colour.

This dandelion pic is one I found on the internet (without the words) and I really wanted to to try it myself. I think the original was watercolour and looked just gorgeous. I couldn't capture it with pencils though :(  Looking around the internet for the original so I can give credit. 

Auction Drawing...check

I haven't drawn for a bit...like 2 plus months. Sucks, but I have no real excuse. I have however spent a tonne of time watching a guy name Leonardo, do all these amazing drawings on his FineArtEbook YouTube Channel. I would love to have the talent this man has, of course it would help if I took more time to draw.

On a good note, the auction I was in back at the beginning of March has ended and someone did bid on me to draw something for them. The picture they chose was not exactly my favourite because it was very dark (both the person and the background) and also her hand is very prominent. I am not very good at drawing hands. So, when she emailed me the picture I kind of put off working on it. Then life got busy and the deadline I promised her started closing in, so I finally sat down yesterday and started on it. I had to stop midway because I wasn't really loving what I was seeing, so I figured I'd take a break. Today I went back to it and things seemed to be flowing better. There are things that probably aren't 100 % to the picture she sent but if I weren't trying to make it look like a specific photo, then I'd be pretty happy with it. I'm hoping the auction winner will be happy with it too. Also, though the hand isn't perfect, it's much better than I had hoped for, so...YAY!

the Green Man... in black and white

Ok, this was a lot of work...lol. As I mentioned before, I ended up erasing it twice before I finally started getting the way I wanted. If I were to do it again I maybe would choose not to worry about symmetrical leaves, cause those babies took a tonne of time (rulers and calculations...gah!) I'm really happy with the overall result though. I'm wondering if I should keep the outer lines of the individual leaves so sharp. I didn't blend them at all because I wanted to make sure the layers were obvious. Should I blend them to soften them some? Thoughts?

Now comes the fun/scary part for me. I've decided to colour this one. Well a copy of it. I just have to decide on coloured pencils, markers or watercolour...or all.

I mentioned in my preview post that there is a local artist, who's work I love, that painted a green man and got me hooked. Her work is beautiful so you should check her out.

Faebyl Art
and on Blogger HERE

Unfortunately my scanner is just a tad smaller than the picture so his antlers got a little chopped.

the Green Man Cometh... soon

I'm so excited because I'm actually working on another drawing. This will be my 3rd this year... I only managed to get 3 pieces done, in total, last year. So this is a good sign. AND this one is not a portrait, so I have a bit more leeway with it. I am finding though, that I have had to use my ruler to help me with keeping the leaves close to symmetrical. Apparently I'm much more free-flowing when I draw stuff to my left side. There are a few leaves that I want to be a little more complicated but now (since I've been working on this for over 3 hours and have erased the whole thing- twice) I've decided some of the background leaves can be really, really simple. My plan when this is finished is to make a copy of it and try working with some colour. I've probably got at least another hour and a half (plus?) of leaves to draw and then shading...so probably 3 more hours before I can even think about colour though.

Anyway, here is a sneak peek...please ignore all the ruler lines that are making me feel like a bit like I'm cheating. Hopefully I'll have the completed drawing up tomorrow.

Yes, I sucketh at resolutions...

So it's the 10th week of the year, which means I should have 10 drawings done. Um, no...this is my 2nd.  My only true excuse is procrastination. I'm gonna keep working on that.

This is a drawing I've done for an auction that a friend asked me to participate in. I don't have all the details but she's a good friend so I was quick to say yes. Plus it was good for me to have a drawing goal with a time limit. Apparently this is a sample that I post and if someone bids on me then I work out something with them and draw what they want. The only requirement for the sample was it had to be related to The Vampire Diaries. My favourite would be Elijah but until the new series starts I think he wouldn't be as popular. So I went for a pic of the actor who plays his brother, Klaus.

The pic with the original photo is unblended and I had to tweak it a bit. I'm happy with the final drawing, though I wish the eyes were a bit more hooded. Not going to change it up anymore though.

first drawing of 2013...yay!!!

I've finally decided on an art goal for this year. One new picture a week. This is doable and the practice will definitely help. I had a slow start in just coming up with a goal, so here we are in the third week of the year and I've only completed one drawing. It's a start though.
Anyway, what I'm happy about with this one is her lips, eye and nose...her face has beauty and character without looking cookie cut out beautiful. I'm most disappointed with her hair (which oddly enough is usually my strong suit). I ended up cropping the drawing because I really didn't like how the hair on her right side was laying. Also, I think the bangs covering her right eye are too heavy so I may rework that a bit. Any tips would be awesome.