California Poppy and Cats from Istanbul

 California Poppy

pastel pencil on paper

I started out today's pastel pencil sketches from one of my own photos, an early one from the clinic garden. I just wanted something bright that wouldn't fill the entire page on an 8 1/2" x 11" sketchbook. All of these are on one page from that simple sketchbook. I may actually fill it with pastel sketching.

 Gray Cat from Istanbul

pastel pencil on paper

photo reference by jlloren on WetCanvas.com

Every week there's a Weekend Drawing Event when a member posts sixteen photo references, often from trips they've taken abroad. This time the host went to Istanbul, so I may be back with some skylines with mosques and other architecture sketches tomorrow. I just had to start with the cats though!

Tabby Cat from Istanbul

Pastel pencil on paper

Photo reference by jlloren from WetCanvas.com

This little tabby was so sweet in her expression. I like how both of them turned out. Love the pose on the gray one and the markings on the tabby, subtly brown and blue-gray on the same cat.

European Blackbird on Winter Cattail Day 17 of 30 in 30 Challenge

European Blackbird on Winter Cattail

Pastels, pastel pencils on paper 7" square

This is one of the paintings done after Blackbird 2 earlier this month. DAK723 gave me the cattail reference in snow, but it looked more like a component of a landscape than an actual scene. It needed something and I knew from first sight what it needed was a bird.

So this was in some ways one of the easiest paintings I've done and others one of the hardest, having to redo that bird an inch long was tricky! I like how it came out though, it makes me smile. Also first use of some of my new Terry Ludwig pastels.

Day 9 and 10 Dave the Cat and Macaw

Dave the Cat

Pastel and pastel pencils on paper

8 1/2" x 11"

Dave the cat belongs to an online friend in the UK. He's a majestic, regal, spoiled sweet snob whom I've always been fond of at a distance. This isn't the first time I painted him, just the best and most recent. I'm very fond of Dave.

I intended to paint him yesterday for day 9 and so this is making up for yesterday's sick day. Later today I'll post today's piece for the 10th, probably from another reference by Lin Goodwin for the current Weekend Drawing Event on Wetcanvas.com.

EDIT: Winsor & Newton to the rescue, I love being able to paint with their watercolour markers. Strong vivid color, easy to use, they wash out great on the smooth Zeta paper from Stillman & Birn as well as on the cold press Bockingford pad that came with them. That's turning into my favorite pen and wash journal, also pen and wash is catching up with watercolor pencils as a way to handle transparent watercolor. Brush tips are a joy to me.

Macaw

7" square

Winsor & Newton Watercolour Markers

on Stillman & Birn Zeta journal

Photo reference by Lin Goodwin