Harvest foods in Tombow pen

Harvest

Tombow dual tip pens on sketch paper

Last daily sketch of October, just decided to do a harvest theme from imagination and memory. I used my new Muted Palette set, think the pumpkin came out looking a bit cooked but otherwise reasonably happy with the rendering. Had fun with the wheat, really didn't want to do the cliche of putting corn with it. Tossed in cranberries and currants because I like them. Best item in the whole sketch is that knobbly gourd, really had fun doing that one.

Might play with some of these later or with a real setup next year when harvest decorations for Halloween are a thing from truck stops! But this completes a second month of daily sketching or drawing without missing even one. The 48 hour rule really works. I get lull days after doing something good sometimes, or just the weather catches me before I'm done. But if I just give it that extra day to catch up, I do it.

Now doing that while writing a Nanowrimo and editing a previous one is a huge challenge, so wish me luck! Might sketch for a warm-up, do a lot with these Tombow markers. Cooked Pumpkin color might work for Tawny Sabertooth fur.

Catching up!

White Horse pen and watercolor

Oops! Been keeping up daily sketching and/or painting with the 48 hour rule - if I miss a day, I catch up the day after. But toward the end of day too tired to post sometimes. So let's catch up everything we missed working backwards... above is today's White Horse done in my large Moleskine watercolor journal from my daughter's photo. She says the nearest, right side knee has a congenital deformity in my painting, so I'm still going to be working on perfecting horse anatomy. Maybe return to this reference more than once in different media till I get it right!

Broken Tree Demo

Yesterday's art for the 29th, a sketch from imagination as a demo for my email student on tree anatomy. Also to refine the memory of a couple of lightning-struck trees I saw at different times in my life. Memory sketching is fun!

Blue Rose - watercolor

Painting for the 28th, actually sketched in pencil on the 28th and painted on the 29th. Just a rose from my own photo painted blue because I felt like it. Still using up the three dabs of American Journey watercolor triad occupying my porcelain palette. It's a triad, it's got some possibilities.

Owl from Memory, tombow pens

Sketched on the 27th, think that was an extra for the day. I was making up for skipping a day but did a couple of others.

Cat "Teo" pen and watercolor

My favorite of the three pieces I did on the 27th, a cat portrait in Pentel Brush Pen and watercolor with a mixed-shaded loose watercolor background. Did use the American Journey watercolor triad for this one too, relying more on Quinacridone Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine with Joe's Yellow only used in his green-gold eyes. Accurate cat portrait.

Candy Colored Playtime (Abstract)

Same large Moleskine watercolor journal as the previous, now using only the red and yellow in the triad plus some red and yellow Derwent ArtBars washed out. Experimental textures and shapes, goofing around doing an abstract. Was done to make up for the 25th when I didn't draw. Except started it then with the crimson spattering, then waited for paint to dry and went to bed. Ths is some of why the 48 hour rule is handy. If I don't finish whatever it is and chronic fatigue knocks me down first, I still finish within a day after. With that rule I haven't missed a day completely.

Now I'm all caught up! Will be posting tomorrow of course.

November posting may be intermittent though, as November is NaNoWriMo, as always I will be participating. This year I'm editing Elder's Pride, my sabertooths book, and writing a vampire novel. Rough drafts are easy after doing Nano every year since 2000 - the idea is to write a 50,000 word book in 30 days and I only failed once on account of pneumonia slowing me to a November 25 start in 2002. One year I did 500,000 words in five and a half novels and just totally overdid it. Most times I finish the book too. 

Editing is not that easy - but if it becomes so, I can start whipping out good readable books at a great prolific pace even if I don't bother going back to a lot of the ones I wrote in the past. Some have flaws I don't want to bother fixing. Some of them I don't like the theme any more. So the real challenge for me is the rewrite, which is mostly redoing each scene from scratch in its proper point of view and paying attention to suggestions from critiquers. In effect, writing with an outline and line edit, spell check when I'm done. That last pass is mechanical and not the problem, it's the changes that give me problems. 

So I've got a reward system. Edit my scene in Elder's Pride, then if I have energy write some in the vampire novel, if it's a good day also sketch. Vamp novel is very easy because backstory is all worked out in Raven Dance for how my vamps work, know them forwards and backwards except these characters, story idea has lots of inherent conflict and so does their point in "vampire history." It goes way back to the hominids and way forward into Raven Dance. 

Which in terms of writing novels means it's like sketching something very familiar, the backstory's all done and I don't have to work it out. Just do these ones. Like sketching cats, really. Not a romance novel if you're interested, more of a horror one, very contemporary. Not all vamps evil though, just as not all people evil, not really horror of good and evil so much as conflict and tragedy. I might be smashing genre a bit or maybe not, will have to see when it's done.

Kitten just sent me horse knee anatomy diagrams, so that error can be remedied. Going to do some anatomy drawings and have a go again in another similar medium, probably watercolor pencils or Neocolor II in the big journal.

None of these have to be perfect. It's final paintings that become wall art where I like to get it that accurate. See you tomorrow!

Tree in Mist in Tombow markers

Tree in Mist, 8 1/2" x 11" 

Tombow dual tip pens on sketch paper

Another tree demo for my email sudent. This time showing how to pull some branches forward and push others back with color and value. There's a bit of mist but still enough directional light for distinct shadows in this, also I was describing how grass under trees really gets when it's not on a golf course. Patchy with lots of bare spots and mud puddles, little clumps and hummocks of plants rather than smooth flat color as if perfect bright green sod just got laid.

That sod will yellow in close shade too, especially after the trees leaf out.

So often we learn to draw in kindergarten but are doing so in specific grade school symbols - a brown stick with a green ball or blob on top, maybe forked with a ball on top. Stick figures. Horizon line based on the lines you write on - all the drawings lined up on the horizon line. 

Accurate drawing means letting go of these things and finding new ways to simplify the ridiculous amount of detail in the real things. You can't paint every blade of grass but you can get the mower stripes on the lawn and people can see that's a lawn.

Sketches of Ari Cat and Tree Scene

Eleven Dots 1

Abstract Art Exercise in red and black pen on paper.

Yesterday I caught up for the day before by doing an abstract art exercise from an ebook I downloaded. It looked fun and came out surprisingly well, though completing it needed repeating it in a second color. Fun to just get creative without worrying about what it is.

Eleven Dots 2

Tombow pen on sketch paper

Did the exercise again this time playing differently with the line and forms created by the line. Resulted in a completely different abstract pattern that also worked. It surprised me how well this works as a starting point, doing it twice generated such completely different results.

Then I sketched my cat from life but didn't snap a photo or post it anywhere, was sort of doing ahead for today in case I was tired. Today I finished that page with another tree demo - this time a contour drawing to show more clearly that trees thicken toward the base and narrow toward the tips, always branching smaller and smaller without bulges. Unless the tree has a tumor like an oak gall or something, but those have a particular look and aren't an upside down gradual swelling. I threw in a couple of landscape elements and more roots this time because the same principle applies to tree roots except sometimes they dive into the ground and come up again. Played with very obvious perspective diminishing cloud sizes as they moved toward the horizon and dong the waves by the sea very small to show how high the crag the tree's on is.

Worked rater well, I think. Might rearrange it a little but it's a cool design. I'm starting to just make things up and I like that.

Tree Scene and Ari Cat Page

Tombow pen on 8 1/2" x 11" sketch paper.

Landscape with Tree

Tree on a Hillside

3 1/2" x 5 1/2" pen on paper

Went out today for my clinic visit, saw this beautiful tree as the van went past it. Sketched fast to block in its general shape in pencil, then started inking details and decided to create a background out in nature with some more distant trees over the edge of a hill. Put the smaller darker one behind it to give contrast to the pale trunk and foliage and liked that, inked it in.

Sometimes a drawing begins with a life drawing and everything else in the picture is composed from memory to set it off. That's what this one is. I like how it came out. Slopes like that are common in San Francisco so this is really a combination of several views.

Rooster and Rose Page

Rooster and Rose Page

pen and watercolor rooster, pen and wash rose

Finished the page with yesterday's rooster with a life sketch of a silk rose I have handy. This is the second time I've drawn from it, like this rendering a bit better. Found my Stabilo watersoluble fine point colored pens while looking for someone else and had a go to see if they were still good. They are!

Pen and Watercolor Rooster

Pen and Watercolor Rooster

3" x 5 1/2" in large Moleskine watercolor journal

Today's art is small and refined. I didn't draw till late and then answered an art game of "the next sketch is..." with him as a black and white animal. Yellow feet and red face decorations didn't seem to break that up. Very tricky doing his markings justice. 

This one was fun. I do like doing accurate animals and birds. I've been a little more interested in chickens for the past few years since my adopted daughter got hers. They're fascinating birds. Very close to the lineage of dinosaur-birds, so hers have the nickname of "back yard tyrannosaurs" and are doing a fine job of eliminating spiders, worms, bugs of all kinds out there.

When I move back there with her I'll have other farm critters to sketch. Horses, lots, she has rescue horses and I'll also be riding around on her horse shoeing adventures with sketch gear in hand. Also goats, ducks, dogs, rabbits, grand kids and many assorted cats besides my own! It'll be fun.