Dragonfruit!

(click to enlarge—and to get rid of the weird blurry type that I can't seem to fix here...)

Dragon fruit—aka Pitaya—are one of the most exotic-looking things you'll ever see in the produce section. I've only seen these tropical beauties a few times in my grocery store, and they usually look a little shopworn. So when I saw a whole bin of them last week, in gorgeous condition, I had to bring one home to model for me.

As if that gorgeous exterior wasn't enough, when you cut open a dragon fruit, you have the contrast of the snow-white flesh full of little black seeds. The one I used didn't have a very interesting taste - rather milder than I expected, but the crunch of the seeds is wonderful. If you do an image search of "dragonfruit recipes" you'll see how these can be used—in puddings, desserts, etc. My favorite is using a melon baller to make beautiful speckled orbs from the flesh.

I worked this drawing a little more than I intended; I actually prefer the feel of the unfinished one. But I was sick for a few days after starting it, and sort of lost some momentum along the way.  It's all about knowing when to stop, isn't it?

It's pouring rain today, here in Northern California, which we are thrilled about as far as our drought goes, but I wouldn't mind being in someplace a bit more tropical...!

Linocut Portrait of Daisy

Before I post the drawing that will answer the riddle from my last post, I wanted to share a little 6x6 two-color linocut print that I did for a friend's birthday. (I forgot to scan the best print before I gave it to her; this one was one of the "seconds" from the batch.)

I started with a photo, knowing that my main color would be black, and Daisy's pink color, tag and tongue were perfect for the second color. Flat black areas can be a challenge when you're not using a press or oil-based inks, but I think that the mottled effect works pretty well as dog fur! (I've found that dampening the paper works well to get good coverage, but with water-based inks, I couldn't dampen the paper already printed with pink.)

I've still got an awful lot to learn about block printing, but it's such fun!

Let's Play "What Am I Drawing?"

I'm currently sidelined with a stomach virus, but before I got sick I'd pulled these pencils and began a drawing. So, any guesses as to what I'm drawing? Post them in the comments below!

Round Things, No.2

Round Things, No. 1

I thought it'd be fun to do a series of big drawings of small round objects, specifically small round objects.  Here's the first.

And a sneak peek at No. 2:

(Forgive the shadowy photos; I'm just shooting these on my drawing board.)

My Leaf Year

I'm not one for resolutions, nor am I a disciplined sketchbook artist, but I've taken the plunge and started on a year-long creativity challenge. My theme...leaves!

After today, I'll be recording my daily creations on a separate blog, so just click on "Leaf Year" in the right sidebar to check on my progress. You can read all about Noah Scalin and his Make Something 365 challenge here; maybe you'll even decide to join in. Here we  go!

Today's Prompt

The first step is the hardest, so start small today and make something that fits in the palm of your hand using only the materials in your immediate environment.

What I did

Well, I made it easy on myself because my "immediate environment"was my little drawing room chock full of supplies. I decided to make a tiny little leaf stamp, sort of a printmaker's chop, that I can use on my pieces for this challenge. As luck would have it, there was one stamp pad in the room in a bookplate kit a friend gave me a while back...and it was the perfect leaf-y green!

Later in the day, I was been struggling with creating a logo for this blog, when my husband asked if I was using the stamp I'd just created. Thunk. That's the sound of me hitting my head at not seeing the obvious. Well, at least someone is feeling the creativity already.

Happy New Year!!