Blueberries for the first day of Spring

Prismacolor colored pencils on Stonehenge paper

approx. 6" x 8"

Blueberries rarely come in the wonderful old-fashioned balsa baskets any more. Occasionally I'll see them at a farmer's market, but the one that "modeled" with my blueberries here is part of a stack of them I bought at an estate sale.

Even on a simple drawing like this one, if the perspective of the container is off, the whole thing is a mess, so I worked on this sketch for a while until it looks right to me.

Here's how things started out:

I always love the look of  a drawing when just a few parts are completed. I think that's why I decided, right about this time, to keep the front face of the basket as the white of the paper.

When I'm not sure where I'm headed, I'll scan what I have and
play around by hand or in Photoshop to explore my options.

And there you have it...blueberries on the first day of Spring!

(If you're interested, I've got more blueberry drawings here.)

Happy feet

There's nothing quite like enjoying the first really warm days of spring.

Illustration Friday: The Return of Spring

The return of fresh asparagus to the produce department is a sure sign that spring is here. I love the tidy bundles—I even love the lavender rubber band that surrounds them. 

I left this piece unfinished...or is it? I actually like how it looks, and may leave it like this. I find work-in-progress shot very appealings, and sometimes they have a vitality and movement that makes the "finished" piece looks kind of static by comparison. To my eye, especially with pencil drawings, the unfinished image seems to be emerging from the paper. 

What do you think? Does it look unfinished to you?

Winter, interrupted

 I've been trying to get started on my "reverse" drawing for Illustration Friday, but the weather in the Santa Clara Valley has been too distractingly warm and sunny.  This valley was once called "The Valley of the Heart's Delight"...isn't that a wonderful name? (Much better than "Silicon Valley" which is what most people call it these days.) When I moved here in 1979, a person driving through San Jose would pass busy, viable orchards on many major avenues.  Today, most are gone, within the city itself, but we still reap the benefits of the temperate valley climate.

Every year, when the fruit trees and shrubs start to flower, I admire my neighbor's flowering quince and vow to plant one in my yard.  Well, that still hasn't happened, but she always urges me to come over and cut as much as I like.  I decided not to include the blossoms in this drawing, because I just love the plump buds, sitting there waiting to explode.  When I started the drawing, I quickly rendered the petal areas first, and I'm awfully glad that I did - when I returned to finish it the next day, they were almost all in full bloom! The subtle shadows don't show up very well in this scan; this drawing is definitely one that might photograph better than it scans. I'll let you know when I get to playing around with that.  Now, back to thinking about "reverse"...