Some apples to hold you over

Well, I'm still working away on that pinecone drawing. (Scroll down if you missed that post.) My already-slow pace came to a screeching halt this past week while I've enjoyed some family visits. So, to hold you over, I'm posting a drawing of two little lady apples that I started during the holidays. It was intended to be larger (see below), but I got caught up in the holidays, and the apples started to look a little tired.  I love these beautiful little apples; the better produce markets always stock them at the winter holidays. The scale isn't evident in this drawing, but they're just a couple of inches in diameter—perfect for tucking in among evergreeens and pinecones on the mantel or on the dining table.

Now, back to that pinecone...

Pinecone Progress

Yikes, this could take a while.

(And this scan only shows about 60% of the height of the drawing.)

Pinecones revisited

The first drawing I ever posted on my blog was this pinecone—and it's still one of my personal favorites. (You can read that original post here.) Now I'm starting on a second, larger pinecone piece. You see, I've wanted to draw a big, beautiful Sugar Pine cone ever since my son brought several of them to me from the Sierra a few years ago. I hang them in my three dining room windows every winter, and as I was taking them down this week, I thought it'd be a great time to draw one.

I'm drawing it in graphite, which takes less time than colored pencil, but I'm guessing it will still take a while, as I'm drawing it full-sized. (It's about 17" long!) So I've decided to share a few work-in-progress posts along the way. Today I'll show you how I set up my "model".

The pinecone is pretty fragile, so rather than handle it much, I wanted to hang it directly in front of me. This was a challenge right off the bat, until I remembered my new portable easel—perfect!

I know it will get a  bit confusing keeping the different parts straight as I draw, so I tried hanging a grid behind it (I marked up some graph paper) to give me some reference points, but I didn't like that. I ended up positioning a ruler up against one side which is simple and should work fine to help me "keep my place".

So, now I'm all set—time to get underway. Hmmm...I'm starting to reconsider my decision to use graphite for a tonal piece instead of using colored pencil—what do you think?

Backyard birds

Our family has had an interest in birds for years.  My daughter had a pet cockatiel that she got as a fledgling. As a boy, my son used to count the hawks on long car rides; his first job was at a store for backyard bird enthusiasts. (He's now 27 and is a field biologist working with peregrine falcons on the California Channel Islands.) My husband and I have become pretty good at identifying the many birds that visit our backyard, and  love watching them..so why aren't there all kinds of drawings of birds in my portfolio?

Sure, I have these drawings of feathers, nests, and even an emu egg. And I've drawn my chickens a few times, but never our wild backyard birds.

So, yesterday I sat down in my kitchen to sketch some. Of course, they're always moving, so I just tried to get some basic shapes down; I had to take a couple of photos to examine them more closely.

Such fun! Maybe it's because I've been getting back into life drawing (of humans), but I'm excited to explore drawing birds a bit more.  I think I'll use this toned sketchbook to document the birds at our feeder a couple of times a week. Besides being great drawing practice, it will serve as a nice record of which birds are visiting.

A couple of years ago, I bought a wonderful book, Drawing Birds with Colored Pencils by Kaaren Poole. I think it's time to get  it out again!

A drawing for a sunny day

Maybe it's the unseasonably warm and sunny weather we're having, but I decided to grab a coconut at the grocery store and draw it. (I like botanical subjects like nuts and things that won't wilt while I draw.)

I started to draw the exterior first, but wasn't inspired—time to crack it open! It's awfully hard to not see a face (a sloth face?) when looking at this end of a coconut:

The "mouth" of the face is the soft spot—it was a breeze to poke a hole there and drain out the coconut water. I got about 10 ounces out of this one! Then you just keep whacking it around its "equator" with the blunt edge of a butcher knife or cleaver, and it eventually cracks right open to reveal that beautiful snow-white interior.

This textured, toned paper may not have been a great idea, but once I was committed to it, I decided to keep feel of the drawing sort of rough and textural and maybe it'd work out. I'm relatively happy with the outcome, but might make another attempt on my usual white bristol.  In the meantime, I'm going to try and toast some of that coconut for a snack!

Reminder: If you're into figure drawing, feel free to visit my new blog chronicling my progress at my life-drawing meet-up. You can click here, and it'll always be over there on my right sidebar under Gallery Pages.