Showing posts with label doodle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doodle. Show all posts

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Colored Pencils

I'm having fun drawing with colored pencils this summer. They're portable and I carry a pocket knife to sharpen them. I have an old plastic tray filled to the top with these pencils; I'll never run out.



I've inherited many different colored pencil sets over the years. Some are quite nice and of high quality. Many are run of the mill cast-offs from my kids. There was a while where for every birthday party we had (the ones where the parents of the birthday guests think of and buy the presents) my daughters received comprehensive "art kits". These sets included magic markers, crayons or pastels, some lackluster watercolor cakes and a rainbow assortment of colored pencils. So, yes it's true, I can count Toys R Us and the local CVS pharmacy among the more respectable art material suppliers (Dick Blick, Pearl Paint and even Sennelier).



Here's a smattering of what my febrile brain came up with in the land of colored pencils last week while I was on a short visit in New York's Adirondack Park:




Stream, Kane Mountain, New York (colored pencil)







Stream, Kane Mountain, New York (colored pencil)

I've found colored pencils to be perfect for these nature studies I've been focusing on this summer. The soft creamy texture seems to be pretty forgiving; I never carry an eraser.




shy alligator (inspired by Alain Lachartre "Les crocos")




Lighter than air machine



I'm liking this diagrammatic style. Perceptive readers will detect DNA from Richard McGuire and Blexbolex. Just giving credit where credit is due.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Getting Focused

There's a theme here, no?
Yes, here we are back at the dam on the Charles River a few minutes walk from my home. Two months ago, it was a raging torrent and me and my dear sketchbook would have been rudely swept out to Boston Harbor and the icy gray Atlantic Ocean beyond. But this day the water was well-behaved and it sparkled in the early morning sun.

Fisherman wade up and down here and catch things. Fathers and sons practice the ancient art. I used to fish with my daughter here and other nearby places. She was quite eager and ardent about it. Of course, I had the unenviable job of "preparing" the worms, impaling them on the hook and, if we got lucky, removing the hapless fish from the hook and tossing it back in (where it often jumped back on the hook!).

What I fish for is less problematic and messy:

Here are a few other pages from this sketchbook:

The thing with the bottle caps is my mbira. It was made by Newton Gwara in Zimbabwe and was given to me by my friend Solomon Murungu who is a very good mbira player. It makes beautiful music that seems to go with the rushing rippling river. Maybe I have an example somewhere for you: "Walk On By" [mp3 file]. This is my own lame little song; listen to Solomon's cd if you desire the real thing (and you should!)





I blogged about this heron previously. I like his style of fishing: slow and graceful, highly evolved and a bit comical. I've never  seen an overweight heron; have you? I guess they eat pretty well.