Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Illustration Friday, "tense"


Not many people enjoy doctors' appointments!
Illustration Friday "tense"


My block print "Birch Trees" has been included in a Printsy treasury on Etsy. You can check it out here Printsy Treasury. It's fun to see all the different works together.

Spring Break

I'm enjoying my annual April vacation this week! I have a lot of projects to work on, so I'm trying to use my time wisely, and get things done! Aside from the mundane chores of car inspection, doctor's appointment, and Spring cleaning, I'm working on a new block print.



I'm working from a photograph of a rocky stream taken in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It is going to be a challenge as there are multiple textures and colors. For the first layers I printed a light blue on the upper half (using wax paper to mask out the bottom area). Originally I had carved out the areas that I wanted to stay white. After printing the blue layer, I cut out the parts that needed to stay blue, and printed a light gray layer over the whole block.

Now I will carve away the areas of light gray, and make some decisions about the remaining colors. Because there is such a different color scheme on the top and bottom areas of the photograph, I may repeat the process that I did before, and work on those areas separately. I could have cut the block into two pieces and repositioned it each time I printed a layer, but I think this will work just as well. 

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

The Sketchbook Project Summer Tour

The Sketchbook Project has announced its summer tour schedule. I'm posting the link here in case any of my friends live close enough to stop by and view a few sketchbooks.

https://www.sketchbookproject.com/events

                                           "A Mouse Tale"

Monday, April 20, 2015

"window" Illustration Friday


This week's piece for Illustration Friday is drawn in graphite pencil. I don't usually finish a drawing in pencil because it is so smudgy, but I was enjoying the feel of the regular pencil on the paper,  and didn't switch to the black Prismacolor, as I usually do.

A rainy day today, very raw and cool. Not a nice day for all the runners in the Boston Marathon!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Saying Good Bye


Illustration Friday "soft"


It's been a tough week, as I had to say good bye to my sweet cat, Sadie. She was about 16 years old and had had a wonderful 14 years ruling the roost in our home.  She loved to spend the nice weather sitting on the porch in the sun, and this is how I will remember her best.


Thursday, April 9, 2015

Rainy Day

April showers bring May flowers!

This morning we woke up to snow-encrusted vehicles. It was hard to believe that we'd be cleaning off our cars again, although with a winter like we just had, it seems par for the course. The good news is that a warm-up is predicted for the weekend! It is a welcome change to hear the weather person talking about 60 degree weather. Opening day at home for the Red Sox is on Monday, and it sounds like a perfect day for it. The Boston Marathon is coming up on the 20th, so hopefully the nice weather will hang around.

My inspiration for this black Prismacolor pencil drawing was last week's Illustration Friday prompt, "outside".  Looking forward to spending a bit of time outside this weekend, just without the rain.