Digging In

Polar Bear Awakening, Ink on toned paper, © 2018 R.L. Delight Fine Art

Inktober week is done and I drew 33 ink drawings in total! This is number 32. I originally drew it as a thank you to all those who followed my progress on social media. I am sharing it here as this is Polar Bear Week! So, what is next?

I have participated in month-long daily challenges before and have always benefited from them in terms of my art. Usually, I just picked up where I left off and continued on. This challenge was different in many ways. First, I had never used ink as a drawing medium. Second, I have only just started drawing animals (not counting my teen years spent drawing animals from magazine photos).  I struggled with drawing in ink for the entire month, however, even I could see the improvement in the handling of the medium day by day.  While I am generally satisfied with my progress, I also recognize that I have a ways to go.

What I hadn't anticipated when I first set out to take on this challenge, was that I would fall so deeply in love with drawing animals and all that goes with it. Taking on animal art, I had to break with my practice of not using photo reference and only drawing from life or imagination. I haven't used photo reference in my art because I just don't resonate with photos like I do with my subjects in real life.
I have spent many days this summer sketching animals at the Oregon Zoo which is a one and a half  to two hour drive, one way, over the coastal range from my house. With a few exceptions, I have used my own video footage, live webcams, and my sketches as reference for these drawings. A couple times I used my own photo reference.

So, now it is time to go deeper. I had already begun to learn animal anatomy before I took on the Inktober challenge. Now I am going back and learning with purpose and determination. I need to have the ability to sketch and draw animals from life and imagination. That is going to take a bit time and a lot of work. Thank goodness we have so many resources these days with online classes and tutorials. Nothing beats working hard and drawing everyday as I continue to do.

I am looking at printing services until I can afford my own quality printer and scanner. I will be selling prints and cards of the best sketches I did and of future finished drawings. I will also be posting small paintings for sale this week. I need to clean out my studio, so the paintings will be at sale prices from now until December 30th. A percentage of the proceeds from every sale will go to environmental and animal protection organizations. Some will be local and some will be national and international.

Well, this is a long post but I wanted to share some of the growth and changes that have been happening in my studio. Thanks for reading this far!

Go find the beauty in this week!

-Renee

Settling Into the Studio for the Winter!

I am doing my best to settle into the studio for the winter. We had a short break today between storms. I got out and walked around town doing my errands. There were chainsaws buzzing everywhere as workers cleared out downed trees and branches. I passed one house while walking to the library that had a pair of tree surgeons rigging line on three trees to remove a large tree that was draped over the roof!

I took a short walk on the beach where the waves were getting quite large, building for the next incoming storm.

I spent a bit of time today getting my studio revved up. I spent most of my painting time the past year outside due to the unusual lack of rain and cold and the studio needed a bit of reorganizing. I cleaned up a plein air painting that I painted this summer in Whistler to get it ready to send out to the dear friends we stayed with. I also decided to sketch a still life set up I have had hanging around since this fall. I finally feel up to painting it!

Here is the sketch and a photo of the sketch in front of the set up. It was a quick, one hour rough sketch. I wanted to get a sense of how to tackle the Big Leaf maple leaves.  I really enjoyed sketching the abstract shapes they made. I love the color and shape of the green pumpkin and the glowing dried leaves. I am going to enjoy painting this one.

© 2015 R. L. Delight Fine Art, Day 22 Sketch: graphite on paper

© 2015 R.L. Delight Fine Art, Day 22 Sketch

That is all for today. I will be cooking a feast tomorrow and will probably only get a quick sketch in and some prep work for painting.

Stay safe and warm this winter day. We are heading into the light!

-Renee

"Taking a Line for a Walk"

Day 21 sketch:

© 2015 R.L. Delight Fine Art, Day 21 sketch, graphite on paper

I remember this time last year everyone in our community on the coast was wondering where the rain was. Well, we have found the rain, and the wind! We have been rocked with storm after storm causing floods, landslides, and sinkholes big enough to close the main road up and down the coast, Highway 101. Some communities have been periodically cut off.

In spite of all the weather, I usually am able to get out for my daily beach walks. Today was one of the exceptions. I made it a couple of blocks to the post office and store but trees were coming down and branches were flying. I could see the waves raging on the beach in the distance. I didn't need to be convinced to wait until tomorrow to go for for my walk!

Unfortunately, I have also caught the seasonal cold that has been making the rounds. Between the cold and the stormy weather I have been cooped up more than usual. Perhaps I needed the break. I have been using the time well by studying art, sketching and preparing for my sketchbook class. I am working on getting my weaving loom out of the studio and have put it up for sale one last time. The info for that can be found here.

Not all the sketches have been post worthy. In fact, most are not as I have been using them for practice of certain techniques and ideas. Somewhere in all my online wanderings I recently came across a mention of "The Bird King: An Artist's Notebook" by Shaun Tan. I wish I could remember where. Oh the perils of wandering the internets! The book is a joy and I highly recommend it. Check out his blog here. I checked it out from my local library system and have fallen in love with the book so much that I ordered it.

In his intro, Tan quotes Paul Klee on "taking a line for a walk", which I interpreted as just following the sketch to see where it takes you. I realized that I need to relax on occasion when working in my sketchbooks. "Taking a line for a walk" is an appropriate reminder for me to do just that. The above sketch was not one of those sketches but it does share the page with a sketch that I made that brought me pure joy. It started with random lines drawn on the page and then morphed into a drawing of a water serpent or water dragon. Something I have had in the back of my mind for quite a while now. Alas, at this time I do not wish to share it but perhaps in the future.

I have also been watching some of my painting videos. I am coming to grips with the thought that I will be indoors a bit more this winter than last. I am getting excited to dig a little deeper in my painting. I will be posting on that as it comes.

Here are two parting pictures of  elk at the community garden and the stormy beach from a few days ago.

Have a Joyous Solstice and Happy Holidays to all!

-Renee

Day 8: Stormy Weather

Day 8 Sketch: Graphite on paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather has been very stormy here on the Oregon coast. We have had three high wind and heavy rain storms come through in the past three days with more to come. There are landslides, sinkholes, major flooding and closures on Highway 101, the main road here on the coast. I still get out for a daily walk but the torrential rain and high winds mean I spend most of my time indoors. Needless to say, getting out to paint or sketch is not only not practical but potentially dangerous!

I am actually enjoying the break from painting outdoors and am taking time to think long and hard about my work and where I want to go with it. I have decided that I want my studies to support my growth toward being able to paint what I envision and feel when painting outdoors. That might seem challenging during the bad weather we are experiencing at the moment but fortunately, I have a lot of interesting driftwood and rocks I have picked up here and there on my beach walks. I plan to make a lot of sketches of them this year.

Today's sketch is just that, a bit of driftwood. I love how driftwood has many twists and turns. It is often smooth and worn from being tossed around by the waves. It is challenging to make the sketch three dimensional as it flows between various planes and angles. It will be an interesting exercise to sketch these.

Here is a picture I took on the beach yesterday. It looks like it is in black and white but, at the moment, this is exactly how gray the beach looks during these storms.

-Renee

Sketching Up a Storm

While out on my morning walk around town, I swung by the beach and took a look at the stormy sea. It was so beautiful, and relatively warm, that I couldn't resist. I had to go out sketching. I decided to pack a very stripped down version of my sketching supplies.

I knew it would probably be wet out there even if it wasn't raining at the time. I decided to go for the watercolor sketchbook, water pens, water soluble graphite pencils, a couple of small brushes, and white gouache. I optimistically threw in some gray-toned paper taped to a clipboard just in case. The gray-toned paper is one of my favorite papers for sketching waves with graphite and white gouache. I put the the gouache tube in a small jar thinking that I could use the lid to hold the paint and the jar for water.

I also added an umbrella. I never carry an umbrella. They aren't used here very much. When the rain is going sideways, which happens most of the time, the umbrella doesn't really work that well. I knew that there would be driftwood piles I could shelter from the wind and the umbrella might keep my sketch dry if it started to rain.

I decided to get my exercise and walk to the north end, about a mile or more up the beach. The wind was from the south, southwest and warm. It didn't start raining until I got unpacked and nestled in between some driftwood logs on the rocks above the waves. There was a driftwood pile shielding me from the wind so I was just fine. The umbrella was keeping my sketch mostly dry. 

Then the wind shifted. First it shifted to the west where it came directly at me, then it swung to the north. I no longer had the driftwood pile blocking the wind and the rain started blowing sideways.

Did I get the sketch? Yes I did! However, the temperature started dropping so I headed back with a rather soggy sketchbook.

I took a hasty picture of the sketchbook when I got home. The graphite had pooled into grainy bits and the sketch melted into the block-in so that all the lovely gesture and smaller waves were pretty much lost. Not all is a wash though! I will use it for a block-in foundation sketch tomorrow and try finishing is using water-soluble colored pencils. Here it is:

Day 3 Sketch

After the hike home, I dried out, cleaned up, and made a nice hot mug of tea. Ahhh, I love this time of the year. I must admit, it is my favorite time to paint and sketch the sea.

Before I go, this blog gets posted both here and on my website. I haven't found anything that allows me to share video on my website blog but I know blogger does. Here is a bonus video I took while out sketching!

-Renee