Rainbow Bisque

They're yellow, have a familiar petal pattern, and they look like daffodils. I think they're daffodils. The interesting thing about knowing next to nothing about flowers and plants is that it prevents me from naming and simplifying these forms. I changed up my strategy a bit this time - focusing on a single flower and ignoring the surrounding areas. The pen part turned out surprisingly well. I am happy with the colors too (for the most part). I think I would have liked to try using purple rather than green and brown for the shadow areas. EDIT: Upon showing this drawing to my girlfriend, I was informed that this is probably a daylily.

I opted not to add any color to today's drawing. This drawing in particular seems to be mostly scribbles - but it carries the memory of what I saw earlier today. Not what I would call a successful drawing in the traditional sense - but at least I showed up and put something down on paper.

The flower illustrations continue. There were some great berries I really wanted to draw, but the sun would have been in my eyes the entire time. On a whim, I decided to walk to the nearest flower I could find. I'm lucky I did, because I found this really cool pink flower (I have no idea what I'm looking at). Even better, a big, black bumblebee landed on my subject in the middle of the drawing. I have been working at the same place for 6 years now. I can't believe I am just now discovering all of the fantastic nature around the building.

I decided to do some drawing yesterday. Once I started, I realized just how rusty I was. I really need to do this more - and I should refresh what I used to know. I don't hate this. But I can see all of the areas that need improvement. I guess that's why I'm here anyway.

I was really happy with the results of yesterday's exercise, so I decided to try again. It's not hard to find blackberries in the valley where I live - they grow like crazy just about everywhere. Today was a particularly great day to pay attention to the berries - they seemed to glow in fifty different hues. Five minutes. Flair tip pen. Go! This time around, I decided to also take a picture of the area I would be drawing. This way, I could remember roughly which berries were which color when I got the chance. Even with a color reference I did a lot of guessing. Which color should I start with as a base? How should I apply water? Looking at the end result - I am really happy with the way this one turned out. The colors are very intense. It's like a memory or a dream: far more colorful and hazy than the thing itself.

I walk by these flowers just about every morning at work. This morning, I decided to finally try to draw them. I set my phone alarm for five minutes and attempted to catch as much detail as possible with my Papermate Flair pen (which I mention by name only because it's such an amazing tool to have around). The colors were added with watercolor pencils after I clocked out for the day. I had to challenge myself to not only remember what the colors were, but how to achieve those colors through mixing. This is such a small and simple project, but I feel like I accomplished a lot today. How long has it been since I posted the last painting? Could my new project be to just try posting something everyday? I think that might work out. Still need to think about it.

Life happened. I have always enjoyed that expression - it's great shorthand for "a lot of things in my life  transpired to keep me from doing what I love". Even better, that phrase takes the blame off of me for not keeping up with the painting, drawing, blogging and thinking. I can't say that I haven't been extremely busy, I just know that I really didn't have to stop being an artist during the busy period. I moved to a new place. I'm typing this from a completely different office. My paints and paper are rearranged. I'm removing the dry paint from my palette. I am back where I started - only now, I haven't set any sort of rules for myself to keep me on track. A good friend asked me the other day, "So, what is your dream job anyway? If you could make money doing what you love, what would that look like?" I didn't know exactly how to respond. I love art and design - but that is so vague and broad. What do I like to design? What kin...