September Challenge Day 7

The Bee Balm card from day 3 left me wondering whether adding the leaves was a mistake and comments were divided. I decided to do another card of the same flower using a different photo reference.

Bee Balm #2

The Bee Balm is a very messy flower; the petals go every which way, overlapping, falling over or standing up straight, so one has to be careful to draw the back petals first. I might look into getting some of these for my garden.

It is a good thing that my pen & ink cards don't take long to do, because I spent a large part of yesterday trying to get my photos 'right'. I took photos with 2 different cameras, my phone and 2 tablets, both inside and out - fortunately the sun shone for a while. As I am technologically challenged, Bob helped me out by setting the camera to black & white. This method actually worked very well when taking photos in sunlight but I am afraid that having to remember how to set the camera will just annoy me. I like things simple! At any rate, both tablets and the phone seemed to leave a grey aura around the card, which required a fair bit of manipulating with the Gimp program. The new little camera is almost impossible for me to hold steady, all of the 'buttons' are too small and the pictures rarely turn out. I prefer my old HP camera and will stick with it! I think I have figured out the best way to take photos of my black and white drawings so they only needs a bit of tweaking to be 'white' - time will tell.

My friend, Sheila, is still on the ball and has sent me a few tutorials that I hope will help even more. Guess what I will be doing today!

September Challenge Day 6

After my last post where the photo of my card was grey instead of white, a Google+ friend, Sheila Delgado, offered to help me by removing the grey for me. (see Sheila's blog here - http://www.sheiladelgado.com/2015/09/day-6-30-in-30/

When I take photos and look at them on the computer, except for cropping, fixing perspective and maybe increasing the size, I pretty much leave them alone. If the color is off I just shrug because I really don't understand how to do anything else. My husband bought me "the Book of Gimp" to go with the computer program but 95% of the book is gibberish to me.

However, I decided to try to fix my card photos myself - figuring I can always call on Sheila if it doesn't work.

Here is today's card - ta da! no grey!

The Lantern card

Unfortunately, I seem to have deleted most of the edges of the card. I am finding it difficult to take a photo that doesn't have any shadows and getting rid of the shadows requires too much brightening. Oh well, maybe the next photo will work better.

Here is yesterday's card with the grey removed:

Okay, it is still a bit grey but making it white removed all the edges and it no longer looked like a card - what a conundrum.

I guess I need to work on this a bit more.

September Challenge Day 5

Sometimes you just have to go with quick and easy!

#5 Mushrooms card

All of my cards are done on white cardstock although in the photos some of them are looking very grey. This little piece is a tribute to the rain we have been having for the last few days. It is a much needed rain as the forests have been very dry and there have been many fires in the area. So, although the weather is grey (like the photo - lol), I don't think many of us are complaining.

If you are interested in seeing more of the art from the 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge go to Leslie Saeta's blog - it is a great way to find new artists to follow.
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September Challenge Day 4

Today's drawing is almost a complete copy of an illustration from Claudia Nice's book "Drawing in Pen & Ink". I don't usually copy like this but I felt that I needed to practice the various different strokes used in this piece. I also felt that I needed to be reminded  about the subtleties of shading with the different strokes.

There may be a few more 'direct' copies until I get my groove back but I plan to use my own images for most of the month.

Four down - twenty-six to go!

September Challenge Day 3

Sometimes things don't work out quite the way you think they will.

Bee Balm card

This piece started out as a line drawing of just the flower based on one of Claudia Nice's illustrations, then I added the shading. I was reasonably happy with it but thought that the bottom of the card needed something. So, I went on-line to see what the leaves of the Bee balm looked like and added some to my drawing.

I am not sure if leaves add or detract from the whole; maybe simplicity would have been better.

To see more of the art that has been submitted in this 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge go to http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.ca/2015/09/thirty-paintings-in-30-days-day-three.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/PzFQn+%28Slices+of+Life%29

September Challenge Day 2

To help me get back in the groove of doing Pen & Ink, I have been using some books by Claudia Nice for ideas and reference. A number of my cards are based on her drawings.

Aged Cedar card

I find that it takes some time to get back the flow of a different medium when you have not done it for a while. Also, 'seeing' colored things in black and white can be difficult.

Practice, practice, practice!

September Challenge Day 1

And the challenge begins! I have entered another 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge, hosted by Leslie Saeta - http://30paintingsin30days.weebly.com/
Check it out regularly to see the art of over 700 artists from around the world. Or enter and stretch your wings.

For this challenge I decided to stick to working with Pen & Ink because I am a little rusty and it is always good to keep your skills lubricated.

#1 Still-life Bottles

I am going to work exclusively on 5 x 7 cards as they will fit better in my time schedule, take up less room than a full size work, and, hopefully, be saleable.