I finished my submission for the Virtual Paintout (set in Rio de Janeiro) just in time. I skipped October and I didn’t want to miss this month as well. Instead of doing something really detailed and time consuming, this is more of a sketch made up of lots of lines. I really enjoy participating in the VPO, partly because I would never be able to actually visit some of these places in real life and this gives me a chance to get a taste of what it would be like. Rio de Janeiro, for example, is a beautiful city but a very dangerous place right now. It’s really a shame.
I also used this drawing to form a part of this handmade calendar. Although I already bought a 2011 desk calendar that I will use for my appointments and such, I wanted a “year at a glance” type of calendar as well. I also thought it would be perfect for my new (freecycled) bulletin board that I got last week. When I get sick of the picture, I figure I can just change it out for a new one.
Yesterday I was looking around on Google Street View for a good scene to use for this month’s Virtual Paintout in Rio de Janeiro. I didn’t find a scene that I wanted to use for the challenge, but I did find an interesting tree to sketch. I was attracted to the shape of the foliage and the gnarled trunk and branches. It was especially fun to draw the leaves.
I spent most of the day today adding a Contact Page to my site (it is one of the tabs on the header). I have wanted to add one for a long time, and I finally sat down and did it. It looks really plain and simple, but the contact form part actually took longer than I thought it would. And although I didn’t do anything creative in the art sense, I do think playing around with html and css is pretty creative (especially since most of it is trial and error for me).
I’ve only been to New York City a handful of times, and only once in the past ten years, despite living only a few hours away. I guess I’m just more of a country person. I’ve never been to Central Park as far as I remember, but I think I would like to visit if I had the chance. In this piece, I tried not to get too detailed and I wanted it to have a soft feeling. I also worked a little bit larger than I normally do. I meant it as more of a sketch, really. Because it wouldn’t fit on my scanner, I had to take a picture of it. I tried to correct the contrast a bit, but I wasn’t able to get it to match the original fully.
Unfortunately, I do not have reliable internet access at the moment and have to use wifi hotspots to do my blogging. Luckily I saved a screenshot of Google street view so I was able to work on this drawing offline. If you leave me a comment it may take me some time to approve it as I have comment moderation turned on.
This month I’m posting my Virtual Paintout submission a bit later than I normally do. In fact, I almost skipped participating altogether because of a lot of other things I had going on this particular month with various classes and commitments. I’m glad I did it though, and I had fun making this drawing.
It was pouring rain last weekend and I made this drawing while listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio. I missed doing something in colored pencil, so I decided to change it up a bit this time around. My elbow was killing me the next day though. Next time I decide to do anything in colored pencil, I am going to pace myself and spend a few days working on it.
I did this more than a week ago for May’s VPO and even though I do like how it came out, I kept telling myself that I was going to start over and do another version that I liked better. I have so many things that I want to paint and draw these days that I have been taken up with something else instead though. It seems like I would be better served just leaving things as is sometimes, instead of trying to make them perfect.
I did this the same size as last month (5 x 7) in the spirit of making my VPO pieces consistent. I looked around for quite awhile before coming up with this scene. I made some other sketches, one of which you can see here, but I really liked the swamp feel as seen in this view.
This is my submission for March Virtual Paintout, which was based from Stavanger, Norway this month. What I loved about the location was the combination of green grass and blue sky found out in the more rural sections. It felt very springlike and inspiring to me. This particular view reminded me of something I might find in a children’s book illustration.
I made this picture using dip pen and watercolor wash in a 7 x 10 watercolor sketchbook. I’m not horribly pleased with this piece because I find it to be a little fussy and I wish I had tweaked the composition a little differently. I do think that I could possibly rework however, and I’d like to try it in colored pencil at some point.
It makes me a little sad that most of my glimpses of nature are marred by things like bridges.
I haven’t gotten out(side) much for the past couple of months and I’m really craving it. This winter actually wasn’t that bad for New England compared to the snow that the Mid Atlantic states got, but I still hated it just as much. I sense that spring is coming though. Today it was in the 40′s and this weekend is supposed to be nice too. If it is decent out tomorrow I am going to get outside and do some nature sketching.
I made this picture using Google Street View. It is the bridge that connects Hinsdale, NH to Brattleboro, VT. I made it a little more colorful than it actually is.
