Colouring In

The next step in the drawing exercise, I started last time, is to make a chart or plan of the colours I want to use.

I get all my different pencil sets out and try the colours that seem to most closely match those in my subject photograph.

I forgot about the tiny bit of yellow I'll need for the bird's legs. I don't quite have the right colour for the palest blue in the water but I can layer the blue with some white to lighten it up.

Drawing On

It is still difficult for me to spend time drawing but I miss it. So I decided to do a little at a time by splitting the tasks into five minute tasks. Eventually those five minutes will add up to a coloured pencil drawing. At least that is the plan.

First I chose a photograph. This is a 4"x6" photograph and that is the size I decided to do. I'm not a great lover of seagulls but I liked the reflections and texture of the water. Usually I chose a drawing for its challenge rather than liking the picture for itself.

Because the drawing will be the same size as the photograph, I could just trace the main features of the drawing. 

It is perfectly okay to trace an image. I know I can draw and I don't have to prove it to myself or anyone else and tracing saves time. However, if you are learning to draw then drawing items from life is recommended. Photographs flatten objects so practicing drawing from life helps you remember that objects are three-dimensional. When I was learning to draw (of course I am still learning) I would draw anything I could around the house. I even drew a roll of toilet paper once to practice a white item on white paper. Plus it is good to learn how to draw items that are very soft up to very hard.

Here is my tracing. I do have graphite paper that you can put under your tracing paper to transfer the picture onto your drawing paper. However, I find it transfers extra graphite where I am leaning on the paper but I just may be too messy

So I usually turn it over and go over all the lines before turning it back over and tracing over all the lines again with the drawing paper underneath. 

This leaves a faint image of the tracing on your paper. It is now ready to add colour to.

I should add that the drawing paper is from a larger sheet of Royal Brites. I bought this so long ago that I can't remember what the weight is (it doesn't say this on the label) but it isn't a very heavy paper. Probably as thick as card stock sold in craft shops.

San-dy Days

The weather was glorious last week with temperatures in the 80F's (not bad for January, even in southern California) so hubby and I decided to spend as much time outside as possible.

The surf has been pretty terrible this winter so when hubby spotted some waves in San Clemente we drove there before they went away.

San Clemente is a lovely southern Californian surf town and home to an art group I am a member of. It also has a pier.

Unlike some other beaches closer to home, a low tide reveals a long wide area of flat sand that glistens and sparkles and produces beautiful reflections.

While hubby surfed, I took a gentle walk along the beach enjoying the sunshine and warmth.

An artful sign for an exit from the beach to some of the streets above.

I had to keep away from the areas that were very wet as the sand was a little too soft underfoot (as I found after one foot sunk down into wet sand).

Very small and cute sandpipers looking for food in the shallows.

Looks like they have found some.

Back at the pier the lifeguards provide daily information for those going in the water.

The beach I walked from on the pier.

I got there just in time to see hubby catch a wave.

Then I had to wait a long time for the next one. Him too.

After several false starts and a few falls, finally he gets another one.

The problem with the waves today were that they were 'walled up' which means that the wave broke all at once. Usually, a surfer likes to go either left or right riding the part of the waves just ahead of where it is breaking. 

Today's conditions were more likely to knock a surfer off their board like this (he's under the water there somewhere).

After waiting far too long for the next waves to appear, I decided to turn my camera to what else was going on around me. 

The trains run close to the coast giving commuters and travelers a good view of the ocean.

The striped cloth that can be seen on the right on top of the cliff is a large tent  placed over houses when they are being treated for termites. This usually happens when a house is being sold. You have to leave your house for three days (taking any food that isn't completely sealed) while chemicals are pumped under the tent to kill those little wood-eating critters.

This is the beach from the other side of the pier.

The pier from the car park above the beach. An iconic view of San Clemente.

Down But Not Out

A sunset I witnessed from a friend's patio in San Clemente.

'Sundown' 5" x 7" Oil on Canvas.