Pencil art

Doodle #108, Down By The Water

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The prompt word for the day was the word, “water.” Even though I am not a beach person the first thing to pop in my mind was the ocean. I grew up taking my family summer vacations in the mountains of my home state West Virginia. I can remember going to Wildwood, New Jersey once as a child. After that I never returned ocean side until I could drive myself there.

I didn’t go to the beach for the crowds, sun or sand. In fact I didn’t usually go to the beach in the summer, I went during the off season. I liked to do what my friend and I are doing in the picture above, sit and listen to the waves and marvel at the great wonder that is the ocean. Since growing up and having a family of my own I have been to the beach many times, even though it is not my favorite place to vacation. The thing I still love about the beach today is the sound of the surf and the many marvelous finds lying in the sand. Not the people, but the tumbled stones driftwood and many photo ops for art.

I encourage anyone who has the time to go an walk along the beach, on a trail, someplace. It is very relaxing and helps take your mind off of what is going on in this thing we call life. God’s creation brings comfort.

Fast is the New Slow, Doodle #91

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Today’s prompt was the word, “fast” so I created a picture of some butterfly’s. While butterfly’s  are  not the fastest things around they do flit from place to place which kind of reminded me of the people I see each day. We live in a world where time is a commodity to be used as efficiently and as quickly as possible. Everybody seems to be in a hurry even some of us artists, including me. I have loved art and have been drawing in one capacity or another since I was a child drawing blue prints.  There is one aspect of my art I still have yet to grasp. Getting the details the way I want them.

The reason, I like to get my piece done and move on to another one. There are so many things I want to paint or draw I feel I must keep going, not taking the time for details. Some of the art work I have created doing using this method have worked out well, others not so much. Case in point. I love to draw faces and flowers. Each one is unique and require a little more detailed observation. I need to learn to slow down when drawing theses subjects in order to get the detail I want. Speed will come later.

Life I feel is the same way. We need to slow down in order to insure we don’t miss any f the good stuff in life. There are so many people I talk to who say, ” I wish I would have taken time to go to my kids games” or “spent time with my wife maybe we’d still be together.” There are times in life when fast can’t be the new slow but the old slow must become the norm.

View in the Window, Doodle #82

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cat 3

Today’s prompt was the word transparency. I settled on the offered doodle “View in the Window,” because a commercial reminded me of one of my former cat’s favorite pastimes, looking out of the window. I often wondered what fascinating sights out the window kept the cat there for hours at a time.

I am also reminded of the number of times I have looked out through the same window at my neighbors going about there daily business wondering about their lives. In the old days when I was a child up to my young adult years neighbors hung around with each other, talking over the concerns of life or just sharing a little laughter. It seems times have changed.

I have talked to many people like me who do not share much time with their neighbors or don’t even know the least little bit about them. Perhaps it is time to step out from behind our windows and get out there and talk to the neighbors.

Life is a Mystery, Doodle #61

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babyOn this auspicious day of March 2nd the prompt for the daily doodle is a mystery. No I mean the prompt was to draw something based on the word mystery.  I spent quite a few hours pondering this one.

The reason I chose the baby and the puppy was because to me life is a mystery. Science seeks to explain life away as a process but to me life is more than a process. It is a miracle wrapped up in a mystery which can only be answered by a faith in God.  I know there will be those who disagree but that is okay. I hope you enjoy my picture “A Girl and Her Dog.”

Daily Timeout for Art #56

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birs-and-berries

The prompt for today, berries. I turned a bunch of ideas over in my head until I came up with the idea a bird eating some berries from a tree. While the piece titled, “Bird and Berries” did not turn out the way I wanted I am still satisfied with the end result. I have set a course recently to learn how to be more adept with colored and watercolor pencils. I have always used pastels and acrylics for their brightness of color.

No offense to all of you who use oil paints or inks but oils are hard for me to use and inks cost more than I can afford. I decided on color pencils and am trying get more vibrant colors in my renderings. I am also venturing out with my drawings because I got tired of doing just landscapes or abstracts.I hope you enjoy today’s offering it is my truly venture into doing a lifelike bird.

Daily Timeout for Art #54

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makwup-mishap

There are times when you sit down to create something for a prompt and your mind goes blank. This was one of those times even though the prompt was faces, something I draw all the time. The problem was I didn’t want to draw just another face. Instead I chose to take two faces from an old book, give them a body and create something different. The end result entitled “Makeup Mishap” is not a finished piece but a whimsical piece destined for future revisions.

Daily Timeout for Art #50

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In today’s daily challenge the goal was to create a piece of art with the theme centered around bugs. I decided to try my hand at my version of Chinese brush painting. I cheated however and used watercolor pencils. Today’s offering is entitled “Dragonfly.” I can’t believe this is my 50th drawing.

Daily Timeout for Art #40

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I love doing different things with my art. Today’s offering “Brown Sheep in Meadow,” is one of those experiments. I took simple picture of sheep, drew it in cartoon form then added a cut out for the wool. After I had my picture in place I took some watercolor pencils and lightly created a background then colored it in more with colored pencils.

 brown-sheep

While the picture is not one of my favorite creations I do like the finished product.

 

 

Daily Timeout for Art #37

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I went back to my roots for today’s art offering entitled “On The Way to School.” I used to love sitting down at my art desk and creating a landscape painting. I have done landscapes in pastels, acrylics, pen and ink and this one on colored pencils. I hope you enjoy this painting.