Wet, wet, wet and windy!

What a weekend - first of all the journey took eight and a half hours when it should have been about five and a half. That was due to appalling weather plus appalling traffic - oh, and a car catching fire and burning out about twenty cars in front of us! We had one reasonable day but after that the heavens opened and stayed open. I had to virtually paddle round the ring when I showed Taivas, it wasn't a good idea to wear linen trousers LOL. On the Monday morning my friends had to battle with the wind and rain to get the awning down while I had the cushy job of dog watching in the motor home. Then we had to be towed off the campsite as the van had sunk into the mud! But for all the problems we had fun and there was lots of giggling!
I will try and get on with some art soon, meanwhile a few photos - the first evening's sunset, a lovely water feature on display at the show and Taivas, Bracken and Eli being very well behaved in the motor home! (We actually had seven dogs with us!)

African Journey has ended

I finished it today! I have to say, I'm glad it's over and done with - I wasn't really enjoying it. The final result isn't bad but certainly not as good as I'd like. When I started on all that awful grass I knew instantly that I wasn't going to get a really realistic result so have settled for just an impressionistic one - and I seem to remember I said that at the start!

I doubt that I'll have much time for art or blogging over the next week or so - first we have visitors from Belgium (my hubby's relatives), then on Friday I am off to sunny (I hope) Blackpool for three days with Taivas. I shall be thinking what my next project should be so I can get started when I return. Anyway, here are the elephants - comments, good and bad, will be appreciated!

Amazing birds!

Once again I've not done any drawing since my last post so I have no art for you. However, earlier in the week I had a lovely trip to a local raptor and reptile centre. What a fabulous photo opportunity - in two hours I took nearly 180 photos, thank goodness for digital! Here are two of my favourites from the visit - I hope you like them too. The top photo is a Bald Headed Eagle and the bottom one I've been told is a saker falcon.

The elephants make progress at last!

Yesterday I had masses of bookkeeping to do but I promised myself that I would make time for some art late afternoon so I could update my blog in the evening. So I spent some time drawing and took some photos - only to find our server was down and I couldn't get online. My husband was worried that I would get withdrawal symptoms LOL! Better late than never though, here is an update of African Journey. I think it's just ok, no more than that - I'm really only continuing with it because I do learn something from every piece. And I don't like giving up on things! There's still a lot to do - I am not looking forward to all that grass - but it is slowly taking shape.

Photos from the New Forest

I know this is meant to be my art blog, but I haven't done anything for a couple of days (again), but this week I've had two very lovely expeditions to walk the dogs and take some photographs - trying out the new camera - so here are some of the photos. The cygnet is one of seven swimming at Hatchett pond along with the cob and pen. The dogs are my Taivas and Missy and Raffles who belong to Mary of Forest Walks fame - the photo is at Pig Bush. We were lucky enough to spot the deer at Fritham this morning and that's where I also took the Heath Spotted Orchid.

An elephant update

At last! I have finally done a little more to my elephant drawing. I'm not so happy with it as I was, it's becoming a bit too much like hard work. Doing these elephants has made me realise that I much prefer drawing head studies - they are more difficult to do but I prefer the amount of detail I can get, particularly in the eyes, which show so much emotion and the character of the animal. Anyway, here are two pics of it - the full drawing and a closer crop.

Still no elephants

Apologies that there still isn't an update wip of my elephants, I've just been very busy plus there's the slight (!) distraction of my new camera. Went out this afternoon for a couple of hours and took 120 photos - almost all were of a pair of swans and their seven darling cygnets. There are a few of the better photos on my Flickr pages, not many as I think I took most of them with the camera on the wrong setting! Just to keep you amused here's one of my quick sketches of Taivas.

Cat from a tutorial

Still no elephants! I hope I'll have time for some drawing today, I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. (LOL) Meanwhile here's my first ever cat drawing, done from a brilliant internet tutorial by Gayle Mason (it's on Wet Canvas). This tutorial taught me so much about drawing eyes, so many very light layers to get that glow - still had difficulty with the fur, it's what always lets my drawings down, I think. Mine isn't anywhere near the brilliance of hers - not bad for a start but it also shows me I've a huge amount to learn. See her original here (bottom right of the page) http://www.gaylemasonfineart.com/up_close_and_personal_-_macro_cats.html