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!

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.

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.

Elephants update

My elephants are making slow progress - This 'African journey' is turning out to be a long one LOL! Today I redid the background tree - though you can't actually see it on this crop - and did quite a lot of work on the first elephant and a tiny bit on the second one. I'm reasonably pleased with how it's coming on, though didn't appreciate the comment from my husband who came in just as I put the finishing touches to elephant number two's tusk and said "why is he eating a banana?" I hope it doesn't really look as though he is!

Background problems

I have discovered the reason that I do not do backgrounds - I am hopeless at them! I shall try and improve on what I've done before the drawing is finished, at the moment it looks terrible. The sky isn't too awful but my feeble attempt at grass and trees, well you take a look! I'm sure you'll agree. Sadly, there's a lot of foreground grass to do. I think it will be back to head studies for me after this. Well, I can't put off the moment any longer - here it is!

African journey wip two

I've done very little on my elephants today but I'm going to post an update anyway, mainly because I realised after posting yesterday that you couldn't really see him clearly at that size. So today I've cropped it down just to the part I'm working on and will upload it at large size - you should be able to see it - including the imperfections! I'm thinking I should take a leaf out of another artist's book (yes that's you, Wendy) and get working on the background before I do much more to the elephants. The thing is, I don't really do backgrounds! Or at least only ones that are one colour. Grass and sky will be rather a challenge for me LOL.

I'm really liking working on mountboard, I can see I will use up the small supply I bought quite quickly. It's a lovely smooth surface and takes the colour easily.

I have so many future projects planned that I think I have enough for the rest of this year - and into next! In no particular order - a robin (thanks Jan), a New Forest foal, a meerkat, a kookaburra, a zebra (can't you tell I've been to the zoo recently) and my Ashley! Plus I have a possible commission or two which I take on purely as more practice, I don't charge anything for them. (Or not yet anyway, she thinks hopefully!)

African journey - wip one

Hooray! Today I've finally started on my elephants which I think will be titled 'African journey', though that may change. I'm only at the very beginning, but I'm enjoying and liking it so far. It probably won't have the detail that my dog drawings do, I think it's going to be a bit more 'impressionist' - if that's the right word, mainly because it's difficult to see the fine details in the photo reference. Btw the photo has been supplied Sue, my friend who has just been to South Africa to compete in an Iron Man competition. Anyway, here's the first work in progress shot.



I spent yesterday afternoonon on a shopping expedition to check out some cameras and I'm pretty sure I've decided which one to buy and I'm quite excited at the thought of having a camera that has full manual controls - even though I'll probably take a lot of terrible shots to begin with!
I had a beautiful walk this morning (with Mary from Forest walks blog) at Shatterford, I could have done with that new camera as we saw a small group of deer. Luckily the dogs were on leads so we got to take a good number of pics before they moved on but they were just too far away to get anything really good. I posted the best one on Flickr plus several lovely foal photos and a great capture of a pony having a good roll.