Pen and ink with watercolor wash

Here are a couple of pen and ink sketches with watercolor washes that I went out and did this morning. I'm trying to draw and paint all my flowers before fall and winter hits. I'm rather proud of myself for using a pen and no pencil and eraser!

Golden Rain tree pods and leaves

I just got new glasses which apparently I needed really badly. Let me explain: I have been driving by this tree for years and never noticed these weird pods on it before! I made my hubby pull over so I could pick some of these pods and leaves off. There was also a cigar tree further down that I made him pull over for again so I could jump out and get a pod and leaf. I haven't drawn that one yet but will.... I had no idea what this tree was called and happened to be blog surfing and ran across Mary O's blog and she had drawn the pods also! How funny! In the comments someone had told her what kind of tree it was and so I googled it and sure enough - it's a Golden Rain tree. I'd love to have one of these but my yard has too many trees now.....

EDM #52 - draw a dog

Okay, this is not my greatest sketch, but it's the first time Valentine would lay still for me. I thought I did pretty good at capturing the mood - she was hot and tired. She has this little cubby under the built in desk that's sort of her hide out. I did this sketch really quick because I was afraid she was going to get up and go in the other room.....

The last two postcards....

These are the last two postcards for the swap on the EveryDay Matters group. I did a different rose or different view of a rose for each one. I think I could almost do this scene from memory now. Now I feel more confident to spread my wings and do different things for the next one!

EDM #69- draw a beverage and journal about it....

Just drew this up. I'll have to look up my fun fact, but I think it is one can of soda has the equivalent of a cup of sugar, or is that only 3 tablespoons? That's why I left it blank, I'll have to look it up. Anyway, since I didn't get a sketch done yesterday I decided to get one out of the way really quick this morning. Cheers!

John looked this up for me and here's what he found out :

john.p has left a new comment on your post "EDM #69- draw a beverage and journal about it....": I like the sketch! It's good to capture the soda=pop regional variation, too. I had to look up the sugar thing, as it's been bugging me to know. Answer: one can of pop has the equivalent of 10-11 tsp of sugar, or just shy of 1/4 cup! (Note: 15 cal./tsp.)

Now that's disgusting!

New sketches.......

And you thought I was just messing around and not sketching! Actually, yesterday was the first day I missed sketching since I started this blog! I feel so guilty! Sometimes life just gets in the way.......

I really have a thing for silverware, and I have so many different patterns, not whole sets, just one or two here and there, a variety from over the years. It is fun and a challenge to see if I can draw the intricate patterns on them. The correction fluid is not mine (I didn't know they made correction fluid for ink drawings!) but my daughters. Hmmmmm, but now that I know that........ Just kidding, I might use it some time or I might not.

Have a great day!

More Nature sketches

I know, I've kind of slowed down on posting but I'm still working. Yesterday I did a study on Larkspur and the day before I started a study on Pansies that I need to finish. I am pressing some and want to add those to this page and find some more to draw and paint. I've decided to try and draw all the flowers in my yard before the first frost and then I'll be drawing pine cones and such this winter.......

EDM 182

This truck is parked in a driveway about 4 miles down the road and I keep driving by and forgetting my camera so today I pulled over and drew a quick sketch, even though there was a bush and mailbox in my way..... I still want to go take a picture but I thought it was cool for this challenge.

Thank you to our military

This is a sketch of a flag I did for an EDM challenge. While I was drawing it I remembered seeing on the news where a soldier that had served in Iraq was filming at a peace rally and a girl spit on him!!! How disgusting is that?!!! And how dare she spit on a soldier who has left his family and put his life on the line to protect her freedom of speech! That just really ticked me off, it didn't seem to upset him too much and of course he couldn't say anything to her....... So from me to all our guys and gals who are off protecting our rights - THANK YOU! I really appreciate it!

New Sketches and more EDMs

These are some sketches I've been working on this week. Some of them are challenges from the Every Day Matters group and others are just sketches I did for the fun of it.

Mystery Pine - nature journal

Today I went out and drew this study of a pine bush we have in our yard. I'm thinking at some time when it was coming up someone kept chopping it back and that's why it looks like a bush, of course I could be totally wrong about that..... It's about 10 feet tall and at the corner of our garage, so I don't know if it's dwarfed from that or just some sort of small pine. Whoever did the landscaping here got realllllllllllllyyyyy carried away planting trees! According to the sketch we have Ponderosa and Australian pines and Aspens and lilacs and we used to have a whole lot more but we had to cut some down, they were planted right next to the foundation....... Anyway, if you can tell what kind of pine it is buy the bark and pine cones let me know.........

Started a Nature Sketchbook

I decided last night to start a Nature Sketchbook and these are my first two sketches in it. I went out early this morning before it got too hot and drew these up (in pencil first, shhhh, don't tell!), then in ink and then added some watercolor.

It's another new moleskin that I got that I hadn't drawn in so I wanted to sketch in pencil first so I could erase. :) I guess, technically, they should be called drawings because they weren't done all that fast....

I feel stupid! I must have been out in the sun too long! I totally misspelled trumpet!!! LOL!

Postcards

These are 3 of the postcards I'm doing for a postcard swap on the Every Day Matters group. I'm just wondering if I should be doing them all basically the same? What do you think? I didn't want one person to get a really good one and another to get one that's not so hot........ But maybe I should be doing each one differently.........