Drawing buttons

Another busy week has passed by,

with lots of visits to my Dad who is still in hospital.

Aaron (#4 son) started a new school and loves it! 

One less thing to worry about. 

During the course of the week,

I managed to find five minutes here and there, to draw some buttons.

This was homework for Andrea Joseph's klass in Sketchbook Skool.

I drew one button at a time, using various blue ballpoint pens, with no final composition in mind.

I also used a touch of coloured pencil after the main drawing was complete.

I loved Andrea's klass! 

I had drawn with ballpoint pens before 

but it was nice to focus on them once again 

using Andrea's approach. 

Linking up with Sunday Sketches and The Artist's Play Room today.

Fun with continuous line contours...

It's been a busy and emotional two weeks. 

My Dad ended up in hospital and is still there. 

His Parkinson's and physical dependency is now at the point 

where he needs 24 hour care. 

To be honest, he was at that point a year ago,

so we had to make the painful decision 

to find Dad a placement in an aged care nursing home. 

It breaks my heart but we have to put his needs first 

and we know he will get round-the-clock care in a nursing home.

We will be able to visit him regularly 

and it will be much easier for my Mum also. 

Emotions are still raw and painful;

I've shed many tears and,

no doubt, it will get worse before it gets better.

Still tons of paperwork to wade through 

and applications to lodge.

_______________________________________________________

I have managed a little bit of sketching here and there. 

This jug was my first attempt at Brenda Swenson's 

Sketchbook Skool klass. 

We had to pick a still life subject and, with a pen only,

draw a continual line contour without lifting pen from paper.

Certainly not easy but lots of fun. 

This exercise is very good for hand-eye coordination. 

After I did the initial lined shape, 

I added some extra lines to suggest shading and shape.

In the next exercise, 

we had to do a continual line contour of, not one, 

but three still life subjects of our own choosing. 

Note, that all three subjects are connected by one continual line.

Then we added watercolour.

I plan to play a lot more with this continual line contour exercise. 

The result may be loose and wonky but I quite like that. 

I bought a couple of Schmincke metal palettes recently. 

This is the larger of the two.

I also bought empty half pans and full pans 

so I could add some of my own tube colours. 

I LOVE metal palettes!

I am linking up with Sunday Sketches and Artists Play Room today.

A tribute sketch of an art friend

I was shocked to find out that, Jorge Royan, an art friend

 I have known for some time on Facebook passed away on the 7th August.  

He underwent what was deemed low risk surgery to replace a valve in his heart 

but, tragically, he suffered a stroke during surgery and his heart just gave out. 

He was placed on an artificial heart but it was only temporary 

as his only chance of survival was a heart transplant. 

It did not come and his body slowly shut down. 

He was only 61.

Jorge was such a kind, generous, and giving person.

He adored his family and I'm glad that he was able

to see his son graduate as a civil engineer recently. 

He was so proud as his son was continuing in his father's footsteps.

Jorge went out of his way to share his art knowledge and skills with others,
expecting nothing in return. 

He was an expert on perspective and I found his explanation very helpful 

in making the topic much easier to understand for a novice like me.

Although I never met Jorge in person,
his love of life and care for others touched me. 

He will be greatly missed by all who knew him. 

To honour his memory, 

I sketched a portrait of Jorge using a Pilot G-2 gel pen 

and a Pentel brush pen in my journal.

In memory of Jorge Royan (1952 - 2014)

May he rest in peace.

I'm linking up to Sunday Sketches HERE.

Sketches, pens and pencils...

No urban sketches this week but I have been sketching other things, namely myself. 

I have fallen woefully behind with the Sketchbook Skool klasses 

so I'm desperately trying to catch up.
Back in Week 2 of this semester,

Koosje's lessons encouraged us to do some self-portraits.

I sketched this one with a Derwent coloured pencil 

while looking at my reflection in a mirror. 

A couple more sketches below.

Top right - Sketched from a photo of me using mechanical pencil.

Bottom right - A contour sketch done with a continuous line 

in pen.  We weren't allowed to lift the pen from the paper 

until the sketch was finished.  

I did mine very fast while looking in the mirror. 

I had so much fun with this particular exercise.

Jumping ahead to Week 5,
we have Andrea Joseph as our teacher.
Andrea is Queen of the Ballpoint Pen!
A quick way to loosen up -
write a favourite quote in various ballpoint pen colours.

Speaking of pens,
I wasted a lot of time the other day
searching high and low for my PITT calligraphy pens.
I eventually found them but
I realised that I needed to do something
to make it easier to find particular pens.
These are just some of my pens.

Now they are categorised into this small drawer unit
which I've yet to label but at least I now know where particular pens are
when I need them.

I still have homework to do for part of Danny Gregory's klass,
as well as for Brenda Swenson's and Cathy Johnson's klasses.
Wish me luck!

Lastly, a couple of quick pen sketches in my A6 pocket Holcroft quad-rule sketchbook.

Linking up with Sunday Sketches and Artists Play Room today.