"Consequence" - the 'master'...

Actually, it still needs crisping on the faucet, getting each side mirror the other, then be ready for the transferring - but at least this is the idea in mind, adding the chipping siding paint, and the irregularities of the concrete wall...

"Consequence" is next...

Am at present working out the 'master' from which will transfer and thus begin this rendering - a head-on view of a faucet outdoors, one from the wall, with a couple of sidings seen above, and concrete around it, with iris-like flowering in front, to be in color, with the rest b/w... another 24"x18" acrylic inks on canvas...

The Myth of Gift...

One of the often given comments about not just my art, but of so many others, is that the ability of being an artist is a 'gift'... it is nothing of the kind... tho meant, am sure, as a compliment, it is actually a putting down of the efforts and intensity of each and every artist to pursue that endeavor to the best of abilities - and it is the same with ANY endeavoring that produces quality and innovative results... a human being is, properly, an integrated being, and one of such complexity that, among all other aspects of life, choices have to be made to be able to exist as that integrated being - and among these choices is the one of what endeavoring one is to concentrate on, which purposefulness of living is to be the laser instead of the bulb diffusing light in all directions... further, it is not just that choosing, which is in many respects reflecting innate differences of the individual, but the direction of learning the 'how' to achieving that quality of endeavoring - itself containing aspects of the difference between individuals... some, for instance, are more acute in their seeing, such to be able to direct their hand to rendering with increasing skill what is visually seen... others need books to help clue this aspect of seeing, or the aspect of being able to direct the hand... still others come to prefer actually dealing with others who already possess this skill - AND SKILL IT IS, developed with whatever degree of easiness or difficulty necessary to the artist involved... however the uniqueness of the individual in particular abilities, these are natural aspect of identity of the individual, and only present, as it were, the 'starting gate' from which whatever future endeavoring results - and it is the effort of the artist in securing these results which all in all determine the quality of results, not any supposed handing down of some 'freebie'...

Possibilities...

This is more in the way of ideas for possible renderings to be... there is, of course, the other coconut one, "Breakout", which is a fallen coconut which has cracked part of its shell off, exposing the 'inner being'... then there is a small still life idea called "Odds and Ends", which is a trio of cherries, one being darker than the others, another larger, and some pits and stems to the side... the one theme/titled "Consequence", of the faucet on the outside building wall, with an iris-like flowering in front, the flowering being in color, the rest all detailed b/w... "72 Virgins" is a long shot, but still possible, being a shelf with an opened box of boxed lures, there being 72 of them of course...

And there is the Xmas card one yet to be finalized - the mouse, lugging a red sack behind him, struggling thru the snow imprint of the Claus boot, and theme/titled "In His Steps"...

So - plenty to play with to the end of the year, or at least end of this and perhaps next month...

Fertile Lands... 14

And I have made an end of it...

and it is now called -

Fertile Worlds...

Fertile Lands... 13

And a wee further along in this -

Fertile Lands... 12

With other matters finally at an end, can at last get on with finishing this long overdue rendering - thus getting more of the sky on the right side stippled...

"Nut House" - WIP - 11

Finally finished...  and officially now called "Gossip"...

Fertile Lands... 11

And slowly stippling my way across this, dot by dot by dot...

"Nut House" - WIP - 10-B

In case ye wondering why no shadows on some of the coconuts, consider that the left one is in front [see it slightly overhanging the rock], the one next to it is thus behind, so no shadowing there, and the one in the middle is of course way back... on the right, the 'youngster' is out front, with the other behind just enough to avoid casting to the gossip busybiddies... one of the reasons why love doing eye level renderings...

"Nut House" - WIP - 10

Returning to this "Gossip" rendering, am doing the back ground, using the same colors as when did the foreground grasses - but this time using them as a sort of blurred vegetation of some distance behind...

Fertile Lands... 10

And am on my way with the stippling of the sky, using the process cyan ink...

"Nut House" - WIP - 9

Defining the rock more, as well as the grass blades, using the slate grey, and cool grey 20 and 90%... with the dark green for the blades...

"Nut House" - WIP - 8

As can be seen, have decided to use a flat stone as the shelf for these, and set it all in the outdoors [as seen with the grasses at the bottom]... am using cool greys - 10, 20, 30, 60%, and slate grey, blue slate, celadon green, yellow chartruse, marine green, and dark green... there is more to be done defining the stone edge, but this is the general idea for now...

"Nut House" - WIP - 7

One this last one, have added the use of 20% french grey, as there is more of the side to the light than the others...  there is, of course, more refinement to be done on these shells...  the 10% remains as the highlight areas, with the 20% being outside that yet still in the light - the 50% being into the shade, and the 90% being the deep parts of the shade areas...

"Nut House" - WIP - 6

Working now on the left-most one...  note these are not finished renderings, that more smoothing and crafting of the ferrules will be done...

"Nut House" - WIP - 5

Going at last into the gossip corner, have gotten the rearmost of the group...   one thing noticed since beginning this is that perhaps a better theme/title would actually be in order - "Gossip"...   will decide by the time all the rendering is done...

Fertile Lands... 9

And this, with the sky and touching ups yet to do on the isles, is the semi finished mural...

"Nut House" - WIP - 4

Further layering with the china blue...   next is to begin layering with the french greys, as did with the one on the far right...

"Nut House" - WIP - 3

Beginning to layer in the base china blue color for the other coconuts, especially the rear one of this trio...  [that is the original pencil sketch seen over on the left side, the newsprint seen from under the illoboard - was using that for the shading guide for the 'faces', as this is essentially from my imagination, and thus why did that shading in the original sketch so to keep it in mind]

Fertile Lands... 8

Been working on this, as well as the Nut House, getting into the leaves now, doing the color washes, then detailing with the sap green over the base blue area for the darker areas, and emerald green for the light areas...

A close-up, showing the detailing better...

"Nut House" - WIP - 2b

I follow up with putty beige, while adding more 50% and 90% french grey [the latter especially over the blue, and in drawing out the lines of the coconut shell linear indentation along the axis to the rear]... while outside in the sun, the shell may present itself in greys more cold, indoors is another matter - so french greys and the putty beige are used...

"Nut House" - WIP - 2

As with the first one, the base shade color on this and the rest is china blue...   note there is more line direction, as with the shells being so linear [regardless of their deformities], there is no need to do circular in the laying on of the color [this one anyway]...   there is more of the shading here to do, but needs 'see' in my mind how and where the curving begins the shade areas, as this is an angled as well as deformed shell...

The lit area, for the first layering, instead of using light umber, am using french grey - 50% for the medium lit, 10% for the high lit, and 90% for the shaded areas...

"Nut House" - WIP - Baby

First layered the shade area with china blue, as this is not a dark object and thus not need the deepness of an indigo blue...   then used light umber for the lit area...

Then, using a circular motion, tho keeping with the linearness of the obloid, deepened the refinement of the curve into shade, as well as defining the linearness - seen in progress -

and done......

Then a layering of chocolate...

Spanish orange and sand in the lit area...

Refinement of the chocolate...

And with a final layering, this time of dark umber in the deepest shade areas, 'baby' is finished...  further refinements, including adding more 'hairyness' and totally removing any 'white' areas showing bits of the illoboard, will be done when the others are finished...

"Nut House" - WIP

Getting back to rendering in colored pencil, have at long last done a transfer of the sketch of Nut House to an illoboard [ which, btw, is actually white, not grey as seen]...   will be working on this as a break at times from the rest of Fertile Worlds, which, for the most part is now the sea and the leaves and the sky - each of which will need drying times while working on those areas...

Fertile Lands... 7

As it looks now, sort of...   will start on the trunk next...

Fertile Lands... 6

The left side of the islet is now in general colored, as is the reflecting on the waters in front of it, the coloring of that to be later...   next up is getting on with trunk...

Recooperating...

And is about all it is for the moment, due to the more extensive surgery involved...   but will be showing updates on a couple renderings shortly, as soon as the healing is more steady...

Fertile Lands... 5

Been busy at this and am now at this stage, just needing the back ground mounds and city scape outlines, and perhaps some more grasses and light shadings [as seen on the figure]...   then is it until back from the hip op tuesday morn...

Fertile Lands... 4

Have now gotten this far along with this, and hopefully will have the rest of the leaves done in the next session...

In the meantime, needs get to setting up Nut House for rendering...  as well as another section of shelving, to be aside the front door... 

Something a Wee Different...

Took a break and spent the past couple weekends making and filling book shelves...  about a third of my library now lies on new shelves [and there's two shelves behind the headboard for additional hardbacks, too]...   two more shelving sections, like those in the corner, still await putting together, then be done until after the hip op, when in august the rest of them will go up in the living room, and all my beloved books will be on new shelves...

Fertile Lands... 3

Never made it out that way yet - too many other things got in the way, including after noon rain... so, here's an update on the mural progress - working my way across the branches and down to the trunk...

Fertile Lands... 2

Hope to get out to the art supply store tomorrow, so can get the Stonehenge papers and begin Nut House... in the meantime, here's an update on Fertile Lands...

Fertile Lands... 1

As can be seen, have begun working on the canvas, going section of leaves by section, from across the bottom then back, working my way eventually to the corner - then across the top...

This gives a close-up of sorts to seeing the inking process...

Nut House - the sketch

This is the next colored pencil rendering project, a set of coconuts on a shelf, one without the husk - all with 'faces' expressing views...  about 20"x22", tho may instead do it on sheet canvas of 18"x24" which might, with the lesser background height, give it a better proportion in composition...

Fertile Lands - the guiding sketch...

With this, and details from the previous sketches, will now get on with doing the 4'x8' canvas pen/ink rendering, first laying in the blue grisaille, then coloring...

This is a sketch of my coconut done a few years ago, and might use it for a colored pencil rendering of a said group, maybe 4 or 5 - call it "Nut House"...

Revivings...

Possibilities I might combine...

What is Next?

There are several options open to me at the moment - to continue with this series of drips, or perhaps turn to colored pencil and do another still life - or perhaps go a different direction and go for a much larger work than have done in many years, a 4'x8' picture window sized landscape rendering...  at the moment, am mulling over the latter, tho doing the iris blooming in front of the house faucet interests me at this time, too...  so, will see...

Breezing Into Blooms - Finished

And it is finished...

And here's the close-up...

Breezing Into Blooms - 13

And the background is for now finished...

Breezing Into Blooms - 12

The lower right corner of the rendering is finally done, leaving just the left to be finished...   then can begin the colored landscape amidst the water drops...

Breezing Into Blooms - 11

Further along, with one more part to be done, then be on with the color landscape in the drops...

Breezing Into Blooms - 10

And has now reached this point...  still using the crow quill nib, as the others make too large dotting...