Yeah… no wrap up.
Life got in the way and my poor planning left me with no more hours yesterday. Believe me, I have a hard enough time writing something coherent when I’m fresh much less late at night after a busy day.
So, I’ve saved my last images… and the elusive wrap-up… for tomorrow.
Gotta go… Tunbridge (VT) World’s Fair is calling… gates open at 0700 and it’s Youth Showmanship in the Poultry Barn!
Arteza A5 landscape watercolor book
Arteza A5 landscape watercolor book
Arteza A5 landscape watercolor book
Arteza A5 landscape watercolor book
A week ago Friday I went to New Hampshire’s Hopkinton State Fair. The blurb on their website states “a Labor Day weekend tradition for more than 100 years.”
I’ve only been going for the last 6 years and I’ve learned from my past experiences that I tend to burn out if I hang around too long. Heat and humidity seems to exacerbate any symptoms I may have but this year we were treated with beautiful weather, partly cloudy and low 70s.
Nevertheless I didn’t overstay my welcome… I only spent a little over five hours on site but there were productive. I created 14 spreads (28 pages) of ink sketches with selective watercolor washes.
I’m going to share all my work over the next few days without commentary but look for my State Fair insights and takeaways when I wrap up my final images this Friday. In the meantime please sit back and have a peek at the creatures through my eyes.
Arteza A5 landscape watercolor book
We were camping over these days but I brought my sketchbook and packed my pens knowing I could manage a few minutes to draw. I even brought a head of garlic so I’d have a model at hand once our tent was set up.
The pumpkin was soon carved into a jack-o-lantern while the grapes kept me from the chips and dip. Another successful camping weekend done!
You’ve heard me talk before about how much I like the Sktchy app I have for my phone but maybe you’re not quite sure what it is or how it works.
Here’s a blurb from the Sktchy website:
What is Sktchy?
Sktchy is an artist’s best friend. Find drawing inspiration in an ever-updating gallery of reference photos. Upload your own photos so other artists can draw you. Discover and connect with amazing artists from around the world. Share your creativity in a fun, supportive community. Bye-bye, creative block!
What if I’m not an artist?
Even if you don’t call yourself an artist, you have creativity worth sharing with the world, and Sktchy is a fun, no-stress way to get started. The Sktchy community welcomes and includes artists of all skill levels, from gallery-repped professionals to amateur doodlers. No matter where you fall in that spectrum, Sktchy is for you.
Sktchy is definitely my go-to site for artistic inspiration!
After a slow start I ended 2017 by creating sixty five drawings of human and animal portraits along with a few landscapes. I was inspired to make a slideshow of my entire 2017 Sktchy work after a few of my friends did the same.
Just under two minutes of fun… I hope you enjoy it!
If the embedded video won’t play please use the link to view it through YouTube.
Drawing crazed emotional portraits is the absolutely best part of sketching from photos I find on the Sktchy app. Like this gentleman… not exactly an expression we see every day. At least I hope not.
Day 21 – #Furious
Day 22 – #Trail
Day 23 – #Juicy
Day 24 – #Blind
Day 25 – #Ship
Come back on Monday for the last group of five… and then Tuesday for the final sketch of InkTober. See you then!
Sometimes I’m just busy… it doesn’t mean I’m not drawing. I sometimes just get too preoccupied with other stuff that I forget to post!
My drawing sessions this month consisted of squeezing in a sketch or two whenever I had a spare moment like the week long stretch when I sketched portraits from an app called Sktchy.
I think you can see how more confident I became with my ink line as the week went on.
I’ll share more about Sktchy soon but tomorrow’s October and… October is InkTober! I doubt I can manage daily posting so I’ll be aiming for weekly updates. Stay tuned.
Last October I participated in InkTober and found I really enjoyed working on pre-painted backgrounds. The added bit of color and pattern seems to really make pen and ink sketches pop.
For this spread I used a mixture of shimmering FW Acrylic Inks sprayed over one of the dried oak leaves from the garden. I love the blue splatter!
What goes with oak leaves? A bird of course!
Happy Spring!
Dana Burrell... Art 