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Sketching in the garden
A while back I mentioned I had taken a class (then another) with Jane LaFazio at Joggles.com. And I fully intended (hah! My road to hell just got better paved) to blog about it as I did the lessons. Sigh. But better late than never? An early autumn lesson (well, it was early Autumn in Maine) from late August/early September, was to sketch in a park or the great out of doors–after all, the class was about sketching “on location.” Since Maine is rural, I chose our garden, starting with the St. Francis statue we inherited from my late father-in-law. I discovered in high school that the Feast of St. Francis is the same day as my birthday, so I have considered him “mine” ever since.
St. Francis birdbath
Using the Tombow water-soluble ink pen
I added the rose hips and goldenrod, but my leg were getting seriously bug-munched sitting on the grass wearing a sundress, so I’m afraid I rushed a bit at the end (plus I had to go fix dinner). Here’s the “first” finished:
I thought I was done....but I wasn't
After some very helpful feedback from Jane, I went back and filled in more on the goldenrod, mo bettah!
As always, Jane's eye is spot-on and adding more detail to the Goldenrod really improved this composition
I wanted to do another bit–these small sketches are done on 5×7 watercolor stock, and I have to say having GOOD quality paper makes all the difference in the world! The large trees (there are actually two) just to the right of the arbor that connects the upper meadow to the larger lower meadow were just starting to turn color in the first week of September:
Early September and the leaves were already starting to turn. That tree is now bare bare bare and has been snow-clad a few times!
A memory of a late-summer, early-fall day. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this! Tho now that I see this in blog format, I notice that the angle of the "rafters" of the arbor are off from the photo. Not sure if that is because I took the photo from a different spot or not....they definitely look like they are tilting up too much in my sketch.
December 28th, 2011 at 7:08 pm
Awesome work! And of course you’re an inspiration as usual, makes me want to grab my sketchbook and sketch something. I just may reward myself with some sketch time after I get my next big project done, preparing my presentation for the guild and the dyeing workshop. The current issue of Quilting Arts Magazine has a reader challenge of “From Sketchbook to Quilt” and is due I think in March. I may actually try to do that one, we’ll see if my schedule gives me time, there’s a new grandbaby due about the same time as the challenge, so I never know what time frame that will leave for me. But it’s an interesting challenge!