Your Invitation to the Moonlight Ball

The honor of your presence has been requested

at

The Moonlight Ball

Follow the flakes of silver that sway from tree branches.

Soft, pewter grass spreads over the path, waiting to caress you feet and shins.

Come barefoot.

You’ll hear crickets and frogs as they tune their instruments.

Tonight they are playing the classics.

An owl, with his subtle finesse, will announce your arrival.

At the edge of a pond you will see your hosts.

They’ve been expecting you. 

Would you care to dance?

MerMay 2021

Each spring, beneath a particular weeping willow, on the banks of the Marmar River, a curious bud emerges from the roots that dip closest to the water. On the first of May, that bud stretches as far out as it can, to catch the first, warm rays of the morning sun. As dew dries from its surface, the petals slowly open and . . . you have my contribution to this year's MerMay!

The idea started with a list of MerMay prompts, on Instagram, and the first word was FLOWER.

This is how rough my sketchbook can look when I'm brainstorming.

My first attempt at a blossom on the Procreate app:

I played around with multiple blossoms but preferred the simplicity of one lone blossom.

Then, I played with the background more, darkening it to look like it may actually be beneath a weeping willow, on the banks of the Marmar River.

 

I added a little more sparkle and a tiny hint of the little mermaid waiting to be born!

Now, back to the open blossom. My first attempt was from my imagination, and it was not good. You'll have to trust me. I deleted it. I cannot draw a well rendered flower from my head. I chose to use a photo of a petunia as reference, and here it is, in progress. 

 

I inserted the same background I had used on the bud and then, on to the scary part - drawing the baby mermaid. I was so sure I was going to mess this up! I pulled out my sketchbook and my real pencil 

and . . . nailed it (in my opinion) on the first try!!! Woohoo! This little sketch had energy!

I took a photo of it, dropped it over my blossom in Procreate, and colored it! And there you have it folks!

With an extra splash of water and a few more sparkles, my baby mermaid was born.

How to Dress in the Spring . . . in Ohio

Hi there! Welcome to spring in Ohio! My husband and I spent a day in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago and this is how one of our granddaughters was dressed, before she ended up putting on a bathing suit to play in water from the garden hose! She soon ran to me, (I was wearing a light, winter jacket) so I could gather her up in my sun-warmed arms, where she chose to nap for about an hour.  Ahhhh bliss!

Here's a drawing I did in my sketchbook, a few days later, working from the photo I had taken.

I dropped the drawing into the Procreate app on my iPad, and gave it a light bit of color using a transparent airbrushed layer.  

I then got rid of the pencil sketch layer, and reworked it all digitally. I wish I had kept the image of what the airbrushed layer looked like by itself. I'll try to be more diligent about retaining my process.

Lastly, I put all that aside and did a more cartoonish drawing of the same image, using just my digital app.

I was almost there but not a fan of the face. I didn't think the cartoon resembled her very much. I went back to the drawing board, did a sketch with a REAL pencil, and in one quick attempt, was able to find what I was looking for. 

This sketch, I dropped over the top of the cartoon image, colored it up, and now have what you see at the top of the page.

It's funny, but I find it very difficult to work out new ideas or solve problems when I'm working digitally. I aways find that when I return to my graphite pencil or simple black ink pen, I'm able to think more clearly and I'm better at the planning stage of the creation.

Stop in next Wednesday for my contribution to Mermay! https://www.mermay.com/

Bleached Blossoms

Woohoo! This green paper really responded to the bleach brushed on it!

The image comes from a photo I took just a couple of weeks ago, when my crabapple tree was blossoming. Bless her, she's getting old. Nearly half of her branches have died and been removed, but she put on a glorious show for us this year. 

I'm sharing here the strips of colored paper on which I experimented. (The top color is the paper from the last post of my cat.) 

The first square on each strip is one coat of bleach. The second square is 2 coats of bleach. The third square is 2 coats of bleach with white colored pencil (pressed down firmly on the paper once it had dried). The last square is as light as I could make it using only colored pencil. 

The top strip is the only one that is actually drawing paper. The other colors were more or less good quality construction paper used for scrapbooking. I was so disappointed in the red! I had already seen how well the blue and green responded to the bleach, and was imagining the potential for a really nice Christmas drawing. That may yet work with a different quality paper. I'll have to do more experimenting.

Below are a few of the steps I took as I progressed across the page. 

Another thing I did (because I'm an artist, and have a license to do this) is outlined the leaves and blossoms with a black colored pencil. I liked the effect. The image did even more popping off the page. It's really a matter of style - to outline or not to outline.  

See you next Wednesday!