Weekly Mind Sketch

Today I decided to draw a nice picture of branches and leaves in pencil.  I've been working on a new strategy where I'm trying to make pencil drawings look richer, more like paintings.  I don't think they look totally like paintings yet, but definitely have some qualities such as rich layered blends of colors.  What I really liked about this image was how the large branch pushes towards you with its lighter colors, and how the green leaves curve and contrast against the tans, browns and blues in the background. When I think of a pencil study of branch and leaves, I think it sounds pretty dull.  However, when I saw a nice photograph taken by my daughter, I felt it was rich and artistic in its simplicity so I decided to draw it here.  It is rich with its deep brown, blue and violet background, vibrant with its green leaves and yellow ochre hues in the large center branch.  Also it is artistic in the way it focuses in on just a segment of a branch (also I liked that circul

I've been wanting to draw for a long time, but life gets in my way every time!  Finally I put my act together and started up again.  Here is a recent drawing of family members vacationing in Rhode Island.  I wanted to capture their joyful mood with the evening shadows and colors in this portrait. I think what I loved about this picture were the golden and rose tones created in the sky and water, and the contrast of the floral pink dress that I felt brought out a somewhat modern impressionistic feeling to the drawing.  As I contemplated what style this drawing reminded me of, I found an artist names Gustave Caillebotte (born in Paris in the 1800's) who was an impressionistic yet photo realistic artist. I think that is kind of my style, but at the same time I feel I have a child-like expression to my art which adds a different quality than just impressionistic or realism.  Well, I think maybe I'm still learning who or what I am as an artist. I plan to have another dra