Lessons and Memory Making

I've been busy doing mostly art for a couple of classes I am in but I also am drawing some other stuff in my journal.  Someday I hope to do some work outside my journal, something I can frame if it comes out nice enough.

I am reading and enjoying the lessons that Jennifer Edwards has been offering on her blog Drawn2Life and the top picture here comes from her lesson #9 which is about letting loose.  I don't know if I was all that loose but I did have fun and I made sure the page was done when it was done rather than leave it at a point where I could just use it as a background for something else.  I've done that a lot but that wasn't what I understood this lesson to be.

The other pictures were drawn to have the memory of Mother's Day in my journal.  This was done on a spread in my large 9"x12" Mixed Media Strathmore journal.  I actually used another of Jennifer's lesson with the apple tree which is Lesson #6 which is contour drawing.  I started the apple tree straight in pen and just looked and drew from one leaf to the next without worrying about doing each individually.  I started at the top and worked down.  This was not blind contour and I lifted my pen several times but it was done in the spirit rather than the rule of a contour drawing.  I certainly didn't try to get absolutely every leaf into my drawing!  Then I added the color and I rather like it!  What do you think?

The frog was done in pencil, then inked and finally painted.  I lost some of the pure, bright watercolor look when I tried to add a glossy topping to it which is a shame as it was more true to the frog's colors before.  It is still the frog though and I am pretty happy with how it turned out overall. 

At any rate, this is some of what I have been up to.  What have you been up to?