Studio Crows

Here's a photo of part of my studio floor this last weekend.  Several pieces in progress, two with jack rabbits.  Click images for a closer look.

I forgot to get a good shot of the large white crow in the foreground of that photo.  That was stage 1 of a piece that's yammering at me when I'm not working on it.  Below is stage 2.  Stage 3 starts color - hopefully tomorrow.

Sketching Day in Danville and Yanceyville

The weather was miraculously cool and breezy this weekend.  Yesterday I spent time getting this jack rabbit drawn the way I wanted, and I meant to start painting it today, but it seemed stupid to spend this kind of weather indoors.  So I packed up sketching supplies and a folding chair and headed north.

I recalled that I loved the area by the river in Danville, VA, and there was a lot of aging red brick.  This is what I found, with the sketch below it.  Sketching is more a way of seeing, for me, than it is a way to produce finished artwork.  To some extent it doesn't matter to me if I finish a sketch, as long as I'm done looking.  The sketch below was about an hour of looking.  9 x 12 inches.  Pen and watercolor.

On the way back to Hillsborough on NC 86 you pass Yanceyville, and I stopped because I recalled the courthouse (Caswell County's) is a beauty.  I forgot just what a confection it is - practically wedding cake beautiful.  I spent over an hour in the shade of a crepe myrtle in full bloom drawing it, then had to go.  Below the photo of the courthouse is the sketch.  I took an extra minute at the end and quickly drew in my car, which was the only vehicle in front of the courthouse on Sunday around 5:00 PM.  14 x 17 inch Strathmore sketch pad - pencil.

It was a gloriously sun-filled day, with some additional exploring of Danville between the two sketches.  More on that, perhaps, in a separate post.