Online Sketch Class - Lesson Five

I'm still at it, and we've got one more lesson to go! Yeah!! I love this class, and I'm really pleased that I've done each lesson even when I really didn't want to. It always seems so hard at first, but I've surprised myself. This week we were instructed to draw shoes, or a shoe to develop texture techniques. I wear, plain black shoes, white tennis shoes, and Crocs. Yes, still wearing Crocs. I wore Crocs before anyone else was wearing them. I was stopped all the time by people asking me if they were as comfortable as they looked. Yes, they were and they are still so easy to slip on and run an errand. But I don't wear them as much as I use to. I've found the draw backs of wearing shoes with holes in them in the rain. Your feet do get wet and after the shoes get old, they are very slick in the rain, which leads to lots of slipping and sliding. I have several pairs in an assortment of colors, but these are my current pair. Yes, the color is very close to what you see here. A pinkish color that is dirty. This turned out much better than I expected when I picked up the pencil to draw. The writing at the bottom says that my son called me the "Original Rubber Shoe Lady." I was wearing rubber shoes before Crocs became popular. I had found a pair of white rubber garden shoes at the grocery store for $1.00, yep one dollar. That was a deal and they were great to wear when running quick errands. The teenagers in my house thought it was horrible! Well, when Crocs came out, I got a pair from my future son-in-law who was wearing them. After they became so popluar, my son gave me the nickname, "Original Rubber Shoe Lady." Now I need to find a new comfortable style of shoe to wear to start a new trend.

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Four

I'm still at it! Yeah, I haven't given up yet....I wasn't sure if I'd get time to complete this week's lesson. First it was a BBQ contest to get ready for on Thursday and then the actual contest on Friday and Saturday. Then Sunday, my grandchildren came for a two night "Spend the Night" party! What fun, but no time for sketching in a journal. Today, I finally had time to go get some flowers to sketch for our assignment. With the recent freeze all of mine had died off. Flowers are harder than they look to sketch! These are Alstroemeria which are often in mixed bouquets, but I'm cheap and just bought one bunch. There were sunflowers so I might go back and get one of those to try later on when I have a bit more time on my hands.

The photographs above don't accurately reflect the colors, which are more purple/red than pink.

What I like is the blend of yellows into the purple color.

So I combined two of the blooms and a couple of the buds. After I photographed the flowers I realized I should have left the edges much more light than I did. Oh well... I may try to redo these tomorrow. I do like the lettering I chose. Again from the computer and then basically traced on to the piece. I explained my technique for this in lesson two.

Online Sketch Class - Lesson Three

I'm still at with my lessons in the online sketch class. I really didn't look forward to doing this one, so of course waited until the very last minute! Our next lesson comes out tomorrow. So this may make you think that I've regressed a bit, but actually it's suppose to be a continuous line drawing. With the previous sketches, we were to use a pencil first and then go over it with a permanent marker. Then use watercolors to paint them. So with this sketch we were instructed to start out with the black permanent marker and draw without lifting our pen. We could backtrack with the pen, but not lift it. This means any miscalculations in proportions or placement of lines cannot be corrected. The activity is intended to make our drawings more loose and therefore giving the sketch more character or fun. For some reason, mine was still a bit stiff, so maybe next time I'll try to draw more quickly.

This is of a watering can that my son and his wife gave me for I think Mother's Day or something. I loved it, and over time as it has sat outside on my patio it has rusted and the paint has faded, revealing the silver color underneath. I love the colors and while the drawing isn't accurate the colors are pretty close. I had trouble with the inside rim of the top, but that will be something to work on for the future. The shadows cast forward worked out better for me this time.

The main thing is that I got it done! Yeah, I haven't quit or given up yet! There are six lessons so I'm half way there! So far it's really be a great class and I highly recommend it!