Dark Clouds

I like the gently rolling hills of this farm southwest of London. Photo reference was taken while driving home from Otterville. I like old barns, but thats not what attracted me to this image. It was the sky. The sky was dark and threatening on one side and filled with light, fluffy clouds on the other side. It did pour rain shortly after I took this photo. The timing was perfect, we had finished our round of golf.



Dark Clouds (6.5" x 9.5", Ink and Graphite)

FireRock No. 11

A Thomas McBroom design, FireRock Golf Club, a high end public course in Komoka, Ontario is set amongst sweeping fields of environmentally protected Savannah grasses in and around an existing gravel pit. This is hole no. 11, the shortest hole on the course, but certainly not the easiest. The green is guarded by a deep bunker on the front left and set in a valley of black maples. The Oxbow Creek runs along the left side.



FireRock No. 11 (6" x 9" Ink and Graphite)

Drawing from Photo Reference

Drawing from a photo reference presents a challenge for me. This drawing of a Hole in One from Desert Sands Golf Course in California was drawn from photo reference only, as I have not played the course. (although I would love to go there and play it... its looks amazing!) It's hard to imagine the three dimensional space in reality. With my home course, I think I could draw every hole without reference, because I am so familiar with it and can easily picture every hole in my mind. There were also more challenges of water / reflections, fountain, architecture and different kinds of trees. All of the golf holes I have drawn so far were basically golf holes surrounded by trees. This photo is busy and therefore the green is smaller and you have to look to find it amongst all the other elements... but that's realistic for this particular hole / course. I really liked the pink flowers by the water's edge, so I added some coloured pencil. In the end, I was happy with the finished product.


Desert Sands No. 12 (6" x 9" Ink and Coloured Pencil)

Port Stanley Paintout

Saturdays paint out was to a lovely house on the beach in Port Stanley. Continuing with my goal of painting every week, I worked on a couple of watercolours of the shoreline. Both need more work... hopefully tomorrow I have time to finish both them, from the photo reference. This ink drawing on stonehenge drawing paper, was supposed to be just that, an ink drawing, but now that I have started working with colour, it seemed unfinished, so I added a little bit of colour.



Port Stanley Shoreline (6" x 9" Ink and Watercolour)

Adding Colour

I draw. Graphite and Ink are my favourite mediums. One reason is simplicity. All I need is a pencil and some paper and I am ready to go. Second reason is that I believe that drawing is the cornerstone of all visual art. I believe that until you master the art of drawing, which is really about learning to see, you will struggle with other mediums. I am far from mastering it, but I am now reasonably comfortable with my drawing skills.

Having said that, I am ready to work in other mediums. My goal with the Gallery Painting Group this summer is to paint. Watercolour. Visited a beautiful city garden yesterday. Flowers are not my favourite subject. With a little searching you can always find something visually interesting. The screened gazebo was interesting, but with architecture I tend to try to be too perfect and detailed. The pair of old work boots, filled with hens and chicks was a good subject for a small drawing/painting. I worked on three small images at once, simply to let the ink/watercolour dry. This is one of them.... I really consider this to be a drawing with colour added.



Old Work Boots (4.25" x 4.25" Ink and Watercolour)

Miniature Figurative Art

Miniature artwork is fine art on a small scale. The size of miniatures varies widely. Some standards are as specific as to be no larger than 5"x7", including the frame. Some allow the image to be up to 11"x14". Other experts discard the idea of size completely and look solely at the miniaturization factor, as long as the objects depicted are smaller than actual life-size. Each culture has its own rules. The most obvious and universal definition of miniature art is that the work must be small; usually small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

This is a couple of the small drawings I did Monday night at the figure drawing session. I also did some small watercolours, but they still need some work.

Untitled Female No 5 (3.25" x 3.25" Ink)



Untitled Female No 6 (2.5" x 4" Ink)