An Olympic dragonfly.

Pen, ink and watercolor on HandBook Travelogue Sketchbook 8 in x 8 in

 Dragonflies are in the “hood”. I saw so many…. or so I thought.  I came out of the house and there was only one, ONE dragonfly flying the width of my backyard. From left to right and from right to left, eventually flying up and down making sharp and sudden turns. Sometimes suspended in the air, right in front of me, perhaps 2 yards from me, was it watching me? How an insect can coordinate two pairs of wings? Wonderful. Then the sound of a small plane in the background paired the flight of this little guy, like a mini plane, it was so surreal. 

I was having an Olympic event right at home, live, by a common green darner, but no so common, it did so many “flying laps”, possibly more than a hundred, it’s like it was trying to break a world record, but instead it broke of my patience. I eventually came back inside the house and google this little guy. The bright green and blue made it easy. Here I introduce to you Anax junius, and one of the largest dragonflies that exist measuring up to 7 cm long, and of course I did a sketch of it.

Giving credit where is due.

Pencil and watercolor on Laloran sketchbook 5 in x 5 in

 There are some benches along the Dupage river where I live. We stopped there to finish our coffee from this morning after breakfast. It’s a challenge to sketch a view that is fully monochromatic, the grass, the trees and even the river are green, but that is precisely the point, how to make a scene interesting. They say color gets the credit but value does the work. In this instance value gets the credit. There’s really not much color in this scene except for the woman who came to have lunch in one of the benches, and she was wearing muted colors! It just came to my mind that the Midwest region in the United States were I live is fully green in summer or fully white in winter. So sketching is a useful tool where you have the freedom to bring as much color as you want to your surroundings, even if it is on paper, but sometimes you can walk your way around and work with a different approach to make an interesting sketch, like the use of value.

Fireman’s creativity

 

Ink, watercolor and color pencil on Handbook Travelogue 8 in x 8 in

Our fellow fireman from Naperville display their creativity in their mailbox. I don’t know if they are still using this one since it doesn’t have a flag but it’s still there and it confirms the fact that everyone can create. 

How do you sketch wear out? Tell me.

 

Fine liner and watercolor on A6 Stillman&Birn Beta Series

I had 45 minutes to spare, I found this chain food restaurant nearby. It looks like a charming little house but the sun have made its mark. How do you sketch wear out? 

Exercise. It’s all in the details.

Wood stick, fine liner and Noodlers ink on Handbook watercolor journal 8 in x 8 in.

I found this vintage image which I used to make  a value exercise with ink and my wood stick. Once I finished the sketch I thought I could improve the definition of the cat and the obi belt which was made with a different fabric.  I added little dots to resemblance the finer pattern of the kimono. I think it worked. Now the obi and the cat can be seen clearly besides the face. 

Before