It’s the last day of June and the end of the EDiJ challenge. I did almost all of the drawings and posted most of those either here or on the EDiJ Facebook page. I’ve decided to post some of my favorite EDiJ drawings here on the blog today, before I start on the July challenge.
First: EDiJ 27: Something Orange.
My sweet cat, Tilley. He didn’t want to pose for me on the floor, but settled down nicely on my lap, so that’s how I drew him.
“Tilley,” Inktense and Micron pen on paper, 5×8″
Filed under EDiJ, Watercolors
On my recent trip to Maine, we saw sailboats everywhere we looked. Here is a quick sketch: wwatercolor and ink on paper.
“Sailboat” watercolor and ink, 5×8″
Filed under EDiJ, Watercolors
Buoys attached to lobster traps are everywhere in Penobscot Bay off the Maine Coast. Quite artistic looking. I wish I’d had hot-pink watercolor because those lobstermen sure love using pink!
Lobster buoys, ink and Inktense sketch, 3×4″
Filed under Drawings, Mixed media
My usual routine for making a drawing is to sketch in pencil, carefully refine with pencil and eraser, then ink over it.
However, a few days through my sailing trip, my mechanical pencil jammed and would not be unjammed. There were no stores, so buying a new one was not an option. I decided to dive in and work directly with ink and I was pleasantly surprised that it gave me a sense of openness and freedom that I hadn’t felt before.
Maine coast sketch, ink and Inktense, 2×4″
Here is one of my first drawings using ink only. I ended up adding color with my Inktense pencils, which I was very happy with. I am using a Moleskine sketch book; the paper is yellow. Unusual, but it did cut down on glare in bright sun.
Filed under Drawings, Mixed media
I spent last week on a Windjammer cruise: six nights on a two-masted sailing schooner named “Heritage.”
“Maine Island,” watercolor, 4×6″
Thousands of islands, covered with evergreen trees, pop up in the waters along the coast. Some, like this one, are just a speck, large enough for a few hardy trees to take hold. Bigger islands housed whole forests, and smaller ones sometimes just a single tree.
Maine has a beautiful, rocky coastline that I had previously visited from land. From land, you feel the solid rock beneath your feet, and you see it roll out beside you on either side. From the sea, you look at the land from afar and it seems less substantial.
Have you ever had the experience of shopping when you didn’t have enough time? The things you wanted were just out of reach. If you just had time to look at that, or that, it would be just what you were looking for! But you can’t. This is how the land felt to me on this trip. We sailed by hundreds of islands, not stopping. Each one felt just out of reach.
Filed under Watercolors
