Cay Denise

I've just finished reading this well done graphic adaptation.  It is authored by a man in Europe looking back at his youth and life path that evolved into forest management and at the same time -- advocating for primary forests over tree plantations. In an art course earlier this year, my focus area was on tree bark.  To study that focus area,  I looked at many resources to learn how a tree lives, what the bark does, how deep the bark is that covers a tree trunk, and several other wonderings.  I found this book as one of my resources.  Some of the fascinating tidbits in the book include: trees are 1/3 above-ground and 2/3 underground; trees need rest (non-light) time;  a tree will typically only produce one successor tree;  mother trees will connect their roots to their offspring to help them get started but won't do the same for a seedling that is from another tree; and,  you can sit under a walnut tree and not worry about mosquitos -- because th...

If you look at my last blog post, the first effort of coloring the base drawing of this room interior is very quiet by comparison with this version.  This one differs also because it has been done in a zine format.   It started with an extra print of the line drawing (not quite 8.5"x11") that was adhered to a piece of copy paper.  The entire sheet has been colored in with Ohuhu and Languo markers.  The Ohuhus (alcohol-based markers) bled a bit when applying color while the Languos (acrylic paint markers) did not.  The orange wall art are collage bits from a cut-up painting.  I actually love the polka dot walls, the floor color (that looks jester-like), the orange wall art, and the way the combination of so many colors works amazingly well!  A whimsical title for this zine that seems to fit is 'Psychedelic Psalon'.  Overall, I think it's rather magical and fun!

Ornate room interiors are 'not my thing' when selecting reference photos for art inspiration.  But I found a photo of one recently that looked stunning, and I just had to draw it. To start, the photo was printed on copy paper.  I then made a rough line drawing of the major lines/elements on top.  Eye-balling that line drawing as a guide, I did a cleaned-up version in my sketchbook.  Doing it this way did distort the scale, however.     Using Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencils, the sketch was filled in.  Some blending was also done.  For example, the green was made with three layers: yellow then light green then turquoise blue. There were many challenges with this effort.  The capitals of the Corinthian columns were difficult because of where they abut the walls in the photo.  Their gold ornamentation was hard to distinguish where one capital ended and another began.  Another challenge was perspective.  This drawn view of ...