Brutal Life

Here I am sketching from the National Geographic again. I can't help but become absorbed in some of these images. I was really intrigued by this particular image, it is of an elephant in an Elephant Hospital (who would of thought) recovering from stepping on a landmine. His one leg became in an instant a clump of flesh.

The colors in this sketch came off really well. The combination of grays, red and yellow make a good complement. Go figure that I'm working with Ultramarine blue and Burnt Sienna again (my favorite color mixing duo) and some cad yellow and burnt sienna as highlights. Sometimes less is more- working with a palette of a few colors makes all of the difference.

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Drawing the Moving Figure

Sketching people is hard enough without having them move all over the place as you are sketching them. I've been reading a lot lately about how to get the spirit of the sketch without worrying about getting all the details. Gesture drawings.

I have a tendacy to be very detail oriented so it was a bit of a challenge to be able to let go and just capture the basics and move on. I have much more to go

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Landscape as Architecture

This is a sketch I did outside of our office a few weeks ago just as the trees were turning. I have been thinking a lot about landscape as architecture. Landscapes can surround and protect and give a similar feeling of enclosure that buildings do. Most of us only think how pretty a good landscaped urban area is without thinking that someone took the time to think how people could interact with the space and get pleasure from interacting with it.

Most of us think that the natural world around us is that way because God had a hand in bringing everything together. Occasionally man may attain similar success but unfortunately people think it was always that way and discount the benefits of excellent landscape design in the built environment.

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